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Enfield Pattern 1856 Rifle Musket,circa 1860, calibre .577.This rifle was given to the Colonial Museum in 1911 by Walter Leo Buller, as part of the collection of his father, Sir Walter Lawry Buller. The rifle is stated to have been dug up from a swamp in the Lower Waikato (possibly the Waimarino Swamp, near Meremere).
This extract originally appeared in Te Ata o Tū The Shadow of Tūmatauenga: The New Zealand Wars Collections of Te Papa (Te Papa Press, 2024) on pages 204-205.
This extract was authored by Michael Fitzgerald.
Whoever was the original owner of the Enfield Pattern 1856 rifle musket shown [here] must have been a person of high mana and wealth. Although it shows signs of having been submerged for some time, its workmanship and finish is superior to the British Army’s standard rifles; note the gold lining of the lockplate, to prevent corrosion. The rifle was somehow acquired by the famous collector, politician and land speculator Sir Walter Buller, and given to the Dominion Museum by his son, Leo, in 1911, with the information that it had been found in a ‘swamp in the Lower Waikato’. This swamp was probably the Whangamarino Swamp, near where Kīngitanga defenders dug rifle pits to protect Meremere pā, which was captured by British forces on 31 October 1863.