By James Cowan

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 109, 10 May 1941, Page 3 (Supplement)

By James Cowan

places once lively with bugle calls and all the sounds and moving pictures of the tented held and barracks of British ana colonial troops. Often there was running water close by, but it was usual for a well to be dug inside the entrenched position, a precaution to ensure the safety of the camp's water supply.

Exploring the sites of historic fortifications was one of my interests in other days, and J noted, when making sketch .plans of old redoubts, that the military engineers who designed the camps were careful to provide a well inside the works. Even in blockhouses on the old frontiers, usually small structures with an overhanging upper storey, a well was frequently dug inside the building. I have a memory of the blockhouse at Orakau, in the Upper Waikato. It was built after the regular campaign of the 'sixties had ceased and when there were renewed alarms and several murders of trespassers on Maori territory. Like the other frontier redoubts and blockhouses on the edge of the King Country, it was intended as a place of night refuge for settlers' families in the event of a raid. Our people fortunately did not need it, but they went one day to see what room there was for them besides the small Armed Constabulary garrison. Childhood's memories are long and vivid, and I can smell to this day the dank chill "earthiness" that rose from the dark well just inside the one door when a Constabulary man lifted the cover and showed us where the water was obtained. The well must have been at least 60 feet deep through the clay. In case of attack the detachment of A.C.'s would have had to run the gauntlet for every bucket of water