A MEMORABLE DAY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 357, 6 April 1889, Page 5

A MEMORABLE DAY.

Auckland, March 30. To- day is the twenty- fifth anniversary o the fall of the famous Orakau Pa, the decisive action in the Waikafo war of 1863 4. Ju*fc a quarter of a centui-y ago — on March 31st, 1864— the Waikato tiibes, aided by a number of Ureweras made their last stand against the advance of British troops in the hastily-fortified Orakau stronghold near Kihikihi, in the Waipa di-tricb, and held out desperately for three days and three nights against an immensely superior force in point of arms and supplies. On the third day, April 2nd, they were summoned to suriender by General Cameron, who promised to spare all if they would only submit, but the defiant answer they returned — " Ka whawhai tanu, ake, ake, ake " (" We will fight on for ever, and ever, and ever ") — will ever be remembered with admiration by New Zealand colonists. Wsary with the incessant work of watching and fighting, decimated by the hail of rifle bullets and riving grenades, parched with thirst, and girt by a ring of fire, the devoted little garrison would not " yield to kiss the ground beneath the feet" of the invading pakeha. When at last they marched out of their fortifications, "steady as it on their way to Church, "' as an eye-witness described it, they v> ere followed by cavalry and infantry, and more than halt their number — less than 300 in all — soon Jay dead, while the survivors found a shelter in their villages in what i a now known as the " King Couutry. " The Orakau fight terminated the Waikato war, and was soon followed by confiscation of lands and European settlement. Many ex-military men are sti 1 in our midst who took a leading part in the British operations against the pa, but few of the old Maori chiefs who made a stand theie now survive. Amongst those who have not yet "crossed tbe river" aie Rewi Manga Maniopoto, the well-known Ngatimaniopoto rangatira, and Hitiri te Paerata, of Ngatiraukawa, who lost his father and uncle and almost all his near relatives in the fight. The scene of the siege is now a peaceful-looking cultivated spot, but a relic of the old troublesome times still remains in the shape of the old bullet-proof blockhouse, which was erected on a knoll near the old stronghold and garrison till 1875, a«- a protection to the neighbeuring settlers in the case of a fresh native outbreak.