MEMENTOS OF THE NATIVE WAR.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 40, 7 June 1876, Page 2

MEMENTOS OF THE NATIVE WAR.

The correspondent of the "New Zealand Herald, who accompanied the Govei'nor and Sir Donald M'Lean on their visit to the Bay of Islands, thus describes some mementos of the first native war at Koi'orareka over thirty years ago : " It was niy good fortune to fall in with a gentleman intimately acquainted with the historic reminiscences of Kororareka, and lie was good enough to act as guide, in order to point out one or two famous spots. Our first visit was to that remarkable post which I mentioned in a previous letter. It stands at the corner of the Church of England Cemetery, and tradition says that Commander Robertson, of the Hazard, when pierced, by four bullets, clung upright to this post while surrounded by a crowd of foes, the blows of whose long tomahawks he warded off, so that they glanced downwards and struck that wonderful post. Supposing this story to be authentic, and it is too respectably vouched for to doubt it, there must have- been some rare hacking at this cornerT" perfectly- -sureit would be impossible for me, with a good axe, to do so much execution upon that hard purii-i in the course of a quarter of an hour. But there are the marks, and no man here can account for them otherwise than in the manner described in the tradition. I next visited the graves of some who fell in the fight on this very ground over thirty years ago, and I saw the places in the church where the round shot from H.M.s. Hazard had passed through. The damaged timbers have been replaced, but a semi-circular piece out of one, marks where the ball struck. Musket-ball holes are plentiful enough. , They have been plugged up with corks, which can be removed in summer, thereby affording a simple means of ventilation. On the side of a slope a little further on lies one "of the howitzers useu\ in the little battle which took place on this ground. The gun was spiked when the Hazard men were compelled to retire. For over thirty years- it has lain here, whither it was rolled down from the hill. As for its intrinsic value, I suppose that is small, but as an historic relic of some of the earliest and most chequered days in the history of New Zealand, it is perhaps worth preserving. The gun appears to have been cast in the reign of William the Fourth.".