Notes on the Maori Earthworks at Rangiriri, 1863
(By Major C. Heaphy, V.C.) See Figs. 114-115, p. 401

To stop the advance of General Cameron the natives chose a narrow strip of dry land lying between the Waikato river and a series of deep swamps and lagoons. The main road lay along this, going from left to right across the sketch. Across this road they built a bastion connected by a long curtain and ditch with the river page 401 and the swamp. The ditch, which was dry, was too wide to cross without planks, and the parapet too high (21 ft.) to climb without ladders. No such appliances were with the attacking party. About 220 natives held the bastion and traverses about it. They were page 402attacked by a portion of the 65th Regiment who got on to the parapet of the curtain, but were unable to take the bastion. A detail of Royal Artillery men (36 men) with their carbines then assaulted it. They got close up to the bastion and their commanding officer was mortally wounded and lay close to the rear of the bastion, but they were obliged to retire.

About 90 men of the Naval Brigade then advanced. They got into the ditch, but all attempts to capture the bastion failed. A midshipman, the most advanced, was killed in a covered way that led from the ditch into the interior of the bastion. Though foiled, the sailors did not altogether retire; they scooped out holes and caves in the counterscarp and so sheltered themselves from the enfilading fire from the bastion, and thus remained in close proximity to it all night, occasionally throwing hand grenades amongst the natives.

During the night the assailants made a partial mine under the near face of the bastion, and at daylight on seeing a cask of powder being brought to blow them up, the natives hoisted a white flag and surrendered, 183 in number. Thirty-six natives had been killed.

Two nine-pounder Armstrong guns throwing shells at the bastion made no practical impression on it. A naval six-pounder and two gunboats also fired into it without effect.

The place is interesting as showing how natives can improvise earthworks that will successfully resist the sudden rush of disciplined troops unsupplied with ladders and planks, and without breaching artillery.

The Rangiriri pa, that withstood two assaults by British troops, is thus described by Major-General Alexander:—"The enemy's works consisted of a line of high parapet and double ditch, extending between the Wai-kato river and Lake Wai-kare; the centre of this line being strengthened by a square redoubt of very formidable construction, its ditch being 12ft. wideband the height from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the parapet 18 ft. The strength of this work was not known before the attack, as its profile; could not be seen from the river or the ground in front. Behind the left centre of this main line, and at right angles to it, there was a strong interior line of rifle pits facing the river, and obstructing the advance of the troops from that direction. About 500 yards behind! the front position was a high ridge, the summit of which was fortified by rifle pits." The above quoted work, Bush Fighting, contains some interesting plans of different pa and actions, though the frontispiece is misleading.

In describing the defeat of the English troops at the Gate Pa, this writer remarks:—"The repulse, without doubt, arose from the page 403confusion occasioned by the intricate nature of the interior, honeycombed with rifle pits and under ground passages, and the enemy lying down had, no doubt, considerable advantage in shooting at our men from concealed positions."

At Manu-tahi, the troops found 'a strong work, with parapets 8 ft. and 10 ft. thick in rear of the palisading, and casemated covered-ways,' says the above authority. Again, at Te Arei pa, 'the works were found to be very formidable, ditches 15 ft. deep, and this novelty in Maori fortification, there was a strong parapet built of earth mixed with fern, similar to the system of the Engineers in New Zealand, but about 16 ft. thick, covered by a line of rifle pits or a covered way, about 40 yds. in front of the line of the stockade.' An illustration given of the outworks at Te Arei shows a long rifle pit a little distance outside the palisade, also another further out, the latter having a parapet outside it, and a banquette to accommodate the defenders. Cross cuts enabled them to pass from one defence to the other, and to enter the stockade.

Colonel McDonnell tells an amusing story of how, when Imperial troops were sapping up to a certain pa, the enemy busied himself in making fascines and selling them to the troops for their use, through the medium of so called friendly natives. "So the sap progressed steadily, and did nobody any harm; and when, after a time, it came too near, we left that pa and built another one."

Of the Otapawa pa, on the west coast of the north Island, Kimble Bent, the renegade, gives the following description:—"The only access to the interior of the stockade was through a low and narrow gateway. Just within, the entrance was blinded by a short fence, so that an enemy could not charge straight, even if the gate were open, but would have to turn first to the left for a short distance, and then to the right, exposed to a fire from between the palisades, before the open marae [plaza] was reached. The pa was defended by two rows of palisading, with a ditch between and another shallow trench inside the inner stockade. The outer stockade, the pekerangi, was about 8 ft. high, and was the lighter fence of the two. The principal timbers were 6 in. or 8 in. thick, but the stakes between were smaller and did not quite reach the ground; they were fastened with bush vines and supplejack to the sapling rails that ran along the stockade. The open spaces at the bottom of the fence were for the defenders in the outer trench to fire through. The inner fence was a stouter structure of strong, green tree trunks set solidly in the ground, and with openings here and there for rifle fire. And finally, an important thing in Maori eyes, there was the 'luck-stone' of the fort, the green-page 404stone [nephrite] whatu. This was buried under the foot of a large stockade post, close to the right hand corner nearest the river."

The same authority describes the building of a Hauhau pa at Motu-roa in the 'sixties'-see The Adventures of Kimble Bent, p. 199. "There were two rows of palisades; the outside one was the largest and strongest. For the heavy outer stockade, timbers from 8 in. to 12 in. in diameter were sunk solidly in the ground, forming a wall some 10 ft. high. Saplings were cut to serve as cross ties or rails to lash across the posts, and with supplejack and aka vines the whole were bound strongly and closely together. … This pa was completed in three days-stockaded, trenched, parapeted, and rifle pitted—ready for the enemy! Behind the strong tree-trunk stockade there were trenches and casemated rifle pits from which the defenders could fire between the lower interstices on the great war fence; behind the trenches again was a parapet from which a second line of Hauhau could deliver their fire over the top of the palisade. It was one of the strongest works yet constructed by the Maori. … Just within the stockade there was a small, roughly built taumaihi, or look-out stage, 10 ft. or 12 ft. above the ground, high enough to allow a sentinel to see well over the sharp pointed palisades, and to scan the approaches to the fort."

Our worthy renegade, Kimble Bent, remarks that the Tauranga-ika pa, near Wai-totara, (See Figs. 116, 116A, 116B, p. 406-407-408) was an even stronger place than that of Motu-roa—he says:—"It was of large size, fully defended with palisading, trenches, parapet, and rifle pits. It was between two and three chains in extreme length at the rear, with a somewhat narrower front. … Two rows of palisades, high and strong, were erected around the position; the posts, solid tree trunks between the larger stockade posts were filled in with saplings set upright close together, and fastened by cross rails and supplejack ties; these saplings did not rest on the ground, but hung a few inches above it, so that between them and the ground a space was left for the fire of the defending musketeers, who were enabled to pour volleys from their trenches behind the war fence on any approaching enemy with perfect safety to themselves. Behind the inner stockading was a parapet about 6 ft. high and 4 ft. wide, formed of the earth thrown out of the trenches. The interior of the pa was pitted everywhere with trenches and covered ways, so that in the event of attack, the defenders could literally take to the earth like rabbits, and live underground secure from rifle fire, and even from artillery. The place was a network of trenches with connecting passages, roofed over with timber, raupo, reeds and earth. To any page 405assault that could be delivered by the Government forces then available, the fort was practically impregnable.

"At one angle of the pa the Hauhau garrison erected a roughly timbered watch tower about 35 ft. in height. … There were two gateways in the rear stockading, giving access to the bush."

Mr. W. H. Skinner has been good enough to interview Kimble Bent for us, and obtained from him the following notes concerning pa entrances, etc., as observed by him in the 'sixties.' Bent was a deserter from a British regiment who joined the hostile natives and lived many years with them, assisting them in their labours of fort building, etc.

Bent states that the item used as a gate or door to close the narrow entrance to a pa in his time was a kind of hurdle consisting of two stout stakes on which was built a frame closely interlaced with supplejack vines. When not in use this stood up against the palisade close at hand, so that it could readily be placed in position and there lashed.

Bent gives a sketch of the Okotuku pa, which he helped to construct, and which was attacked by a force under General Chute on January 4th, 1866. The defences consisted of an outer stockade, which was a trench, inside that a maioro or earthwork bank on which stood the inner stockade. Inside the enclosed space, near one end, was erected a taumaihi, tower or scaffolding of several decks or platforms. There were two entrances to the fort, on opposite sides. The front or main entrance was defended by an outer work, and, in passing through the gateway one entered a narrow passage or lane defended on both sides by palisades, which had to be traversed ere one entered the open space of the enclosure.

Bent further stated that, in the Taranaki district, the natives applied the term taumaihi to both timber platforms or towers and earthen mounds used as coigns of vantage.

Of the O-hine-mutu pa at Roto-rua, in 1859, Dr. Hochstetter says—"O-hine-mutu still bears to some degree the features of an old Maori pa. The dwellings of the chiefs are surrounded with enclosures of pole fences, and the whare [houses] and whare-puni, some of them exhibiting very fine specimens of the Maori order of architecture, are ornamented with grotesque wood carvings."

In 1867, Parewa-nui, at Rangitikei, was still a stockaded village, according to Dilke's Greater Britain.

In a letter written in April, 1840; the late Mr. Mantell gives a brief description of the pa that stood at the mouth of the Wai-whetu stream, Wellington, in those days. … "All the houses are surrounded by peion [?] stakes, close together, about 3 in. or 4 in., or more, thick, page 406 and 15 ft. high. The higher ones, for they are of various heights, and few straight, are constantly carved at the top into heads, etc.; so are the gate posts."

Brees gives the following description of the Pipi-tea pa at Wellington, as it was in the early 'forties' of the 19th century:—"There is a pa at Pipi-tea Point enclosed with stockades. … The pa is divided into a number of courtyards and alleys by stockading, and each family has its own apartments.… The natives generally live together in small fortified villages, called pa, which are enclosed with stockades and trenches. They are sometimes built of great strength, page 407 page 408 and on elevated spots. These pa frequently contain from one to two thousand Maoris; they consequently comprise a large number of sub-divisions and alleys, as each family has a separate enclosure, in which one or more huts are built. Low stiles are laid across the entrances. … The name of kainga is given to an unenclosed settlement."

The various pa of Ngati-Awa about Wellington were very poor specimens, being protected merely by palisading, and most unlike the strongly fortified places of earlier times, with their great earthworks, and massive stockades. The population of villages given above is excessive for that period.

Angas speaks of the various pa Maori seen by him at Wellington in the 'forties.' These so called pa were not really fortified places, they were merely villages surrounded by very inferior palisading which could scarcely be dignified by the name stockade. They had no earthworks and no system of strong stockades such as were seen in the old time pa. The last occupation of genuine pa in the Wellington district was by Ngati-Ira, who were expelled early in the nineteenth century.

In Fig. 117, p. 409, are seen examples of these inferior pa, hamlets protected by a single stockade that might be better described as a page 409fence. This scene represents the site of Plimmerton as it appeared in the 'forties' of last century.

Of the Ngati-Awa pa at Pito-one, Wellington, as seen about 1860, Hodder writes in Memories of New Zealand Life:—"At the commencement of the Hutt valley is a Maori pa with divers strange whare and store rooms [pataka], fenced in with double palisading of 8 ft. or 10 ft. high, and lashed with native flax. Every three or four yards round the palisades are long posts, about a foot in diameter, ornamented with some grotesque carving at the tops."