, showing the stepped nature and the wood
palisades. and settlers in a pā whakairo (carved pā) in
Hawke's Bay Province. Their main defence was the use of earth ramparts (or terraced hillsides), topped with stakes or wicker barriers. The historically later versions were constructed by people who were fighting with muskets and melee weapons (such as
spears,
taiaha and
mere) against the
British Army and armed
constables, who were equipped with swords, rifles, and heavy artillery such as
howitzers and
rocket artillery. Simpler gunfighter pā of the post contact period could be put in place in very limited time scales, sometimes two to fifteen days, but the more complex classic constructions took months of hard labour, and were often rebuilt and improved over many years. The normal methods of attacking a classic pā were firstly the surprise attack at night when defences were not routinely manned. The second was the siege which involved less fighting and results depended on who had the better food resources. The third was to use a device called a
Rou – a half-metre length of strong wood attached to a stout length of rope made from
raupō leaves. The Rou was slipped over the palisade and then pulled by a team of toa until the wall fell. Gunfighter pā could resist bombardment for days with limited casualties although the psychological impact of shelling usually drove out defenders if attackers were patient and had enough ammunition. Some historians have wrongly credited Māori with inventing trench warfare with its associated variety of earth works for protection. Serious military earth works were first recorded in use by French military engineers in the 1700s and were used extensively at
Crimea and in the
US Civil War. Māori's undoubted skill at constructing earthworks evolved from their skill at building traditional pā which, by the late 18th century, involved considerable earthworks to create rua (food storage pits), ditches, earth ramparts and multiple terraces.
Gunfighter pā Warrior chiefs like
Te Ruki Kawiti realised that these properties were a good counter to the greater firepower of the British. With that in mind, they sometimes built pā purposefully as a defensive fortification, like at
Ruapekapeka, a new pā constructed specifically to draw the British away, instead of protecting a specific site or place of habitation like more traditional classic pā. At the
Battle of Ruapekapeka the British suffered 45 casualties against only 30 amongst the Māori. The British learned from earlier mistakes and listened to their Māori
allies. The pā was subjected to two weeks of bombardment before being successfully attacked.
Hōne Heke won the battle and "he carried his point", with the Crown never tried to resurrect the flagstaff at
Kororareka while Kawiti lived. Afterwards, British engineers twice surveyed the fortifications, produced a scale model and tabled the plans in the
House of Commons. The fortifications of such a purpose-built pā included palisades of hard
pūriri trunks sunk about 1.5m in the ground and split timber, with bundles of protective
flax padding in the later gunfighter pā, the two lines of palisade covering a firing trench with individual pits, while more defenders could use the second palisade to fire over the heads of the first below. Simple communication trenches or tunnels were also built to connect the various parts, as found at
Ōhaeawai Pā or Ruapekapeka. The forts could even include underground bunkers, protected by a deep layer of earth over wooden beams, which sheltered the inhabitants during periods of heavy shelling by artillery. In Māori tradition a pā would also be abandoned if a chief was killed or if some calamity took place that a
tohunga (witch doctor) had attributed to an evil spirit (atua). In the 1860s, Māori, though nominally Christian, still followed aspects of their
tikanga at the same time. Normally, once the kūmara had been harvested in March–April and placed in storage the inhabitants could lead a more itinerant lifestyle, trading, or harvesting gathering other foodstuffs needed for winter but this did not stop war taking place outside this time frame if the desire for utu or payback was great. To Māori, summer was the normal fighting season and this put them at a huge disadvantage in conflicts with the British Army with its well-organised logistics train which could fight efficiently year round.
Swamp pā Fox noted that lake pā were quite common inland in places such as the
Waikato. Frequently they appear to have been constructed for whānau (extended family) size groups. The topography was often flat, although a headland or spur location was favoured. The lake frontage was usually protected with a single row of palisades but the landward boundary was protected by a double row. Mangakaware swamp pā, Waikato, had an area of about 3,400 m2. There were 137 palisade post holes identified. The likely total number of posts was about 500. It contained eight buildings within the palisades, six of which have been identified as whare, the largest of which was 2.4 m x 6 m. One building was possibly a cooking shelter and the last a large storehouse. There was one rectangular structure, 1.5 m x 3 m, just outside the swampside palisades which was most likely either a drying rack or storehouse. Swamps and lakes provided eels, ducks,
weka (swamp hen) and in some cases fish. The largest of this type was found at
Lake Ngāroto, Waikato, the ancient settlement of the Ngāti Apakura, very close to the
battle of Hingakaka. This was a built on a much larger scale. Large numbers of carved wooden artefacts were found preserved in the peat. These are on display at the nearby
Te Awamutu museum.
Kaiapoi north of Christchurch is a well-known example of a pā using swamp as a key part of its defence. South of Christchurch the settlement of
Taumutu on the western shore of
Lake Ellesmere / Te Waihora was sited defensively on a peninsula of dry land surrounded by swamp, but the subsequent lowering of the lake level drained the wetlands and the pā eroded into the sea. ==Examples==