STOCKADE SURVIVOR

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16628, 23 April 1928, Page 2

STOCKADE SURVIVOR

PASSES 90TH BIRTHDAY . STIRRING EPISODE OF MAORI WAR For nearly 30 years a well-known resident of Epsom' and still a familiar figure on"the Carlton Club bowling green, Captain J. S. Corbett-Scotfc is this week celebrating his 90th birthoayv Of special interest is the fact,that ho is a survivor of the brave little band who defended the stockade at the Pukekohe East Presbyterian Church in 1863. The episode has boon described as one of the bravest, defences in the South Auckland wars. The members of the Scott family were among-" the earliest settlers who come to Pukekohc East in 1959 from Scotland and Cornwall.: Joseph Scott was then 21 years of age. When the war began every man and youth who could handle a rifle joined a," company of the Forest Hi Ho Volunteers, while the families were sent bv Lieut, (afterwards Major) A. 11. Lusl'c to places of greater safety. A stockade was built at a distance of 10ft. from the church, and the work had not been completed when the Maoris attacked in force. FATHER MORTALLY WOUNDED On the day preceding the attack Joseph Scott, hail a dangerous adventure with three other young men. A fortnight earlier his father was mortally wounded by the Maoris on his farm, and the four young men went to see how the stock was faring. They fell in ■with a party of warriors, and in the skirmishing that followed Joseph Scott and a companion, Elijah Roose, were cut off in the bush; the other two reached the stockade. In the skirmishing, voung Scott's right eyebrow was grazed by a bullet, Surrounding the bush as m>ht approached the Maoris lit huge tires in the fern so that the young men could not race for cover, without being seen. A storm of rain and wind, however, extinguished the iires and'the fugitives reached the stockade early in the morning. ■. ■ ... , The attack was made soon alter. 9 o'clock while some of the men were cooking in front of the stockade gateway. After the first , shot scores of broWn figures leapt from the surrounding trees and charged down on the log fence. With the attackers was a woman, armed with a gun, arid above the .sounds of the whistling bullets and the din of attack rose her piercing voice exhorting the Maori warriors m their attack. Serjeant Perry, the only one with militarv training, had been placed in charge of the stockade; and be gave the order: "Fix bayonets." He said that on no account must a volley be tired lest while the defenders were reloading the Maoris should charge into the stockade. Each man ran to a loophole and so the attackers were faced with a stockade bristling with bayonets. LONG DAY OF FIGHTING

. For several hours the Maoris kept rip ■'■/'■ftvery heavy lire from the cover of the ■ bush, and from the tops of trees. To the garrison it seemed that they, were being attacked' by 300- or 400 men, but Maori survivors stated later that the ~ force,did not "exceed 200 .men., The defenders were at a disadvantage because of the unfinished state of the stockade; it was not more than sft. high andgave poor' cover for heads. The Maoris as they fell back after the ..first assault, seizect'the defenders' dinner of.meat and potatoes'.which was cooking,,.in iron ."■ pots in front of tho stockade; in the : - act several Maoris fell dead and wounded, but the- natives feasted on the meal in'the gullv below the church. ■ ■ In face of the heavy fire and the painful effects of the smoke the gallant little band stuck to their posts It is said that the hottest work of all Pell to. the lot of Joseph Scott and James Easton, - in. defending the, angle holding the nar- ■ row Gateway againsMlin main concentration of the attackers. Both were good shots and careful with their ammunition. As numbers of Maoris fell dead and wounded they were drawn away under fire by means of supplejacks fastened'around the ankles, and the dead '. were hidden in the bush and in the

branches of trees. At about 1 o'clock in the afternoon a 'cheer rang out from the little garrison ' as Lieut. Grierson and 32 men of the 70th Regiment came to their aid from , Kamarama, This was timely, for some of the defenders had only a round each of ammunition remaining. Captain Moir and three waggons oP ammunition came up in the afternoon, and at about 4 o'clock the sound of British bugles was heard in the bush. A company of 150 soldiers of the 18th .Royal Tnsh 'and the 65th charged across the clearing led bv Captain Inman.and Captain : Saltmarshe, and after an hour of fighting drove off the Maoris from within v- 40 vards of the stockade. The British Josses were three killed or mortally wounded, but none of the stockade defenders was struck by a bullet. .-Captain Corbett-Scott retains excellent health.