Stockade Hill

Howick's war memorial is located in the centre of the remains of the stockade's earthworks which are readily visible today.

The stockade was built in June 1863,[1] for defence of British settlers against the perceived indigenous Maori threat during the New Zealand Land Wars.

[2] Howick's first resident vicar, Church of England clergyman Reverend Vicesimus Lush wrote of this in his personal diary.

[3][4] During the past week we have been in continual alarms and the talk everywhere and with everyone has been about stockades and redoubts and guns and rifles and cavalry and militia: there is, I am sorry to say, a desire on the part of many Europeans to force on a war with the natives, knowing that ultimately the latter must be exterminated and that therefore the quicker will the whole country be opened up for occupation by Europeans.The site was constructed of loop holed sheets of iron surmounting a ditch and bank, and enclosed barracks for regular troops.

The rumours have been so alarming that the Seddons and Peacockes have sent in their children, and last Friday an attack was deemed so imminent that I deemed it necessary to pack off, instantly the news reacht us, Blannie, Anne, Edith, Baby and the servant girl.Bavarian mercenaries stationed here in 1863 erected a Christmas tree, believed to be the first in New Zealand, and sang carols.

Sign on entry to Stockade Hill