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Press, 9 May 1981, Page 15

The outlines of Onawe Pa (see sketch) were drawn by Mr D. R. Simmons, an ethnologist with the Auckland Institute and Museum, in 1971. In a letter thanking the Kay family for the privilege of walking over the pa, Mr Simmons wrote in 1971: “As I thought, it is the earliest musket pa in New Zealand. It actually predates the use of this type of fortification in Europe by some 23 years. “The whole area of the pa seems to be enclosed by the defensive ditch, though there are the two covered ways

and house terraces in the gully at the end of the pa. “The special arrangements of this pa are the crossfire bastions, the two gates defended by flanking earthworks, and the shallow trench used as a musket trench. There was almost certainly an outer palisade, outside the trench, and another on top of the main bank. The main bank itself is sloped on the inside to provide a place for musket men to be (sic) down and fire under the palisade. “Musket men in the trench would either sit or kneel to fire out. The end of the pa

between the last main bank and the bank outside the access gate appears to have been an earlier pa, though it may just be outworks of the main pa. There are the remains of a ditch and bank system outside the fence on either side and what appears to be its continuation in the ploughed area enclosed by the fence. “The two sides of this area are also of interest because there appear to be the remains of storage pits, either for potato or kumara. “This site is one of the most important in New Zealand ...” Mr Simmons wrote.