THE STORY OF AUCKLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 245, 16 October 1928, Page 6

THE STORY OF AUCKLAND.

NGATI-PAOA'S WAR-CANOE EXPEDITION. HOW GOVERNOR GREY FRUSTRATED AN INVASION. (By JAMES COW AX.) No. XIII. After the destruction of Kororareka town by Hone Heke and his allies in 1845, there wore many in Auckland who feared that the Xgapuhi warriors would invade the capital, and this apprehension prompted the strengthening of the defences. Fort Britomart was improved, and at the conclusion of the war the Governor. Captain George Grey, had the Albert barracks constructed on the hill Rangipuke, that now is Albert Park, and taking in Princes Street and adjacent areas to Symonds Street, the total area devoted to fortifications and barracks, including Fort Britomart, was a little over twenty acres. The Albert Barracks. The principal works were large wooden barracks for 900 men, and stone building for another 100 men. Commissariat offices and treasury, regimental orderly room, and stone magaz'.ne were also^built; and there was a large military hospital. The whole of the barracks area was surrounded by a stone wall twelve feet high, loopholed, with a banquette or liresten inside for musketeers to use in firing through the loopholes. The wall was built by Maoris, who did excellent work in quarrying and construction, under the supervision of the Royal Engineers. There were bastion flanking defences covering the two gates, in Princes Street and Symonds Street, and there were also salients at intervals along the irregular trace to enable the garrison to deliver an enfilading fire if nee.l be. Wells were sunk inside the stockade, and there were numerous iron tanks for water. These defences were completed by Major-General Georga Dean-Pitt, who arrived from England in IS4S to command the New Zealand forces. Dean-Pitt was a veteran of the Peninsula War, and had fought, at Albuliera, Badajos and Vittoria. He died in Auckland in 1851.

There was no danger of an invasion by Ngapuhi; Hone Heke did threaten it, or attempt to gain support for it from other tribes, but it was not at all likely that the anti-British section would leave their own district at the aiercv of the opposing faction in the North, the ''proQueen" tribes under Tamati Waka Nenc. The Tale of a Stolen Shirt. There was, however, one rather serious alarm of invasion, and that was the "demonstration in force" of the Ngati-Paoa tribe, amounting to an attempt to overawe the Government and the town, in April, 1851. Ngati-Paoa and their sub-tribes, inhabiting numerous villages on the shores of the Hauraki Gulf, and Waiheke and other islands, had been very friendly with the townspeople ever since the establishment of British settlement. They trafficked profitably with Auckland, bringing their canoes and boats loaded with potatoes, kumara, pumpkins, melons, peaches and maize, and returning with their equivalent in pakelia goods. But they were, like all Maori tribes, touchy on points of custom, and ever ready to resent an injury or an affront to personal dignity or tribal prestige.

A Maori named Ngawiki, of Ngati-Paoa", stole a shirt from the front of a Sliortland Street store. He was arrested by the native police. The chief Hoera went to inquire into the trouble, for the arrest created some excitement among the many Maoris in town. By a mistake on the part of the Maori police, who thought he was trying to rescue the prisoner, he was clipped on the head with a club—the native constables carried wooden batons, or rather bludgeons—and was arrested and lodged in the lock-up.

Hoera'a Sacred Head. The blow on the head drew blood, and as Hoera chanced to be under the mystic law of tapu at the time, the insult and injury were very serious indeed in the Maori mind. Hoera was released when the circumstances were understood, but the mischief had been done. Every Maori left the town, and a kind of fiery cross summons went round the villages on the shore of the Hauraki Gulf. I The "Waka-taua" Flotilla. Sitting under the trees at the Supreme Court one day in 1901, the old warrior Hori Ngakapa te VVhanaunga, the head of the remnant of NgatiPaoa, told me the story of the war canoe expedition of his tribe which followed that fracas in Auckland town. Hori was one of the leaders of the war party. When he told me of the memorable raid of half a century before he was about seventy-five years old, so that he was in the prime of young manhood when he captained the splendid war canoe of his hapu, the carved and befeathered waka-taua called "Te wai-kohaere." When the news of the striking and wrongful arrest of Hoera roused the Hauraki villages, the men took to their arms and launched their canoes, and the various sub-tribes assembled at Te Huruhi bay, on Waiheke Island. There were five large canoes, from Pukorokoro (Miranda), Taupo (near the sandspit, west side of the Hauraki), Waiari, Wharekawa, and Te Umu-puia (Te Wairoa). The crews were composed of the Ngati-Wlianaunga, Tau-iwi, Pakahorahora and Ngati-Tai, and numbered in all between 250 and 300 armed men. The Old Warrior's Story. "We assembled at Te Huruhi, where it was decide to descend upon Auckland," said Hori. He was a deeply tattooed veteran, with strong features and keen, glittering eyes; tall and leanframed, he must have been a fine figure of a warrior in the days of '51. "We did not intend to attack the town at all; we simply wanted to show our strength and demand redress for the insult to our chief. We wanted to have the Maori policeman handed over to us, so that we could exact utu for the wrongful blow. We paddled up the Waitemata in company. Several Waiheke canoes had joined us. 1 was the kai-hautu (the fugleman, or captain) of my hapu, Ngati-Wlianaunga. My canoe was the 'Wai-kohaere,' a large canoe, with carved figurehead and sternpost. Te Puhata was in command of one of the canoes. Another chief was Ilaora Tipa. His canoe was the 'Maramarua,' a splendid waka-taua, with a 'pitau' figurehead. This canoe had a crew of fifty men. Aperahama Pokai, the chief of Pukorokoro (Miranda) commanded a canoe manned by his hapu. Most of us had double-barrel guns; I also had a patuparaoa (whalebone club) which I waved as I gave the time and chanted the war-song for my crew. The War Dance on the Beach. "We landed on Waipapa beach, down yonder," said the old warrior, pointing to Mechanics' Bay. "We all drove our canoes high up; it was the top of high water, and we jumped on to the sand just where the road runs to-day, near the Maori hostelry. We formed up all together, and we danced a tutu-waewae, the usual prelude to battle. Then the chiefs went up the hill, and there was a korero with Governor Grey. We demanded the policeman, but we got no satisfaction. Moreover, we saw as we paddled up the harbour that a British man-of-war (the frigate Fly) was anchored off Waipapa, with her sruns commanding the bay; and these hills were lined with soldiers, and there were guns planted on this very hill on which we sit." The Soldiers on the HilL Hori Ngakapa pointed to the open space between the Supreme Court and St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. "There,"' lie said, '"there were parapets thrown up by the soldiers, and there were guns there, and on this spot where we are sitting there were soldiers on parade, redcoats with glistening white cross belts. The Governor had got word of our expedition while we were gathering at Waiheke, and he had forestalled ■ us. So in the end we had to give in, drag our canoes out—it was now low water —and paddle J away down the Waitemata." (To be continued.)