Best. — Old Redoubts, &c, of the Wellington District. 23 



Militia and Maori auxiliaries from the Hntt in August, 1846. This force 

 occupied the pa on the 1st August, Governor Grey arriving there in 

 the afternoon of the same day, accompanied by Captain Stanley, of 

 the " Calliope." 



The post was situated on the spur on which the church stands at 

 Paua-tahanui, just above the creek, and above the bridge. A rude sketch 

 of the Maori pa appeared in a Wellington paper of that time, but the 

 reproduction of the stockade is decidedly eccentric. A sketch in the 

 writer's possession is much more reliable. The name Matai-taua is one of 

 the few local names of which we know the origin. This pa was built by 

 Te Eangihaeata when he retired from Motu-karaka some months before. 

 When the Imperial troops advanced from Paremata fortress to join the 

 Militia and Maori contingent in the advance up the Horokiri Valley 

 Lieutenant De Winton occupied the pa as a military post. On the 10th 

 August he was reinforced by a detachment of police under Sub-Inspector 

 Strode. In October, 1846, we find that the post was garrisoned by three 

 officers and one hundred men of the 65th Eegiment. These officers were 

 Captain P. Newenham, Lieutenant T. F. Turner, and Assistant Surgeon 

 T. E. White. 



In 1848 Captain Russell and a detachment of the 58th occupied the 

 post. They were engaged in roadmaking. The post was finally abandoned 

 in 1850. Apparently the 58th advanced to this post in 1847, for a 

 traveller passing down the coast in that year describes it as follows : — 



" The strong pa of Pawhatanui (?) belonging to Rangihaeata, Rau- 

 paraha's fighting-man, had been seized the year before by our forces, and was 

 now occupied by a detachment of the 58th. I stopped at the blacksmith's 

 outside the pa to have the horse shod, before taking him on the hard 

 metalled road into Wellington. During the process an officer happened to 

 pass. We entered into conversation, and the result was that Captain R., 

 the officer in command of the detachment (for he it was), invited me to pass 

 the night at the pa. Mounting the hill on which it stood, we entered the 

 gate. 



" The strong palisade, about 15 ft. high, which surrounded the original 

 pa, remained undisturbed, but nearly the entire space within was now 

 occupied by neat wooden huts, painted blue and shingled. Captain R., 

 with his wife, a lieutenant and the assistant surgeon, with their wives, and 

 an ensign, formed the society of the pa, and a very lively and agreeable 

 society it was. The ladies were all young and pretty, and on the best 

 terms with each other ; Mrs. R., with her frank gaiety, being the life and 

 soul of the little party. As for the officers, they did not, with the exception 

 of Captain R., get through their time so easily — in fact they were mortally 

 bored. What, indeed, had they to do ? The doctor, in that provokingly 

 salubrious climate, had no patients to cure, and the subalterns, since the 

 Maori war was over, had none but routine duties to perform, which on 

 detachment service are usually light enough. There was no hunting, and 

 nothing to shoot but parrots, pigeons, and tuis. However, they did 

 what they could ; they fished and boated, pulled down almost daily to 

 Paremata Point, where there was a detachment of the 65th, to compare 

 notes with the major and the ensign, the latter of whom ingeniously 

 contrived to kill a good many hours in the education of a talking tui, and 

 laid schemes for obtaining leave to go to Wellington, which was another 

 London or Paris to an unfortunate subaltern buried in the bush at 

 Pawhatanui." 



