DAYS OF 46

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 21, 19 October 1918, Page 13

DAYS OF 46

THE OLD FORT AT PAREHATA

RANGIHAEATA'S STOCKADE

■ Researohes which the Department of Internal Affairs is conducting into the history, of Wellington's little- .war _of seventy-two years ago aro reinvesting with some interest- tho scenes of engagements and ajtes of British , camps and Maori ."pas," .in this district. Lately the Department's.historian, who is engaged under the.direction of. tho Hon. G. \\. Russell upon a national history'of tho "breaking-iii" period of New Zealand's, story and of tho, wars .between, the' Maoris and the Imperial troops and .colonial forces, .devoted some' time to' looking up-'scenes con:liectdcl Vitli the:making o'f;:history near -thisi-city; and'among the/spots'he vis-, ited.and-..photographed is''tlie,-ohe solitary, conspicuous remnant :of the British'.fortified positions 0fa846. ' This is thoTuinsof a stone fort or barracks built near-the niouth of Porirua harbour hy the Imperial troops'in,the war against Rangihaeata and 'his '.allies. The ruins .stand, on the.,:'•'.well-grassed sandy flat ol6se 'to the harbpur on the northern side of the channel; and can hs seen on the left-hand,side from the train just after crossing';; the railway •bridge, at Paremata, in the. direction of Plinimerton. They consist of -a considerable portion of the lower'wallf' a tho'fort, which was a very ',solidlybuilt .structure, mado of.large .stones and : red bricks, and-firmly cementea with a mortnr of sand and seashells. The walls still standing are two feot in thickness, fit to stand;: theiartillery ■of ; those ; "days, : had the Maoris possessed any.'. ' The" standing, portion; or the wallsis ; is High hs ten feet in places. The'building Measures about , '■sixty feet by forty feet,'and a stout, wall divides j£into two sections, which in turn.were subdivided into a number .of rooms, it is said by old settlers to have been reduced td'..its ruinous condition ..by the great'.earthquake of severity years ago. Formerly- this: stono raid', trick redoubt was -surrounded by,a stockade, which -enclosed also a guard-room, a small hospital for troops.; ; and whares which were" occupied by:-.soine , 6f the detachments. All traces .of; this stockade ;have-, however/vanished. , The , site of .this'oldeirscene:of military life is nor.a portion of Mr,-, Walker's farm, and-the ruined-pa of/the: foldiers is a shelter for the sheep rh the days when the blustering westerlies.blow, in from the'ocean and raise aliyelv surf on'the..sand, shoals.: at...Porirua's entrance; -; ' -•' ■'-'■■ Y.O

About a mile from the earthquakeshattered barracks, alongside the seaside township of Plimmortoi;, is the spot where Tβ Ruaparaha -vas captured, at daylight one morning by a force of bluejackets and troops landed from a British warship. ' Another , historic spot of great interest, and one combining beauty with wartime associations, is the site of ':Ranf;ihaeataY fortified village- at the head of the Pahaiutanui (properly Paua-;taha-ntii)' arm of Porirua Harbour. The exact spot can easily be identified today from the descriptions put on record and l a study of the topography, of Eatia-taha-nui. The'pretty little English church at the township now-"stands : on .i]ie hill where Rangihaeata built his stockade, and diigout his rifle piis and covered ways in the days of 1846. The main north road from Wellington passes closo under the face of the hill,: , called of old Pa-tangi-nui, or "Fort of Great Weeping," and a little stream flows past the steep southern side of the church round into the head cf tho shallow harbour. The fort which stood on the Pa-tangi-nui hill is shown by an old sketch (to bo reproduced in the history) to have been defended by two main lines of palisading. Thero was also

a. labyrinth of interior passage- Ways, some on the surface fenced with inaMiku\stakes, so. l'.aiu-ow. that only one man could pass at a. time/;and some underground shell-proof ■ dugouts, covered With slabs and. .trees and earth, and" leading, out- into the bush at tho back,., a-precaution in the went ■( f-retreat becoming necessary. 'The place-was nob , , easily -approached ;■'theonly, convenient access'was by : boat' 'or canoe lip the., narrow winding creek {(the Paua-tangi-niii' of • poetic /'legend), _ex : iposed "to .a '"fi-ro from both sides of the stream as well ' as tho ■pa-; and a naval party had .a lively adventure here one morning in, 1846.' Under, the. eastern scarp of. the lull, which is .about .50ft.. high, there was a lagoon- formed by a backwater .cf the river; on the western side a small swampy, stream.ran down ;.-at • the back, the narrow spur:of which the mound was: the. seaward terminal ivas clothed in dense forest. The pa stood. inland two or three hundred yards from the slioi'o of- the .harbour, and thus the...larger.-boats/lroni. the British ships could not approach it. At the end of June, 1846, after the pa flas taken, 'deserted" by tho -Maoris, ' the Imperial troops erected a stockade on tho hill; and occupied-. it-for somemouths. ' Now a church (St. Albaus) occupies the site of Rangihaeatu s fighting Lold; a- pretty -churcli, of oldfashioned design, .-with..-steep-pitched roof and tall and slender shingled belfry; iv.stands on the very- spot-where-die savage : 'old"•'war-chief- lived in'his thatched .-whare. Shrubberies- of native trees—tho -tirpalm, the goldenblossomed kowhai, ribbomvoodj akeafce,and -.fragrant rau-tawhirir-beautify. the old ■• dhurchyard, and a', dark wall ot pines rings its lower slope above the river-side scarp, where the , "Stream. 6f Alany. AV.eepings"- goes down over its gravels to the. sea.- ltound about tho' church the observant visitor may notice traces of the warrior people, who kept keen watch here for.tlie busy little gunarmed longboat, of H.M.S. Calliope. There are snailow excavations, now wellgraseed, and levelled spaces indicating the-sites of olden houses; there are the remains of'potato pits';'.and there. are depressions showing', where trenches onca 'defended the pa oil the , landward side. .When the settlers were clearing 1 this spot' for-the erection of the. church' many years' ago-they' filled m sonio/of tho trenches.and'-the rmned covered'ways. - ' ; .;'■.-"' . -..-• ■