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On 17 June 1843 a party of 50 Europeans, led by Arthur Wakefield, walked into the Wairau Valley from Nelson. They tried to arrest Te Rauparaha and another Maori chief, Rangihaeata, on a charge of arson from when a survey party had tried to survey disputed land in the Wairau Valley. The European claim to the land was based on a false deed of sale, which the Maori owners had been tricked into signing. The chiefs refused to go with them, and one of the Europeans fired his gun (probably accidently). Fighting broke out and people were killed on both sides. After Wakefield called on the Europeans to surrender, Rangihaeata demanded utu for his wife who had been killed, and Wakefield and others were executed. Despite demands for revenge from settlers in Wellington and Nelson, Governor Fitzroy refused to act, saying that the Maoris had been provoked by the unreasonable actions of the Europeans.
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