212 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Notes on the History of Marsland Hill. 



During the stirring times and incidents of the early colonial 

 days, especially whilst the interracial wars were in active pro- 

 gress, several localities became noted or remarkable from various 

 causes. 



After the first period of immediate activity and excitement 

 terminated, all thoughts and energies were directed towards 

 settling down and resuming in peace and quietness the previously 

 interrupted pursuits and occupations. Among the actual par- 

 ticipants, the elders who had again turned the sword into the 

 ploughshare willingly and rapidly allowed the " sponge of ob- 

 livion " to wipe from the " slate of memory " the prominence of 

 localities and incidents. Years have rolled on, and now that 

 the second or third generations would like to have a complete 

 history of the doings of those times it is found difficult to obtain 

 reliable information — death and changes of location having re- 

 moved so many of those who were its contemporaries — whilst 

 documentary evidence is scarce, scattered, and meagre in detail. 

 In this relation it is deemed advisable when definite information 

 becomes available to take advantage of the same, and put it on 

 actual record for the benefit of the rising generation and future 

 historians. 



The subject-matter of the present notes — namely, Marsland 

 Hill, but originally called by the Maori inhabitants Pu-kaka — 

 is a prominent hill in the heart of the town, situated immediately 

 at the back of the Anglican Church of St. Mary's, and formerly 

 rising to an altitude of about 220 ft. above sea-level. 



During searches in the strong-room of the District Lands and 

 Survey Office at New Plymouth, a plan, drawn from surveys by 

 one of the Royal Engineer officers, delineating the old stockade, 

 barracks, &c, erected on top of the said hill by Her Majesty's 

 regular forces, was discovered. 



Pu-kaka was an ancient Maori pa, and by oral evidence col- 

 lected from the older Maoris is stated to have been first partly 

 constructed by the Potiki-taua people, a branch of the Taranaki 

 Tribe, for the purpose of resisting a threatened attack from the 

 north. After the Potiki-taua were driven out of this part of 

 Taranaki by the Ngatiawa, these latter completed the works, 

 and occupied for a time this splendid specimen of an old Maori 

 stronghold, as ii existed prior to 1855. There is no account ex- 

 tant of Pu-kaka having been attacked or of its occupants sending 

 parties forth on warlike expeditions, and it lias therefore but 

 little historical record previous to the military occupation in 

 1856. Puke-ariki, or Mount Eliot (also within the boundaries 

 of New Plymouth Town), although of far less commanding posi- 

 tion, seems to have quite overshadowed it in importance as a 



