ON THE HISTORY TRAIL

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 136, 11 June 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

ON THE HISTORY TRAIL

by James Cowan

Next in interest to a bidden trea.mre hunt ie the searching out of all-but-forjrottcn scenes where history was made* in the pioneering era of our country. This is an occupotion and a hobby and pastime which becomes perfectly fascinating when once Hβ pleasure* have been taeted by the young Xpw Zealand«T. It gives a definite objective in a country excursion, particularly a tramping expedition from is-ome convenient ba?e. In tlifi=e motoring diiys the less ixiteri-r'tinj; parts ot a dUtrk-t can be travelled quickly, and then. with a £ood in it j>, the. exploration fur that ionir-Wt mission station or pakoTia-Ma"ri bav.letk-ld or fortifications can bvgin, ]t m no mere aimJt'sc* 11:1 mii for tramping'* sake. There is ?o!n«.'tliinjr to . ; tir the imagination and sharpen one"? powers of observation. Historic shrines, scenes of great adventure, lie in the ferns and the manuka all about the land, waiting to be rediscovered. Flax end fern and koromiko bushes cover the walls and fill the trenches of little forts that once guarded the frontier or protected the lines of communication in the war-troubled country of Waikato. Taranaki, the East Coast, and even in the heart of the island around Leke Taupo and the groat mountain? of the central plateau. The friendly vegetation in many plaeee ie the saving of the long-deserted earthworks, preventing them from crumbling away. Many Maori pas and entrenchments of the wars are on native land, and often theee have become burial grounds and so must not be entered by the pakeha. On native land, too, are some of the redoubts built by the Government forces; but most of the sites of earthworks at which the British eoldier and the Colonial Militia, and later the Armed Constabulary, toiled in the campaigns of the 'sixties, were on land that ie now peaceful farming country. A very few have been saved from destruction; the best exa-mple of these is the Alexandra Redoubt (named after the late Queen Alexandra in the year of her marriage, 1863), which stands almoet intact on its commanding hill above the Waikato River at Tuakau. Here the young New Zealander will be able to explore the maeeive earthwork defences of a typical encampment built by the British troops. Homestead in a Redoubt. On the road from Papakura to the Southern Wairoa (Clevedon) the remains of the Kirikiri Redoubt generally called Captain Ring's Redoubt, are still to be seen alongside the highway, two miles from Papakura. Like the Queen's Redoubt at Pokeno, its half-demolished walls and ditches enclosed a farmhouse when laet I saw it. Two parapet

lines and bastions remained, with scarps 10ft liljili in one part. The front of tho redoubt-homestead was rk-h with ro«»n tnul cabbage trees and slirubs, and pine trees grew uii the walls and in the trom-ho<*. KL'hty mill's further south, on a beautiful farm at Pateranui, art , iiiiiuy hundreds of yards' of ontrench-iiM-iils ea-i!v traceable, with some high iijirn J •<■ i.<. a Kritish redoubt, ond a ui'fat I'ii with high walls and deep and \\ idi; lo<-<e-. a. perfectly preserved earthwork of the ancient time-;, prepakclin. Mil ;i farm, uiven tho iittiwr's pt v rmir=*ii>n. thorp are many dfiv-i of ontlirailiiiL' sean-h, and plii>tii,L;ia[ihinLr. The Esk Redoubt. The picture <m this pap> is an illustration that !rivc< point to my an ohjwti'c for holiday ■>r week-end (inesi. in the country. It is a photoirra ph of a ismall patntinjr •ilinwiliL' the ]->k Rodoubt. one of a chain of well-entrenched camps built in ISt;.">. a<-riJi-s the country ix>tween the Firth of Thames end the Queen's Redoubt at Pokeno. This line of redoubts, within distant siyht of each other, was for tho purpose of preventing tho Maoris of the Hauraki shores from the Waikato warriors with men and supplier, and of g-uard-inrr the South Auckland settlements airainst attack l>y way of the Wairoa Ranges. 11.M.5. Miranda. H.M.S. Hsk and other vessel*! took a largo force from Auckland down the Tatnaki Passage and landed naval and military detachments at Wukutiwai and Pnkorokoro. Miranda to the Waikato. Those who know the Hauraki shores thereabouts will remember the winding creek through the mangroves

THE PLEASURE OF FIELD RESEARCH

and the niu<l that gives access to the wharf (a crazy little jetty as I remember it), on the shelly shores just below the flay lull where the remains of the old Miranda redoul.it stand. Thiit earthwork wiw the first post built by tlie expeditionary force; it wa-; named after the warship. The' next one was the K*k Redoubt, a simill but massively entrenched work on the desolate fern hills a few miles westward, towards the Miingatangi si ream. Next the troops built a similar redoubt overlooking the Manual a whiri River. This was within sight of a post already established on the hills at Kohevoa. the scene of General Cameron's first ilght with the Maori king's warriors. A rough road was made from the Miranda to the Waikato tilling this line of posts. The Ksk post" (named like the Miranda after one of the British warship* whose commander. Captain Hamilton, was killed at Oil t<? I'a the "following veer), was constructed to accommodate 150 men in tents. The other one was named the Surrey, because the force which built and garrisoned it was a detachment of the 70th Surrey Kojjiment. The Maoris in the Bush. This chain of military posts from the Thames Gulf to the Wuikato Valley had the effect, for one thing, of hemming in thotse Kingite parties who continued to rove the Wairoa Rangce after the Hritish troops had passed southward into the Waikato. Among these bush warriors were several women, accompanying their husband* anil brothers on the fighting trail. One of them was a young half-caste woman named Heni (Jane) to Kiri-karamu, afterwards celebrated

for her heroic share in the defence of the Gate Pa at Tauranga. She and her brother and her mother and sister, with two of her infant children, were among the people who had taken to the bush. She told me about her experiences in the forested ranges and deep valleys of the Upper Wairoa and the Mangatawhiri. It was ill December of 18G3. "There we were, a few of the Koheriki," she said, "very anxious to gut AV&y south to join our Waikato friends, but hemmed in by the troops in their camps and redoubts. We camped for some time in a deep valley between the Mangatawhiri and the Maugatangi Rivers. We were afraid even to light fires for cooking or to »varm ourselves, for fear of the Forest Hangers who had been after us into tin* heart of the bush, and the watchful trooi* in the hill posts. We were afraid to ehoot wild pigs or biid« for fo<>>l; the sound of the shots would bring the soldiers out iu chatse. We scouted out cautiously to the cvlge of the forest, and there, through the trees, we saw the white tents and the sontry cordon barring our way. We were in a bad way for food, and for three weeke we lived almost entirely on wild honey (taken from the hollow trees) end"cold water. The Fugitives' Escape. "At last we decided to break through the chain of troops. Two of our best men were sent out to the open lands to scout the way ahead. There was a rough log bridge by which we hoped to cross the Mangafangi. At last, with great care, we crossed there one dark night. On the way to the bridge we were so near one of the redoubte that we could hear eome of the eoldiers in the tents playing an accordion and laughing and talking. We crept past the sentry lines and crossed the river, and our rearguard chopped the narrow log bridge away. It was at a narrow and deep part of th« river. (Continued on page 327).