WAIHI CEMETERY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 26 August 1924, Page 10

WAIHI CEMETERY.

AN HISTORICAL SPOT.

(By “Fifty-one.”) it lias been my desire since coming to Flawera to once again visit the site or the old AVaihi redoubt, but although! l have looked ior it on many occasions whde wandering around, i could never locate it. Seeing that my former visit " u - s in the seventies, during the time the AX'.’s were stationed at the redoubt, and that the whole country has undergone a wonderful change — unrenced and unoccupied land for the most part to green fields, bordered with shelter hedges, and herds of fine dairy cattle—l am not surprised that l was unable to find the site without instructions from an old friend; even then the task was no easy one, and the distance from Hawera was far and away greater than I expected it to be. Waihi redoubt in the old days was almost in a straight line from Hawera (or so it seemed to me), but now one has to traverse Glover Bond to its junction with Ketemarae Road, and then clown the latter towards Normanby for a mile or’two till the AVaihi Uoacl is reached. Even when I reached this point I did not know what part of the world I was in, when fortunately a gentleman and some ladies came into view. Inquiry as to the whereabouts of the old redoubt and cemetery elicited the ieply, “There it is,” pointing to what I readily perceived to be a cemetery and a hill which resembled an old fortification, with a Maori u hare or hut at the summit. I discovered afterwards, however, that this was not the site of the old AVaihi A.C. redoubt, which was some little distance further down the road, on what is now known as the Hirstlands estate. I had a good look round the cemetery, and noticed on the headstones the names of several settlers I was acquainted with in the early days; but I was more interested in the cairn which records the names of those who fell during Titokowaru’s war. Although the little plot is well kept, there are no mounds or crosses to indicate particular graves. Captain Ross, who fell at Turuturn, has the only individual headstone, and I was more than surprised at the lettering being allowed to get so faint that it was impossible to read it without going close ip. Then, again. Turuturu is spelt “Turn Tuva,” which is not what one would expect right in the locality. On the cairn itself 1 noticed that the names of thirteen men are riven as having fallen at Te Ngutu on" August -X 1868. This is rather a serious error, as only four were killed on that occasion and eight wounded. No dead were recovered from the eighteen who we v e reported “missing” after the September engagement.