THE FIGHT AT NGATEPA.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 463, 9 February 1869, Page 3

THE FIGHT AT NGATEPA.

We compile the following scraps of news, relative to this falleu fortress, from the letters of the correspondent of the Hawkes Bay Herald. On the 3rd of January, when the cordon of our troops was slowly contracted on the doomed place, he relates how " Our people had passed three nights in the trenches, which were knee-deep with mud and water, in some places, after the late heavy rains. I was informed that the enemy had made seven charges during yesterday and last night, hut were driven hack with heavy loss. One charge was made upon Major Eraser, who occupies the post of honor and greatest danger, by 30 men. In repelhng this charge Fraser's men hilled twelve of the thirty ; two hrohe through our men and escaped ; the remainder lied back into Ngatepa. Fraser and his men are partly stationed upon a ledge of rock beneath a precipice, winch is in the rear of Ngatepa. Whenever a shell falls iuto Ngatepa, from the front, the enemy rush to the rear to escape its effect. At such times they are shot down by Fraser and his men, who, from their ledge, have to fire straight upwards. A supplejack ladder hung over the precipice, b\ which the enemy meant "to escape if hardly pushed; but Major westrup has cut away their ladder, and they have no means of constructing another. They have, however, become so desperate that two of the men, having first stripped themselves, threw themselves from the sumit of JNgatepa, preferring death to being taken alive. More were preparing to follow, hut Major Frazer by firing at them spoiled their game. Four men, one womau, aud a child came down to get water, not knowing their supply was cut off; the men were killed, hut the woman and child were spared. Last night, four more men attempted to escape. They were taken, and immediately shot." _ The following incidents of the seige give evidence of how desperate a struggle it was. "One of Fraser's men, in warding off a tomahawk blow, ■missed his foothold, and fell over a precipice, but is not much hurt. Another man ran out of the trenches, and caught a Hau-hau and killed him. The enemy have got a tattooed wooded head, with a massive nose. This head has been paraded about the parapets of Ngatcpa for our men to fire at, and to enable the enemy to extract tulleta from it; but the ruse has been

discovered. One of Fraser'a men, after being killed, fell into a tree growing from a precipice, and the tree is so situated, that the body cannot be recovered." Frfty-eight bodies were found at Ngatepa, and this will show that Te Kooti and his band have suffered heavy loss instead of the utter extermiuatiou which we had such good; reason to expect would be their doom. I