NUKUMARU PAIL

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXVIII, Issue 12, 10 February 1869, Page 4

NUKUMARU PAIL

The following particulars relative to this stronghold have been kindly furnished to us (Independent) by Major Fimiimore : — The pah covers about two* and a-half acres of land. It consists of an outer palisading from fifteen to twenty feet in height. About four feet from this, another palisading of split timber is constructed, about ten feet in height. At the foot of this palisading thqre are open trenches about six feet wide and eight feet deep, flanked at each end by covered rifle-pits and traverses leading to sleepingapartments underground, covered with corrugated iron. Immediately beyond these trenches, crosspalisadings of very strong split timber are orected throughout tho pah. In the left angle of the pah, a very strong two-storey tower, most unusual in native fortifications, had been erected, containing no opening for ingress or egress but from underground galleries. This tower is constructed with double rows of strong palisading, the intervening space being rammed in with earth ; and the second floor is composed of strong transverse beams, well rammed to two feet -in thickness of earth. Both storeys arc loopholed. The back of the puh aud the right flank are protected by a strong dense bush, miming clown into a precipitous pully. The whares throughout the pah are level with the ground, each being protected by earthworks and palistv lings, so that a body of men getting into the first range of rifle pits and trenches would bo certain to be all killed in attempting to take the second series of works. The front of the pah was protected by a stage for riflemen, which ran up twenty feet above the palisading. During the siege tho rebels were frequently seen on these stages running up aud down and crying out to Major Finnimore to send out all the fat pakehas for them to cook, as the ovens wero ready. This stage work was battered to pieces by the shells from the Armstrong guns. Colonel Whitmore's arrangements for investing tho pah were most complete, and the firing kept up on the pah for a day and night with the shells from the cohorn mortars, which had been taken into the bush on the right flank during tho night, probably paralysed the enemy, which caused him to retire, after suffering severe loss (as shown by the blood to be seen in all directions) during the night. Taken altogether it is one of the strongest fortifications which bus over been constructed by the natives of New Zealand. Immediately after tho pah was taken the Wanganui and Kai Iwi Cavalry under the command of Major Finnimore galloped down and took possession of Wereroa, and then burnt down Perakania pah.