Lower Hutt, Hutt Valley, Wellington, New Zealand. This is where I live. The home of the Hutt River.
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Showing posts with label New Zealand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Zealand. Show all posts
Monday, May 16, 2011
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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Thursday, May 12, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
These shoes were made for walking - or were they?
Image via WikipediaThese shoes were made for walking - or were they?These shoes were made for walking - or were they?
A ten person tourist party from Malaysia, who turned out to be the largest number of drug couriers ever caught in a single incident at New Zealand's border, literally walked their way into Auckland airport with up to ten kilos of crystal methamphetaimine in their specially designed shoes.
The street value of the drug, known as "P" in New Zealand, is approximately worth a $1 million per kilo here, customs officers said.
http://petesbloggingplace.blog.co.nz/
http://peteskiwiforum.blogspot.com/
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Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Interest already in Avalon studios...
Image via WikipediaInterest already in Avalon Studios...
There's already interest in TVNZ's state of the art Avalon studios in Lower Hutt.
The state broadcaster is moving its Good Morning programme from Avalon to Auckland next year with the loss of 12 jobs, with the intention of quitting and selling the studios by June 2013.
Former Good Morning producer Debra Kelleher says because the studios are so superior, they're attractive to overseas investors.
"I know there are some big internationals that are looking at it currently," she told Newstalk ZB. "I'm working with one of the in particular so sometimes out of these sort of decisions come exciting new relationships."
Lower Hutt mayor Ray Wallace says TVNZ operating from Avalon Studios has been a barrier for potential new businesses but moving its operations out of Avalon opens up new economic opportunities for the city.
"Given that New Zealand is now becoming quite a popular destination for filming, we have an opportunity now to look at new industries coming in from overseas," he told Newstalk ZB. "In fact just yesterday I met with a Bollywood director talking about opportunities of filming here in Lower Hutt."
Mr Wallace says Avalon is an attractive proposition for overseas companies.
TVNZ says it's in early discussions with local and international interests. TVNZ CEO Rick Ellis says TVNZ's need for such large facilities has steadily decreased over the years due to outsourcing of programmes and the declining profitability of big-budget local shows.
Valley Action to hold meeting in Petone, Lower Hutt - NZ not for sale...
Valley Action to hold public meeting in Lower Hutt...
'VAN' – Valley Action Network, in conjunction with the Hutt South Green Party, is proud to host a public meeting in Petone, Lower Hutt, as part of the NZ Not For Sale Campaign (www.nznotforsale.org)
The meeting, featuring visiting speaker Murray Horton, is at 7.45pm on April 19, at the Petone Community House, 6 Britannia St. There are also meetings in other North Island centres this month (details at: http://www.nznotforsale.org/murray-horton-speaking-tour-april-2011-2).
Murray is the spokesperson for the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA). He will be talking about:
* The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the dangers it poses to the NZ economy and to our democracy.
* Privatisation of our public assets.
* The takeover of NZ businesses and land by transnational corporations.
* The re-absorption of NZ into the US Empire.
* And, most, importantly, how the New Zealand people can fight back; it’s too important to be left up to the politicians.
Come along! This issue affects us all.
NZ Not For Sale
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
NZ History - Julius Vogel
Image via WikipediaNZ History - Julius Vogel...
Juius Vogel:
Premier: 8 Apr 1873–6 Jul 1875; 15 Feb–1 Sept 1876
Age on becoming premier: 38
Electorate: Auckland City East
Although he spent just 18 years here, journalist, businessman and politician Julius (Sir Julius from 1874) Vogel dominated our politics. The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography describes our first Jewish premier as ‘vastly ambitious’ and ‘clever, impulsive, generous, strong-willed to the point of being domineering.’ Contemporaries might have been less polite.
A lifelong gambler and speculator, Vogel followed the gold rushes, learning journalism in Victoria in the 1850s. In 1861 he fetched up in Dunedin, where he edited our first daily, the Otago Daily Times. Print, politics and profits were his watchwords.
In Otago, Vogel entered politics. Dunedin knew him as a staunch provincialist, but he switched horses while colonial treasurer for most of the 1869-76 period, appalled by the cost of the New Zealand Wars and the lack of a master plan for developing the colony.
Vogel’s great plan was to borrow heavily to build infrastructure (railways, ports and telegraphs) and to lure migrants. It was controversial, and ended in a recession, but the money and migrants stimulated the economy and created a viable consumer market for producers. Historians still talk about the ‘Vogel era’.
The rapid and cheap acquisition of Maori land was a key part of this policy, and dramatically speeded up the Crown purchase of land. Vogel and his supporters were certain that Maori and settlers would reconcile when the former, and their land, became fully integrated in the European economy.
Vogel, whose love of society, food and wine ruined his health, served as agent-general in London from 1876 to 1880 when he had to resign for spending too much time on his private interests. There was always a whiff of scandal about him, not always attributable to anti-Semitic slurs.
Vogel returned to New Zealand in 1884 and was the heavyweight – literally and metaphorically – in the two Stout-Vogel ministries.
Vogel returned to England in 1888. There he wrote the novel Anno Domini 2000: or Woman’s Destiny, in which women dominated government and poverty had vanished. It enjoyed a brief revival around the turn of the 21st century when women held the positions of sovereign, governor-general, prime minister and leader of the opposition.
Written by Gavin McLean
:
Biography of Julius Vogel:
www.nzhistory.net.nz/people/julius-vogel
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Today in 1965 - Teal became Air New Zealand - no April Fools joke...
Image by caribb via Flickr1965 TEAL becomes Air New Zealand - no April Fools' Joke
On 1 April 1965 Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL), New Zealand’s international air operator, was renamed Air New Zealand Limited. TEAL had been established in 1939, when the New Zealand, United Kingdom and Australian governments agreed to form a new airline company. The British government withdrew from TEAL in October 1953, leaving New Zealand and Australia as joint owners, and the New Zealand government assumed full ownership in April 1961.
In 1947 the New Zealand government established NZ National Airways Corporation (NAC), which was the primary operator of domestic air services in this country. In April 1978 NAC merged with Air New Zealand, becoming its domestic arm. The enlarged Air New Zealand was the first local carrier to offer both international and domestic services.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
John Key the smiling assassin as he sacked hundreds of Merril Lynch employees
Image via WikipediaJohn Key the smiling assassin - as he sacked hundreds of Merril Lynch employees
John Key well remembered as the smiling assassin who sacked hundreds of Merrill Lynch staff, in the days before he entered New Zealand politics and became prime minister. Now he is responsible for sacking thousands of kiwi public servants. Just the type of person you would invite home to meet your mother? Yeah Right!
Key's first job was in 1982, as an auditor at McCulloch Menzies, and he then moved to be a project manager at Christchurch-based clothing manufacturer Lane Walker Rudkin for two years.[7] Key began working as a foreign exchange dealer at Elders Finance in Wellington, and rose to the position of head foreign exchange trader two years later, then moved to Auckland-based Bankers Trust in 1988.
In 1995, he joined Merrill Lynch as head of Asian foreign exchange in Singapore. That same year he was promoted to Merrill's global head of foreign exchange, based in London, where he may have earned around US$2.25 million a year including bonuses, which is about NZ$5 million at 2001 exchange rates. Some co-workers called him "the smiling assassin" for maintaining his usual cheerfulness while sacking dozens (some say hundreds) of staff after heavy losses from the 1998 Russian financial crisis. He was a member of the Foreign Exchange Committee of the New York Federal Reserve Bank from 1999 to 2001.
In 1998, on learning of his interest in pursuing a political career, the National Party president John Slater began working actively to recruit him. Former party leader Jenny Shipley describes him as one of the people she "deliberately sought out and put my head on the line–either privately or publicly–to get them in there".
He doesn't appear to have changed much - now he smiles as thousands of NZ public servants lose their jobs weekly because of his Governments policy to reduce the numbers in the public service, regardless of need.
http://kiwiriverman.blogspot.com
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Proposed mining in the sea around NZ to become a reality in 2012-2013...
Image via WikipediaI have never used this blog as a political blog, but because it does have some New Zealand readership, maybe I should have. But I will discuss proposed mining in the future. The National Government proposed last year some mining in the conservation estate, but it went down like a lead balloon. But I suspect it was a government making policy on the hoof. Kiwis just don't want an irresponsible government such as the present one interfering with our conservation estate.There is an article in one of today's Sunday papers on proposed mining in the sea around New Zealand. So I'm a little mystified as to why the National government attempted unsuccessfully to gain public support for conservation estate mining when its fully aware of the proposal to tap the sunken treasures in the sea in New Zealand's economic zone.
Mining will hopefully commence in 2012 or 2013. There is a wealth of iron, precious metals and phosphates in the vast undersea continent of which New Zealand is just a visible part.
Mining companies from around the world are turning their eyes towards the prospects of the insatiable demand for raw materials from economies such as China to be supplied from New Zealand's economic zone. But NZ companies are in the forefront of that drive to exploit seabed minerals.
'Widespread Energy' hopes to be extracting phosphates from the Chatham Rise late next year, and 'Trans-Tasman Resources' wants to start mining ironsands of the 'Taranaki Basin' in 2013. These initiatives go back to the time of the last Labour administration, and the present Key Government cannot claim any credit for these proposals.
Those companies who are most advanced in their prospecting say they are very close to turning their prospecting permits into mining rights. And thats when a vigourous public debate on the merits, risks and rewards of taking tonnes of ore from the seabed will intensify.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Personal tragedies combined recently...
Image by Getty Images via @daylifePersonal tragedies combined recently...
By Peter Petterson
First published at Qondio:
I recently posted a story about the massive earthquake in my home town of Christchurch, in New Zealand's South Island. I had not been home for fourteen years and the tragedy of not just one earthquake, but two in the last five months had affected me because I still have family down in that previously beautiful city in the Canterbury plains.
The 7.1 magnitude earthquake on September 4 2010, last year, had caused extensive damage in the CBD, the suburbs and out in the countryside. Along the faultline out in the countryside there was a 25 mile long trench-like furrow across the landscape. There were only two serious injuries and no deaths. The earthquake struck in the early hours of the morning when a large proportion of the population were fast asleep in their beds.
But on February 22 2011, just a month ago, a 6.3 earthquake, much shallower than the first and centred on Port Lyttleton occurred a few minutes before 1 pm when people were working, shopping, doing their business in town and the children were at school.The Canterbury Television building appeared to be struck the hardest, had many people coming, going and inside.
Within hours help had arrived from Australia, and from many other countries within the next couple of days. Urban search and rescue experts, police, fire-fighters, medics, doctors and nurses and other experts arrived in the country. The reaction to New Zealand's tragedy from our close neighbours, Australia, had been extraordinary - but New Zealand had previously reacted to Australia's Queensland floods in a similar manner.
The Christchurch Hospital and other small hospitals in the city soon became full, and the Australians set up a couple of field hospitals in nearby parks.
The tragedy played out on world television, and the death toll mounted daily. The accounts of injuries, deaths and rescues were seen on prime time television. At one stage over 200 people were reported missing and the expected death toll was expected to soar well over the 250 mark. But people were found by USAR teams in the CBD buildings and expected toll was revised downwards. It stands at present around the 166 mark - the last figure I received. This will be amended once bodies are identified and become part of death rate statistics, instead of missing persons.
The central CBD area looks like Beirut and out in the suburbs there is extensive damage to homes and buildings and the slimy grey liquefaction that comes out of the ground is everywhere. Slowly but surely they started cleaning up sections and putting the dried silt on the sides of streets to be collected by contractors later.
Electricity, water and sewerage services were cut and slowly restored within days and weeks in the eastern suburbs, There are still many homes without sewerage, and these people have had to rely on portaloos in the streets, and chemical toilets eventually arrived from the US. Many suburban streets have been damaged.
But just a fortnight ago we had our own personal family tragedy when my younger brother, Richard, had a relapse of his cancer. He had previously been cleared of lung cancer, but it spread to his liver and his health deterioated rapidly. Twenty fours hours after I learned of this and had rang him at his home, he died suddenly. The day before he was refused admittance to Christchurch Hospital because it was full of earthquake casualties. He was treated at home and consideration was given to getting him into a hospice next morning. But he didn't last that long.
As a consequence I flew down to Christchurch with my eldest son and daughter. We witnessed at first hand the incredible damage done to my home town, as described above. We were not allowed into the CBD, obviously, but relied on television to be updated on the continuing crisis. We drove around the eastern suburbs and saw the damage for ourselves. We were in Christchurch from the Wednesday morning and flew home to Wellington on the Sunday morning. Whilst we were pleased to meet members of the family we hadn't seen for many years, the occasion was extremely sad and stressful. It has had a profound affect on me personally, but I have continued to witness the tragedy as rescuers searched for eight or nine days in the rubble of the city.
The urban search and rescue experts have gone home now, along with the police, firefighters, doctors, nurses and medics. But just days ago the Japanese earthquake and tsunami struck, a nuclear power plant exploded, and rescue teams that were in NZ went to Japan, including a large contingent from New Zealand.
Today there was a memorial service in Christchurch's large central Hagley Park. Prince William, the Queen's eldest grandson, attended with a number of politicians, including NZ Prime Minister, John Key, and Leader of the Opposition, Phil Goff, dignitaries and entertainers. Personally I believe the memorial service was far too early and ill-timed, because there is a lot of work still necessary to get many families housed after the earthquake and to identify the fatalities. While we have been sobered by the Japanese tragedy, the situation in Christchurch has improved only slightly - many public services are nearly fully restored, excepting for the sewerage which could take some time yet. Most schools have reopened, but there has been extensive damage to many. And the aftershocks continue!
Christchurch will rise up and return from the ashes. Goodbye brother Richard.
http://huttriver.qondio.com
Saturday, March 12, 2011
More names of Christchurch earthquake victims named...
Image via WikipediaMore names of Christchurch earthquake victims named...
Police have released four more names of victims of the February 22 Christchurch earthquake.
They are:
* Siwen Huo, 28, of China;
* Kayo Kanamaru, 19, of Japan;
* Erica Avir Reyes Nora, 20, of the Philippines; and
* Caiying Ye, 27, of China.
This brings the total number of names released to 117.
Earlier today Civil Defence Minister John Carter extended the state of national emergency for a further seven days.
A state of national emergency was first declared on February 23, and extended on March 1 and March 7.
It is expected to continue for several more weeks, Mr Carter said.
"Continuing this declaration means the National Controller remains in control of the functions, duties, and powers of the Civil Defence emergency management groups and group controller. He works in consultation with central government and local authorities, including the mayor, on this massive recovery operation," Mr Carter said.
"It has been nearly three weeks since the earthquake and I am constantly impressed by the willingness of everyone involved in putting Christchurch back together to pull out all stops to ensure people's most urgent needs are met as quickly as they can be."
Under the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002, a state of national emergency can be declared for a maximum of seven days at a time only.
Thousands expected to return
Thousands of people are potentially expected to return to Christchurch in coming weeks, Civil Defence national controller John Hamilton says.
Most of those returning would be due to the fact that 110 schools will reopen tomorrow, rising to 143 by the end of the week - or 88 per cent of schools in Christchurch.
"In addition, by the end of the week 234 early childhood education centres will be open," he said.
This would raise issues around power and water services, he said.
Mr Hamilton said the sewerage system in Christchurch was still fragile and authorities are not sure how they will cope if it rains.
The shortage of portable toilets in the city had been largely remedied by the arrival of another 960 from the United States on Saturday.
"Another 200 will arrive on Tuesday and both lots will be assembled and distributed to the suburbs as soon as possible," Mr Hamilton said.
The suburbs of Avondale, Bromley and Avonside would benefit first from the arrival of another shipment of chemical toilets, boosting the total number to 19,000.
Rob Jamieson of Orion says just 550 customers remain without power in Christchurch outside the CBD.
Access for business owners
Business owners from two of the restricted areas of the central business district (CBD), Zone Four and the Red Zone, would be allowed controlled access to their properties to recover essential items, Mr Hamilton said.
However, he warned that access would return to "zilch" after the recovery time was up. All business owners eligible to re-enter their premises have been contacted.
"We understand business owners will want to retrieve key items but urge them to be patient with us as we work through this complex process," he said, adding that some businesses owners would not be admitted because of safety reasons.
Acknowledgements: - NZ HERALD STAFF, NZPA
Monday, March 7, 2011
NZ governor-general appointment raise head of state question...
Image via Wikipedia Lt General Jerry MateparaeNZ Governor-General appointment raises head of state question
The Republican Movement acknowledges the nomination of Lieutenant General Jerry Mateparae as Governor-General by Prime Minister John Key today. Lt. Gen. Mateparae is a well known and respected New Zealander. He topped a poll in October last year of 1,435 New Zealanders conducted by the Republican Movement to find New Zealand's next Governor-General.
"Yet, his appointment was made in secret and lacked democratic oversight" said Lewis Holden, chair of the Republican Movement.
New Zealand needs a proper elected head of state, not an appointee of the Prime Minister. Lt. Gen. Mateparae is one of many New Zealanders who could fulfil the role and there is no reason why voters or parliament cannot be trusted to elect the best person. The anachronistic system where a hereditary British monarch appoints a local deputy - hand-picked by the Prime Minister - is no longer fit for purpose.
"Cutting ties with the monarchy and becoming a republic will ensure we have a Kiwi, chosen by us, as our head of state. That continues to be the ultimate goal of the Republican Movement" continued Mr Holden.
"It's time for the government to update the process for appointment of the Governor-General to make it more modern, democratic and transparent. The Republican Movement believes, as a minimum, Lt. Gen. Mateparae should be endorsed by a resolution of parliament in the coming weeks before he takes office. This is an important first step in Kiwis claiming ownership of their head of state" concluded Mr Holden.
www.republic.org.nz/media/governor-general-appointment-raises-head-of-state-question
Acknowledgements: www.republic.org.nz
Sunday, February 27, 2011
The Christchurch Earthquake...
A guest post today:
The Christchurch Earthquake:
Hi everyone,
By now you've heard about the massive earthquake that rocked Christchurch soon after mid-day, on Tuesday 22 February. As I write this, the death toll is now 146 and with 200+ missing (many expected to be found - deceased - in several destroyed buildings). Most of central Christchurch is in ruin, with roads damaged; many homes uninhabitable; and water being delivered in by tanker or de-salinated by the NZ Army.
People are mobilising, including an "army" of student volunteers who are going door-to-door, helping to clean up; people forming neighbourhood support groups; and relief groups like the Rangiora Earthquake Express. (For a while, the helicopter pilot was using his own credit card to fill up his chopper, until people rallied behind him and set up a Facebook support network to buy more fuel.)
Firstly, thanks to all our cuzzies from countries like Australia, America, Britain, Japan, Singapore, UK, China, etc, who've come to help. We've had fire-fighters from the LA Fire Department and the Australian Army setting up a field hospital, as well as 300 Aussie police who will be helping our own boys/girls-in-blue to keep an eye on things. You've no idea how important it is to a small country like ours, that we're not forgotten. Great stuff, guys - we owe you a beer or three for that!
Secondly, please be aware of various scams floating around the internet. They usually come as unsolicited emails; requesting donations; and giving a link to a fake charity website. Don't click on it. Aside from losing money to a scammer, they're usually also loaded with dodgy viruses. (One such scam is an email from a parasite calling himself "James McCoy".) That is why this email doesn't contain any links. Sorry - but safer that way and you know this isn't a scam.
Lastly. But don't let that put you off from supporting us by way of a donation. If you do, the safest way is to enter a charity's name directly into Google or other Search Engine, and that will 'point' you to the correct charity. Even a $10 (or whatever currency you use) donation will help.
Some charities are;
* NZ Red Cross
* NZ Salvation Army
* Christchurch City Council mayoral relief fund
* Rangiora Earthquake Express - find them through Facebook. (This is one of my favourites.)
Again, I've not given any links. Using Google is the safest way to find these relief organisation. Be wary of any email that does contain links - they may be dodgy!
Thanks.
Cheers,
- Frank & Sharlene & Freda
-Wellington, New Zealand
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Quake shakes icebergs into Tasman Glacier Lake....
Image via WikipediaQuake shakes icebergs into Tasman Glacier's Lake...
The earthquake that struck Christchurch today was so powerful it caused huge icebergs to break off and cave into the Tasman Lake.
The magnitude 6.3 earthquake shook large icebergs in the Tasman Glacier's Terminal Lake, sending about 30 million tonnes of ice loose, 3news.co.nz reports.
The pieces floated into the lake at Aoraki Mt Cook National Park.
Tourism manager for Aoraki Mt Cook Alpine Village, Denis Callesen, says the quake caused a major calving from the Basal and Terminal Face of the Glacier
“We have procedures to deal with this type of event and for some time have stayed 800m away from the Terminal Face as we suspected it was becoming unstable,” he was quoted as saying.
Passengers aboard two tour boats also felt the disturbance, experiencing waves of up to 3.5m for about 30 minutes.
Tourism manager Denis Callesen told the NZ Herald that the dangers for the passengers could have been worse if not for safety procedures that were put in place.
The calving was the third biggest event in the history of the Terminal Lake, which is now over 6km long and 2km wide in places, after a huge quake.
Acknowledgements: MSN News
Sunday, February 13, 2011
NZ Maori Wars: The Fight at Boulcotts Farm...
Image via WikipediaNew 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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