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Paremata barracks

Historic Fort Paremata, 1846, drawn in 1951 by Arthur Messenger.

The remains of the barracks today.

Near the Mana Cruising Club in Ngatitoa Domain are the remains of the Paremata barracks, a turreted two-storey stone structure built on Governor George Grey’s instructions in 1846.

The site had views over both the entrance to Porirua Harbour and the coastal route north from Wellington. It was the perfect spot from which to disrupt the supply and reinforcement of the ‘rebel’ Maori in Hutt Valley. But by the time the barracks was completed in 1847, there was little strategic need for it. This was just as well, as severe earthquakes in 1848 made the building unusable. The lesson was learned, and plans for future redoubts were less ambitious.

Troops camped beside the barracks, which was surrounded by a stockade, until 1852. Whareaitu (‘Martin Luther’), a Whanganui chief captured at Matai-Taua, was hanged here as a rebel in September 1846.

Credit:

Main image:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: A-173-035
Artist: Messenger, Arthur Herbert, 1877-1962

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image

Other images:

Andy Palmer / Manatū Taonga, 2012

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Taupō pā, Plimmerton

Te Rauparaha's Taupō pā as painted by George Angas in 1844. The pā was behind the beach between where the present-day Plimmerton fire station and the pavilion are located.

As Governor George Grey tightened the screws on Ngāti Toa, Te Rauparaha was captured here soon after dawn on 23 July 1846 by a naval party from HMS Calliope. Held prisoner for two years, on the Calliope and then in Auckland, he died not long after being returned to his people at Ōtaki.

A pou (carved post) commemorating Te Rauparaha’s capture stands outside 5 Motuhara Road, Plimmerton.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: PUBL-0014-48
Artist: Angas, George French, 1822-1886

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image

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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.)

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: A-179-013
Painter: Samuel Charles Brees

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of these images.

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War in Wellington map

This map shows the location of key sites from the 1846 War in Wellington, one of the opening campaigns of the New Zealand Wars. See also our related free app for iPhones and for Android devices

Eight killed in attack on Boulcott Farm

Disagreements over the purchase of land by the New Zealand Company led to a series of skirmishes between local Māori and government forces in the Wellington area in 1845-6.

The prominent Ngāti Toa chief Te Rangihaeata backed local Māori opposed to European settlement in the Hutt Valley. But the actual attack on the British post at Boulcott's Farm was led by Te Mamaku of Ngāti Haua-te-rangi of Whanganui. He and 200 of his warriors had come to the Hutt Valley to support both Te Rangihaeata and kin in the area.

Six soldiers were killed and two more Europeans were mortally wounded. The attack was a demorialising blow to the settler community. An armed patrol in the same area was ambushed a month later with four further fatalities. In July Governor Grey responded by arresting the paramount Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha. Then in mid-August, Te Rangihaeata was forced to flee from Battle Hill, effectively ending Ngāti Toa resistance in the region.

Detail from painting of Boulcott's stockade

Honiana Te Puni NZ Wars memorial

This memorial stands in the Te Puni Street urupā – burial ground – in Petone, a seaside suburb of Lower Hutt City whose correct Māori name (Pito-one) means ‘end of the sand beach’. It commemorates the prominent Te Ātiawa leader Honiana Te Puni’s ‘unbroken friendship’ with Pākehā.

Te Puni belonged to the Ngāti Te Whiti and Ngāti Tawhirikura hapū of Te Ātiawa. He and his younger cousin Te Wharepōuri were among the first to welcome the New Zealand Company ship Tory when it arrived in what would become Port Nicholson (Wellington Harbour) on 20 September 1839.

The first New Zealand Company settler ship, Aurora, arrived at Petone on 22 January 1840. This marked the founding of the settlement that would become Wellington.

Te Puni became a firm friend of the new arrivals. His people built houses for the settlers and supplied food in exchange for European clothing and other goods. Later, he provided military advice and assistance.

Not all Māori were happy with the influx of Europeans to the Wellington region. By 1845 tensions were mounting as Ngāti Toa chief Te Rangihaeata supported local hapu such as Ngāti Rangatahi which opposed European settlement in the Hutt Valley.

On 16 May 1846, Tōpine Te Mamaku of Ngāti Hāua-te-rangi – Ngāti Rangatahi’s Whanganui allies – led a raid on the British military stockade at Boulcott’s Farm, 5 km up the Hutt River from Petone. Six British soldiers were killed and another soldier and a farm worker were mortally wounded.

Two weeks earlier, Te Puni had warned of an impending attack. His offer to assist Major Mathew Richmond if he was supplied with arms and ammunition had been rejected.

After Boulcott’s Farm, however, Te Puni was issued with 100 muskets. He built a stockade between Fort Richmond (Lower Hutt) and Boulcott’s Farm, and strengthened his own pā at Petone.

Skirmishes took place between Te Puni’s men and Ngāti Hāua-te-rangi on 2 June. Although Te Puni did not wish to initiate an attack, he was prepared to assist the Europeans. Te Puni’s son later crossed the Hutt River, occupied a position that had been held by Ngāti Rangatahi, and forced them to retreat without battle.

In July Te Puni’s forces escorted militia and armed police across the western Hutt hills to Pāuatahanui. This action helped to prevent further occupation of the Hutt by Te Rangihaeata and his allies.

Te Puni died on 5 December 1870 and was buried in the family cemetery, the urupā at Petone, on the 9th. The funeral was ‘as great a one as the city [Wellington] could give’. Government offices, banks and commercial houses were closed for the day, and ‘everybody of any consequence, who could possibly make the trip, went out to Petone by sea or road’.

Pallbearers included Native Minister Donald McLean and William Fitzherbert, the local Member of the House of Representatives. The Bishop of Wellington, Octavius Hadfield, read the funeral service and three volleys were fired over Te Puni’s grave by members of the Hutt Volunteers.

This memorial was erected in 1872. The Ōamaru stone was carved by a Mr Membray from a design by Colonial Architect William Clayton.

In December 1907, Te Puni’s monument was described as the ‘saddest feature’ of the ‘forlorn’ urupā at Petone. Within the burial ground, many graves had no markers and long grass covered the area. The memorial itself leant sadly awry, its base tilted. Some rings had been broken from the stone at the top, the entire structure was covered in moss, and the fence railings were rusted.

It is unclear what action was taken, when, and by whom. However, a photograph taken by an Evening Post staffer on 23 January 1940 shows Te Puni’s memorial in better times. A large group surrounds the gravesite shortly after Deputy Prime Minister Walter Nash laid a wreath in memory of the chief to mark Wellington’s centennial.

The urupā in which Te Puni’s memorial stands remains in use, although it is now within an industrial area.

Additional images

See also these 1940 and undated images of the memorial from the Alexander Turnbull Library.

Inscription

Front face
To the memory of / Honiana Te Puni / A Chief of Ngatiawa / who died on the / 5th of December 1870

Side face
This / monument is erected by the / New Zealand government / in consideration of the / unbroken friendship / between him and the Pakeha

Rear face
Ko te Tohu Tenei o / Honiana Te Puni / Rangatira o Ngatiawa / I Mate I Te / 5th Tihema 1870

Side face
Na Te Kawanatanga Oniu / Tireni Tenei Kowhatu I / Whakatu Hei Tohu Mo Te / Piri Pono O Taua Kaumatua / Ki Te Pakeha

Further information

‘Local and General News’, Wellington Independent, 2 February 1872
‘Te Puni. A Petone Chief’, Evening Post, 5 December 1907
Angela Ballara, ‘Te Puni-kokopu, Honiana’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 1 September 2010
James Cowan, ‘Wellington Settlement and Hutt War’ and ‘The Fight at Boulcott’s Farm’, in The New Zealand Wars: a history of the Maori campaigns and the pioneering period: volume I: 1845–1864, R.E. Owen, Wellington, 1955, pp. 88–111
Chris Pugsley, ‘Walking the Wellington Wars: The Hutt War of 1846 and the Fight at Boulcott’s Farm’, New Zealand Defence Quarterly, no. 6 (Spring 1994), pp. 36–41
Louis E. Ward, ‘Death and Burial of Te Puni, 1870’, in Early Wellington, Whitcombe and Tombs, Auckland, 1928, pp. 172–6

Credit:

Images: Margaret Marks, 2009

Text: Karen Cameron

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Hutt Valley NZ war sites map

This map of the Hutt Valley shows the location of stockades and scenes of engagement in 1846. Included on the map are the locations of Fort Richmond and Boulcott’s Farm.

Credit:

Map from James Cowan, The New Zealand Wars vol 1 (NZETC website)

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Fort Richmond near Hutt River

This 1845 painting shows Fort Richmond, beside the Hutt River.

The 58th Regiment occupied the fort not long after it was completed in April 1845. The soldiers shown are militia, civilians identifiable by their mixture of red and blue uniforms.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: B-031-035
Artist: Samuel Charles Brees (1810-1865)

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image

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The fight at Battle Hill

This 1846 painting shows troops advancing up Battle Hill to attack Te Rangihaeata’s men. The pā depicted in this painting bears little resemblance to that described by James Cowan in his history of the New Zealand Wars.

The attack on Te Rangihaeata’s position at Battle Hill began on 6 August 1846 in freezing rain. An assault force of 250 British soldiers was joined by armed militia and police. About 150 Te Āti Awa led by Wiremu Kīngi Te Rangitāke and 100 Ngāti Toa also took part.

A frontal assault was considered but quickly dismissed. The terrain and vegetation prevented a flanking manoeuvre, and thousands of rounds of musket fire made little impression.

On 8 August two small mortars were brought up to about 1 km from the fortification. Many of the 80 shells fired landed in the vicinity of Te Rangihaeata’s position. Reluctant to advance and fearful of a counter-attack, the British decided to withdraw their regular troops.

On the 13th it was discovered that Te Rangihaeata had slipped away under cover of darkness and heavy rain.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: G-525
Artist: George Hyde Page (1823-1908)

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image

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Painting of Boulcott's stockade in the Hutt Valley

This 1846 painting shows Boulcott’s stockade in the Hutt Valley. The farm buildings were rearranged and surrounded by the stockade after the attack in May 1846. The soldiers killed here were buried in the grave in the foreground.

Boulcott's Farm was the most advanced British post in the Hutt Valley, some 20 km from Wellington. It was defended by 50 men of the 58th Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Page.

The attack on Boulcott’s Farm at dawn on 16 May 1846 left six soldiers dead and demoralised the settler community. The attack was led by Te Mamaku of Ngāti Hāua-te-rangi. He had recently arrived with 200 warriors from Whanganui to support Te Rangihaeata and his Ngāti Rangatahi kin.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: B-081-002
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image

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tags:

wellington wars