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Ohaeawai Pa

The Rev. G. Clarke gives the following description of the Ohaeawai Pa, Bay of Islands:—"The pa was very strongly built, with a double row of palisades, the posts of which were thick enough for our round shot to stick in them, and they were so ingeniously fastened by transverse rafters, that it was very difficult to bring them down, even when they were cut through. For some eight feet from the ground there was a thick thatched screen of green flax.… The interior was a network of palisades and pits and covered ways. A fosse surrounded the whole work, and it was held by a garrison of about three hundred men." Of the Rua-pekapeka pa, the same writer says:—"The inside was a network of covered ways, and the houses were all bomb proof." Both of these were gun fighters pa, erected in the 'forties.'

In speaking of the two pa built by the hostiles at Pa-te-rangi and Pikopiko, Colonel McDonnell states that they were double palisaded and rifle-pitted. The pits were deep, and roofed over with logs 18 in. thick. These again were covered with bundles of tightly bound fern, and a thick layer of earth was shovelled over the whole and tramped smooth. Only small holes were left for the men to fire through. Each pa was flanked, and equally strong in all parts.

During the war against Heke and his forces in the Bay of Islands, the enemy contrived to preserve their thatched huts from being set on fire by rockets, by means of covering them with green flax. They also covered the outside of their defensive stockades with the same material, forcing it into the interstices of the outer palisades to turn or stop bullets. Colonel Mundy describes the enemy's pa at Ohaeawai as follows:—"It is … in form a parallelogram, about 150 to 200 yards long, by 100 yards broad at each face. On two angles there are projecting outworks, but the others have none. There is an outer barricade of timber, about 10 ft. high and, as well as I could judge with a good glass, each upright piece from 6 in. to 8 in. in thickness, and fixed in the ground close to each other. On the outside of this barricade a quantity of the native flax is tied, so as to make it more ball proof. Within this barricade there is a ditch from 4 ft. to 5 ft. deep, and about the same broad. Within the ditch there is a second barricade, similar to the outer one and the whole place is divided into three parts by two other barricades crossing it, of similar height and strength to the outer one."

This pa at Ohaeawai held by gun fighters against British troops in 1845, was thus described by Dr. Thomson, 58th Regt.:—"The pa stood on a clear level space in the forest 500 yards square; on each side of the pa was a ravine with woody hills, and the surrounding page 393country was thickly covered with trees. The pa was 90 yds. by 50 yds., with a square flank projecting on each side. It was surrounded with three rows of palisades, the two outer being close together, and 6 ft. from the inner fence the inner palisade, the strongest of the three, was constructed of trunks of trees 15 ft. high, and from 9 in., to 20 in. in diameter. Between the inner and middle fences there was a ditch 5 ft. deep, with traverses, from which the defenders fired through loopholes on a level with the ground, and this ditch communicated with passages under the palisades. Inside the pa there were huts having underground excavations. The enemy within the fortification were estimated at 250 men, armed with double and single barrelled guns, with plenty of ammunition. Flax was hung over the outer fence to conceal the strength of the inner palisade."

This pa was attacked by British troops, with cannon, and was assaulted on July 1st, when the troops were repulsed with severe loss.

Maning gives the following description of the Ohaeawai pa:—"The inside fence was made of a very hard wood which does not splinter much; the posts of this fence were about one fathom in the ground and the fence over ground was about four fathoms high. The posts were stout, and some of them would require thirty men with ropes to raise them. Inside this fence was the trench in which the men stood to fire; their faces only reached the level of the ground outside the fort. The loopholes, through which the men fired, were also only level with the ground outside, so that in firing the men were very slightly exposed. Outside of all was the pekerangi, which is a lighter sort of fence put up to deaden the force of shot before it strikes the inner one, and also intended to delay a storming party, so that while they would be pulling it down, the men behind the inner fence might have time to shoot them. This pekerangi was nearly as high as the inner fence, and stood little more than half a fathom outside of it; it was made of a strong framework, and was padded thickly with green flax to deaden the force of shot. It was also elevated about a foot from the ground, so that the men behind the inner fence, standing in the ditch, could shoot through the loopholes in the inner fence under this outside fence; also at different distances along the kauae (curtain) there were koki (flanking angles), capable of containing many men, so that a storming party would be exposed to a fire both in front and flank, and in these angles were put large ship guns. The men inside, in the inner trench, were also protected from a flanking fire by pakiaka (traverses), which crossed the trench at intervals; also inside the place were many excavations underground covered over with large logs of timber, and over the timber earth. In these pits the men could sleep safe from the shot of the big guns of the page 394soldiers. There were also high platforms at the corners of the inner fence, from whence could be seen all that an enemy might be doing outside.

"When this fort was completely finished and provisioned the priests (tohunga) took, according to ancient custom, the chips of the posts, and with them performed the usual ceremonies, and when they had done so they declared that this would be a fortunate fortress, so it was made sacred (tapu), as were all the men who were to defend it. … The pa at Ohaeawai was attacked against the advice of the friendly native chiefs, who well knew its strength, and the certain repulse to be expected. They called Colonel Despard anything but a soldier, and the term 'foolish and inexperienced' is the mildest they applied to him."

"It occupied us three days to destroy the Ohaeawai pa. Large fires were made against the stockade in several places, and where the posts were too thick to burn while standing upright, they were pulled down by main force. In some cases it took the whole strength of forty men, with ropes, to pull down one post, although much of the earth at the base had been previously dug away for the purpose of loosening it." From the United Service Magazine, 1846.

The Rev. R. Taylor wrote as follows of Ohaeawai:—"When Ohaeawai was attacked and so many of our brave countrymen fell, long before the news reached the settlers in the south, I saw in the interior several neatly constructed models of the pa and its defences, made with fern stalks, to show the way they had gained the victory. These had been made by messengers sent from the north to publish their success to those in the south."

There remain but few signs of the old pa of Ohaeawai, but in the churchyard near by stands a stone monument with the following inscription:—

"Ko te tohu tapu tenei o nga hoia me nga heramana o te Kuini i hinga i te whawhai ki konei ki Ohaeawai i te tau o to tatou ariki 1845.

Ko tenei urupa na nga Maori i whakatakoto i muri iho o te maunga rongo."

(This is the sacred token of the soldiers and the sailors of the Queen who fell in the fight here at Ohaeawai in the year of our Lord, 1845. This burial ground was set aside by the Maoris after the conclusion of peace).

Ohaeawai is now known as Ngawha, the former name having been officially transferred to the township at Taiamai, three miles to the eastward.

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Colonel Mundy's version of the dimensions of Ohaeawai differs much from those of Thomson and Collinson.