UPPER HUTT BLOCK HOUSE. "NATIVE DISTURBANCES OF THE SIXTIES."

Upper Hutt Weekly Review, Volume I, Issue 19, 24 April 1936, Page 2

UPPER HUTT BLOCK HOUSE. "NATIVE DISTURBANCES OF THE SIXTIES."

NEVER LJSISIJ AGAINST THE MAORIS. In view of the recent interest aroused concerning the Block House at Wallaceville numerous people have asked if this old building was ever used during the Maori disturbances. "The Official History of Old Redoubts, Blockhouses, etc., in the Wellington Area," written by Mr. Elsden Best, for the New Zealand Institute in 1918, gives the following information: "When these troubles (Maori disturbances) arose in the land, public uneasiness caused the erection of two Blockhouses in the Hutt Valley, one at McHardy's clearing, Upper Hutt district, and the other near the Hutt bridge (where the Lower Hutt Post Office now stands). The latter has now disappeared, but the former still stands. Half hidden by treegrowth, this old Blockhouse at Upper Hutt, of sixty years ago, stands alone and unknown in a paddock half a mile from the Wallaceville Railway Station, in the Upper Hutt district, some 20 miles from Wellington city. Of the few who know of its existence some have curiously erroneous ideas as to its origin and age. It was built in the latter part of the year 1860 as a refuge and rallying place for the settlers of the district in case of a Maori raid, for at that time many of the Maoris of the Otaki district were hostile to Europeans. A number of volunteer corps were raised and these became numerous in the land. However, the Blockhotises were never actually utilised as refuges, because the raids never came off. The Wairarapa Maori never became openly hostile; they probably remembered the answer given by a local chief to Te Rangihaeata in 1846, when the latter wanted Wairarapa to join him in a raid on Wellington "Kei a wai he tahurangi make?" (With whom is a tahurangi for me ?) . Tahurangi was the Maori name of the old fashioned red blankets. The wise chief knew that to slay the pakeha would be to cut off the supply of European products, hence the red blanket saved Wellington. The memory of those old times of fear and danger has now passed away, and no one worries about Maori raids."

In 1928 the Upper Hutt Blockhouse was repaired by the Government, and the Minister in Charge of Scenery Preservation approved of the issue of a warrant vesting the control of the building and the reserve surrounding it in the borough of Upper Hutt. At that time Mr. P. Robertson was Mayor and everything was done to preserve it for the general public as an historical building. Water was laid on and Maori engravings and pictures were installed in the building, the Mayor's idea at that time being to start a museum of Maori arts, etc. It may be stated that the present Prime Minister and also the Minister of Lands visited the Block House some time ago. It behoves the public of the Upper Hutt to preserve such an historic building as a memory of the pioneers of the district.