ATTACK ON SENTRY HILL REDOUBT.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 175, 20 May 1864, Page 5 (Supplement)

ATTACK ON SENTRY HILL REDOUBT.

H E A V Y NATIVE LOS S,

33 BODIES BURIED—I PRISONER.

On Saturday morning the fire of heavy guns and small anus was heard in town from the direction of Sentry Hill and Maho at a In, and everyone was ou the t iptoe of expectation. Ao settled purpose of attack on our part had been heard of, and it must he smnetiiing extra the circumlocution of our routine tactics; and so it turned out to be, and the Maories had made a veritable at lean pt Mo master the Sent ry 11 ill redoubt and had been d.iiron back in confusion and with great loss. The affair appears to leave been a suddeu and a sharp out 1 , and long before any of the reinforcements quickly forwarded from town reached the scene all was ever, and scarce a trace of the sanguinary struggle remained —save the dead about the redoubt. From what we have been able to gather of the circumstances, there seems to have been an impression with those in command, whether imdefinable or resting upon substantial information, we arc unable to say, that an attack upon some one of onr posts there was meditated, and great watchfulness was observed. Major Butler was in command at Mahoelahi, and (.'apt. Short at the redoubt. From very early in the morning shouts and songs told that the Maori hive at Mataitnwa, was in motion and preparing forsomethingimportant, and after a time it was detected that these hostile indications were approaching nearer; and between 7 and S o'clock some three hundred of the enemy were seen to issue from the bus!) (hut skirts Waiongana ford, scarce half a mile distant from the redoubt. They are described as advancing with great steadiness, and with something like military order, and as if the terrible posts before them were entirely tcuantless—and indeed the arrangements made within the redoubts might have favoured this impression. Captain Short seems to have guided the affair with the coolness

and judgment so necessary and yet so rare in moments of groat peril. The troops within tho redoubt wore instructed to conceal themselves, and it was not until tlie enemy were within two hundred yards, and when something like indecision about further advance was apparent, that a shot was filed, but then quick and successive volleys were poured upon them with terrible effect; but although they appeared to reel under the fire lor the moment, they sought what cover they could find, and returned it with the best intention but without effect. At this point their advance ended, and they seemed only intent on covering the parties who were removing their wounded ; but all show of resistance ceased when Major Rutler, with reinforcements from Mahoetahi, came on the scene, and they deserted even this duty, and lied precipitately before tho charge he directed to he made, leaving behind them thirty-one dead and three wounded prisoners, two of whom are since dead. It is impossible to overrate the value of the result on this occasion. No previous success can be compared with it. At Mahoetahi and at No. b Redoubt tho slaughter may have been greater, but it was princi pally with strangers to the district that our force (lien had to deal, and tho advantage upon either oeeasion was not obtained without a price—and there was much mourning over victory. In the affair of Sentry Hill there are cleared from the future several of the chiefs of those tribes about our own district which have, for the last four years, made this beautiful Province a desolation, and rendered all unsafe outside our entrenchments.

Thu following is a list of those of the slain who were identified : Parenga Kingi, Taranaki Pen ah a do. Hone do, • lluwiri Te Tlangi Kaherea, Ngatiruanui Timoti Te Kekehu do. Tiopira do. Tnpara Keina, Pukefapu Hoani Pirini do. Meihana te Whitu do. Jiapeta do. Whare do. Timoti to Arahi do. Manaihi, Ngamoto Wi I’atcne do. Wliau, Agasilwa 1! are Jfokai Te Paco (said to be missing) Xgatiawa llio principal of those, and whose names are notorious amongst us, are Parcnga Ivingi, the chief man of the Taranakis, a great fighting man and a skilfid opponent, and ilanahi, wlio left us at the commencement of the war, and was said to be concerned in the murder of Ford, Shaw, and Passmore and the children at Omata. The prisoner is Iloera Pi re re, belter known by the name of ‘ Big Joe,’ also said to be connected" witli (bo Omata murders, and a brother of Manahi, aiul who, taken prisoner, was permitted to break out of prison and escape two years ago. All those men wore well-known to the settlers as living in the neighboring pas, and daily frequenting thetown before the war broke out. It is impossible to say at present how many of their dead and wounded they’ carried away, but those on the spot think trom 50 to GO ; and it must be observed that the commanding situation of the redoubts oilers facilities for observation. The only man hit on our side was Drummer D. Hurley, who received a ball in the shoulder. The two cohorn mortars on the redoubt ami the Armstrong gun are said to have been well-worked and to have done great execution ; the former on the advancing party—the latter on the supports and reserve which were further in the bush, anxiously peering out from the bush to watch the result of the attack, and afterwards more exposed in carrying away the wounded. A messenger was sent to them when Colonel Warro arrived, to tell them that they might take away their dead, but they declined the oiler. The dead were buried on Sunday morning, near where they fell. The prisoner was brought into town the same evening, and is now in the hospital, under the care of Dr. Rawson. Ilis wounds are seriou ', one bullet smashing the knee, another going through the leg near the uncle, and another through the forearm. It was at first reported that Big Jack was in the affray and wounded, but such was not the case. Some differences are said to have arisen between him and his friends regarding the women of the

p.nli, mid he was somewhere north of the Waitara at the time and consequently not there.