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Between 1843 and 1845, 15 transports of Queen Victoria’s 58th Rutlandshire Regiment of Foot, were ordered to New South Wales, Australia, as guards on convict ships. In April 1845, the main body of the Regiment was ordered to travel to New Zealand, and from Auckland, continue north to the Bay of Islands, where they took up assignments against Hone Heke and his followers. More reinforcements arrived with Lieutenant Colonel Robert Henry Wynyard, in June 1845.
The Regiment took part in warfare in the Bay of Islands districts for 20 months, enduring heavy loss of life and witness to unspeakable horrors inflicted by the enemy. Although the Regiment, with assistance from friendly Maori, had quelled the ‘war’, a need for vigilance was necessary, and after going back to Australia for nine months, they returned to Auckland and set up headquarters there, along with various ‘outposts’ in the north. By the early 1850s, Mangawhai and the Kaipara were two of the northern districts to have detachments encamped in strategic positions.
Settling the land
The Regiment was disbanded in New Zealand in 1858, with rank and file being offered a return to Britain, or a paid gratuity if they stayed in New Zealand. Most chose the latter. Over 80 army men either bought land at Mangawhai, or were granted acreage. The size was allotted according to rank, i.e. a Major got 400 acres; a Captain 300 acres; a Subaltern/Surgeon 250 acres; a Sergeant, 80 acres; a Corporal, 60 acres; and a Private, 50 acres. They were the first official European settlers to this mid-northern region. Among them was the Commander of all forces in New Zealand, Robert Henry Wynyard, who, as Governor in 1855, opened the first Parliament in New Zealand. William Moir, on his premier section No.1, built a hotel. Q.M. William Moir continued with his army interests and in December 1858 he was promoted to Captain in the City Company of the Auckland Volunteers by the Governor of New Zealand.
Many initial industries along the river and inland toward Hakaru and Te Arai were started by retired 58th men. Others turned their hands to boatbuilding while working at the new boatyard set up by McInnes and McKenzie. Men from the regiment were also employed to provide a skilled workforce in the 1870s to rebuild the breakwater.
Some of the descendants of those original 58th Regiment soldiers remain in Mangawhai and districts today. They include the names Brown, Campbell, Dunn, Elliot, Foster, Grant, Humphries, King, Jeffs, McMillan, Moir, Mills, Mooney/Ryan, Mooney/Leslie, Smith, Ward, Webster and Young.
