Lower Hutt, Hutt Valley,Wellington,NZ...

Lower Hutt, Hutt Valley,

Wellington, New Zealand. This is where I live. The home of the Hutt River.

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NZ Maori Wars: The Fight at Boulcotts Farm...

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New Zealand Maori Wars:


The Fight At Boulcotts Farm (present day Lower Hutt)...

TWO MILES ABOVE the stockade at the Hutt Bridge a pioneer settler, Mr. Boulcott, had hewn a home out of the forest. His clearing bordered the left bank of the river; most of it was in grass; the rough edges of the farm were cumbered with half-burned logs and stumps, and on three sides was heavy timber; the fourth side faced the river and the fringing thickets on the other bank; beyond were the wooded steep hills that hemmed in the Hutt Valley on the west. A rough and narrow bush road, “corduroyed” with fern-tree trunks in the marshy portions, wound through the forest from the bridge at the fort; it was little more than a track, and in many places the branches of the rimu and rata met overhead and kept the road in dampness and shadow. Here and there were settlers' clearings, with houses of sawn timber and shingled roofs, or of slabs and nikau palm or raupo reed thatch; crops of wheat, oats, and potatoes were grown in these oases in the desert of bush. Where rows of shops, cottages, and bungalows, with beautiful orchards and gardens, cover the floor of the Hutt Valley to-day, there were but these roughly trimmed forest homes.

The most advanced post of the Regular troops in May, 1846, was on Boulcott's Farm, where fifty men of the 58th Regiment were stationed under Lieutenant G. H. Page. Some little distance higher up the valley, at the Taita, an outpost was established near Mr. Mason's section, where a small detachment of the Hutt Militia was stationed. Half the force of soldiers at Boulcott's were quartered in a large barn, around which a stockade of slabs and small logs had been erected and loopholed for musket-fire. The rest of the troops were accommodated in small slab outhouses near the barn and in tents. Lieutenant Page and his soldier servant occupied Mr. Boulcott's cottage; the owner of the place and his two men servants used a small house adjoining. It was upon this post that the Maoris, under Rangihaeata's orders, and led by Topine te Mamaku (otherwise Te Karamu), of the Ngati-Haua-te-Rangi, Upper Wanganui, made a desperate assault at daybreak on the morning of the 16th May, 1846.

PAGE 105
During the week preceding this attack a general opinion was entertained at the Hutt that some sudden movement was contemplated by Rangihaeata. A naval reconnoitring-party had been fired upon by the hostiles at Paua-taha-nui, and the failure of the authorities to retaliate had, as it proved, emboldened Rangihaeata and his fellow-warriors to launch one of those lightning blows in which the Maori bush fighter delighted. Te Puni's warning and offers of help were disregarded, and even a word of caution from Rauparaha did not seem to stir the Superintendent from his indifference. The Governor was now absent at Auckland (the troublesome Taringa-Kuri had gone with him in the “Driver”). Rauparaha, in a letter received in Wellington some days before the attack, stated that when Major Richmond and Major Last were at Porirua during the previous week he said to them, in bidding them to be on their guard against a sudden attack, “Kei Heretaunga te huaki ai; kia mohio; huihuia atu nga pakeha” (“At Heretaunga the assault will be made. Be wary; concentrate the white men”). As if that were not enough, a chief of the Pipitea pa, Wellington, called on Major Richmond on Friday, the 15th May (the day before the attack), to warn him of the danger and to offer the assistance of his people. But no extra precautions were taken. Maori and settler alike knew that Rangihaeata would strike; the civil and military heads alone seemed blind or indifferent. For economy's sake Major Richmond disbanded the Militia in Wellington, and reduced the company at the Hutt to twenty-five men; this was a few days before the blow fell.*

The fog of early morning enveloped bush and clearing that dawn of Saturday, 16th May; a white band of denser vapour coiling down the valley above the tree-tops showed the course of the silent river. The sentry near the river-bank, in front of the inlying picket's tent, shivered with the chilly touch of the hour that precedes daybreak. As he turned to pace his beat, with musket and fixed bayonet at the slope, his glance feel upon some low bushes seen obscurely through the curling mist a few yards to his front. They seemed nearer, he thought, than they had been PAGE 106 a few moments before. Next instant he caught a glimpse of a shaggy head and a gun-barrel above one of those bushes. The Maoris were creeping up on the camp, with bushes and branches of scrub held before them as screens. “Maoris!” he yelled as he levelled his “Brown Bess” and fired, then snatched another cartridge from his pouch and ran to the picket tent, trying to reload as he ran, but was overtaken and tomahawked.

A volley was delivered from fifty Maori guns. The Maoris fired low, to rake the floor of the tents. A second volley; another from a different flank; then on came the enemy with the tomahawk. Not a soldier of the picket escaped. Those who were not killed by the volley fell to the short-handled patiti. In and about the picket tent four soldiers lay dead. One of these was William Allen, whose name will be remembered so long as the story of Boulcott's Farm is told. Allen was a tall, young soldier; he was bugler to his company. When the sentry's shot was heard he leaped up, seized his bugle, and, running outside the tent, he put the bugle to his lips to blow the alarm. In the act of sounding the call he was attacked by a Maori, who tomahawked him in the right shoulder, nearly severing his arm, and felled him to the ground. Struggling to rise, the brave lad seized the bugle with his left hand and again attempted to warn his comrades, but a second blow with the tomahawk, this time in the head, killed him. The bugler's call was not needed, however, for the whole camp had been awakened by the sentry's shot and the answering volleys.

The garrison of Boulcott's, now reduced to forty-four or forty-five men, was confronted by quite two hundred warriors—Rangihaeata's band and Te Mamaku's musketeers from the Upper Wanganui. Lieutenant Page's house was surrounded by the Maoris in a very few moments after the destruction of the picket. Page, on the first alarm, had snatched up his sword and loaded pistol, and rushed out with two men, but was confronted by scores of the natives. Driven back into the cottage, the three sallied out again, and joined by several soldiers from one of the sheds, they fought their way to the barn, firing at close quarters at their foes, who attempted to charge in upon them with the tomahawk. The party of men in the barn, three sections, each under a sergeant, fought their post well and successfully, taking turns in firing through the light stockade and in returning to the shelter of the building to reload.

The Maoris evidently had calculated on completely surprising the troops; but what they did not accurately estimate was the steadiness of disciplined Regular troops. Lieutenant Page, having hacked and shot his way to the stockade, assembled his men, and, leaving a small party to hold the fort, came out into the open PAGE 107

From a water-colour drawing by Lieutenant G. H. Page (58th Regt.) 1846]
Boulcott's Farm Stockade, on the Hutt (above article).

The graves of the soldiers killed here are shown in the foreground. The stockade was enlarged and the buildings grouped as shown here after the fight.

PAGE 108 again and boldly attacked his antagonists. Extending the men in skirmishing order, with fixed bayonets, he advanced. In the height of the engagement a party of seven of the Hutt Militia, who had been disbanded on the previous Monday, but who fortunately retained their arms, came gallantly to the assistance of the hard-pressed troops, and fought side by side with the redcoats. Their arrival was the turning-point in the fight. The rebels, seeing these Militia men dash into the battle, began to retire, and at last were driven across the Hutt, after an engagement lasting about an hour and a half. The Maoris formed up on the west side and danced a war-dance. Page estimated their numbers at about two hundred.
A little later that morning John Cudby, then a youth of seventeen, who was engaged in carting commissariat from Wellington to the troops at Boulcott's Farm (for Mr. W. B. Rhodes, the contractor for supplying rations), harnessed up in the yard of the “Aglionby Arms,” Burcham's Hotel, near the bridge stockade, and drove out into the bush for the front, unaware of the fight which had just been waged a short two miles away. In this duty it was the practice of Cudby and the other carters to bring out their loads along the beach road as far as Burcham's in the afternoon, stay there that night, and go on to Boulcott's Farm on the Taita in the morning. Cudby had previously had the protection of an escort of fifteen men under a non-commissioned officer, but, to use his own words, “the poor fellows at the stockade were worked to death, and so I said I'd do without them in the future.” His sole companion henceforth was a clerk, the military issuer. A double-barrel gun loaded with slugs was carried in the cart, but it never became necessary to use it. (This gun was the means of depriving Cudby of his left arm a few months later in Wellington; one of the barrels accidentally exploded, the charge shattering the lad's hand and necessitating amputation of the arm at the elbow.) The carter and his companion were in the middle of the bush, jolting over the boggy “corduroy” patches of road, when they were met by two men in a cart driving furiously from the camp. One of them shouted: “Go back boy, go back! The Maoris have attacked the camp!”

But Cudby did not turn his team. “I dursen't go back,” he cried in his broad English dialect, “I dursen't go back; I've got the rations to deliver.”

The two carters whipped up their horse and hurried on toward Fort Richmond, while Cudby, in fear every moment of receiving a volley from ambush in the dark timber that almost overhung him, but resolved to fulfil his duty, drove on to Boulcott's. When he arrived at the camp he saw laid out in the barn six dead bodies, the soldiers who had fallen; one of them was Bugler Allen, whom PAGE 109 he knew. It was Cudby who, later in the day, took the bodies in his cart to a spot on the river-bank where they were temporarily buried—a place since washed away by floods.

Meanwhile bodies of troops despatched by Major Last—who had been informed of the attack by messenger from the front—were on the march out from Thorndon barracks and the Hutt stockade to reinforce the camp. These troops reinforcing Page drove the Maoris into the bush and silenced them.

Six whites lay dead, and four were severely wounded. Two of the wounded, Sergeant E. Ingram and a civilian named Thomas Hoseman, an employee of Mr Boulcott, died some days later. The losses of the Maoris were not accurately known, for all who fell were carried off, but two were seen shot dead, and ten or more were wounded, some of them severely.

Now the authorities, civil and military, were compelled by the pressure of public opinion to accept Te Puni's generous offer to arm his Ngati-Awa men for the campaign. A hundred stand of arms were supplied to the hapus at Pito-one, and the men at the town pas were also given muskets. Mr. David Scott, a colonist who understood the Maoris and their ways, was appointed to act as the European staff officer of the native contingent, co-operating with the chiefs Te Puni, Wi Tako Ngatata, and other tribal heads. The quality of the arms supplied the natives for their guerilla work was poor—so poor that many of the guns were unfit for use, and the ammunition had become wet and unserviceable. These friendly Maoris, however, made no delay in taking the field. Their total numbers were about two hundred and fifty; most of these assembled at Pito-one two or three days after the fight, and then marched out to a position between Fort Richmond and Boulcott's, where they built a temporary kainga.

The olden battle-ground is now the golfers' links. Boulcott's homestead of 1846 (Section 46/111) was close to the spot where the Lower Hutt Golf Club's house now stands. The frequent floods and the repeated changes of the river's course have considerably altered the original contour of the place, and the actual site of the stockade has been transformed to a gorse-covered waste of gravel.

The citizens appealed for arms. Muskets, accoutrements, and ammunition were served out to a large number of men, who were sworn in as Volunteers. The residents of Te Aro formed a Volunteer Corps a hundred and fifty strong, under Mr. Edward Daniell as captain, Mr. Kenneth Bethune as lieutenant, and Mr. G. D. Monteith as ensign. Nightly patrols were established to guard against an expected attack on the town, and strong lines of pickets of the Regulars, Volunteers, and Militia encircled the PAGE 110 town and patrolled the outskirts. Captain Stanley landed seventy “Calliope” sailors to assist in the event of a hostile visit.

On the 15th June the Maoris killed with the tomahawk another settler, Richard Rush, near the present Lower Hutt Railway-station.

On the 16th June a composite force marched out from Boulcott's Farm on a reconnaissance towards the Taita district and the stretch of the Hutt River near that post. The object of Captain Reed, in command, was to acquaint himself with the tracks in the neighbourhood of the Taita and the fords across the river, and also to ascertain the position of the Maoris, who were believed to be in the vicinity. The force consisted of about fifty Regular troops, nine of the Hutt Militia, and fifteen Ngati-Awa Maoris. The main body of the Ngati-Awa, under Te Puni, meanwhile remained in their camp near the stockade. The track to the Taita was narrow and wet; the high jungle bush was on both flanks. When within about half a mile of the outpost at the Taita (which was two miles from Boulcott's Farm) the advance-guard emerged upon a new clearing, most of it a mass of fallen trees, forming perfect cover for an ambush. As the clearing was entered one of the Ngati-Awa men in the advance mounted a log to obtain a view of the surrounding felled timber and the track ahead. Just below him he saw some armed natives crouching. Firing his musket and shouting an alarm, he leaped down from the log and threw himself flat on his face on the ground. A volley followed instantly, delivered at about fifteen paces from behind the logs on the left flank of the road. The Ngati-Awa scouts and advance-guard, from cover on the same side of the track as the enemy, returned the fire; and the white troops, extending in skirmishing order, held the cover on the right flank of the road. Presently it was discovered that they were being outflanked, and a retirement was found necessary. The column fell back in good order on Boulcott's, carrying several wounded men.

Lieutenant Herbert was wounded. Half-way to the stockade the force was met by a relieving body headed by the subaltern in charge of the post and by Te Puni with a hundred men. The senior officer directed the subaltern to form an advance-guard in the direction of Boulcott's, and the stockade was reached at dark. The combined Ngati-Awa force, after seeing their white comrades into camp in safety, doubled back towards the scene of the action. Some of the enemy had gone; the others were busying themselves in digging up potatoes from one end of the clearing—it was partly for this purpose that they had crossed the river that day. Te Puni and his active fellows engaged those still on the ground, and the skirmish resulted in the withdrawal PAGE 111 of the rebels, who recrossed the river near the Taita and took to the safety of the bush on the western hills.

In the meantime the Hutt Militiamen stationed at the Taita post—a small blockhouse surrounded by a stockade—had heard the sound of the battle in the bush, and had engaged in a brisk little skirmish of their own. Ensign White left the stockade with a sergeant and twelve men; and advanced in the direction of the firing. The little party of Militia came under fire very soon after they had entered the bush. They replied to the Maoris with coolness and skill, taking cover behind trees and fallen timber, and continued the engagement for more than an hour. At last, realizing that his detachment was in danger of being outflanked and surrounded by a superior force of the enemy—many of whom were armed with double-barrel guns—Mr. White withdrew to the stockade.

Mr. Peter Speedy, of Belmont, Lower Hutt, who was born in Wellington in 1842, informs me that the Belmont Creek, which runs out through his property, was an old war-track of the Maoris between the Heretaunga and the Porirua districts. The trail led up the rocky bed of the creek for about half a mile to a place where the stream forked; thence there was an ascent up a steep and narrow forested spur. The natives had cleared a part of this ridge, which was only a few yards wide, and when Speedy was bushfelling there many years after the war he found the remains of huts which had been roofed with totara bark, also stones used in the earth-ovens, a rusted bayonet, a musket-barrel, and other relics of 1846. The lofty ridge was an excellent position for defence, and it had evidently been used as a temporary pa in the war-days. The ground falls precipitously away for several hundreds of feet on either side into the canyon-like valleys. It was no doubt by this route that the war-party descended on Boulcott's Farm in May, 1846; and it was this track also that the Militia and friendly natives took in the march to Paua-taha-nui. The track entered the gorge very close to the spot where the Belmont Railway-station now stands. The Maori name of the range in rear of Belmont is Te Raho-o-te-Kapowai.

Another Porirua war-track ascended the hills on the west side of the Hutt about a mile lower down the valley, not far from the present railway-station of Melling; it trended across the hills on the northern side of the peak called Pokai-mangumangu. When the Hon. Dr. Maui Pomare was clearing the site for his present home overlooking the Hutt he discovered the remains of an old Maori camp on a wooded terrace commanding a wide view over the valley. The track was up the adjacent spur near Mr. B. M. Wilson's house.


Acknowledgements:

* The Hon. Dr. Pomare, M.P., narrates an incident illustrative of the insurgents' strategy. His informant was old Tungia, of Ngati-Toa. A day or two before the attack on Boulcott's Farm either Rangihaeata or Te Mamaku sent a scout up to the Tinakori Range, near the present wireless station. Here the man lit a large fire, and he employed the earlier part of the night in walking round and round this fire with the idea of giving any watchers below the impression that a large force of warriors was gathered there to descend on Wellington, and so diverting attention from the Hutt. A considerable part of the British force at the Hutt was presently ordered into the town, and was in Thorndon barracks when Te Mamaku descended on the post at Boulcott's.

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We are all proud of our Pride now over in the Melbourne Storm...

I have posted a number of stories about our young grandson and  up-and-coming rugby league player  Pride Petterson-Robati from the Hutt Valley in Wellington, New Zealand.

Pride was signed up by the Storm for six years after a bootcamp in Wainuiomata, Lower Hutt a year ago. He went over to Melbourne for a couple of training sessions last year, before finally going back and signing that contract for another five years.

I wrote about the teams Pride played for  last year, 2010: His local Upper Hutt Tigers U15's who won their grade; the Wellington Orcas U15's who came second in their national competitiion; the Upper Hutt College rugby league team who won their secondary schools rugby league team for the third consecutive year. He played in an U17 Maori tournament  early in the year and was named in a tournament team. He was also named in the NZ Merit team, a non-playing side for those not eligible in the Junior Kiwis.

He messaged me this morning to tell me that he had been selected in the Melbourne Storm U18 starting lineup, as a second row/lock. They have just finished a three day camp there. We have to remember that he is only 15 years old and competing with youths up to 18 years old. I'm sure he'll grab that No 13 position as his own in due course.

He didn't tell me when he would be playing, but it will be a pre-season game somewhere. Good luck for the rest of the season, and continue your development there, Pride. We know your ambition is to play first grade football with the Storm and international football  for the NZ Kiwis.

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The Pride of the Hutt Valley - and the Melbourne Storm...

The Pride of the Hutt Valley - and the Melbourne Storm NRL club... By Peter Petterson First published at Qondio: The photographs attached are of my 15 year old grandson, Pride Petterson - Robati, from the Hutt Valley in Wellington, New Zealand. who has been signed up for a six year contract with the Melbourne Storm NRL professional rugby league club in Melbourne, part of the Australian National Rugby League competition. The talented rugby league player has had a great season locally. His Upper Hutt Tigers club Under 15 side won their competition. His Wellington Orcas U15 rep side finished second in the national competition. He was top try scorer and points scorer. Once this competition was completed, he was called into his Upper Hutt College school team for the play-offs of the Wellington Secondary Schools competition. They won the final for the third successive year. Last year Pride competed in school athletic events, being placed in the Wellington representative shot put and javelin finals. He was awarded the Top Sportsmen of the Year award at Upper Hutt College, and was a member of the champion rugby league team as well, at the age of 14 years. He was discovered by the Melbourne Storm at a bootcamp trial in Lower Hutt late in 2009. He has competed at the provincial level in rugby league for many years. He was also nominated in the NZ Merit Team this year. This is a non-playing side to recognise those players not eligible for The New Zealand Junior Kiwis rugby league team. Pride is a very modest young man who is a dedicated player and trainer. His fitness is unparalled by other players of his age grade. His manager described him as the best player of his age in New Zealand. Obviously the Melbourne Storm thinks so very highly of him to contract him for so many years - an investment for the future. He is a tall, powerfully built, extremely fit young footballer of huge potential. Playing football is only half of the deal; young players also have to prepare for life after football. The Melbourne Storm will finance Pride through one of the top schools in Melbourne during 2011, to do an accountancy course. He actually did well at school back in New Zealand during 2010. He will live with a local family, will be paid living expences and an allowance in future dependant on his age and playing grade. He will be flown back to his family regularly. He is at present on holiday leave with the club - returning to Melbourne on Jan 10 2011. Barring injuries and unexpected circumstances, this young man should be ready for the top level in about five years. We all wish him luck. The Pride of his family, his friends his football club and his country. He is and will for ever remain our little Pride. Good luck! Contributor's NoteWe are extremely proud of this young man with such huge potential.

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Nature's fury - massive storm hit New Zealand yesterday...

Image via Wikipedia The huge storm hitting New Zealand is already causing chaos for emergency services in the Hutt Valley north of Wellington.


The power is out, trees and sheds are on fire and more than 100 lightning strikes have been recorded in the Hutt Valley and Kapiti Coast in the past two hours, according to media reports.



New Zealanders are being warned to brace for the storm, which the New Zealand Herald described as "one of the biggest storms on the planet".



The worst of the storm has hit on the West Coast and Southern Alps where heavy rain is falling, with snow down to 200 metres in places.



Visit the New Zealand Transport agency for updates on road conditions.





Tasman Storm Sparks Concerns


Later this afternoon a storm front is expected to hit entire the North Island.


Heavy rain and winds of up to 130km/h are expected.



The wild weather is expected to bring extreme conditions over the next 48 hours.



New Zealanders are being warned to stay away from the beaches as the storm hits

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Red Ruler has won the 2010 running of the Wellington Cup at Trentham in the Hutt Valley...

Red Ruler has won the 2010 running of the Wellington Cup at Trentham in the Hutt Valley...






Red Ruler, a five year old gelding, has just won the Wellington Galloping Cup at Trentham Racecourse in the Hutt Valley, just a few miles outside of Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. It was a fine riding performance by South African born jockey, Mark Du Plessis, and a great staying performance by the horse who had been eased behind the pacemakers, and finished with a powerful sprint to win the 2400 metre event going away. He is undoubtably the best stayer racing in New Zealand at present. He won the lead up race a week ago, and the City of Auckland Cup over a similar distance at New Years. The horse has also raced in Australia with distinction.
While this race has undoubtably been the premier staying event in New Zealand for decades, despite Auckland having higher stakes and the glitz and glamour of being our biggest city, and having an inferior race track as well, the Wellington Cup was inexplicably reduced in distance to 2400 metres and downgraded to Group Two last year, 2009. This will have detrimental effects on NZ racing as well, considering Auckland decided to transfer its cup meeting to March in the autumn a few years ago. Its obvious that North Island racing clubs don't really understand the historical significance of time honoured races, something the Christchurch, and other South Island clubs undoubtably do.

In my humble opinion, as somebody who has followed racing closely in this area for forty years, the Wellington Cup run over 3200 metres was second only to the Melbourne Cup, raced at Flemington in Melbourne, Austraia.

As fine clothes don't necessarily make the man, higher stakes don't necessarily make a race superior to one with lower stakes. That has been proven time and time again!

The Hutt River flows down the Hutt Valley to Wellington Harbour...

The Hutt River flows through the southern North Island of New Zealand. It flows south-west from the southern Tararua Ranges for 56 km, forming a number of fertile floodplains, including Kaitoke, central Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt.

The headwaters in the Kaitoke Regional Park are closed to preserve the quality of the drinking water drawn off at Kaitoke to supply the greater Wellington area. Below Kaitoke is the Kaitoke gorge, a popular destination for Rafting. Below the gorge is Te Marua, where the Mangaroa River joins the Hutt from the east. Further down, just above of the Upper Hutt floodplain, the Akatarawa River joins the Hutt from the west. The Upper Hutt floodplain contains the greater potion of Upper Hutt city. At this point the river starts to flow along a virtually straight geologic fault. At the lower end of the Upper Hutt floodplain is Taita Gorge, which separates Upper Hutt from Lower Hutt, this gorge is significantly shorter and less constricting than Kaitoke gorge. The river's outflow, at Petone, is into Wellington harbour. The geological fault which the river previously followed continues as a steep bluff at the edge of the Wellington Harbour.

For most of its length, the Hutt is a shallow and sometimes braided river in a wide rocky bed, but in the Kaitoke gorge the river flows directly over bedrock and approaching the mouth at Petone the river is narrower and the banks steeper. The larger populated areas in Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt are protected from flooding by stopbanks and introduced willow trees, as is common in New Zealand. The regular flooding of Lower Hutt resulted in high fertility land and prior to the building of state housing by the Labour Government starting in 1937, there were many market gardens in Lower Hutt.

The Hutt has moved significantly since European settlement, due to a major earthquake. The pre-earthquake river emptied into the Pauatahanui Inlet (an arm of Porirua Harbour on the west coast). Pauatahanui Inlet is now slowly silting up.

State highway two follows the course of the river for most of its length, with the exception of the Kaitoke gorge and the head waters, before crossing the Rimutaka Ranges into the Wairarapa.

The Hutt River in photos

Hutt Valley DHB mental health reorganisation...

Re the Hutt News article concerning the reorganisation of HVH Maori Mental Health:

The Maori and Pacifica mental health unit will be disbanded through the reorganisation of mental health at the Hutt Valley Health Board.

We have had a family member being treated there for over 18 months now. We had him transfered when we became disillusioned with the mainstream Mental Health Unit at Hutt Valley DHB. Actually we have been considering having him transfered back again because we have not been happy with his treatment at the Maori Mental Health Unit.

Claims that this decision by HVDHB is rascist and an attempt at assimilation is wrong, insulting and rather stupid in my opinion. I don't believe the Maori Mental health Unit has been successful in recent times at servicing the needs of Maori and Pacifica patients; and they are patients not clients. I think it has been through overwork and staff shortages, not through any lack of ability. Some of the doctors and staff have been quite brilliant at what they do, when they are able to do so!

Lets face it, mental health has been the poor relation in the health sector for a few decades now. To give them more money is philosophically seen as taking money away from mainstream health. Which in itself is totally stupid. The National Party is probably worse than the Labour Party who has been bad enough. To be fair National closes units and department down and Labour doesn't know how to respond!

The general philosophy is these days that all patients should be out in the community - but this is as wrong as sending them all off to Porirua Hospital, and filling them up with strong medication and electric shock treatment.

There is a need for a balance because patients can get into a psychiatric unit at a public hospital only if they are considered as a danger to themselves or others! It can take weeks sometimes to get somebody admitted to the unit at Hutt Hospital - we know because we have been in that situation with our family member. Going up the wall and barking like a dog is not necessarily a good reason for getting admitted. Yeah right!

Hopefully the reorganisation of mental health at the Hutt Valley DHB will be in the best interests of all patients regardless or ethnicity. Those who claim racism, should pull their heads in. If we are not happyat the changes, we can again criticise those responsible. Quite frankly there should be reform at a national level. Can you see it? Yeah right!

A geographical and historical meander around the Hutt Valley, Wellington, NZ...

A geographical and historical meander around the Hutt Valley,Wellington, New Zealand...

First published at Qassia:

The Hutt Valley is the large area of fairly flat land in the Hutt River valley in the Wellington region of New Zealand. Like the river that flows through it, it takes its name from Sir William Hutt, a director of the New Zealand Company in early colonial New Zealand.

The river flows roughly along the course of an active geologic fault, which continues to the south to become the main instrument responsible for the uplift of the South Island's Southern Alps. For this reason, the land rises abruptly to the west of the river; to the east two floodplains have developed. The higher of these is between 15 and 22 km from the mouth of the river. Beyond this, the river is briefly confined by a steep-sided gorge near Taita (aptly pronounced "tighter"), before the land opens up into a long triangular plain close to the outflow into Wellington Harbour.

The lower valley contains the city of Lower Hutt, administered by Hutt City Council, while the adjacent, larger but less populous city of Upper Hutt has its centre on the smaller plain above the Taita Gorge. The valley forms a major dormitory suburban area for Wellington, and is a location for manufacturing and heavy industry, educational and recreational facilities, and the region's motor camps.

Petone, now part of Lower Hutt City, on the Wellington Harbour shoreline, was proposed as the initial site for the settlement of Wellington by the Wellington Company. However, as the chosen site was soon seen to be prone to river flooding, early settlement was relocated to Wellington. A small settlement remained at the Petone site as the whole valley was believed to be well suited as farm land.

In 1846 there was fighting between Māori tribes and the Government, known as the Hutt Valley Campaign.

Almost the whole valley was clearfelled and converted to pasture or market gardens before the urbanisation of the 20th century. A small remnant of the early podocarp forest is preserved in Barton's Bush in Upper Hutt.


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