An Historic Clash

(A Maori War Incident of Early Hutt Valley days, told by Mr. F. V. Knapp .)

At the corner of the Main Hutt Road and the old Military Road stands the unique and beautiful memorial shown below. It recalls a clash with the Maoris in the early days of the settlement in the Hutt Valley.

It was here, at Boulcott's Farm, that a stockade was built and occupied by fifty men of the 58th Regiment to guard the newly settled district from an attack by the Maoris, who, around Porirua, were very restless and threatening. Some 200 natives, led by Te Karanui, who had stealthily come from the coast through the forest tracks, in the early dawn of May 16th, 1846, crept forward and attacked the stockade, but were repulsed and scattered by the troops, who, however, lost six men killed and four wounded. The heroic conduct of the lad, Bugler Allen, will ever be remembered. When sounding the alarm he was struck by a tomahawk on the right arm, but grasping his bugle with his left hand, he continued to call until he was felled and killed by a blow on the head.

On the memorial there are three tablets. That on the left records the brief details of the combat; the central one is a memorial to all who fell in the Hutt Valley in the Maori War of 1846; while on the right are the names of those who fell.