26 Transactions. 



The blockhouse is in a good state of preservation, the timber sound and 

 still showing in places the marks of the circular saw ; it was probably cut 

 in Cruickshank's mill, the first to be erected in this vicinity, which produced 

 some fine totara timber, The ground floor is divided into two rooms, the 

 larger one containing the staircase, as also a small room in the south-west 

 corner, like the sergeant's cubby-hole in a military barrack-room. Four 

 sides of the ground floor present loopholed walls, the two interior walls 

 being blank, save for the doorway and two windows as shown. There are 

 twenty-four loopholes, as marked, not including three higher up to be 

 occupied by persons stationed on the staircase. These loopholes are rect- 

 angular, formed with 1 in. timber, with the smaller end outward, the inner 

 and larger orifice being 8 in. by 6 in. Some are still plugged with the original 

 tompions — solid blocks of timber. The walls are flush-lined with 1 in. 

 boards, and the outside weatherboarded with the same ; studs, 6 in. The 

 interior space is filled with fine gravel. 



The upper floor is in one room, and is pierced with loopholes all round, 

 on all six faces. The southern end has but two loopholes, but the two 

 windows there are probably modern and not a part of the original plan. 

 The west and north faces have each eight loopholes. The two interior 

 walls have three each, two long vertical ones and a small square one between 

 them. Two of these appear in the illustration. Not being a disciple of 

 Vauban, the writer is unable to explain why these elongated loopholes 

 should appear in two walls only, and those both interior faces. On the 

 outer side these loopholes are 36 in. by 3 in., but the inner part is wider. 



The blockhouse is built on piles, and roofed with corrugated iron ; 

 height of walls, 18 ft. 



The magazine was a small building, 9 ft. by 5 ft. in size, originally lined, 

 and probably with gravel-filled walls. Outside the blockhouse is a small 

 ditch of unknown use, for presumably the stockade did not extend along 

 outside the north and west sides of the blockhouse. The place seems to 

 have been used as a residence at some time, and a stove has been used in 

 the upper floor. Again, the place seems to have been utilized as a chicken- 

 ranch at no distant period. 



The well was covered over with timber, as it appears in the photograph 

 (Plate II, fig. 2). The bastion shows no signs of having contained any 

 small flanking blockhouse, such as we constructed in Taranaki as late as 

 the " seventies." From the trench outside the bastion a covered drain 

 runs to a stream-channel, evidently designed to carry off storm-waters 

 from the trench. A part of the outer scarp of the trench at the south 

 corner of the bastion has been neatly faced with stones, reminding one of 

 the Koru pa at Oakura. 



No trace of a parapet is seen on the eastern and northern faces of the 

 defence ; the interior of the defended area is level ground, which extends 

 far out on all sides. 



(An outpost of singular form was erected at Taita in 1846, and was 

 occupied by Militia for some time. The following appeared in the Welling- 

 ton Independent at the time : " The troops and native allies in the Hutt 

 have been forming an entrenched camp at Taita, in the shape of two 

 squares connected at an angle of each, and having a communication from 

 one to the other." The main post of that period was Fort Kichmond, at 

 the Bridge, Lower Hutt.) 



The Australian and New Zealand Gazette of the 17th October, 1860, 

 contains the following : " The natives in the Wellington district still con- 

 tinue quiet, but the settlers are, as they ought to be, on the alert. The 



