Casual research ends up as a ripping yarn

Barbara Mabbett's great-great uncle Samuel Austin was the quartermaster for Major Kemp's Wanganui Native Contingent as they chased Titokowaru and Te Kooti across the North Island in the late 1860s.

The retired Wellington woman began casually researching her ancestor but was gripped by the story of his early life and military years. She ended by writing a book about him and is coming to the Wanganui to give a free talk about it.

Tomorrow, the doors of the Alexander Library will open at 1pm, and her one-hour talk will start at 1.30pm and be followed by afternoon tea.

Her book, For Gallant Service Rendered, was published by Steele Roberts this year. It took her 20 years to research and write, and all started from a sketchy military diary of Mr Austin's that was held at the Waiouru Army Museum.

Samuel Austin was an enterprising lad who enlisted in the British Army's 65th Regiment at the age of 13, from his home in the Northern Ireland county of Armagh.

The regiment was employed to escort convicts to Norfolk Island. After that it went to Sydney, where New Zealand's Governor Grey had appealed for troops to attack Rangihaeata's pa at Pauatahanui.

The regiment fought there for three days, before being stationed in Wanganui. Mr Austin was based there and married Lavinia Newport, but was often away with the regiment.

In 1859 he was allowed to choose between returning to Great Britain or being given land in New Zealand. He stayed and was given a farm at Brunswick, west of Wanganui.

Then, in 1865, Wanganui's European settlers were threatened by the Hauhau movement. All the able-bodied men were conscripted into a militia and Mr Austin moved his family into Wanganui for safety. He became the quartermaster for Major Kemp's Wanganui Native Contingent, with the job of finding food, lodging and transport for the volunteers.

In 1866 Britain pulled out its troops, dubious about what the colonials were doing. It was left to colonial and native forces to quell the Hauhau and protect surveyors who were carving up Taranaki land. After Titokowaru had been chased westward Major Kemp's contingent was sent to the central North Island to fight Te Kooti. They chased him from Taupo to the head of the Whanganui River, then up to the Bay of Plenty and into the Ureweras.

There they captured his great pa, and 300 prisoners, but failed to get the man himself. They had been promised £5000 for him but returned to Wanganui unpaid at the end of the fighting in 1869.

The excitement was over, but Mr Austin never got his farm back and Mrs Mabbett said he had a struggle to find work. He settled in Wanganui and, after his first wife died, married Alice Arnold and had a second lot of children.

He was awarded one of only 23 New Zealand Cross medals, for rescuing one of his superiors under fire. He died in 1902.