PIRAUNUI.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 237, 6 October 1926, Page 11

PIRAUNUI.

TRADITIONAL PA. jgtBKBBriSG DISCOVERY. ARAProa ROCS CARVINGS. (From Our O«a Correspondent.) ARAPUNI, this day. PirwnuJ was a pa situated somewhere . X w« otu district - ° c «> 7 t day Maoris had even seen it, its history having become a tra- *£* the time of Hone Heke the *-Z üßoris,u ß oris, fleeing to the fastnesses Wbffto escape a raid by the "L£b ™t™*, Bought shelter there *Twere hospitably received. Joining , plwith their hosts they set out on TapeditiO ll to square up matters with " c pTople of Taupo, who had raided ££ carrying off the boh of the J,.-,* o f 'Krannui. This expedition was entirely successJ the marauding Taupo chief was Wled hie wife escaping by swimming »«w the lake carrying their little son S her After that the Thames !Xm returned to their own district. Sir «ome reason that has never been Pirannui, which was impregMkle was abandoned and absolutely Jeserted. Those who knew it died out. ?tilocation was never disclosed to succeeiing generations, and it became a myth. Pa Well Hidden. A large area of land was sold some T«rs ago to Europeans and farmed. Tie main range through this property ju parallel to the Waikato River. This Hire lac been used as a main highway to the back country for generations. The old pa was on a little spur jutting cut towards the Waikato River, and though within about twenty chains of (Iβ main track was never discovered by i Msser-by. A small ridge crowned jfth high fern -and- ending- in a- sheer rlToKte bluff -wee- elways noticed, but is it led nowhere no one had any occaeion .to go there, and no one ever sus»ctd tnit it contained the old pa hewn only in tradition as one of the Sifrtt and most impregnable strongholds of the olden time Maori. One Man Could Defy Host. A fire had swept the fern country, iij a,settler sowing grass seed came upon the outer trenches, and discovered the pa, The outer works consisted of sraral lines of trenches, strongly paliadtd, which could only be taken with hiivy losses to the attackers. These tenches became shorter as they neared the main gate of the pa. Each line eonM be held by a lesser number of men is the defenders were killed or jiiibled. The main wall of the pa was to reached. This ran right across the ipur with a deep trench in front. All tint is left of the palisading are the itanps of the two gate posts, the gateny being only wide enough to admit one man at a time. Inside this line are the remains of all the dwellings, the nrlh walls only remaining. Further out the spur -narrowed to about 30 feet and then spread out again for a space of ihont a quarter of an acre. All round this, with the exception of the narrow neck, was a sheer drop of about 300 feet A trench about 10 feet wide and ffl feet deep had been cut through the nek which formed the last line of defence. The only entrance to the inner p> was by a track cut along a steep face, which would only admit one man it a time. Here one man with a spear could defy a host. Wonderful Reservoirs. The inner pa was a wonderful network of living quarters,' food stores and titer reservoirs. These reservoirs are wonderful. A hole was drilled into the nek face large enough to admit a man. Then it opened out into a circle about twelve feet in diameter, continuing downwards for about four or five feet. Dozens of these were Been, each of which tchM hold about 500 gallons of water. The .water was no doubt carried from the river quite a distance away, and the BMTTqirs always kept full in case of a Palisading Still Sound. Tune only allowed for a casual look. round. It is hard to say what a full iiTHtigition might reveal. Some of the »wden palisading is still quite sound, wiich proves the contention of the oldtime Maori that a certain species of wart is almost everlasting. This pa a within a couple of miles of where the Wk- carvings of Arapuni have been ■weitly discovered. It should be made »nterve and protected from vandals wo are already cutting their initials on the rode These reservoirs are a monu- *«!'; to the-old-timer, who only had row toole to work with, and may be "β-work of pre-Maori times.