OLDEN WARFARE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 168, 17 July 1908, Page 6

OLDEN WARFARE.

THE BITER BITTEN.

(By Indigena.)

As you travel about in the north— and it must be the same in other parts of New Zealand—you notice many hills, the terraced summits and sides of which show that they have been the sites of Maori pas. Strong positions they .were, very cities of refuge when the enemy was near. The cultivations that yielded the kumara were in the immediate vicinity. There the necessary work could be done in the daytime. Then towards night back went the workers to the pa for security. When in the primitive times of the Maori in New Zealand they generally lived on high dry ground where the air was pure and the drainage naturally good, the health and the physique of the race were very much better ..than they faave become since the hills, were deserted for kaiiigas situated permanently in dtimp low-lands. To the,hillfortresses also at the ingathering were carried the kumaras, to be stored away in the ruas or food-pits. These are in most cases still to be seen. Witness their frequency on the volcanic cones that dot our Auckland isthmus.

What tales each fastness could tell of siege and onfall, of attack and repulse, of victory and Slaughter, of foes, of deeds of the highest bravery and heroism. For example: There passed away recently at Mokai an old ehieftainess of between 80 and 90 years of age, one of the heroines of the battle of Orakau, which is not far from Rangiaohia., There in 1864 the

Maoris were beleagued in a pa by the' British troops. Here was no hill fortress. The ground rose in a low rolling mound; but there was no apparent strength in the position. The choice of the spot in which to make a stand was. due to the Maori passion for the soil of his ancestors. One ■of the Maoris had said, "Here is my father's land. Here will I fight." And there they fought a gallant fight against great odds. To the summons to surrender, with the promise that their lives should be spared, the famous chief Rewi made the historic j reply : "Ka whawhai tonu, ake, ake, ! ake," i.e., "We will fight on for ever and ever." Then the English commander humanely desired that the women and children should leave the pa, whereupon the recently deceased chieftainess, then a young woman, is •»a*d- to have leaped on the parapet and cried back to the pakeha, "Where our fathers and brother's die, there W6 also will die." Before the Orakau fighting was over she had received as many wounds as the most war-worn veteran. Not a few of her dark-skin-ned sisters died with, the men. The general in his despatches wrote: "It is impossible not to admire the heroic courage and devotion of .the natives in defending themselves so, long against overwhelming numbers. Surrounded closely on all sides, cut off fr^om their supply of water", and deprived of all hope of succour, they resolutely held their ground for more than two days, and did not abandon their, position unt\l the sap had reached the ditch of their entrenchment"

Yes, the very -soil is to seeing eyes, and for those who have ears to hear, eloquent of the doughty deeds of the past, when 3 for .instance, there were, Mr Percy Smith -has said, twentyfive- pas near Auckland, each (with at least 500 people, and Mount Eden with 3000. Barbaric deeds, if you will. But what could you expect? Traces of barbarism still linger in our own civilisation. And, after all, was not one of the marks of the grand old chief of the past a certain high sense of chivalry ? Many and thrilling indeed are the stories connected with the old Maori pas. Would that more could fee placed on record before the passing of those who know them! Let .me contribute one such story, as far as possible as it was told me by an old identity who had it from the Maoris. ";:

On the well-known road from. Waimate North to" the Falls (on the Waitangi River) you pass about halfway the old i homestead of Puketona, the former residence of Mr Edward M. Williams, the eldest son of Archdeacon Henry Williams, |of Pahia and Pakai-aka. What stories he could give us of the early days! Well, just beyond Puketona the road goes over a scoria flat, and oh the left-hand side as you are going east there stands a hill somewhat oval in shape, about 150f,t. in height, and with a flat top of not inconsiderable area; the levelling of this space was done by the Maoris, and there are o^her traces that- show that there was at one time a large pa there^ At this place there was a famous fight about a hundred years ago. v

When a quarrel arose between tribesmen, in the land of th% Ngapuhi it was not unusual for the disaffected to go to the sbijth and stir up some of the Maoris there to send a taua or war party to fight their battles. This other tribes would be very ready to do when there was good hope of success. Often there-would be some defeat or some insult,to be avenged. In this case the Nga|mhi renegades Were able 'to return tSf the^- Bay of Islands with about,,soo-southerners. These, in a flipset of six or eight. canoes, rounded''Cape Brett at dusk, passed up the bay, and landed at Onewhero beach, which is just to the northward of the Brampton reef, and not far from Kent's;! Passage,; on: \ the' westerh side of the harbour. Then,, St'i^Jf ,|he Ngapuhi, who knew every,y^jd/bf the way, they crept inlattdvbypight; through the hills, past Te Euke(an easily identified volcanic peaK)/and so reached the vicinity of the^pa^at Puketona. A little to the eastward of this there was a ridge funning north and .south. The ground between this and the hill on which stood the pa vw;as; flat and traversed by a stream, with Wwamp adjoining. Theplan,<>f the" attackers -was shrewd. They v divided their , forces into Iwo parties. One was to attack the pa in front and endeavour to draw the defenders out; while the other was to lie in wait in a gully behind the ridge aforesaid. •

Early in the.'morning the frontal attack was delivered. It failed in its object,; the .defenders were not enticed forth from the pa; while a movement /was begun'that had not entered into the calculations of the attackers. There was another pa. to the couthward, on the right side of the present road as you go east. The Ngapuhi therein', looking on to begin with, seem to have seen through the plans of the southern raiders. at; any rate, plot was met with counterplot. A party of warriors left this second pa, made a long detour round the range of hills at the back of Puketona, reached Oromahoe, and got reinforcements there. Now, about ? f* rong ' they crossed the ridge ofthe hills, and marched on in a northeasterly direction until they were in the rear of the southerner's. Then attacking the reserve party behind the ridge,' they drove them, across the ridge to join theii; comrades in front or the pa. Now came the time for its defenders to sally forth and fall upon their assailants, who found themselves between two divisions of their foesthey were indeed in parlous plight, though they long fought on. From the evening until midnight the battle raged in a swamp about twenty chains wide. Great was the slaughter °t e.r? l% lS- This was the battle t,Warwhariki (wai—water; whariki —bedding, such as mange-mange or tern laid on the floor of a hut to sleep on) so-caned because the swamp was bedded with dead bodies. Not that they would all be allowed to lie useless. Most; of them must have found their way into the hangi, or ovens. borne of the foe escaped for the eil- -. ~ en the Pursuing Ngapuhi Iw h?? Onewhero beach they found that three canoes had left. Accordingly they got their own canoes from the south side of the Brampton reef t?i *& rii d a*ter\the fugitives. At 7 ,^f i Ijkey came up with them and killed,all excepting a few men of minor note. These were left to carry the news to their Allows in the south; with the added warning: "If you come again no one will be allowed to escape. AH will go into the hangi."