"BURTT'S FARM."

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 95, 22 April 1922, Page 17

"BURTT'S FARM."

STORY OF A SOUTH AUCKLAND HOMESTEAD.

(Written for the "Star" by James Cowan.)

Among the groves of great oak-like puriri on a rounded hill near Paerata, midway between Pukekohe and Drury by a branch road, stands an old farmhouse of the substantial kind built by the frontier pioneers. "Glenconnel" is painted on the road gate, but its name in 1863 was "Burtt's Farm," a name associated with one of the incidents which proved the spirit of the settlers who remained on their farms after the outbreak of the Waikato War. The homestead was attacked by a party of Maoris on S£ptember-14, 1863, the same day as the battle of Pukekohe, East Church Stockade, a few miles away; the raid resulted in the loss of two lives, and would have cost more but for the courageous help of a neighbouring farmer and one of his men.

Burtt's Farm is three miles from Pukekohe by the road, which diverges to the eastward of the railway at Paerata, and winds up a steep hill called of old by the Maoris Te Maunu-a-Tu ("The War God's Lure"), terminating on the west in a bold bluff like a battleship's ram bow. Some of the land is still covered with heavy puriri timber, and its abundance enables one to reconstruct in imagination the aspect of this territory when many a frontier settler was shot or tomahawked on his isolated forest holding. The road on mounting the southern face of the hill passes over a saddle between two homesteads; that on the left (west) is "Paerata Park," the one on the right is Burtt's Farm. Sweet j peas and roses climb the front of the dwelling, a comfortable old place with the high-pitched roof and wide verandah that distinguished the homes of the early days. James Burtt, an Auckland business man, built this place about 1860, when hcart-of-kauri and totara and the best rimu were to be had in plenty. There are two bullet holes made by large-calibre balls in the front weatherboards, near a window on the verandah, and another bullet of 1863, has drilled a hole in the front of a workshop in the rear of the farmhouse, a little square. building almost hidden by a great oyer-! hanging mass of ivory with intertwined! stems an inch in thickness, covering its sides so closely that it is difficult to distinguish them from the timbers warped by the heat of sixty summers. In the rear again, the ground rises to the puriri bush which covers the hill on the. south. I

On the morning of Monday, September 14, a war party of twenty armed Maoris from the Lower Waikato, chiefly Ngati-Pou, came scouting up through the thick puriri and rata forest on the south side of the Maunua Tv ridge and surrounded the homestead. The occupants of the place were Mr. Watson, manager for Mr. Burtt, and his family, three eons and two daughters, and two farm workers named Knight and Hugh MacL«an. The men all had rifles, and they were accustomed to take their arms with them when they went to their work about the farm. That morning Watson, aild one of hi s sons, Robert, were engaged in putting up a fence some distance from the house, and McLean and the eldest eon. John Watson, were ploughing near the bluff, on the west, a third of a mile from the house. Mrs. Watson was lying ill in bed in the house. The attack began about ten o'clock when shots were fired at Watson and his son, and the boy Robert, a lad of fourteen, was mortal]}' wounded. Watson and Knight took cover and replied to the Maori fire with their rifles, until they had exhausted their ammunition. They were cut off from the house by the Maoris.

In the other direction, the ploughman McLean, and John Watson, a lad of eighteen, were at work Tfhen they heard shots, and running towards the house they found it surrounded by natives firing into it. Eight of them engaged McLean, who used his rifle bravely against them, while Watson got the ammunition ready. The cartridges were soon expended, and McLean ran down the hill to a swamp, chased by several Maoris —they wanted his rifle — while young Watson, taking off his boots, ran off towards Drury to summon help. He caught up with dne of his brothers, William, who had been sent off by his father for assistance. They gave the alarm, and an armed force was soon on the way to raise the siege. -— •-- ——•

■In the meantime ten or a dozen Maoris were .firing into the doors and windows of the house. Mrs. Watson in her terror got under the bed ior safety, while one of the daughters ran through the thickly-planted garden at the side unobserved by the Maoris, and under cover of the bush raced down across the slopes and up the opposite hill to the home of the nearest neighbour, Mr. James Hamilton, half a mile away to the east. Hamilton and an employee, Alexander Gollan (or Gallen) had already heard the firing and had armed themselves with Enfield rifles and fixed bayonets (they were militia men) and were coming to the rescue. They armed Miss Watson with a rifle also, and then ran across the valley and up the slope to the Burtt homestead. Taking advantage of the bish cover they opened fire on the Maoris, who were peppering the house briskly with their guns. Keeping well concealed and firing rapidly they drove the Kingites off from the house into the puriri bush. The tree-to-tree skirmishing lasted for about a quarter of an hour.

Imagining, that they were attacked by a considerable number of pakehas the Maoris retreated. The relieving party met Mr. Watson and his man, who had been cut off from the home, and entered the house to find the invalid woman very frightened but unhurt.

A party of troopers (Mounted Artillery), under Lieut. Rait, presently galloped up from Drury, followed by forty infantrymen 'but the Maoris by this time had retreated into the forest. The courage and prompt action of Hamilton . and Gollen deserved all the praise bestowed by the military; for they had not hesitated a moment to come to the rescue against great odds, and by their skill in using the cover around the house, they succeeded in concealing the weakness of their party. Burtt's farm people were escorted into Drury, Mr. Watson carrying his mortally wounded son. The boy died in the military hospital. After their departure the Maoris returned and sacked the house. A few days later the body of Hugh McLean was found in the swamp into which he had been pursued. He had been shot through the heart and his rifle carried off. The Maoris were mostly armed with doublebarrel guns, but they had at least one rifle with them, for a Minie bullet was found embedded in a window frame in the front of the house.

Burtt's Farm now was made the headquarters for a time of the Flying Column, formed, under the command of Colonel Nixon, for the purpose of scouring the tracks on the bush between the Great South Road and the Waikato river. It was also used by Jackson's Forest Rangers as a convenient field base when engaged in scouting work around the district. I have a copy of a water-colour sketch depicting the attack from the brush of Major yon Tempsky, who was then a subaltern under Captain William Jackson, in the first ranger company formed. His careful drawing of the farmhouse helps to establish its identity.

The story of Burtt's Farm, as narrated, was gathered from several reliable sources, but the evidence of the Watson family themselves (apart from the statement of the father at the inquest on hi 8 son at Drury) is wanting. If there are any members of the family still living in the Auckland district their statements will be of value in completing this record of the adventure of an old frontier homestead.