GRAVES OF ORAKAU.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 78, 2 April 1927, Page 10

GRAVES OF ORAKAU.

ANNIVERSARY OF BATTLE.

LAST TRAGIC SCENE.

IN" A MEMORABLE FIGHT.

The Government war graves authorities, who. have done such excellent work in tending sacred spots throughout New Zealand, may find an object worthy of their care in- the tinmarked resting place of the defenders of Orakau. To-day is the anniversary of the last tragic scene in that most memorable of New Zealand battles. Just sixty-three years ago more than half the three hundred men and women who held the fort for thqse three days lay dead or dying on the battlefield, and forty of them were buried in their own trenches, in the outwork on the north side of the redoubt. Motorists driving through Tc Awamutu

to Arapuni and Taupo and other southern parts pass right through the site of the pa and within a few feet of the grassy graves of those who were killed in the defences. The spot is just within the fence of the farm 'on the north side (left-hand side going south). Fifty years ago the holy ground was surrounded by a fence and some bluegums marked the place, but when last I passed that way both fence and trees had disappeared and cows were grazing there. A plain monument with a brief inscription has been erected on the roadside on the south; this marks the site of the pa, but the forty defenders who were laid in their self-dug trenches deserve at least the tribute of a fence and a stone. 'Probably the present owner of the farm is unaware of the facts about the tapu spot, but the place "where heaves the turf" is .still quite easy to locate.

Most of the Maoris who were killed at Orakau fell in the retreat on April -, 1864, and were buried at various places on the line of flight to the Puniu Kiver. Here and there some trees indicate the places where they were laid t>y tne British burying parties. Those rtlfl T CTe buried in the P a trenches Infrom th m w b \ rS ° f half a-dozen tribes country !! aik % to ' TaUp °' the Urewela wSroT w , fro ™ as far away as was PiriS7 k t S ? ay - One of them, ±nere must be quite a ir>+ ~* 1 i in the Orakau soil ovct whL th \ ead was very heavy firing for t *' of single shot long E* fields The only breach-loaders used were the carbines of the Forest Ran-ers U hundi^ed). and the few cjjSen engaged^

Colonel J. M. Roberts, of Rotorua, and Mr. William Johns, of Parnell, are two survivors of the old Forest Rangers who held the lines on the eastern side of the besieged redoubt. There are a few members, too, of the Imperial or Militia regiments among our veterans who can tell of Orakau. As for the Maoris, not more than four of those who defended the fort are alive to-day.