A GALLANT STAND.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 150, 6 April 1933, Page 8

A GALLANT STAND.

DEFENCE OF PUKEKOHE. - SEVENTY 1 YEARS AGO. There is an historic building in Pukekohe, Ihe Pukekohe East Church, which, with a redoubt dug in front of it, was the scene of a '.siege just 70 years ago this month. The episode was described a. l ? one of the 'bravest defences in the South Auckland wars. The oldest surviving member of the ten Europeans who were besieged by about 250 Maoris is Captain J. S. Cor-bett-Scott, of Epsom, who will celebrate his 95th birthday this month, says the Auckland "Star." Borne years ago he paid a visit to the old church, which stands on an eminence about two miles east of the railway station at Pukekohe. He saw the bullet holes in the front of the porch, in the wall at the back and in the ceiling. He then turned into the burial-ground attached to the church and saw again the mark from a bullet on one of the gravestones. Around the church was the trench, which, on that fateful date 70 years ago, was dug out as a redoubt. The old bastion was still there, although transformed. , Captain Corbett-Scott and his family had been in the district for three years when the episode occurred. The first intimation of trouble was when a body of troops marched through. Pukekohe on the way to Tuakau. The following day news was received that two men had been murdered by Maoris near Ramarama, and all tlie settlers in the district were told to move to Drury, where they remained for a few days. Arrangements were then made for the older men to return to Pukekohe as a .defence force. '.'There were nineteen of us who went back to East Pukekohe to form a stockade," said Captain Corbett-Scott last week to a reporter. "We had only been working for a few hours Y alien -the Maoris attacked us. The force of Natives must have been over 300. The fight started about ten o'clock in the morning and went for over seven hours. It was over five hours before assistance arrived from the settlements of the Great South Road. The first aid came from Ramarama, while other assistance came from Drury." He said that none of the besieged was killed. The Maoris were driven off, and when the war was over the 'Maoris stated, in their own account of the fight, that there were more than forty of their number killed. "After the engagement, we were all dismissed, and the regular troops occupied the redoubt," said the captain. "The attack was made soon after ten o'clock while some of the men were cooking in front of the stockade gateway. After the first shot scores of brown figures leapt from the surrounding trees and charged down on the log fence. With the attackers was a woman armed with a gun, and above the sounds of the whistling bullets and din of attack rose her piercing voice, exhorting the Maori warriors to the attack. The defenders rushed to the stockade, which at once began to bristle with bayonets. The Maoris kept up a very heavy fire from the cover of the bush. After they fell back from the first assault, they seized our dinner of meat and potatoes, which was. cooking in iron pots in front of the stockade; in the act several of the brown figures foil dead or mortally wounded, but the others feasted on the meal in the gully below the church. About one o'clock in the afternoon a cheer rang out from the little'garrison, as Lieut. Grierson and 32 men of the 70th Regiment arrived from Ramarama. That ended the siege:" ■ '