90 THE MAORIE WAR. 



looking- the town is memorable as the site of the 

 flag-staff^ the cutting- down of which h}^ Heke was 

 one of the first incidents of the Maorie war. On 

 March 11 th^ 1845^ an attack was made upon the 

 place before daylig-ht^ by three of the disaffected 

 chiefs. Kawiti with one division entered the town 

 from the southward by a pass between two hills, and 

 after a short conflict forced a party of marines and 

 seamen from H.M.S. Hazard to retire with the loss 

 of seven killed and many wounded. While this 

 work was g'oing- on^ a small detachment of soldiers 

 occup^^ing* a blockhouse on the flagstaff hill was 

 surprised by Heke and his party, who killed four 

 men, and drove away the remainder, and levelled 

 the flagstaff to the ground. The English residents 

 took refuge on board the shipping, and two days 

 afterwards the Maories sacked and burned the town 

 with the exception of the two churches, and a few 

 houses contiguous to the property of the Roman 

 Catholic Mission. 



The greater part of the country about the town 

 is covered with fern and the inanuka bush [Leptos- 

 j)ermum seojmrium), — the latter a low shrub with 

 handsome white or pinkish flowers. In some of 

 the ravines two species of tree-ferns of the genus 

 Cyatliea grow luxuriantly in the moist clayey soil. 

 Every where one sees common English weeds scat- 

 tered about, especially the sow-thistle and common 

 dock, and a British land shell [Helix cellaria) has 

 even found its way to New Zealand and is to be met 

 with in some of the gardens. 



