Pomare II

Pōmare II (18th century – 1850), originally named Whiria, was a Māori rangatira (chief) of the Ngāpuhi iwi (tribe) in New Zealand and the leader of the Ngāti Manu hapū (subtribe) of the Ngāpuhi. He was the nephew of Pōmare I, his mother Haki being the elder sister of Pōmare I.

Henry Williams, William Williams and other members of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) came over the bay from Paihia to attempt to mediate an end to the fighting. The mediation efforts appeared promising, with the missionaries believing that the chiefs would accept that the plunder of the kūmara gardens at Kororāreka would suffice as satisfaction of the earlier insults to Pehi, the daughter of Hongi Hika, and Moewaka, the daughter of Rewa (the reason the battle is called the Girls’ War). He quarreled with European settlors and seized their possessions as compensation. He seized Captain James Clendon's whaleboat in 1832. He also seized Thomas King's boat in 1833. until a peace agreement was negotiated by Tāreha. An underlying cause of the fighting was a dispute as to the boundary line of the Kororāreka block that had been surrendered as a consequence of the death of Hengi some seven years previously in the Girls’ War.

Pōmare II signed the Treaty of Waitangi on 17 February 1840,

Flagstaff War – attack on the pā of Pōmare II

Customs duties were put in place in 1841, which Hōne Heke and Pōmare II viewed as damaging the maritime trade from which they benefited – each levied visiting ships a fee to anchor in the Bay of Islands and the imposition of the customs duties resulted in whaling and sealing ships choosing to avoid the Bay of Islands. While Pōmare II had grievances as to the actions of the colonial government following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, he did not support Hōne Heke's actions in what is known as the Flagstaff War.

After the Battle of Kororāreka on 11 March 1845, when Hōne Heke and Te Ruki Kawiti and their warriors sacked Kororāreka and Heke cut down the flagstaff, the colonial government attempted to re-establish its authority. On 28 April 1845, troops, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel William Hulme, arrived in the Bay of Islands. The following day the military forces advanced on Pōmare's pā, notwithstanding Pōmare's position of neutrality.