THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION 
377 
of the creek, about 80 feet high and very steep. The guns were hauled up 
to the top of this, piecemeal, with tackle; and although they met with very 
rough usage in being thus hauled up, no damage was done to them. 
Three round spars about 5 feet long and 3 inches in diameter were carried 
with each subdivision, and were most useful in all cases when the guns had 
to be taken to pieces. One of these spars inserted in the muzzle, another in 
the breech, and the third lashed across the trunnions, enabled a few gunners 
to carry the guns wherever they were required, particularly when they had 
to be mounted inside redoubts, the entrances to which were~ generally so 
narrow that the guns had to be taken to pieces in order to be mounted 
inside. Handspikes were found to be not of sufficient strength to bear the 
weight of the guns. 
The gunners were now employed in assisting to build the redoubts and 
in otherwise fortifying the position on the Koheroa heights. 
About the end of July a night march was made to some native settle¬ 
ments about 15 miles from Koheroa, wffiere a large body of natives were 
reported to be located. The track was not well known, and no wheeled 
conveyances had ever before travelled on it. Two 12-pr. Armstrong’s, 
drawn by bullocks and carrying several fascines and planks for bridge 
making purposes, accompanied the force, which started at about 9.30 p.m. 
The night was very dark and the track so narrow and slippery that, when 
about three miles from camp, one gun upset down the side of a steep ridge; 
it was, after some difficulty, brought up again on the track and, one 
wheel having been broken, the gun was left behind with an escort, and 
as soon as a second wheel was brought from camp* the gun returned to 
Koheroa. In several places the bullocks had to be taken out and the guns 
drawn by hand. The other gun continued with the column, which, finding 
the natives had left their settlements and retired to the bush, returned to 
Koheroa the following day. 
In the beginning of August 1863, another position having been taken up 
at Whangamarino about six miles south of Koheroa, the gunners were 
employed in making the track to it practicable for artillery. When that 
was finished, the two 12-pr. Armstrong’s were brought up and put in position 
near a stockade which was built for the troops on a height overlooking the 
Whangamarino and Waikato rivers. 
Beyond the former river was a swamp, impassable at this time of the year, 
and the natives had collected in large numbers at the other extremity of the 
swamp, and had built entrenchments to oppose the further progress of the 
troops. 
The distance from the guns to the native entrenchments at Mere-mere was 
about 2000 yards. 
It was found necessary that the attack on these works should be made 
from the river, and while a steamer and boats were being built for this 
purpose, the artillery were ordered to annoy the natives as much as possible 
by firing at any large bodies of them that appeared, and at the canoes which 
brought their provisions down the river. Another 12-pr. Armstrong was 
* The only way of getting a spare wheel along the track was found to he, by running it along on 
a tent pole which was passed through the nave. 
