It was late in the afternoon when we reached the place and saw we had a stiff job before us, for, although the natural difficulties were not nearly so hard to overcome as had been the case at Ngatapa, still it was a very strongly built pah, heavily palisaded, and extremely difficult to surround. It, however, had one defect, as in front of the pah and quite close up to it ran a long bank and ditch, which for some inscrutable reason the enemy had not cleared away, but which the Colonel spotted at a glance, and ordered three divisions of the Armed Constabulary to immediately advance in skirmishing order and seize them. My division was one of those told off for this duty, so, without a pause, we extended from our centre and advanced. There was not much cover, but what there was we made use of, and although the Maoris kept up a tremendous fire, which we never paused to return, we doubled straight to our front and were soon inside the ditch and behind the bank without a man being hit. Here we quickly opened fire so as to cover the advance of the other two divisions, who were equally fortunate, and on their arrival we poured a combined volley into the place, just to let the Hau Haus know the sort of music we expected them to dance to. I do not think we did much damage, as their works were so beautifully constructed that during the whole of the evening we never saw so much as a head to aim at. Still we kept on sending them an occasional volley, which they answered vigorously, and between these we collogued one another; as we were so mighty adjacent it was quite easy to carry on a conversation, and a conversation was kept up. Chiefly, I regret to say, the dialogue was of a personal nature more pungent than polite, although now and again some old cannibal would call both sides to order and preach a homily on the etiquette that should be observed between hostile warriors when engaged in the serious pastime of war. At last night fell, and we received orders to remain where we were, as it was the Colonel’s intention to surround the pah the following day, he quite rightly judging it to be far too dangerous a job to tackle during the dark. We had food in our haversacks, though water was scarce, and of course we could not sleep, especially as the Hau Haus every now and again fired a volley, so as to warn us they were awake.