Yet other sites likely to fit into the category of defended sites have little surface indication of their function. A site beside the Tamaki River (R11/1506) when excavated was found to have been entirely surrounded by a fence. The missionaries from the Royal Admiral in 1801 described a fenced village for about 100 people on the foreshore near Tapu (Missionaries' Journal ms:12). Yet another description of a fenced village, Whakatiwai in 1836, reported in Wade (1977:29–30), can probably be attributed to Rev. Henry Williams although Wade refers to the writer as 'a much esteemed individual'.
Wakatiwai (sic) consists of a quadrangular enclosure of about four hundred feet along the front, by about two hundred in depth; the fence composed of stakes of all sorts and sizes, varying in height from ten to twenty feet, driven into the ground about a couple of inches apart, and having, at intervals, large posts, of which the upper part is rudely shaped in the semblance of a human figure. ... Outside, in all directions, are large mounds of cockle shells. The entrance is by an opening about two feet from the ground, just wide enough for one person; a block of wood driven into the earth serving as a step. Within the enclosure, without the slightest attention to order or plan of any kind, are scattered, about a hundred rush huts and hovels, some with fenced enclosures and some without; with occasionally a small patch of potato ground. In all the enclosures, and elsewhere about the pa, are store houses, consisting of a platform raised upon stakes ten or fifteen feet high, on which are deposited the potatoes, &c., and here and there are poles on which are hung bundles of dried fish, scattering their fragrance abroad. In all directions the ground is covered with cockle-shells, fragments of potato baskets, and other remains; whilst its surface is everywhere broken into little pits and hillocks, occasioned by the constant formation of ovens for cooking. Pigs are seen wandering about, grubbing up the abandoned ovens ...
Excavations of pa at Kauri Point and Ongare Point in the Bay of Plenty, Sarah's Gully near Opito and Castor Bay on Auckland's North Shore all show complex histories with undefended living sites being overlaid at a later time by pa complete with ditch and bank, and palisades. In the case of Kauri Point, the pa in the final stage of use was smaller than the original. Excavation of the pa in Station Bay, Motutapu revealed a change in use over successive occupations from an undefended settlement with kumara store pits to a defended storage site to a fortified site without storage, reflecting the different pressures placed on the people of Motutapu Island.
Not all pa were occupied on more than one occasion. For instance Kauri Point, Birkenhead had very ephemeral evidence, and was occupied for only a short time. By contrast, Oruarangi may have been occupied semi-continuously for a considerable time with the site being enlarged on at least two occasions, until by the early 19th century it enclosed nearly five acres of flat land (Furey 1996).
In the early 16th century ditch and bank pa began to make an appearance on the landscape. However it is likely that conflict between groups of people dates back to the first settlement. Weapons were used in East Polynesia, the homeland area, so it can be inferred behaviour involving warfare and skirmishing was also brought here by the first settlers. No recognisable weapons have been recovered from sites of an early age in New Zealand. The earliest form of defence may have been simple fences around settlements, or refuge sites in the bush, as the evidence for conflict is rare.
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