Outworks

Although outworks were common in the case of forts constructed after the use of firearms became general, yet they do not appear to have been used to any notable extent in pre-gun days. Occasionally we see a small detached earthwork or trench near an old fort, as across the summit of a narrow ridge giving access to the place.

Writing in the twenties of last century, Earle says:—"The chief warriors took us round their camp, and exhibited to us all their means of defence, and the different works they had thrown up. Where the use of artillery is unknown the principles of fortification are simple, and the New Zealanders seem to possess a clear notion of the art; necessity being with them the mother of invention. In the direction where the approach of the enemy was expected, they had erected a strong square stockade, to molest the army, while the women and children retired to the principal fort, which was very strong and situated at the summit of the highest hill. It had a breastwork all round it about five feet high, and a broad ditch beyond that. The fortress was large enough to contain several hundred men; it had a spacious glacis in front, and every approach to it was so completely exposed that we thought even a body of regular troops, without artillery, would have found it very difficult to storm."

The time was to come when regular troops, with artillery, were to meet disaster in assailing the pa maori.

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Apparently the above pa was not completed, as the writer does not mention any stockades except the outwork. This was evidently a place constructed by gun fighters, as witness the low wall or rampart.