THE MAORI KING'S STRONGHOLD.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume II, Issue 73, 9 January 1864, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE MAORI KING'S STRONGHOLD.

ifne Southern Cross contains a letter from j its correspondent, dated from Te Whare Kingi | (King's Palace), which gives the following , description of Ngaruawahia : At last we have arrived in the Royal' grounds; at last the sacred flagstaff is adorned i with the red ensign of the conquering pake- j ha; Ngaruawahia has fallen," and fallen with- j out a blow; all the royal potatoe grounds j have become the property of the the soldiers, and the potatoes themselves are now forming j a pleasing side dish to the salt pork and bis-1 cuit in every tent in the line. Ngaruawahia, the spot we have been look-1 ing forward to for so long, the land of desire,! the capital of Maori New Zealand, has at last been reached, and what is it like ? That I will endeavour to describe, but will first com- j mence with a narrative of the events since my i last communication, in which I mentioned that the first detachment had started in the steamer for this place. The gun-boat returned to Rahuipokeka, j bringing the intelligence that the troops had been safely landed in a potatoe field, and before they were on shore five minutes the 65th | red ensign was flying on the battlement of i Ngaruawahia, or, in plain terms, from the j royal flag-staff. No Natives were there to; defend the place, and only three unarmed Maoris, who said they belonged to W. Naylor's lot, were in the village, and these soon departed. i This morning, the remainder of the 40th Regiment, under Colonel Leslie, who had been left behind at Rahuipokeka, were embarked j with their baggage on board the Pioneer, and at six a.m. that vessel started up the river. The scrnery as we steamed through the gorge between the hills is of the most grand and beautiful description; the steep wooded hills or mountains in some places arising out of the river, and in others leaving a small tract of flat land on the margin of the stream. A person not acquainted with the river would expect at every fresh turn round some boldly abutting headland, formed by some rough hill having rolled out from its proper standing place and encroached upon the rightful dimensions of the river, he would expect to catch sight of a roaring cataract or impassable rapid; but there is nothing of the sort here; the hills just keep an even distance from each other, sufficient to allow a free passage for the river. If the enemy had made a stand at this pass they might have caused very serious loss on our side, for they could have fired down on to the very deck of the steamer from the almost perpendicular frills under which we must pass to reach our destination. The range of hills on the proper right bank of the river terminates suddenly in one of the highest elevations in the whole series; it is called Taupari, and rears its picturesque wooded sides from the very banks of the Waikato River, and the Mangawhara Creek, which here empties itself into the former j stream. On the left bank the hills still continue to keep company with the river, but in places fall back and leave room for a tract of flat land. At one of these spots stands the Native village of Kahumataku, which must have been the residence of a considerable number of Natives. On the right bank the hills have retired, leaving a large expanse of good level land. About here we caught the first glimpse of Ngaruawahia; it presented itself to our view in the shape of a red ensign flying on an exceedingly high flagstaff, about two miles distant. It was not long before we were all safely landed on the before-men-tioned potatoe field, and proceeded at once to inspect the various beauties and wonders of this long-talked-of place. Ngaruawahia is situated on the point of land formed by the conflux of the Waipa and Horatiu rivers, the former of which runs on the west, and the latter on the east side. There are not many whares in the village, but these are of very considerable dimensions ; the largest one was the residence of the King, and measures inside about twenty yards by ten. The roof, like most of the superior native dwelling-places is lined with the lower stalks of the swamp toetoe laid closely side by side. This lining effectually keeps out the dust, and when it is blackened with smoke it assumes a rather elegant glossy black appearance. The sides of the house are supported inside by upright slabs of sawn timber of the tatara, to which are connected flowerstalks of swamp toetoe, interwoven with flax, which forms a very creditable side lining, combining elegance and usefulness, as the inhabitants can use the openings in the network, as places in which to put their pipes when about to address the meeting, as it would not be according to Maori etiquette to place that—their inseparable companion—in its usual receptacle—the ear, in the presence of Majesty. The only openings for light or entrance in this whare, are the doors in the centre of one

end, and a small hole about two feet square in cither side of it. A wooden column, carved at the lower end in the shape of a little boy of very unprepossessing appearance, who appears to be very distressed at the immense weight upon his shoulders, supports the ridge pole about the centre of the room. The door and windows look out into a species of verandah, formed by the projecting of the roof at the gable end; around this there is a great amount of carving, &c. The two next largest whares are the one where the runanga met, and the other where the Maori newspaper, the HoJcioi e rere atu ua was printed. The flagstaff is of great height, I should say about one hundred and thirty feet.

The tomb of good old " Potatau the First" is quite an elegant piece of workmanship, and not at all what one would expect from the Maories. It consists of a small square wooden building, about three yards square, and about the same in height, having a door and two small glass windows in front. The main building is surrounded by a light trellis work verandah of wood. The whole structure is painted white. Inside is the coffin of Potatau, and his canoe. The plot of ground, of about ten yards square, on which the building stands, is surrounded by a ditch, and inside the enclosure a sentry has been posted to preserve the place from being molested. Just without the ditch, on one side, are the graves of several Natives who were killed at Koheroa, on the 17th of last i uly. A short distance from this tomb are the enclosed graves of two men of consequence, but who must long since have departed this life, as both the trenches and the inside embankments are overgrown with fern. On one of them a wooden cross has been erected.

Along the bank of the river, near the point, there runs a single long line of rifle pits; and two or three hundred yards up the bank of the Wairoa, is a species of redoubt, thirty yards square, with a ditch about two feet wide and four deep, surrounding it. The parapet only rises to the height of about four feet above the ground. A trench also runs all round the parapet inside. I was rather disappointed in these fortifications, as I had expected they would have been on a much more extensive scale.

The land here is perfectly flat, though raised about twenty or thirty feet above the level of the rivers, and seems to be of a very fine description: at least if we may judge from the potatoes which grow here. Immediately on the opposite bank of the Waipa, the hills rise almost from the water's edge, and their wooded sides add considerably to the picturesqueness of the place. The Waipa is not more than fifty yards broad at its junction with the Horatiu, which is about the same width, to form the Waikato. Both rivers are deep, and have not nearly the current of the Waikato.

Towards the South, seemingly about forty miles distant, can be seen a hill, or mountain, called Pirongia; but all the country between appears to be flat.