11 Transactions. 



Art. II. — Old Redoubts, Blockhouses, and Stockades of the Wellington 



District. 



By Elsdon Best, F.N. Z.Inst. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 21st September, 1920 ; received by 

 Editor, 21st September, 1920 ; issued separately, 27th June, 1921.] 



Plates I, II. 



The amount of interest displayed by Wellington folk in the story of the 

 settlement of the district is exceedingly small, and very few possess any 

 knowledge of the anxious times passed here by early settlers during the 

 Maori disturbances of the " forties " of last century, and, in a lesser degree, 

 some fifteen years later. Probably no man could locate the sites of all the 

 blockhouses, stockades, and redoubts erected in this district in the early 

 days, hence it has been deemed advisable to put together the following- 

 notes pertaining to those posts. The stockade-sites marked on Collinson's 

 little map are approximate only, but fortunately the writer was enabled to 

 fix them definitely ere the old generation of settlers in the Porirua district 

 passed away. 



Wellington PiEdoubts, etc., of the " Forties." 



The general feeling of uneasiness and apprehension that followed the 

 Wairau massacre led to the erection of two defensive positions in Wellington 

 - — one on the Thorndon Flat, as it was called formerly, and one at Te Aro, 

 on the north side of Manners Street. The former was situated near the 

 junction of Mulgrave and Pipitea Streets, and was known as " Clifford's 

 Kedoubt " and " Clifford's Battery " among the settlers, but appears 

 as " Thorndon Fort " in official documents. Mundy calls it " Clifford's 

 Stockade," but that name was usually applied to the post at Johnson's 

 Clearing, now known as Johnsonville. 



In the New Zealand Journal of the 1st March, 1844, appears a report of 

 the Committee of Public Safety, of Wellington, appointed at the public 

 meeting held on the 19th June, 1843. Among other items of interest in 

 this report occurs the following : ' Your committee have also to report 

 that a battery has been erected on Clay Hill, under the superintendence 

 of Captain W. M. Smith, R.A., and three guns placed therein. Another 

 battery on Thorndon Flat was in progress at the period of the arrival of 

 the military from Auckland, but has not been proceeded with since." 



Clay Hill was the name of the bluff headland, known otherwise as " Clay 

 Point " and " Windy Point," above the junction of Lambton Quay and 

 Willis Street. Its native name was Kai-upoko. 



In the same Journal of the 6th January, 1844, containing Wellington 

 news up to the end of July, 1843, appears a statement that at 9 o'clock on 

 Sunday, the 2nd July, 400 Wellington Volunteers mustered for inspection 

 on Thorndon Flat. At a meeting of the military sub-committee on the 

 6th July, there were present Major Durie (president), Captain Sharp, Major 

 Baker, Major Hornbrook, and Dr. Dorset. " It was resolved that a public 

 notice be issued calling upon all parties to assemble on Thorndon Flat on 



