Maraenuku pā

Brees, Samuel Charles, 1810-1865 : Makaenuku Pa; natives preparing to leave the Hutt. (1845)

Maraenuku pā was in the vicinity of the electricity substation on Connolly Street, Lower Hutt. No trace of it remains. It was built in 1842 by Taringa Kuri (Te Kāeaea) to assert the Ngāti Tama iwi’s claim to the land. For its part, the New Zealand Company claimed to have purchased the land from Te Ātiawa. The pā was destroyed by British troops on 27 February 1846 on the instructions of Governor Grey, who had just ordered the occupation of the disputed land.

Ngāti Tama and their Ngāti Toa allies retaliated with non-violent but destructive raids on Hutt Valley farms. Several hundred destitute settlers took refuge in Wellington. In the next few weeks an advanced party of troops was fired on, and a settler and his young son were killed while working contested land east of the Hutt River. (Their graves are in Bolton Street Cemetery.)