Less than eighty yards in front of us, and for about one hundred and twenty yards in length, stretched a fence, flanked at both ends with well-formed bastions that looked, from where we lay, flimsy to a degree, it being composed of straight sticks of unequal length, say from fourteen to twenty feet long, and about the thickness of an ordinary broomstick. These were not placed touching one another, nor stuck into the ground, but lashed two or three inches apart to stout cross-pieces and suspended a few inches above the ground, the cross-pieces in their turn being lashed to trunks of trees or stout posts sunk deep into the earth at intervals of from twenty to thirty feet. This fence, as I said, looked flimsy, but it was not, as the sticks it was composed of were manuka saplings, a wonderfully tough, hard wood, quite unbreakable, while should artillery be brought to bear on it, a shell would only break one stick and the fence be still impassable. Just in rear of this fence is a trench, dug deep enough for the defenders to stand in and fire under the fence along the level of the ground in front of it, and behind this trench is the earthwork and the heavy palisadings of the pah itself. The inside of the pah is connected with the trench by underground passages, so that the defenders may take refuge inside, should the pekerangi (outer fence) be carried by assault, but the natives regard it as their principal bulwark, and usually try and bolt if it be destroyed. It had been in assaulting the pekerangi at Rangiriri and Orakau that the British troops had suffered so heavily in the past, and it remained to be proved to-day whether the pekerangi at Otapawa was to be the scene of success or disaster to its gallant assailants. [Illustration: MAJOR KEMP. MEIHA KEPA TE RANGI-HIWINUI.] “Burke,” said Mr Roach, “look at the foot of that post to your right front; you will see the head of a beggar peeping over the edge of the trench. Try and put him out of mess.” Looking at the post indicated I could just see half a Maori’s head peeping out, evidently trying to spot what was going on, so as directed I took a steady aim and fired. “Good shot,” ejaculated Mr Roach, “but I don’t think you got him, for he ducked at the flash like a coot; anyhow you have given him a strong hint to lie low, as you knocked a splinter off the post just where his head had been. By Jove, here the column comes.” I looked back and saw the head of the column debouching from the bush, and when four companies had reached the open they wheeled left and right and left the road clear.