A new book on the Battles of Gate Pa and Te Ranga has been published, challenging previously held views on the historic battles.

The book ‘Gate Pa and Te Ranga - the Full Story', by authors John McLean of Wellington and John Robinson of Waikanae, is the first book published on the battle of Gate Pa since Gilbert Mair's 1926 book ‘The Story of Gate Pa'.

The timing of the publication was deliberately planned to pre-empt the book being written by local historians Buddy Mikaere and Cliff Simmons, due for publication in October.

'John McLean decided to get ours out first, give a really clear picture, and challenge them to see what they're going to say,” says John Robinson. 'Their book on Gate Pa has been much trumpeted about and reported on, with newspaper interviews given. We reference them in our book.

'They're going to say it was a ‘patriots fighting for their land' type of story. There is a call going out to have more history taught in schools. We would like to see the full story of our history taught, not a twisted version.

'In New Zealand there's been so much rubbish written, that you need to free your head from it, and go back to the history as it was reported, and deal with that.

'The whole Battle of Gate Pa was a bloody waste of time.

'It was a terrible waste and there was no need to fight.”

John McLean and John Robinson's book, 160 pages and illustrated, aims to put the fighting that took place in Tauranga in 1864 into a wider historical context covering

the previous 300 years of Maori history and the impact of the British.

'As the battle of Gate Pa was one of the most interesting and important battles, we decided to write about it,” says John McLean.

'I researched the battles at Maketu, Gate Pa and Te Ranga and John Robinson did work on the early tribal alliances that Ngaiterangi had with other tribes in the 1820s.

'At the National Library in Wellington, I went through every copy of The Daily Southern Cross of Auckland. They had a correspondent in Tauranga during these battles who wrote very full and objective reports of the fighting and the conditions. The result is a very interesting read.

'Over the years various myths crop up, and we've dealt with five of them in the book.

'We have hopefully corrected them.”

The stories he is referring to include whether Maori invented trench warfare, and whether land was being held in trust for Ngaiterangi.

‘Gate Pa and Te Ranga - the Full Story' is on sale now in Tauranga bookshops.