PAKEHA RAMBLES 
 
 THROUGH MAOEI LANDS
 
 Sketch Map 
 
 shewing portion qftfie 
 
 a OTAKI 
 
 Nrn 1 1* (j ^trtiKAMAf 
 
 ntlKAKAMKI 
 WiUHC
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES 
 
 THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 BY 
 
 LIEUT. -COLONEL ST. JOHN 
 
 (NEW ZEALAND MILITIA). 
 
 WELLINGTON : 
 PRINTED BY ROBERT BURRETT, MOLESV.'ORTH STREET. 
 
 1873.
 
 PKEFACE. 
 
 SOME explanation is due why a description of " Waikato 
 Forty Years Ago " appears in a book professedly written by 
 a colonist of only ten years standing. The facts are these : 
 a valued friend kindly gave me a MSS. containing his early 
 experiences in New Zealand, with the proviso that, in case 
 of publication, his name should not appear ; I had to respect 
 his wishes, and I have consequently assumed a degree of 
 authorship to which I am not entitled, reserving to myself 
 the right of confession. 
 
 For the more modern portion I am solely responsible. 
 
 I have only to add that my " Rambles " were not always 
 as consecutive as I have described them ; for the sake of con- 
 venience I have connected together numerous journeys made 
 at various intervals. 
 
 J. H. H. ST. J. 
 
 Wellington, 20th August, 1873.
 
 
 EKE AT A. 
 
 Iii page xvii, Hues 7 arid 20, for " Heke" read " Hika.' 
 In pages 172, 180, 188, and 19G, head-line, for 
 Pakeha." 
 
 Pehaka"
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 WAIKATO FORTY YEARS AGO. 
 
 MY reminiscences of Waikato date from my arrival on the 
 10th November 1830. I had been at Sydney for some 
 time, and made up my mind to try the New Zealand trade ; 
 so I took my passage on board the brigantine "Sydney 
 Packet," and found three other passengers, Mr. S. Paul (who 
 was part owner), and two "Waikato chiefs, Te Karekare, and 
 To Puia ; these latter had been taken for a trip to Sydney, 
 but were in reality hostages. The approach to the coast 
 was predicted, before land was sighted, by a strong-nosed 
 sailor, who swore he could smell the peculiar fragrance of 
 the New Zealand soil, &c. Four hours after Jack's assertion, 
 land was seen, but I never could manage to train my 
 olfactory nerves to such perfection. 
 
 We were not acquainted with the mouth of the Waikato 
 River, and so we got a boat into a little nook to the 
 southward of the bar, and brought off Captain Payne, a 
 resident trader, who gave us the benefit of his experience ; 
 with his help we got safely over, and anchored opposite 
 Te Rori a Karihi. On going ashore we, the new arrivals 
 (nga pakelm hou}^ were introduced to the assembled chiefs, 
 who also gave a grand reception to our dark skinned fellow 
 passengers : there was feeding on a large scale ; and, to my 
 
 1362036
 
 6 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 great astonishment, crying to any extent. It is a queer 
 thing, this lanyi. ^Whether it was a funeral, or a meeting 
 of friends after an absence, the tears flowed copiously. 
 Even in these degenerate days, this twenty-feniale-weeping 
 power has not entirely deserted the race ; but they don't 
 cry like they used when I first came to New Zealand. 
 
 The news of our arrival soon spread inland, and lots more 
 people came to see the vessel (kaipuke). The electric tele- 
 graph does beat the Maoris in the diffusion of intelligence, 
 but I think they need not give in to anything else ; they 
 lick the semaphores into fits. Given a piece of news, a 
 young native, and a screwy pony, and it is cpaitc marvellous 
 to trace how speedily all kaingas around learn what it is all 
 about. Naturally, the communication being verbal, there 
 is a good deal of exaggeration ; but still, news do travel fast 
 in Maoridom. Of course the new comers went in for their 
 share of tanyi and kai. 
 
 Te Karekare was a middle-aged man with a family, and 
 was about the best disposed New Zealandcr I have ever 
 come across ; on the passage down I struck up an intimacy 
 with him, which I am happy to say continued without 
 a break to the day of his death, which occurred at the 
 Ihutaroa fight many years afterwards; and on more than 
 one occasion I received many kindnesses from him. After 
 having been ashore a short time, we took a trip up the 
 country to Toroakapakapa, a settlement a considerable 
 distance Tip the Waipa Pviver, a branch of the Waikato. 
 On our way up we stopped to breakfast, preparing it on the 
 ground near the water's edge : our party being large, and 
 occupying about a dozen canoes, took up some distance 
 along the bank. Our chief, Piraoa. intending to introduce 
 his imkelias in a grand and becoming style, had enlisted a 
 large number of the elite to accompany him ; and the party 
 of Europeans consisted of Captain Payne, Logan (the man
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 7 
 
 servant), and myself. It being summer time, and the 
 weather particularly fine, many during the halt were in the 
 water bathing, whilst breakfast was preparing; and amongst 
 the bathers was Logan. After he had been in the river a 
 short time a commotion arose amongst those on shore ; see- 
 ing several men rush into the water with tomahawks, and 
 imagining they were about to kill him, he cried out at the 
 top of his voice " Piraoa, Piraoa, de natif make a bunga 
 bunga me;" this he kept on repeating, and was nearly 
 drowned in his fright; it was some time before we could 
 pacify him by explaining that the native's rush was in 
 consequence of some dogs on the opposite side of the river 
 having caught a pig, which was heard squealing most lustily, 
 and which they were swimming across to secure, without 
 waiting to unfasten their canoes. We were the first Euro- 
 peans, barring one, who had been in that part of New 
 Zealand. I forget the man's name; but he had como 
 from Kawhia, from a vessel in that port (I heard that 
 he was her mate), with the intention of proceeding across 
 the country to the Thames. On his arriving at Te Onematua, 
 the settlement of the Ngatipou, Te Uira, the elder son of 
 Taratikitiki, the principal chief of the tribe, hearing of his 
 intended trip, endeavoured to delay his departure for a few 
 days, as he purposed going that way himself, in order that 
 lie might be in company and under protection. The man, 
 however, persisted in setting out, and Te Uira directed some 
 slaves to take care of him. They started, and a short time 
 afterwards returned without the pakeha. According to their 
 statement, which is very doubtful, a misunderstanding 
 ai-ose from the pakeha having threatened to strike one of 
 them ; their report was that when halted to prepai*e food 
 on the bank of the River Waipa on their way down, and 
 when he (still maintaining his threatening attitude) stepped 
 ashore, they had paddled the canoe away, taking his clothing
 
 8 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 and food, and leaving him on the bank by himself. He 
 was subsequently discovered by a pai-ty of another tribe, 
 naked and dead, buoyed tip by a limb of a tree at the 
 water's edge : the river having subsided had no doubt left 
 him in that position a few miles below where he had been 
 marooned. There were no marks of violence further than 
 slight abrasions occasioned by the body floating along the 
 bed of the river when carried down by the current, and it 
 was supposed that he had been drowned, probably in the 
 attempt to cross some of the tributary creeks. This having 
 occurred a short time previously to our arrival, was the 
 principal topic of conversation, and every endeavour was 
 made to exculpate the chiefs from any participation in so 
 unwarrantable an act ; in fact, Te Uira was so much 
 incensed with the party that, had they not made themselves 
 scarce, he would in all probability have had them shot. One 
 only of them again made his appearance, and that not till 
 after a lapse of time. The natives, generally, were very 
 indignant at the occurrence, considering that they would 
 be stigmatized as a body. On the passage up the river wo 
 had an opportunity of seeing a considerable collection of 
 natives at the different settlements, our visit being antici- 
 pated from fore-runners having gone ahead to trumpet our 
 chief's success in having secured several Atuas (spirits) in the 
 flesh, some of whom he was about exhibiting for their 
 wonderment and admiration. At all the settlements we 
 were received most Courteously and hospitably, though the 
 younger portions of the community generally hid behind 
 stumps of trees, in, or behind, houses, or under the garments 
 of the elder portion, occasionally stealing a peep at " Te 
 Atua." 
 
 At one settlement, Kopokowhatitiri, where we stopped for 
 the night, we saw the natives go through a dance; they 
 mustered nearly a hundred, and stood out in separate files,
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 the men apart from the women, al)out fifty in each row : the 
 men, generally speaking, young and robust, the women from 
 about 15 years to 25, and some of them good looking ; each 
 party of course dressed entirely in their native habiliments. 
 The Maoris in former days were much finer men than they 
 are at present ; they now speak of themselves as having 
 been a people of large stature, which is borne out by the 
 discovery of their remains. The day of our arrival at Toroa- 
 kapakapa, I perceived a great commotion in the village, the 
 men arming and demanding arms from us, the women rush- 
 ing about in all directions, and the clatter of tongues 
 representing a modern " Babel." There was a party of 
 natives at a short distance on the opposite side of a gully, 
 and my want of knowledge of the language immediately led 
 me to the conclusion that these strangers were a hostile 
 party about to make a raid on the settlement and on our- 
 selves : consequently I armed myself after the approved 
 manner of New Zealand, with a well-filled cartridge box 
 strapped round my waist, and, musket in hand, was preparing 
 myself for a good shot at the supposed enemy. Selecting 
 for my mark a fine fellow, who was sitting out in front of 
 his party unconscious of any intended ill, either for himself 
 or his people, I was going to let drive when, to my surprise, 
 I was seized from behind and prevented from firing : by 
 dint of perseverance on the part of the natives, I was made 
 to understand that this was a friendly visit of some relatives 
 who had come to see the pakekas, and that I was aiming at 
 a friend. From the action I had taken I gained the credit of 
 being a resolute and determined warrior, which I believe I have 
 retained ever since ; not that I was at all pugnacious, but I 
 always bore in mind the adage " That caution is the better 
 part of valour," and I was very careful not to encounter men 
 of superior strength to myself in the few wrestles I had for 
 amusement ; I accepted the challenge only of those whom I
 
 10 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 considered inferior to myself in strength, and declined a 
 second round after having succeeded in throwing my adver- 
 sary in the first instance, which I usually did. I only lost 
 the first throw in one case out of two, which were the sole 
 occasions of rvn (earnest) I had with the natives. We re- 
 mained at Toroakapakapa a week, as Captain Payne's object 
 in going up the river was to purchase flax to freight the 
 " Sydney Packet " back to Sydney ; I had thus an oppor- 
 tunity of seeing occasionally a large assemblage, of natives, 
 but I had daily to go through the same routine, endeavour- 
 ing to learn Maori by day, and watching the dancing and 
 games of the natives in the evening. We found a difference 
 on going back, for the passage which had occupied a week 
 when ascending the river, took us only two clays on our 
 return. There was now collected a good amount of flax as 
 a cargo for the vessel ; but, as still more was required to fill 
 up and dispatch her, the mate (Tucker) was sent along the 
 coast to look after some which the natives had cleaned : on 
 his return with it by sea, the canoe which carried him and 
 his flax was swamped, and he was drowned. The natives 
 who accompanied him were saved, but the flax and the canoe 
 were lost. I believe he had been cautioned not to go to sea 
 in the canoe. 
 
 An incident occurred about this time, showing one way 
 of seeming a friend. I was carrying three damaged 
 muskets to send oif to Sydney for repairs, and a chief 
 named Nini (who from his wild and turbulent spirit was 
 nicknamed by us " Russian ") requested leave to look at 
 them : as they were defective, it was desirable that they 
 should not be seen, so I objected ; he theretipon seized hold 
 of one of them, and, to retain possession of it, I had to drop 
 the others, but the natives around did not attempt to toucli 
 them as they lay on the ground. There was a struggle for 
 the mastery, and after a time I contrived to manoeuvre him
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 11 
 
 to the edge of a bank about 8 feet in height, and there I 
 succeeded in placing my foot on his chest, and wrenching the 
 piece out of his hands. My friend, of course, went down 
 the bank, and fell amongst the boulders on the beach ; oil 
 his recovering himself he jumped up, foaming at the mouth, 
 and danced about with rage for about twenty minutes, 
 swearing vengeance on account of his defeat. This was at 
 least my impression, as at that time I did not know any- 
 thing of the language j after this explosion he took himself 
 off. 
 
 The next day as I was wandering about the place where I 
 had had the squabble I happened to look up, and I saw 
 Nini approaching, accompanied by ten or twelve other 
 natives. It would never have done for a palwlM to show 
 the white feather, although I fully expected a combined 
 attack, so I stood my ground. Nini advanced towards me, 
 holding out his hand in pcikelm fashion, but this I at first 
 declined to take, thinking that he might by retaining my 
 hand, have me at a great disadvantage ; and it was not till 
 after some time that his companions contrived to make me 
 understand his intentions were particularly friendly, upon 
 which I gave him my hand at once, and I am happy to say 
 I retained his unbroken friendship up to the fight of Te 
 Ihutaroa, the last intertribal war that took place among the 
 Maoris in Waikato, when Nini went down with many 
 others. I received many kindnesses from him, as well as 
 protection from the importunities of other Maoris, though I 
 was not supposed to be living under his wing, or that of his 
 tribe; and I always found him particularly honourable and 
 generous. 
 
 In 1831, the brig " Tramnere," Captain Smith, arrived in 
 Manakau Harbour with Captain Kent, Te Wherowhevo, 
 and Amohia, Whcrowhcro's daughter. Captain Kent was 
 the first European who had visited the West Coast of the
 
 12 PAKE11A GAMBLES THROUGH MAOUl LANDS. 
 
 North Island for trading purposes, having put in to Kawhia, 
 in 1828, in the brig "Macquarie," for flax, that being the 
 only article of commerce produced by the natives. In 
 consequence of Te Wherowhero's visiting Manakau with his 
 pakehas (paJceJias in those days were no small beer, and as 
 I have said before were looked upon more in the light of 
 Celestials, or, as the natives would, term it, Atuaa), Te 
 Kanac Wetere presented To Whcrowhcro with Awhitu, 
 a pretty little bay to the south, a little inside of the entrance 
 to the Manakau Harbour; in return for this Wetere 
 received the gift of a case of muskets, considerably above 
 the value of the land : but in those days the chiefs used 
 to endeavoxir to excel each other in the value and magnifi- 
 cence of their presents. Awhitu has since been considered 
 as the property of the Ngatiniahuta (Te Wherowhero's 
 tribe), and Honana te Maioha received a piece of it aa 
 compensation for his claim as a Ngatimahuta, on the confisca- 
 tion of the Waikato lands by the Government. Captain 
 Kent, Te Wherowhero, his daughter Amohia, and an escort 
 of natives came over to the Waikato, and proceeded up tho 
 river. Whilst they were in Manakau I paid a visit to the 
 '' Tranmere " to see Captain Smith, going in company Avith 
 some natives by way of Waiukxi. On crossing over to the 
 portage we fell in with an old woman, left behind by a party 
 of the Ngatipaou, which had preceded us a couple of days, 
 and as we could not take her on we also had to leave her, 
 with the intention of picking her up on our return. In the 
 absence of a canoe we had to tramp along the margin of the 
 bays, crossing, when possible, the mud flats to shorten the 
 distance ; once I ventured too far out, and got so bogged in 
 the stiff salt water mud, that I had to be pulled out by flax 
 ropes ; at last, by dint of perseverance, with legs cut and 
 scratched by tho shells in the mud, exhausted -and fatigued, 
 we contrived to get abreast of the vessel uud hall her, and to
 
 I'AKEHA UAMBLES THKOUG1I MAORI LANDS. 13 
 
 my great relief made myself heard, and was taken on board. 
 I way received most kindly, and remained on board three 
 days to recover myself. After obtaining a few supplies from 
 Captain Smith, we were taken up to "Waiuku in the ship's 
 boat, thus probably escaping a second bogging and dragging 
 out ; and 011 our way we found the old lady where we had left 
 her, and took her on ; by the time we reached Waiuku it 
 was evening, and we crossed over the portage to Purapura. 
 The night promised to be fine, and so we did not trouble 
 ourselves to erect a shed, but presently the wind shifted and 
 the rain fell in torrents ; it was now pitch dark, and there 
 was no alternative but to sit up, grin, and bear it ; the 
 water was literally running through me. At day light the 
 natives contrived to make a break-wind, so that we coxild 
 relieve ourselves of our wet clothing, not that my com- 
 panions had much to wet : the principal mode they adopted 
 was to turn, their mats in and out, and out and in, till they 
 were dry. The old lady we had picked up was taken poses- 
 sion of by our chief Piraoa, who was with us, as a stray 
 waif, and was walked off to the settlement. Soon after this 
 Piraoa's wife was confined, and the old lady was deputed to 
 attend upon her ; the consequence being that she was tapued 
 (or rendered sacred), the chieftainess in the straw being a 
 woman of rank. At the time of the occurrence food was 
 very scarce; there was only fern root, and of this the best 
 was selected for the chiefs ; the old woman being a slave 
 was, during the time of the tapu, precluded from feeding 
 herself ; but on one occasion no one being there to cook for her 
 and feed her, she unceremoniously, but unfortunately, appro- 
 priated some of tin 1 <!iTi'd t'rrn rn.it meant, for tin- c.liieffniuess. 
 
 n.ixl mud'' -A lii->.j).rtv meal. Detection followed ; m>t. PVHII ;< 
 
 t"nil of trial. \vn,s '/.mr thrOTJffb, :Uid till' |MMir "Id tliniL; \\ ;i> 
 kllleil. iind sunk in tlif ri vi-'i' duzinfi T!IH. mulit. In f'li*i 
 " : n >'>m.- 1'I<>.1 \t rliP <>Ti>mid, hut VPI-M. told (>n
 
 14 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 enquiry that it was the blood of a dog ; we then missed the 
 old woman, but were informed that she had been sent up the 
 river. 
 
 One evening the " Sydney Packet," being full, took her 
 departure for Sydney, and at day-light next morning I 
 ascended a hill, expecting to find that she had got out of 
 sight, or was merely a speck in the off ug. To my surprise 
 I discovered that she was ashore on the north side ; on 
 going out she had gone too far to the north, had struck, and 
 was thrown xip where she was then lying. On striking she 
 had carried away her rudder, become unmanageable, and 
 been buffetted aboxtt till she reached high water mark, 
 where the tide left her. Captain Payne and the rest of 
 us went across to render what assistance we could ; we 
 lightened the vessel by landing her cargo, stores, and all 
 rigging not essentially required for the vessel's use, and at 
 the top of the next spring tide, which occurred in about ten 
 days, we succeeded in getting her afloat and inside the 
 harbour again. 
 
 At a subsequent period the " Elizabeth and Mary," a 
 vessel of about 90 tons, the same size as the " Sydney 
 Packet," got on shore at the same place, but with worse 
 luck, as she stuck and became a total wreck : no life in 
 either case was lost or endangered. 
 
 We repaired the damage done to the " Sydney Packet," 
 re-loaded her, and dispatched her to Sydney, where she 
 arrived in safety without any more troubles. 
 
 On the departure of the vessel we commenced operations 
 to secure a cargo for her return, which we calculated would 
 be in about six weeks, or two months ; but she never made 
 her appearance, and the " Samuel," a schooner, came in her 
 place. During the absence of the vessel we had wars and 
 rumours of wars up the country among the natives. The 
 lights in AVaikato have been pretty numerous, whether they
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 15 
 
 arose from the attacks of an invading foe, or from local 
 squabbles ; and it may not be out of place if I give a short 
 account of some of them, beginning at the attack by the 
 Ngapuhis in 1825 or 1826 on Waikato, before the tribes 
 inhabiting the latter were supplied with fire arms. The 
 raid was made by Hongi Hika, at the head of 800 men, 
 after his visit to England, where he had been presented with 
 a suit of armour and some fire arms by George IV. ; these he 
 carried with him, and used in the expedition. The Waikatos 
 at the time of the above raid were in possession of none but 
 their native arms. Notwithstanding this disadvantage they 
 made a stand at Matakitaki, where they had built a pa just 
 at the confluence of the Mangapiko stream with the Waipa 
 River. Ngapuhi made the attack on the pa early on a 
 foggy morning. On the report of the fire arms the besieged 
 were paralysed with astonishment and fear ; they could not 
 tell whence these extraordinary sounds proceeded, and many 
 were shot down without a semblance of resistance. 
 
 The Waikatos in fortifying their pa had intersected it 
 with Maioros (or rifle pits), and in the rush they made to 
 escape hundreds fell, or were driven into these, and trampled 
 to death or smothered. A great slaughter of the Waikatos 
 was the consequence, the estimated loss being 2,000 killed 
 (and eaten), and 2,000 taken away prisoners. Many of the 
 principal chiefs, both male and female, were killed or taken, 
 though several contrived to escape from their captors on the 
 road, and return to their homes. Potatau's chief wife, 
 and Te Uira's were among the captured who managed to 
 get away. One of the leading chiefs of the Ngapithi 
 connived at the escape of a " rangatira" Waikato woman with 
 her son. She, it seems, had fallen to the lot of a man of 
 inferior rank, and one of the Ngapuhi happening to pass 
 by recognised her as a person from whom he had received 
 hospitality and kindness on a previous visit to Waikato, and
 
 16 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 tried to obtain her libei-ty from her present master. Failing 
 in this, he determined to effect her deliverance by caxitioning 
 the owner to look well after his prisoners, as probably they 
 might attempt to escape. He threw him off his guard, and 
 gained his confidence to such an extent that his offer to 
 assist in the watch was gladly received and accepted. The 
 house in which the prisoners were confined was fortunately 
 at the edge of the high bank of the Waipa River. After 
 collecting a number of sticks, which had the appearance of 
 being for firewood, the friendly chief excavated from the 
 bank into the house, and having made a good passage, he 
 covered the aperture in the whare with the wood and with 
 fern. In the middle of the night, when all were supposed to 
 be asleep, the sticks were moved aside, the woman and child 
 passed through the aperture, and got to the river unheard ; 
 this the woman swam with the child on her back, and 
 eventually both reached her friends in safety. To favour 
 their escape the kindly native, after their exit by the 
 passage, replaced the sticks and fern, and made up their 
 bedding as if they were there asleep. Their lord and 
 master was sleeping in the house with them, and it Avas not 
 till after daylight that he discovered the deception that had 
 been practised on him, to the great amusement of the others. 
 One of the principal chieftains, Te Rangimoewaka, had 
 succeeded in escaping from the pa, but becoming exhausted 
 with fatigue he sat down, telling the party with whom he 
 was escaping to hasten away and not heed him, as he could 
 proceed no further. For a time there was some hesitation, 
 but the yells of the pursuers grew nearer and nearer, and 
 the instinct of self-pi*eservation carried the day : each gave 
 him the final salute by applying nose to nose, and hastened 
 off. Amongst the pursuers was a Ngapuhi chief, who knew 
 Te Rangimoewaka, and had been on friendly terms with 
 him. He was the first to come up ; and, seeing his quondam
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 17 
 
 friend lying exhausted, reminiscences of old times flashed 
 across him ; he stooped and rubbed noses in token of re- 
 cognition ; and then, in performance of his duty to his 
 party, tomahawked him. 
 
 Success is not always a good thing : it makes some people 
 conceited, and only leads them to a fall ; and this is precisely 
 what happened to Ngapuhi. Heke's expedition had been 
 attended with glorious results, and they did not see why 
 such good fortune should not continue. So, after a lapse of 
 two or three years, Ngapuhi got up another wai*-party to 
 the Waikato, without calculating the advance in civilization 
 the Waikatos had made in the interim ; for, warned by 
 their defeat of the superiority of fire arms, they had made 
 wonderful efforts to get supplied with arms and ammunition. 
 Pomare, Moetara, and several chiefs of importance, with others 
 amounting in all to about five hundred men, formed the tana 
 (a war party). When the Ngapuhis entered the Waikato 
 country the inhabitants retired from the banks of the river, 
 permitting the enemy to advance unmolested. The elated 
 invaders passed the spot of Hongi Heke's victory, and 
 marched on some two or three miles further, without seeing 
 a foe. At the Mangauika rapids, near Kopua, close to the 
 place where a mission was afterwards established, they came 
 into collision with the Waikatos ; and, to their disgust, 
 found them in strong numbers, well posted, and well armed. 
 There was no more easy slaughtering fun, so Ngapuhi con- 
 cluded to retire. But the Waikatos had not enticed them so 
 far up the river for nothing, and in rear of the attacking party 
 ambushes were carefully laid on the banks of the Waipa. At 
 Te Rore, about four miles below Alexandra (the old Mataki- 
 taki), there was assembled a large party of Ngatiteata, Ngati- 
 tipa, Ngatimahanga, and other Waikato tribes, and into this 
 ambuscade Ngapuhi xinconscio\isly fell. They were paddling 
 down quietly, all the canoes close together, when a heavy
 
 18 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 volley was poured into them. Orders had been given to 
 take special aim at the chiefs, and most of them, Pomare 
 included, fell at the first fire. The canoes jammed and upset. 
 There was no climbing up the banks under the heavy fire, 
 and volley after volley came hurtling from the concealed 
 Waikatos. Ngapuhi were, of course, totally defeated, and 
 those who managed to escape got out -on the left bank and 
 made for "Whangaroa, where they got another cutting up. 
 The survival's then pushed on overland for Waikato Heads ; 
 but in the meantime the Waikato canoes had carried a large 
 party to cut off the retreat. This was done so effectually 
 that, out of the five hundred, or more, men who composed 
 the taua, only ten reached their homes, Moetara being the 
 only chief who did so ; and he had been struck by a spent 
 ball on the chest, where had been pricked a star to which 
 he attributed his invulnerability. 
 
 In 1830, Kaipaka, a pa near Otawhao, occupied by the 
 Ngatihinetu and Ngatiapakura, was attacked by the Ngati- 
 hauas, Ngatikoroki, and Ngatiruru, who perpetrated an indis- 
 criminate slaughter of men, women, and children. The 
 following anecdote was related to me by a woman who be- 
 longed to the assaulting party. She had saved from drown- 
 ing an infant that had been thrown into the creek (Manga- 
 piko) which ran close to the pa. On taking it from the water 
 she had nestled it to her bosom to warm it and preserve its 
 life if possible ; the poor little thing unfortunately uttered a 
 cry; a savage passing by heard it, and he immediately 
 seized the child, tore it from her, notwithstanding her re- 
 monstrances, and deliberately stuck it up before the fire and 
 roasted it alive. 
 
 Another local fight took place, in 1830, at Te "Whakakiho, 
 a pa occupied by the Ngatipou. The majority of its in- 
 habitants being away at Kawhia and elsewhere, the oppor- 
 tunity to take it was too good to be lost, and it was attacked
 
 I'AKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 19 
 
 by surprise (he konihi) by the Ngatihaua, Ngatikoroki, and 
 Ngatimahuta. Heavy loss of life occurred here also ; but the 
 intervention of the pakehas so completely pacified the bel- 
 ligerents that the conquered party did not, as usual in such 
 cases, seek utu (payment) when they became strong enough 
 to do so. 
 
 In 1831, Te Haowhenua, Taumatawiwi, and other en- 
 counters took place between the Hauraki tribes and the 
 Ngatihauas, etc., in alliance with others of the Waikato 
 tribes. From these arose the/amous ' ' Aroha " case, whi ch has 
 given so much trouble in the Native Lands Court. The 
 struggle between the two tribes took place in 1831, and 
 ended in the expulsion of the Hauraki (Thames natives), 
 who did "not attempt to recover their lands till after the 
 Native Lands Court was instituted and the discovery was 
 made that the country was auriferous. 
 
 The last war expedition of the Ngapuhis to the Waikato was 
 made in the autumn of 1832. On the intimation of an intended 
 attack, the Waikatos mustered their various tribes to the 
 extent of 3,000, or more, fighting men, the greater portion 
 bearing firearms. They assembled near Waikato Heads, and 
 showed so strong that the Ngapuhi scouts on the other side 
 of the river advised the main body to halt. A party of our 
 people, who had crossed over, came upon the footprints of 
 their advance guard, and Waikato at once turned out for 
 leaping parade. There were about three thousand of them, 
 and their war dance, in fighting costume, was something 
 terrific; the simultaneous thump of six thousand feet striking 
 the earth in spring after spring, and all in perfect unison, 
 made the earth literally shake. We could feel it as they 
 came down from the upward leaps. The disadvantage of 
 such numbers was that the enemy would not come on, and 
 that the commissariat department was not up to feeding so 
 many vory hungry mouthy. Of course hud Ngapuhi made
 
 20 I'AKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LAND*. 
 
 the attack, there would have been plenty to eat ; but they 
 fought shy, trusting perhaps to the very circumstances which 
 did happen. For, after a few days had passed, the Waikatos 
 found they had eaten up everything about the place, and that 
 they could no longer remain. It was thought better that the 
 Europeans should accompany their retreat, so Captain Payne, 
 
 myself, and my servant went with them. Mr. W , of 
 
 Onewhero, a man called " Cooper," from his trade, and a 
 half-caste New Holland lad preferred to stay, little antici- 
 pating the fate in store for them. 
 
 About a month after we had left our establishment, the 
 Ngapuhis made their appearance at Putataka, where I had 
 resided, burned my house, and killed the stock I had running 
 there. They also captured Cooper and " Billy boy," the New 
 Holland half-caste, and took them away, at the same time 
 stripping and burning their dwelling. They then Avent up 
 
 the river to Onewhero, seized Mr. W at daybreak, and 
 
 killed seA^eral natives. One lad managed to escape into the 
 river, where he lay concealed for hours with only his nose 
 and mouth above water, till the taua had returned. At the 
 
 capture of Mr. W , an altercation took place between two 
 
 chiefs, Pukerangi and another (whose name has escaped my 
 memory), as to the proprietorship of the captive. Pukerangi 
 persisted in his claim by right of priority, as he had been the 
 
 first to enter the room in which W was, and, moreover, 
 
 had seized him before the other had entered. Pukerangi's 
 claim was approved of by the other chiefs, and they proceeded 
 up the river about forty miles to Whangape Lake, where 
 they surprised and massacred between 40 and 50 men. The, 
 slaxighter would have been more serious had not a canoe full 
 of the Waikatos been fortunately going down flic river. ;unl 
 met the invading party coming up. Th<- VV ; ,ik;<tM native* 
 discovered their dilemma in time, turned ;ui<l i'<-nv;tted, but 
 were fired upon by &e Advancing Ng:i'ulii> : <\-y
 
 PAKEI1A KAMliLES THROUGH MAO1U LANDS. 21 
 
 the tire, and a running fight ensued. The Ngapuhis succeeded 
 in killing one of the Waikatos, but in return, a chief was shot 
 and fell into the water. The recovery of the body occasioned 
 considerable delay, which was of signal advantage to the 
 retreating party, as it gave them an opportunity of disposing 
 of the dead man that was in their canoe by placing him 
 ashore, and thus lightening their load, and of apprizing others 
 who would otherwise have been surprised and probably mas- 
 sacred or captured. On the Ngapuhi reaching Whangape 
 they stopped in the creek, the entrance to the lake ; and 
 during the night a canoe with a large party of the Waikatos 
 in it pulled through the midst of the war party, which had 
 lined each side of the creek. When challenged, they suc- 
 ceeded in imitating so well the Ngapuhi dialect that they 
 were believed to be some of the attacking party, and got clear. 
 On their return, the Ngapuhi revisited Port Waikato, and 
 fell in with a pakeha known by the name of " Paddy," who 
 had travelled from Whaingaroa ( Raglan) ; they wished to 
 take him away with them, and probably might not have 
 seriously ill-treated him, but Paddy, imagining that they were 
 Waikato natives, and probably not having heard of the 
 Ngapuhi's arrival, declined the honor and became obstreper- 
 ous. The consequence svas that he was killed, and an endea- 
 vour made to turn him to a useful account by cooking him ; 
 but, on being placed on the festive ground (board being out 
 of the question), he was found to be so much impregnated 
 with salt from the salt provision he had eaten, that he was 
 rejected, and ultimately given to the dogs. 
 
 The natives were very different in those days to what they 
 are now. They could hardly be induced to touch salt or salt 
 provision. Paddy got no more than his deserts though ; ho 
 was an incorrigibly bad character, having robbed all the 
 Europeans at Whaingaroa ; his last act was the robbing 
 of some natives, with whom lie had been living and from 
 P
 
 22 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 whom he had to decamp, and thus rush upon his fate. I had 
 nearly shared the same fate ; as, imagining from the length 
 of time which had elapsed without any appearance of the 
 enemy, that it was a false alarm, I had prepared for my 
 return to my former station ; but I was delayed by bad 
 weather. Had it not been for this, I should have been just 
 in time to be caught ; as it was, I was in my canoe, on the 
 eve of starting, when the escaped natives gave the alarm. 
 Of course I returned ashore, thanking my stars at my 
 narrow escape. On its being known that the Ngapuhis had 
 arrived, killed several natives, captured the pakelms and 
 burned their dwellings, the Kaitutai, or Ngatiamaru, tribe 
 mustered and went in pursuit ; but, bearing in mind the sage 
 saying that " discretion is the better part of valour," and 
 seeing the enemy too numerous when overtaken in Manakau, 
 they returned. The Ngatiteata, Ngatitamaho, Ngatiwhatua, 
 JNgatitipa, and Ngatimahanga, on hearing that the others 
 had come back without effecting anything, determined to 
 follow up the matter. They mustered immediately, and 
 starting without delay, followed Ngapuhi to Tawatawhiti, in 
 Whangarei. Here they attacked and took a pa in which 
 they had assembled, nearly annihilating the occupants, with- 
 out the loss of a single man on their own side, and recovered 
 several of their own people who had been taken away from 
 Waikato. At the time of the mustering of the Ngatiteata, 
 Ngatitamaho, etc., to follow the Ngapuhis I overheard a tall, 
 robust slave woman say to another who was standing by her 
 side, looking at the natives going through their war dances 
 previous to departure, that as soon as they were gone she 
 would run away. Foolishly enough she did not wait till they 
 had gone, but made the attempt too soon, was captured, 
 and killed as an offering to propitiate the JtiM-. I was 
 living in the pa at the time, and hearing that they were about 
 to kill a slave, I seized a musket and ran with it, intending
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 23 
 
 to give it for her and save her life ; but upon reaching the 
 place, I perceived that she was breathing her last and being 
 dragged away by the heels like a dog. Te Kanae, her chief, 
 had struck her on the back of the neck with a tomahawk, 
 but she was finished by some male slaves, who had smashed 
 her face in with clubs ; and these were the very men who had 
 been on the closest terms of intimacy with the poor unfor- 
 tunate woman ; her name was Punepune. A short time 
 after this, on the same day, another alarm was given that 
 they were about killing another slave this time, a man. I 
 rushed off again with my gun with the same purpose as 
 before, but on my reaching the part of the pa where they 
 were, I was horrified to see the natives jumping about 
 literally mad. They had surrounded the unhappy man, 
 some were tearing out his hair by handsful, and others, 
 unable to get close, were endeavouring to prod him with 
 their gun muzzles. Their fiendish gestures, excited state, 
 their thirst for blood, and the passion they had worked them- 
 selves up to was horrifying in the extreme. The poor fellow 
 on whom they were venting their cnielty had been living 
 with them for a length of time previously, and was on terms 
 of intimacy with them, but, being a slave, and there being no 
 associations connected with him, and, moreover, as he had given 
 umbrage by an attempt to escape, he had become a subject 
 on which they might sharpen their appetite or longing for 
 human flesh prior to starting on the war expedition they 
 were about undertaking. During the uproar a chief named 
 Hika sat silently looking on, perhaps pleased with the ruth- 
 lessness of his people, and thinking probably that he might 
 do a little business on his own account and appropriate the 
 slave to his own use. The man was then apparently dead 
 but possibly might recover, so Hika tapued him by calling 
 him after his iwi tuaru (backbone), upon which he was let 
 go, fell as dead, and remained apparently so for some time ;
 
 24 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 after a while he recovered himself sufficiently to crawl away, 
 but it was long before he entirely recovered from the mauling 
 he had had. The proprietor did not attempt to dispossess 
 Hika of the slave he had thus acqxiired. 
 
 A few nights after our war-party had left, an old woman 
 professed to have been visited by her Atua, from whom she 
 had learnt the progress of the expedition, and getting on the 
 roof of a house in the dark, she addressed the people of the 
 pa, who, upon hearing her, made a fire to illuminate her. 
 She went through the most hideous and extraordinary ges- 
 ticulations whilst relating the information she had received 
 from her Atua. When she was about the middle of her 
 performance, I went stealthily and unperceived by anyone 
 but my own party, (who, by-the-bye, were very much 
 frightened lest the old lady might hear of it and bewitch me), 
 to the end of the house on which she was perched, protruded 
 my head a little above the roof, and repeated the name of the 
 slaughtered woman, Punepune, two or three times in a slow 
 sepulchral voice. This frightened the old Jezebel so much 
 that in her alarm and attempt to descend from the roof of 
 the hoixse, she rolled off on to the ground like " a thousand 
 of biicks." There she lay without a move, her head covered 
 for a short time, the others supposing she had been killed by 
 the fall ; but to their surprise she became reanimated, got up 
 on hei- hands and knees, and crawled away into a house on 
 " all fours," stowing herself away in a corner until morning. 
 Even then she continued the farce of the night before, stating 
 that Punepune had appeared to her informing her of the 
 proceedings of the departed expedition : in fact, she told them 
 that she had been called from the top of the house by the 
 dead woman, with whom she had afterwards been in com- 
 munication during the night, and her revelations she would 
 make known at a future peiiod. That portion which she did 
 relate did not tally with the statements made on the return
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 2-J 
 
 of the expedition, and I never heard of her having had any 
 further spiritual communications. 
 
 The Europeans and half-caste New Hollander captured at 
 Port Waikato by the Ngapuhi had been taken to Whangarei 
 
 where Mr. W was sold to his brother, who, fortunately, 
 
 was there with his vessel in the harbour. On Mr. W 's 
 
 arrival, Pomare obtained him for a 251b. keg of gunpowder 
 from Pukerangi, and sold him to the brother for a 501k keg, 
 making a cent, per cent, profit. The saying that a man's 
 life is often dependent on a straw was verified in the case of 
 
 Mr. W during his sojourn with his captors. As before 
 
 stated, there was a disagreement between Pukerangi and 
 another chief as to his ownership. Pukerangi treated his 
 prisoner very fairly, having bought from some of the party a 
 
 portion of W 's wearing apparel and returned it to him, 
 
 but the other fellow was in a towering rage at the decision 
 
 of the chiefs, and, as he could not have W for a slave, he 
 
 determined no one else should. He tried many times by 
 hints, <fec., to get Tip a feeling against him and have him 
 killed, but always failed, till one day he stated he had dreamt 
 
 that W was endeavouring to take his life. This of 
 
 course was a matter of high treason ; but still the proof was 
 not quite patent, and accuser and owner agreed to have 
 recourse to the mode of divination known as te /tin or toro- 
 toro. They walked down to a pool of water, W accom- 
 panying them, and the hitter's enemy took two straws. One he 
 
 named after himself, the other after W ; both he launched 
 
 into the pool, intently watching the result. In the first instance 
 the straws separated ; another trial was attended with the same 
 
 result; but the third proved decisive, for W i.e., his 
 
 straw, floated across and under the native's representative. 
 
 Had it floated over, it would have been a sign that W did 
 
 intend mischief, Pukerangi could not have saved his slave, and 
 "W would have been most certainly knocked on the head.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS ADVENTURES. 
 
 In 1834, in consequence of an old dispute about the Tamaki 
 lands, the Ngatiteata, Ngatitamaho, and Ngatiwhatua, with 
 a few auxiliaries, attacked the Ngatipaoa at Whakatiwai, iu 
 hopes of accomplishing the slaughter of Tauwhare, Te 
 Kupenga, and other chiefs. On the invading party's way 
 across from Maramarua, about half way, at a place called the 
 Takanga, they attacked a small party of the Ngatipaoa who 
 were there cultivating. During the attack, a woman of 
 the Ngatipaoa, named Kirikiri, behaved most courageously, 
 loading and firing from a whare in which she was alone by 
 herself, and greatly annoying the Waikatos ; she was 
 ultimately dispatched by volleys fired into the whare. By 
 the time the tatta had reached Whakatiwai, the Ngatipaoa 
 were aware of the intended attack, and contrived to evade it 
 by leaving the pa ; but some of the younger members of the 
 taua succeeded in capturing several children, who were treated 
 most cruelly by being made fast to legs of patakas (a store 
 house built on posts to prevent rats from getting at corn, &c.) 
 as marks for spear practice, and were left to linger during 
 the pleasure of their tormentors. In consequence of the 
 unpi-ovoked attack on the Ngatipaoa, complications arose in 
 Waikato, in which the Ngatinaho and Ngatihine, from their 
 relationship with the Ngatipaoa, endeavoured to obtain 
 redress from the other party. Two engagements were the 
 result, one at Momoreti, in wliich two of Te Keha's sons were 
 killed ; they, with a portion of their force, having left the
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAOJU LANDS. 2* 
 
 pa, an engagement (he parekura) took place in which the two 
 above named fell ; the attacking party escaped scathless. 
 The Ngatinaho part}' a short time after retimied the compli- 
 ment by attacking the Ngatitamaho, etc., in their pa at Te 
 Horo, in which engagement the Ngatinaho lost one of tln-.ir 
 chiefs, Te Wheoro, killed, and the Ngatitamaho party lost 
 a chief named Tirua, son of Paengahuru ; there was also an 
 old woman killed by a shot fired into the pa. An incident 
 showing the devotion of a wife to her husband occurred after 
 this action. On Te Wheoro's being removed from the scene 
 of his death, he was laid ont in state, dressed in new mats, 
 his head decorated with feathers. It is customary for a 
 deceased chief to be attended by his wife, or wives as the case 
 may be ; in case of a plurality the rant/at ira dame taking pre- 
 cedence as mourner to receive the relatives who come to wee]) 
 over the tupapaku. It was the usual thing to crop the 
 widow's hair as a demonstration of grief, and at the same, 
 time as a great disfigurement. In the case of Te Wheoro's 
 widow, a young woman who had a good head of hah*, she 
 declined to conform to the rule, and persisted in not having 
 her hair destroyed, remarking that she would make a bad 
 appearance when placed in a position similar to that of her 
 deceased husband. From this remark her relatives guessed 
 her intentions, but, notwithstanding their watching her, she 
 contrived to get her husband's musket, loaded it, tied a piece 
 of flax to the trigger and to her own toe, discharged the piece 
 into her mouth, and scattered her brains far and near. 
 
 By the intervention of Te Uira and other influential chiefs, 
 hostilities were suppressed and peace established. On the 
 return of Te Wherowhero with the Ngatiwhatua, the Ngati- 
 teata, the Ngatitamaho, <tc., from the march to Manakau, 
 peace was made with the Ngatipaoas, &c., at a large meeting 
 held at Otalmhu for the purpose. In 1834, it being reported 
 that another Ngapulri expedition was intended against the
 
 28 PAKEIIA UAMBLEo THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 \Vaikato, all the Waikato tribes conjointly erected a large 
 pa at Ngaruawahia, occupying many acres, and it was not 
 till about tlie election of Potatau as King that tlie palisading 
 of the pa was entirely demolished. 
 
 A misunderstanding arose between the Ngatiteata and the 
 Ngatitamaho .tribes respecting the ownership of certain lands 
 in the neighbourhood of Waiuku (Te Whakaupuku) which 
 idtimately resulted in a light at Taurangaruru. There were 
 also at the same time in the Waikato two tribes, the Ngati- 
 pou and the Ngatitipa, disputing about a small difference of 
 boundary amounting only to a few acres, and in the other 
 quarrel the Ngatipous were assisting the Ngatiteata. At the 
 fight at Taurangaruru, near Waiuku, Te Kuri, a chief of the 
 Ngatiteata, and two chiefs of the Ngatipou, Reihana and 
 Moehaka, were killed ; a slave of the Ngatitamaho, on the 
 other side, was wounded, and afterwards died. 
 
 The row between the Ngatipou and the Ngatitipa brought 
 forward as the grounds of dispute was respecting a strip of 
 about three chains long on the Ihutaroa property containing 
 from about 12 to 15 acres ; b\it there was an old sore in the 
 back ground. They had been sparring for nearly a year by 
 themselves, and nothing serious had resulted till an ally, by 
 an indiscreet movement, involved the two parties in a fight 
 in which three were shot, two of the Ngatipou and one of 
 the Ngatitipa. 
 
 A month subsequently another engagement took place, 
 occasioned by one of the Whakaiiru of the Ngatipou, who 
 was sparring on the boundary with the opposite party, 
 receiving a blow which produced blood. On this, he imme- 
 diately discharged his piece, wounding one of the opponents, 
 and catising a general engagement, in which 17 were killed 
 and several wounded, some so seriously that their recovery 
 was miraculous. One chief had received three musket wounds, 
 one striking him a little above the knee, running along the
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 29 
 
 bone, and settling in the posterior ; one through the leg under 
 the knee joint ; and one in the instep, though this latter was 
 not very serious, he being able to extract the ball at the time, 
 as it was a spent one ; yet, though no bone was broken, the 
 wound remained open for some time. Notwithstanding these 
 serious wounds I met him the following day on his return 
 from a taua toto, at which he had danced the war dance with 
 the rest, and he never laid up on account of them. The 
 Ngatipou and Ngatiteata suffered most severely. The ]S"gati- 
 pou had become dispirited, and sent for me ; from the advice 
 I gave them they became reassured, and the action I took 
 with the Ngatitipa was, I believe, the means of staying 
 hostilities, and of the establishment of peace. I had a good 
 understanding with both parties. 
 
 In 1832, a quarrel arose among the Ngatipou regarding 
 the ownership of an eel weir 011 the Whaiigape Lake. It 
 was at first merely a family feud, and they met to talk the 
 affair over ; an altercation ensued, they had brought arms 
 with them, and a piece was discharged wounding in the foot a 
 slave, who, from the pain and irritation of the moment, with- 
 out hesitation retaliated upon Mauri (the party claiming the 
 eel weir) with a spear he held in his hand. This settled the 
 matter in a very summary manner, each party withdrawing, 
 though swearing vengeance against the other. Mauri died 
 from the spear wound, and nothing more was done in it; 
 his people put up with the loss of their man and of their claim 
 to the eel weir, if they ever had any. 
 
 In 1832, a friend who was residing with me had an excel- 
 lent double-barrelled gun which he prized very much from 
 its having been a present from his relatives on his leaving 
 England. The chief Piraoa having seen the gun requested 
 permission to have it to exhibit to his friends, tuparas (two 
 barrels) in those days being a novelty with the Maoris. Piraoa 
 went off to the Thames on a fishing excursion, and some one 
 8
 
 30 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 remarked that he was safe to give away the tiipara. To save 
 the gun it was incumbent that Piraoa should be followed, 
 and I started in company with a Mr. Monteith and six native 
 lads. We procured a canoe and went lip the Awaroa to 
 Waiuku, crossed over, went along the banks where I had 
 previously got bogged, but this time more cautiously, without 
 any great risk to life or limb, and near the Karaka we fell 
 in with a party of the Ngatiteata fishing, who kindly put us 
 across to Pukaki, to the astonishment of the natives we met 
 there, we being the first Europeans who had crossed that sheet 
 of water. We remained with them that night, and in the 
 morning proceeded across the country to Otahuhu. fortunately 
 again getting a lift from there in a canoe to Mangemangeroa, 
 Avhere we overtook the party we were in search of. By the 
 time we got there our provisions had become exhausted, and 
 we had to content ourselves with fern root ai,d sharks' eggs, 
 or fern root alone. I succeeded in securing the object of our 
 trip, and, having i-ested ourselves for a couple of days, the 
 natives kindly offered to take us in their canoes to Whaka- 
 tiwai to shorten our road back. We got as far as Taupo 
 (on the Thames), where they had to land us, the sea being 
 too heavy after passing the shelter of Waiheke, and we had 
 to tramp on foot over shingle the remaining distance to 
 Whakatiwai. From travelling over the shingle we lost 
 the soles of our shoes, but, notwithstanding, we went on 
 after dark in expectation of reaching a European's house 
 which, we wei^e made to understand, was at the very branch 
 where we were to strike off for the Waikato. We con- 
 tinued on, fatigued and foot sore and in the dark, till at 
 last we were compelled to give in, and camp oiit on the 
 beach in the best way we could. At daylight in the morn- 
 ing, to oiir surprise and disgust, we found that we had ' laid 
 ourselves on the hard shingle without any bedding within 
 a stone's throw of the very house AVC had been iu search of the
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 31 
 
 night before. We were not long in rousing ont the owner, 
 whose name was Jones, a person trading for Messrs. Jones 
 and Walker, merchants of Sydney, and lie received and 
 treated us very kindly for two days, whilst we recruited our- 
 selves and patched up our boots the best way we could. We 
 then proceeded on our journey across to the Mangatawhiri, 
 where we still carried our good fortune, and succeeded in 
 obtaining a canoe and paddles. A twelve hours' row brought 
 us down to Putataka, from whence we had started. 
 
 We waited a long time for the return of the vessel to take 
 away the flax, and supply us with stores for trading, as 
 our stock was nearly exhausted with the purchases made. 
 A good look-out to sea was always kept, and at last a vessel 
 hove in sight ; but, before she could reach the bar, the wind 
 shifted, and precluded her entering, so she had to drop 
 anchor outside. That was in the forenoon; she did not 
 appear to resemble the " Sydney Packet," and we wondered 
 what vessel she could be. In the afternoon another hove 
 in sight, but this was also a stranger, and the wonder- 
 ment continued. They remained at anchor 14 days, the wind 
 continuing from the eastward, blowing right out. At last it 
 veered a little, and one vessel, the nearest in to the bar, 
 managed to get just inside, when the wind shifted back to 
 the eastward, preventing the vessel outside from entering ; 
 the one that had got in was the " Harlequin." She dropped 
 anchor inside the bar in quiet water, and got up to the 
 anchorage by the next flood tide. Fi'om the master we learnt 
 that the " Sydney Packet" had been sold in Sydney, and that 
 the " Samuel," now outside, was sent down to relieve her. 
 I was told that Captain Payne, on hearing of his interest 
 having been sold, agreed to dispose of the flax in my store to 
 the master of the " Harlequin," but I at once made arrange- 
 ments to secure and retain it for the " Samuel." The next 
 morning seven natives and myself went towards the bar in
 
 32 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 a large war canoe, and by the time we had got there the 
 " Samuel " was under weigh. The natives perceiving this 
 asked me if I intended going out over the bar. Not imagin- 
 ing that they woiild go, I said I would leave it to them, 
 and to my astonishment they said, " Very well, then ; we 
 will go." I didn't half like the idea, for the rollers were 
 coming in tolerably large. The natives buckled their mats 
 round them, six went forward, and one, the chief Te Kare- 
 kare (afterwards Wiremu Paerata), remained aft with me 
 to steer. We got out very well, excepting that we had 
 a narrow escape of coming to grief from one roller break- 
 ing under iis. Fortunately, the natives sitting forward in 
 the canoe, the sea broke abaft the midships, and as the 
 preponderance of weight was forward the sea passed under 
 her; when it broke, the stern was hanging over the gulf 
 and we were looking down into it. We got 011 board of 
 the vessel, and the master, hearing of the trick that was 
 intended to be played him, determined at all risks to 
 attempt to work the vessel in over the bar. He con- 
 sulted the chiefs, Piraoa who was on board with him, and Te 
 Karekare who had gone out with me, and upon their telling 
 him they knew the channel, he undertook it. We had made 
 about three boards (the tide flowing at the time) when 
 an immense roller came over our broadside, smashing both 
 bulwarks a-midships, breaking a boat, carrying overboard 
 a native, and nearly myself. I was immersed \ip to my 
 neck and off my feet, and should have gone had not I seized 
 hold of a ratlin and held fast until the vessel rose and the 
 water passed off her decks. When she rose she had sufficient 
 way to go about, and in doing this a bight was made in the 
 painter of our canoe towed aft ; the man overboard managed 
 to grasp it, and was dragged on board ; but the poor fellow 
 was awfully frightened. He was a fair complexionecl 
 native, and, losing his colour, the blue tatooing on his face
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 33 
 
 was most beautifully clear, the design and execution being 
 so good. Captain Payne attempted to carry tilings with 
 a high hand, but the master of the " Samuel " was not to be 
 intimidated, and, after a great deal of bounce on their part, 
 we shipped the flax 011 board our vessel and prepared for sea. 
 I intended to return to Sydney, and arranged accordingly 
 with the master. The bar being heavy and the wind in 
 shore, we had to wait a few days for an improvement, 
 and, during that time, a quarrel arose between a chief, 
 Te Haupatai (the father of Mohi te Ahi a te Ngu), and his 
 wife. This was seized upon by Te Pepene Te Tihi, her 
 brother, as a cause for a row, they being joint owners 
 of the lands at Pukaki in the Manakau and of a por- 
 tion of the Tamaki, near Auckland. It was arranged that 
 they should have a meeting ; accordingly Te Haupatai went 
 out in front of the settlement and sat down with a tcdaha by 
 his side to receive Te Tihi, and several of us went with him. 
 Te Tihi advanced with a timata balanced in his hand, while 
 Te Haupatai, not anticipating an aggressive attack, was 
 unprepared. The real etiquette which Te Tihi ought to have 
 followed, if he meant any evil, was this : He should have 
 advanced, shaking his weapon, then retired ; advanced again, 
 once more gone back ; and, on his third forward movement, 
 have then delivered his blow. All this would have been 
 proper and fair; indeed, so much was love of fair play engrafted 
 in the disposition of the natives that in many instances the 
 advancing party, seeing his adversary unarmed, has brought 
 with him two weapons, and politely handed one of them to 
 the tupapaku (lit., corpse), as the other man is called; thus 
 honourably placing his opponent on even terms with himself. 
 In this case, however, Te Tihi struck him 011 his first advance. 
 Te Haupatai, though wounded, rose and struggled with Te 
 Pepene, and Te Haupatai's party, seeing that he was hit, 
 called for muskets ; Te Popene retired, and a musketry action
 
 34 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAOfll LANDS. 
 
 commenced. At the time Te Haupatai was struck I was 
 standing at his back, and hearing the call for arms another 
 European and myself ascended a hill and looked down on the 
 engagement which lasted for about half an hour without any 
 serious results, no one being hit. Hostilities- were suspended 
 temporarily, each party having a war dance as if intending 
 to renew it. Te Haupatai died two days after my departure, 
 but the whole thing ultimately ended in smoke; for, two years 
 after, the family of Te Haupatai were living amicably with 
 their uncle Te Pepene in the same settlement, and appeared 
 to be on the best of terms. Two days after, I left for Sydney, 
 and, after remaining there about a month, took my passage 
 for New Zealand via Van Diemen's Land in the same vessel. 
 It was now the equinox, and we made a dreadful passage of 
 16 days, having to \mt in to Jervis Bay and another place, 
 near Twofold Bay, from stress of weather. We carried away 
 fore-topmast, gaff, spanker boom, and had a boat washed 
 away from her davits; and, to me the most grievous sight, 
 the goats, poultry, <tc., I had on board and intended for use 
 in New Zealand one by one disappeared away to leeward. 
 Whilst in Twofold Bay we availed ourselves of the oppor- 
 titnity of getting fresh water and firewood ; but, while getting 
 them, a party of blacks put in an appearance. Two men, 
 more bold than the rest, advanced towards us, and a couple 
 of natives that were returning to New Zealand being ashore 
 with us, I got them to give a Maori yell to try its effect on 
 the New Hollanders. It so frightened them that they 
 jumped up at once and bolted off, and I verily believe, if they 
 have not died or stopped from fatigue, they must be running 
 still. 
 
 A curious error on the captain's part occurred on this trip. 
 We got into a dense fog when, by the captain's reckoning, 
 two hundred miles out at sea ; there was, however, a curious 
 appearance ahead which a native declared was Mount Egmont,
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 30 
 
 at Tarauaki, but the skipper being appealed to pooh-poohed 
 the idea. It was, however, lucky for its that a breeze spring- 
 ing up dissipated the fog, as this was the mountain and we 
 were close to the bi-eakcrs. We were fortunate in having a 
 smai-t craft under us, else it might have gone hard with vessel 
 and crew. We reached Waikato Heads in safety, but, the 
 captain knowing nothing of the channel and entrusting the 
 pilotage to the natives on board, we managed to get ashore, 
 and this time for good. The Maoris behaved veiy well, 
 helping to unload cargo, dismantle the vessel, &c., and not 
 a single article was lost. The crew got very drunk, some of 
 them being hauled on. shore through the surf to save their 
 lives, and eventually the vessel went to pieces. A short time 
 after the wreck a misunderstanding arose between the captain 
 and myself respecting the ownership of a cannon which I had 
 purchased in Sydney and shipped as my property. The 
 captain had only joined the vessel on the eve of her departure, 
 and, being perhaps unaware of my rights to the piece, he 
 wanted to sell it to raise money to pay himself and crew. 
 Of coiirse I was as anxious to retain my own property, and 
 the consequence was that, on my refusing to give it up, he 
 sent up a posse of 14 hands, as the gun, being a 12-pounder 
 and heavy, required some strength to move it. The proceed- 
 ings began by their reeving a rope through a ring at the 
 breech to haul it down, but, though single-handed to contend 
 with the party, I was not going to give in, even though my 
 pakeha servant would not help me. In those days I was young 
 and strong, and when the captain and his sou attempted to 
 hustle me, I tripped up the son, caught the father by the 
 collar and breech and pitched him on to the sou. Whilst 
 this was going on, the party were dragging the gun away, 
 though slowly; but the rope they had fastened had taughteued 
 nicely and so invitingly that I could not resist the tempta- 
 tion, and, with one slash of my knife, I cut it asunder,
 
 36 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 sending the haulers tumbling over one another to the great 
 amusement of the Maori lookers-on. Being laughed at did 
 not improve my friends' tempers, and they seemed determined 
 to take the gun, but I too had become warm, and was equally 
 resolved they should not have it ; so, when again they made 
 the rope fast to the gun, I took up a pair of pistols I had 
 fetched from the hoxise and declared that if they persisted I 
 would shoot the man nearest to the gun. This mild threat 
 had the effect of inducing each of them to avoid proximity, 
 and there was a general falling back, although the captain 
 urged them to continue. On seeing the determined air I had 
 assumed, and fearing something serious might happen, Te 
 Karekare jumped up and declared that he would not permit 
 so many to attack a single individual, and that, if they went 
 on, he would assist me. This decided the question, the 
 pakehas retired grumbling, and I was left in peaceable 
 possession of the gun. 
 
 After this, I commenced trading in flax, and Reihana 
 called one day and requested to see my trade. He selected 
 a musket, though he did not take it away, but merely marked 
 it by attaching a piece of string, at the same time telling me 
 he would only give one basket of flax for it, the customary 
 price being 27 or 28 baskets containing 7 cwt. A few days 
 after, on looking up the river (our house faced the water), I 
 perceived an extremely singular-looking body looming in the 
 distance and coming down - stream. On its approaching 
 nearer it looked, through the glass, like a haystack biiilt on 
 canoes ; we could see the paddles glisten in the sun as they 
 were worked to propel the body towering above them. On 
 their nearing us, it turned out to be Reihana with about 40 
 companions and the single basket of flax that he had stated 
 he would give for the musket. Two canoes had been fastened 
 together a short distance apart, on which was erected a stage, 
 and on this was placed the " basket." When the tide had
 
 I'AKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 37 
 
 receded and the canoes were left dry, it took all the forty 
 natives to lift and carry it into the store. Reihana objected 
 to having it weighed, stating that if it was less than the usual 
 quantity I nmst put up with the loss, and, if it was more, he 
 was satisfied, as it was his proposition not to have it weighed ; 
 he then took his musket and returned with the flood tide. 
 Afterwards, on pressing my flax for shipment, I had the 
 curiosity to weigh this monster basket, and found that it was 
 over 8 c\vt. instead of 7 cwt., the usual price. 
 
 In the autumn of 1832, I took a trip up the country to 
 trade, and during my absence a report reached us that the 
 Ngapuhis had arrived at Port Waikato. The natives in the 
 vicinity of the settlement at which I was stopping, mustered 
 about 300 in number, and with them I went in company to 
 my home. On my arrival I found the Maoris had mustered 
 from all directions, and, moreover, that some had been 
 troublesome to the man-servant I had left in charge ; but 
 Reihana, on his arrival with, his party, hearing of the annoy- 
 ance my servant had experienced, told him that if his men 
 were permited to establish themselves in the fore-court it Avould 
 probably check the importunity and pilfering of the others, 
 a propensity for which they had exhibited some inclination. 
 After he had taken charge nothing further occurred, though 
 there were 3,000 natives, as stated in page 19, surrounding us. 
 
 The abduction of Mr. W has been stated at page 20. 
 
 He afterwards returned to Waikato and resided at Kopoko- 
 whatitiri, at which place a large pa, or, more properly speak- 
 ing, three pas joined together, had been erected, as three 
 tribes were living in it, each party having built the portion 
 in which they resided. One chief having taken liberties with 
 the wife of a chief of another tribe, a quarrel arose and 
 threatened to become serious ; but, through the intervention 
 of several chiefs, an amicable arrangement was made, which 
 so elated the highest in rank that he determined to give the
 
 38 PAKEHA RABBLES TflUOUGH MAORI 
 
 assembled people a feast. On inquiry, he discovered that lie 
 had no kinaki (relish) handy to give with the potatoes and 
 kumeras, and so he was rather at a loss ; but, on considera- 
 tion, he bethought himself what a treat a nice tender young 
 woman would be. By-and-by one of his numerous wives 
 came out, and proved the use wives can be put to on an 
 emergency. She was directed to fetch firewood and pre- 
 pare a Uatigi (a haivji is the native oven, in which food is 
 cooked, or, more properly, steamed) ; unconscious for what 
 purpose this was intended, she went on with the work imagin- 
 ing that it was for the usual routine of cooking; but, on its 
 completion, she was seized, and it then flashed across her mind 
 that she was the proposed victim. In her fear and agony she 
 called to her husband and chief for protection, but the brute's 
 only response was "Karangamai! karangamai!" (call to me; 
 call to me), and a laugh. She was killed and cooked, and the 
 party ate, drank, made peace, and were merry while picking 
 her bones. While I am on the theme of murder, I may 
 mention another case of woman slaughter which occurred at 
 Whaingaroa. On my paying Mr. Lonsdale a visit in 1833, 
 and while stopping at his house, I was one morning informed 
 by a chief that the natives living on the opposite side of the 
 river, at Orea, had killed a woman and apparently meant to 
 eat her, as she was at that time being cooked. I informed 
 Mr. Lonsdale, the master of a vessel that was in harbour, 
 and two other Europeans, and we determined to go across 
 and deprive them of their anticipated repast by disturbing 
 the JiatKji in which we expected she would be stewing. We 
 crossed the river and, on neariiig the shore, saw a number 
 of children amusing themselves with something which seemed 
 to afford them great delight. On landing we discovered that 
 the head of the unfortunate woman was the plaything which 
 they were rolling about ; they were laughing and j uniping 
 all the time like a number of little imps, Mr. Lonsdale at
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 39 
 
 once picked it np and, wrapping it in his handkerchief, 
 placed it in the boat. We then, proceeded inland to carry 
 out the object of our visit ; but, to onr surprise and disgust, 
 the natives had anticipated the object of our visit and had 
 funned themselves round the Jiangi in a circle, which we 
 were not permitted to enter. We remained there a con- 
 siderable time thinking that perhaps they might relax in their 
 vigilance ; but no, they did sentry-go, relieving each other 
 till our patience was exhausted and we retired. We returned 
 home, and in the evening Mr. Lonsdale and the captain 
 re-visited them to see the "wild beasts" feed. In this they 
 were successful, and were invited to join in and partake of 
 the savory meal ; but they very politely declined, the captain 
 merely requesting the little finger of the unfortunate woman, 
 which he obtained and preserved as a souvenir. On my first 
 seeing the head bowled about by the children, as we landed 
 from the bout, I thought I recognized the features, but could 
 not call to memory where I had seen them, the jaw having 
 fallen and the dirt about the face having altered the appear- 
 ance ; but I learnt afterwards that she was a slave belonging 
 to the tribe under whose protection I was living in Waikato. 
 She had run away to the chief who afterwards killed her, by 
 whom she was taken as a supernumerary wife ; but, finding 
 her inconstant, he had knocked her on the head and disposed 
 of her as stated above. 
 
 The only murder of a European committed in the Waikato 
 District previous to the war in '63 was by one white man on 
 
 another. Two men, Charlie and Geordy Clare, lived 
 
 together at Whaingaroa, when, one day, apparently without 
 provocation (as was stated by the natives), no other Euro- 
 peans being near, Clare shot Charlie with a pistol in the 
 side, and ultimately dispatched him by jumping on him and 
 otherwise brutally ill-treating him. There being no law in 
 New Zealand at the time, he committed the act with impunity,
 
 40 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 though afterwards, having confessed the murder, he was taken 
 to Sydney by Captain Kent in the "Lord Byron" brig. 
 On their reaching Sydney lie was handed over to the author- 
 ities, and the charge of murder preferred against him upon 
 his own confession. On his examination, being asked by the 
 Court what he had to say to the charge, he stated that it was 
 certainly true he had said that he had murdered the man, 
 but that he had made the statement as a ruse to obtain a 
 passage out of New Zealand, as he had no money or property 
 to meet the expense. From the want of evidence, he was 
 liberated, but he was shortly afterwards drowned on his first 
 trip to sea ; the vessel foundered, and all hands were lost, 
 not one appearing to tell the tale, and Clare no doubt being 
 the " Jonah."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A HODGE-PODGE OF REMINISCENCES. 
 
 ON my leaving Waikato at the time of the anticipated attack 
 by the Ngapuhis, I went to reside at Te Horo, a settlement 
 on the Waipa, where I was living when the Waikatos 
 mustered to follow the Ngapuhis. During their absence I 
 determined to shift my quarters, and made arrangements 
 with other natives to bring canoes and take niy property. 
 I had nearly cleared the hoiise of the moveables, and sent the 
 canoes away loaded, when I got a hint from a pakeha living 
 near me that it was intended to rob me. Very soon after, 
 I perceived a posse of about a dozen natives appi'oach the 
 gate ; three entered and the rest remained outside. On the 
 
 O 9 
 
 three entering the house, after the usual salutations, I asked 
 them their object. I should mention that as soon as I got 
 the hint that they were coming, I provided myself with 
 a musket, buckled a cartridge box on, placed cartridges 
 between the fingers of my left hand after the most approved 
 native style, and suspended a dirk stick from my wrist. This 
 latter article was the terror of the natives. It had been a 
 sword stick nnd got broken, upon which I shortened it 
 sufficiently to permit its being carried in the trousers' 
 pocket ; it was one of those that had the dirk thrown from 
 the end. Seeing me so well prepared for them, they became 
 confused and said that, having heard that I was about leaving 
 their settlement, they had come to see me before I went 
 away. I told them that I was well aware of their intention, 
 and suggested they should weigh the matter well before
 
 42 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 acting, for the first person who attempted to take anything 
 or to molest me I Avould not hesitate to shoot ; and that, 
 before they could dispatch me, I would have two or three 
 more of them. They went on excusing themselves by saying 
 that they had merely come to see me before my departing 
 and leaving the house, but on their way out I heard them say 
 to those who had remained outside that it wouldn't do, as I 
 was prepared for them. They had not left me long when 
 I received another message informing me that they were 
 going in pursuit of my canoes to strip them, and I immediately 
 started by land to join the party in charge, a European. 
 Passing the end of the pa in which the natives resided, I 
 found them launching a canoe ; but on seeing me they 
 desisted, and asked me where I was going. I told them 
 I was going to shoot ducks : " Ah, ah," they said, " you 
 think to shoot ducks that can't fly !" I went on, over- 
 took my canoes, and informed my servant of the intended 
 muni, or robbery ; telling him in Maori to shoot the first 
 man who touched anything in the canoe, then to throw his 
 musket into the water and defend himself with his cutlass. 
 A native lad who had followed me heard my instructions, 
 and rushed back to his people, who, of course, as I had 
 expected, had broken into and robbed my house. It was not, 
 however, the party I had seen ; they had, on my passing 
 them, desisted from launching their canoe, and gone up to 
 the house ; but, on seeing how little property there was and 
 how useless, the principal of the party remarked it would be 
 folly to interfere with anything there, for on my return, if 
 I found the things gone, I would set fire to my house, and, 
 from its close proximity to those in the pa, the whole settle- 
 ment would be burned ; so they left without touching any- 
 thing. But another party, thinking they might have a finger 
 in the pie, walked off with two or three trifles, amongst 
 which were an iron pot. some provision I had retained for
 
 1'AKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 43 
 
 my support during the absence of the canoes, and a dog. 
 I soon learnt who had perpetrated the theft, and went im- 
 mediately in search of the delinquent. On entering that 
 part of the pa where he lived, I saw my dog tied up to the 
 fence and the man who had taken it sneaking away. I 
 followed in pursuit, Imt by the time I had got out he had 
 disappeared, having run down a slope in front of the pa and 
 hidden in the high fern. I followed on his track, and came 
 xtpon him ; thinking he had the iron pot with him, I declared 
 if he did not give it me I would shoot him, at the same time 
 cocking my musket. This so intimidated him that he jumped 
 up, throwing open his mat to show he had not got it. I felt 
 sure he had hidden it, and foolishly looked for it, turning my 
 back towards him, which he availed himself of by clasping 
 me round the waist from behind, at the same time endea- 
 vouring to throw me ; in this he, fortunately, did not succeed, 
 though he was doing his best, and uttering all kinds of 
 threats. I took it very coolly ; and fearing that in the 
 struggle the piece, being loaded and cocked, might go off' and 
 perhaps wound some of the spectators, I requested a lad to 
 take it. As soon as the gun was out of my hands, my friend, 
 imagining I was unarmed, became outrageous ; fortunately 
 I had my pocket companion, the dirk-stick, with me, and, 
 unperceived by him, I got it out and gave him a prod or two, 
 the last one having the effect of making him loose his hold 
 and bolt off" at a great rate. I had a little difficulty in 
 regaining my gun as it had been stolen from where the lad 
 had hidden it; the sister of the chief under whose protection 
 I had been living took the matter up, threatening the delin- 
 quent with any amount of vuikutu (witchcraft) if it was not 
 produced immediately. The same evening I had it returned 
 to me, and on my leaving I presented it to her as an acknow- 
 ledgment of her kindness. 
 
 The only case of quarrel in which 1 struck a native
 
 4:4 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 occurred at this settlement, and that was iii self-defence. A 
 man named Te Kakare, who had been in the habit of fre- 
 quenting my house, used, without my pel-mission, a knife I 
 kept for killing pigs ; dining his absence I wanted the knife, 
 but, not finding it, I had to let the pig go, and put out the 
 fire. On his return from work he brought it back, and I 
 remonstrated with him for not asking permission before 
 taking it, at the same time telling him to leave the premises 
 and never presume to come there again. To niy surprise he 
 rushed at me with his head down, meaning to clasp me round 
 the legs and throw me ; but I fancy he was a little astonished 
 when I jerked up my knee into his face, bringing him upright, 
 and followed this up with my fists right and left. Down he 
 went, the blood rushing copiously from his nose ; he was not 
 yet satisfied, for up he got, rushed at me again, and I had to 
 repeat the dose. This might have gone on, but a chief, who 
 happened to be sitting in the house at the time, seeing what 
 was up, called out to him to know'if he wished to be killed, 
 and told him to clear out, which he did. The next morning 
 on my rising, a little after daylight, I found six large 
 baskets of potatoes and a fine hog tied to the fence near the 
 gate, and was told they were Te Kakare's. I thought they 
 were brought for sale, and so, from his conduct the day before 
 I refused to purchase them ; but I Avas undeceived, and told 
 they were there as utu or reparation for his conduct of the 
 day before ; I declined to accept them, but the fine was 
 enforced by the chief. Te Kakare did not put in an. appear- 
 ance for a length of time, but at last he came to me and we 
 made friends ; I paid him secretly for his goods, and we have 
 remained on capital terms ever since. 
 
 On my going to Toroakapakapa, the natives built me a 
 house, and I settled down quietly waiting for advices from 
 Sydney, which, by the way, I never received. I had been 
 there some time when two gentlemen from tho Thames paid
 
 1'AKElfA KAMKLES THUOUOli MAOllt LAM>*. 45 
 
 mo a visit, and I accompanied tiicm on their return after 
 their remaining -with me a fortnight. On the way we had to 
 cross the Waikato, and, in tlie absence of a canoe, we managed 
 it on a mokl. A moki is a quantity of flag or bulrush tied 
 together, and from- its buoyancy when dry will support a 
 considerable weight. We then ascended the Maungakawa 
 range, and descended into the Kawheriki Valley, in which 
 we came across a corpse suspended by the heels from a tree, 
 and, a little further on, a head. In the bottom of the valley 
 was a deserted pa that had been set on fire, probably by 
 accident, as we saw amongst the remains portions of burnt 
 guns and a few iron pots, both articles, in those days, very 
 scarce and consequently valuable ; by some accident the pa 
 may have become tapuetl, and its inhabitants fired it to get 
 rid of the tapu. It appears that, during the quarrel be- 
 tween the Ngatihaua and the Ngatipaoa, &c., the latter, with 
 a party of Ngapuhi, made a raid upon the Ngatihaua at 
 Kawheriki ; Ngatihaua sallied out, attacked the assailants, 
 and succeeded hi capturing three of the Ngapuhi, one of 
 whom they suspended alive by the heels, the other two 
 they killed, decapitating them, placing the heads on stumps 
 of trees, and eating their bodies : the other head we saw 
 in the vicinity of the pa at Matamata. The treatment 
 the captured men received so intimidated the rest of their 
 party that they were off before the next morning. On 
 the Matamata plains the remains of two pas, within a few 
 chains of each other, were pointed out to me as the spot 
 where the occupants kept on fighting for three days and, 
 like the Cockney sportsman who was out all day and shot 
 nothing, had committed no execution, but withdrew by 
 mutual consent. 
 
 In 183-i, being short of necessary stores, I made a second 
 trip to Kopu, on the Thames, accompanied by a European] 
 this time wo crossed the Frith of the Thames from Whaka* 
 tt
 
 4G I'AKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAOlll LAXDS. 
 
 tiwai. We remained a week and obtained what we went 
 for; but, leaving the Wailio, or Thames proper, we found 
 the sea too heavy to cross ; consequently our chief, Te Aho, 
 recommended our going into Kauaeranga (the present Short- 
 laud), and remaining until the wind and sea dropped. We 
 were met in a very friendly way by the natives, chiefly out 
 of courtesy to the chief who accompanied us. In the morn- 
 ing we took a -walk about the settlement, and seeing a nice 
 little piece of secluded bush without any pouwlteros (a pou- 
 ichero is a post painted red, and indicating a tabued spot) to 
 intimidate us, curiosity induced me to inspect it, and I did 
 so without remark, probably from my not having been seen ; 
 but my companion, when going over the same place under 
 the impression that a similar excursion would do him good, 
 was seen coming out of it, and a most serious rumpus occurred, 
 as,- unfortunately, this was stated to be a most sacred burial- 
 place. The first intimation I had of the affair was from 
 seeing several natives rushing to seize their muskets to shoot 
 the individual who had presumed to desecrate their tapn whaka- 
 harahara (an important tapu). I caught hold of the object of 
 their displeasure, covered his body with mine, and hustled him 
 into the wharc where our chief Te Aho was quietly sleeping 
 unconscious of anything wrong. We were pretty sharp in 
 waking him up, and when he heard the particulars of the 
 grievous insult offered to his pakehas, he sprang out of the 
 house into the open space in front and demanded to know 
 who had presumed to affront him in such a way as to even 
 talk about molesting liis pakeha ? He considered he had 
 shown great condescension in permitting his pakehas to visit 
 them, not quite recollecting at the time that he was making 
 a virtue of necessity, as we had been driven in there by 
 stress of weather, and were making a convenience of them, 
 Anyhow, as it was always customary to entertain visitors, 
 and that usually with the best the tuuyatu whcnM (land folk)
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 47 
 
 had, lie insisted upon their launching our craft (a large war 
 canoe) immediately, that we might depart from such inhospit- 
 able shores, and we did so, notwithstanding the boisterousne.ss 
 of the weather. We had a large native sail made of raupo or 
 bullrush, and went scudding away, Imt for a while it was so 
 rough that we did not dare to make a straight course, and wo 
 edged along the land till we got to the opposite side of the 
 Frith where we had to haul our wind to pass round a point 
 at Pukorokoro. This was done all right, but at the next 
 point we had to strike the sail, and, finding that no head- 
 way could be made against the sea, the canoe was beached 
 half-filled with water, and all our clothing, of course, satu- 
 rated ; notwithstanding this, however, and to add to our 
 distress, some of the Ngatipaoa made a taiui on one of our 
 party for a real or imaginary offence, took some few articles 
 from the natives, and attempted the same with us Euro- 
 peans. The natives gave xip their property with a good 
 grace, but we declined to surrender what we had gone so far 
 to procure and had overcome so many difficulties to obtain. 
 Te Aho, having lost some trifles, was not to be done. The 
 wily old boy set to work and ransacked his memory as to 
 former doings. A happy thought struck him, and he was 
 delighted at being able to recollect that, at some time or other, 
 the Ngatipaoa had committed a breach of etiquette with 
 regard to his tribe. He forthwith made a taua upon them, 
 and in it obtained a considerable amount of property, not at 
 all a bad retxirn for the few things that his people had lost. 
 
 This visit to the Thames reminds me of a story told 
 formerly of a captain of a trader, who used to visit Tauranga _ 
 He was there with his vessel in 1831 or 1832, and, having 
 taken a dislike to a certain chief (who had made himself, 
 certainly, obnoxious to the Europeans generally), endeavoured 
 to poison him with oxalic acid ; failing in this, he deliber- 
 ately shot him as he was leaving the -vessel's side in his
 
 48 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 canoe, the vessel at the time being under weigh and leaving 
 the port. The murdered native's companions pnlled ashore 
 in the canoe with the dead body, and, to their joy, saw that 
 the wind had dropped, and that the vessel was floating help- 
 lessly about between Te Papa and Maungaimi. Revenge 
 seemed at hand ; they were strong in numbers, the Euro- 
 peans but few ; the very winds were on their side ; and, with 
 loud shouts, they hastily manned a number of large canoes. 
 Meanwhile all on board thought themselves lost ; and, if 
 there be such a thing as conscience about a South Sea trader, 
 the skipper must have felt uncomfortable ; luckily for them 
 a puff of wind came just in time to take them outside. The 
 natives, however, were not going to be done out of utti, so 
 they got up a party to attack a man who was trading for the 
 .skipper to the southward. As usual, the object of the expe- 
 dition got wind, and the individual for whose benefit it was 
 intended was on his guard. There was another European, 
 also a trader, living in the neighbourhood, and he agreed to 
 make common cause with the captain's man. The bales of 
 flax were moved into one house and disposed along the sides 
 so as to afford protection (they were ball-proof against the 
 muskets then in use) ; all the arms, ammunition, &c., which 
 they could lay hands on were got together, and the two men 
 prepared for a regular siege. On came the taua and, sur- 
 rounding the place, demanded a surrender ; the answer was, 
 of coxirse, a shot, and the departure of one of the assailants to 
 his " happy hunting grounds ;" and this was the signal for a 
 general assault. It was a case of life or death for the two 
 pakehas, and they did their best, the one loading while the 
 other fired. A good many natives were knocked over, but 
 an unlucky shot came in, killing one of the two. The natives 
 outside soon discovered there was something wrong and made 
 a rash, which succeeded ; they reserved the survivor for 
 future death and "kai," plundered all the trade, and burned
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 49 
 
 the house with the dead man in it. It was very comfortably 
 arranged that the prisoner should be put to death in the 
 evening as a sweet morsel of revenge for the chief shot at 
 Tauranga ; but in the interval another chance of additional 
 vengeance seemed at hand ; there was actually a vessel in the 
 offing, evidently intending to speak the shore. Here was 
 a prospect of utilising the pakeha and obtaining utu by a good 
 wholesale slaughter, not to mention a decent chance of loot. 
 The prisoner was told, on pain of instant death, to signal tho 
 vessel. He did so, and a whaleboat approached the shore ; 
 he was ordered to entice the boat close in, and this was the 
 ticklish moment ; luckily none of the Maoris understood 
 English, so, putting on an air of nonchalance, the poor wretch 
 called out to his countrymen, whatever they did, not to row 
 in stem lirst, but to back in. He told them he was a prisoner, 
 and that he was going to make a bold stroke for liberty. 
 The crew did as they were bid, each man nerving himself up 
 to the task ; and, while the boat was in the midst of the 
 breakers, and the natives were licking their lips in anticipa- 
 tion of their horrible feast, the prisoner dashed into the water, 
 seized the gunwale, and held on tight while the rowers bent 
 their backs and gave way with a will. So astounded was 
 each Maori that the whole lot got out of range, and the 
 resciied man was haxiled in before a shot was fired.* 
 
 While on the theme of murder, I may mention an episode 
 that occurred between two individuals personally known to 
 myself. Manukawehi, a slave belonging to a chief of one 
 of the tribes of Waikato, ran away with his wife to the 
 Ngatipaoa in the Thames; but, having discovered some 
 impropriety in the conduct of his wife, and having no lawyer 
 to advocate his cause or Divorce Court to appeal to, he thought 
 
 * NOTE. it is not long ayo that f heard nil old Maori chief relate 
 the hitter part of this story identically with the above particulars. 
 J. ST. .1.
 
 50 PAKKHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 he would simplify the matter by making away with her ; he 
 dug a hole in the ground, cajoled her in the dark to the edge, 
 tripped her up into it, and buried her, as he hoped, alive. 
 Thinking that he had finally disposed of her, he Avent back 
 home, chuckling quietly, and keeping his act a secret. During 
 the night the wife, only stunned by the blow, contrived to 
 get out of the hole, went up to the house where her husband 
 was sleeping, sat at the door, and added fuel to the fire, 
 which had nearly burnt out. On its blazing \ip, the man 
 awoke, and, perceiving his Avife sitting at the door covered 
 with earth, just as she had risen from the grave, took her for 
 a ghost. Frightened was no name for him : down he went, 
 squatting and groaning, with his head well covered up in his 
 mat. The wife seemed to enjoy his bother ; and after resting 
 a short time she got up, left the settlement clandestinely, and 
 reached Auckland. The man kept his own counsel ; the 
 woman remained in Auckland imseen by her husband and 
 that section of natives residing in Ms vicinity ; and it was 
 generally believed that she had run away, until one day the 
 husband confessed to having killed her. She was subse- 
 quently seen in Auckland, and was looked upon as a spirit 
 until she explained how she had managed to escape. It was 
 not an unusual thing for husbands to kill their wives for in- 
 continence, or to inflict other modes of punishment as their 
 fancies might lead them. I have known several instances 
 of chiefs killing their wives for infidelity. 
 
 Derangement of intellect is very prevalent amongst the 
 Maoris ; some ai*e harmless, others mischievous. The majority 
 have a great liking for fii'e : I have on several occasions seen 
 both mad men and mad women with a piece of bai'k slung 
 round their necks and suspended in front, as piemen carry 
 their pies; on the bark they place a little earth and on that 
 they have their miniature fire which, in the distance, when 
 smoking, makes them somewhat resemble an itinei-ant tinker
 
 i'AKKHA IIAMUJJ-:* TlIUOL'cai MAOK1 hAXDfc!. 1 
 
 with his furnace. One case is on record of a man who was 
 daft from his infancy, and who had never left off sucking his 
 mother. When he grew up lie left his people and lived in 
 the bush upon what it produced ; but at times he would go 
 into the settlement, seek his mother, obtain his accustomed 
 milk, and retire to the bush again. On one occasion she had 
 a very narrow escape from his violence ; during one absence, 
 which had lasted longer than usual, her milk had dried up, 
 and the son, imagining that his mother was withholding his 
 nourishment purposely, would have committed some outrage 
 had he not been restrained by the seasonable arrival of some 
 friends, when he decamped oil' to the bush again.
 
 . CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ARRIVAL OF MISSIONARIES AND INTERVIEWS WITH ROYALTY 
 
 IT was in 1834 that the Missionaries paid their first visit to 
 Waikato, and a very narrow escape they had. One of the 
 Wesleyan body, with several Ngapuhi natives, after sur- 
 mouiiting many difficulties and passing through uninhabited 
 localities, at last reached Waikato. A portion of our party 
 had gone down the river in a canoe when they fell in 
 with the pakeha and his suite, all seated on a moki made 
 of raupo, and propelled by poles instead of paddles. The 
 Ngatipo were going in the opposite direction, and their first 
 impulse on hearing the voices and recognising the Ngapuhi 
 dialect was to blaze into them, supposing them to be enemies 
 and the advance guard of a war-party. Fortunately for them, 
 their pakeha made himself conspicuous, which induced a 
 parley, and the object of the visit was then explained ; they 
 were brought to the camp, supplied with provisions and a 
 canoe, and sent forward rejoicing the following morning. 
 After their tour through the Waikato they returned to 
 Hokianga, and the pakehas in the north, finding the Wai- 
 katos so friendly, started another expedition under the 
 auspices of the Church Missionary Society, and established 
 themselves at Mangapouri (near Alexandra), at the junction 
 of the Puniu and the Waipa. A dispute arose between the 
 two missions as to the right of the field for their operations, 
 the Wesleyans claiming it by priority ; and Mr. Hamlin and 
 the Church people withdrew and settled at Mocatoa, in the 
 Manakaiu Ultimately a compromise was made, aud Mr,
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 53 
 
 Morgan returned and formed a station at Otawliao where he 
 remained till the war commenced in. Waikato, when the 
 clergymen of both denominations had to leave. 
 
 Prior to the arrival of the Church missionaries at Manga- 
 pouri the natives paid but little heed to the Sunday, though 
 I had a big flagstaff from which used to fly, each Sunday, 
 a flag, and though I had, in a great measure, induced them 
 to stop agricultural pursuits on that day. To obviate this, 
 the Missionaries enlisted my aid to persuade them to build 
 a church, and we succeeded without much trouble. 
 
 On the Mission supplying me with books and slates, 
 I undertook the instruction of the natives, and found, to my 
 surprise and gratification, they exhibited a great desire to 
 learn, and the facility with which sonic advanced was aston- 
 ishing. I continued to instruct them until I left for Sydney, 
 when I remained aAvay nearly four years, but I occasionally 
 corresponded with them and they with me. In one of Te 
 Uira's letters he requested that I would select and forward 
 down a Missionary as they wished to have one of their own, 
 independent of the other tribes. When the Missionaiics had 
 established themselves at Mangapouri, they wished their 
 AviA'es to join them, but a difficulty arose the absence of 
 chimneys to their dwellings ; there was no stone in the 
 vicinity available, the transport of bricks was next to im- 
 possible, and without chimneys the houses would be un- 
 tenable by the ladies. Not having entirely lost my gallantry 
 I was induced, out of sympathy to the ladies and children, 
 to undertake the superintendence of a manufactory of a suf- 
 ficient number of bricks for the fire-places of two houses. Tho 
 result far surpassed my expectations, and it was only tho 
 other day, after a lapse of 38 years, that I saw pieces which 
 had been left on the ground after the chimneys had been 
 pulled down, and even then they were quite sound, and 
 almost as hard as stone. Tho manufacture of those bricks 
 H
 
 54 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS, 
 
 verified the say ing, that " A man docs not know what he cau 
 do till he tries." 
 
 Accidents from the heedless way in which gunpowder was 
 landed and stored were of common occurrence. The indis- 
 criminate use of the pipe, even while men were employed in 
 serving out powder, on the opening of a cask, or in manu- 
 facturing cartridges, &c., led to a good many. On one 
 occasion the Ngatitamaho, anticipating an attack from the 
 Ngapuhis, had opened a cask of gunpowder to distribute 
 amongst the people of the tribe ; it was placed in an open 
 area in front of the dwelling-houses, the recipients had 
 arranged themselves in a circle round it, and the dispensers 
 were at work. About two-thirds of the quantity had been 
 disposed of when Te Rangiratahu, a lad of about 13 or l<i 
 years of age, a son of the chief of the tribe, walked up 
 smoking a short pipe with a lighted coal in it, and leaned 
 over to look into the cask ; the coal naturally fell from his 
 pipe, and there was a very pretty blow up. Cask staves and 
 fire were sent in all directions ; Hika, one of the senior 
 chiefs, was killed ; Tc Rangiratahu, and several others who 
 formed the circle, were severely burnt ; and altogether there 
 was a jolly row. I was sent for to attend Te Rangiratahu, 
 and found the front part of his body burnt from the waist to 
 the crown of the head : at the time of the accident ho had but 
 a native mat wrapped round his loins, so that all the upper 
 body was exposed. I took him in hand, and, to exemplify 
 the healthy state of the natives and the quickness with which 
 their sores heal, it is a fact that, by moans of simple remedies, 
 I had him convalescent and without a scar in three weeks. 
 Another case was where three young men were making 
 cartridges, and, as usual, could not do without the pipe ; by 
 some mishap the powder exploded, and seriously burnt the 
 three. Parauri, the most seriously injured, they brought to 
 mo ; one they took to thu mission station ; and the third they
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 55 
 
 retained and doctored themselves. Pai-ami was burnt all 
 over chest, face, and arms ; and when lie arrived the parts 
 scorched were covered with scraped inamaku (the edible fern 
 tree) : the accident had happened about three days previously. 
 On his arrival, I advised the removal of the mamahu; but I had 
 to contend against a powerful toliunya (priest), who advocated 
 its use. At last I carried my point, with this exception, that 
 I allowed one arm, that least burnt, to retain the vunnahi. 
 He was so much injured about the face that he could not sec. 
 I merely stuck to cleanliness and simple remedies, and on my 
 return to apply a second dressing, I was informed that my 
 patient had had no sleep the whole night through pain ; it 
 was nothing but, " An e, au e !" all night long ; and to my 
 gratification I was told it arose from the momo&tt-arm, but 
 that the parts I had dressed were perfectly free from pain. 
 I was begged to remove the mamaku, which I did with great 
 reluctance, as the stench emanating from it Avas almost 
 intolerable, and I am happy to be able to say that in less than 
 a month he was cured and without a scar. The individual 
 retained by the natives died ; and the one taken to the 
 Mission station recovered with a stiff arm, useless to him. 
 A third case was where an old man attempted to commit 
 suicide. Nikorima Kiwani, a slave, but a favourite with his 
 chief and people, returning to the settlement after a short 
 absence, mot a chief's wife who had been confined while he 
 was away : seeing her with something protruding from under 
 her mat, and at a distance mistaking it for a pumpkin, ho 
 called out to her, " Maku to paukina " ( give me your pump- 
 kin) ; Imt to his horror discovered that he had mistaken the 
 bald head of a new-born babe for a vegetable. The mother 
 Avas A*cry much enraged that her child's head, that very sacred 
 portion of a very sacred person, should be compared to food, 
 and that of so inferior a description ; so, on discovering 
 the egregious error he had committed, and in fear of Avhat
 
 56 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 the father might do to him, Nikorima deliberately took a fire- 
 stick into a house which contained a cask of Maori-made 
 gunpowder, of about 20 Ibs., and unceremoniously put the 
 lighted stick into it. The whare was sent in eveiy direction, 
 and poor Kiwani (as described by an eye-witness, who 
 happened to be nearer at the time than he liked) was seen 
 flying through the smoke, and alighted at a considerable 
 distance from where he started ; notwithstanding his aerial 
 flight, he recovered with only the loss of the use of one of his 
 hands. When the parent of little " pumpkin head " heard 
 of the accident to Kiwani he merely laughed at the mistake 
 about the child's head. 
 
 Even in these early days there used to be some amount 
 of double-dealing in land transactions. A pakcha would bo 
 anxious to obtain a block of land ; he would see the numcrotis 
 owners, pay down his money, and fancy himself a landed 
 proprietor. Presently another lot of natives would put in 
 a claim, and reference to the sellers in the first instance 
 would elicit the fact that these latter had a right in the land. 
 Satisfying these only brought up more, so, what with one 
 thing and the other, the purchase money was often treble the 
 value of the land. I have known the same block sold twice 
 over to the same individual by the Maori owners giving, in 
 each case, different names to the boundaries, &c. This was 
 easily done, as most spots have two, if not more, names. In 
 other cases, lands represented as fertile have proved, on 
 inspection after the completion of the purchase, to be mere 
 swamps ; and it was impossible to get the deposit money 
 back. 
 
 I was present at the first meeting of the Native Land 
 League in Waikato. I was then travelling up the Waikato 
 in a canoe in company with a European lady who was going 
 to join her husband at Otawhao, and we stopped at Waitutu, 
 a. settlement on the bank of the Waikato river, a little above
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 57 
 
 Rangiriri, to prepare our mid-day meal. While it was getting 
 ready, I took a stroll and seeing a whare open and a number 
 of natives inside, I popped my head in at the door, was 
 recognised by the inmates, and requested to join them and 
 hear what they were talking about. I remarked that I did 
 not consider that I could be interested in what they had met 
 for, but I was told that it concerned both races, pakclia and 
 Maori, and that they were there to arrange a boundary line 
 between the pakeha and Maori lands. The person who was 
 speaking when I interrupted them, was requested to re-com- 
 mence that I might hear all that had been said, which he 
 did, to the purport that they were jealous of the encroach- 
 ments of the pakeha ; that, if they got mixed up in the occu- 
 pation of lands with the Maoris, altercations and unpleasant- 
 nesses would arise from the trespass of stock on each other's 
 lands, -&c. Then, appealing to me, they said, " You know 
 that we are not able to compete with the pakeha in industry 
 and labour ; there are many parts of the country eligible for 
 native cultivation where no timber is gi-owing for fencing, 
 therefore we could not fence, and our crops would be destroyed 
 by our pakeha neighbour's cattle. To prevent that, we have 
 come to the determination of not selling a single acre within 
 a prescribed boundary. On the Auckland side we will not 
 oppose the sale of an acre ; the natives may sell and you may 
 purchase all within that boundary, which wo intend shall bo 
 the Mangatawhiri Creek to the Waikato Heads one way, and 
 over to Whakatiwai on the Thames the other way." One 
 chief, named Tai-apuhi, was rather boisterous, but I very 
 quickly quieted him by telling him that ho should be the last 
 to exclaim, as he had clandestinely attempted to sell land to 
 which he had not an iota of claim, and for which he had 
 received a portion of the money (I had happened to have 
 heard of this only a few days previously). He attempted to 
 defend himself ; but, on the rest learning the particulars, he
 
 58 PAKEHA TUMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 was censured, and he sluit up for the remainder of that 
 meeting. The particular reason they assigned for striking 
 a boundary was to separate themselves and their cultivations 
 from the Europeans in dread of complications which might 
 lead to serious results between the two races. 
 
 In 1862, a short time previous to the war, Wiremti Tami- 
 hana* convened at Poria, in the Upper Waikato, a meeting of 
 all the tribes in the Island to take into consideration the 
 course to be adopted with regard to their King, whom they 
 were determined to support in opposition to the Government. 
 Anticipating a collision with the pakeha, and foreseeing the 
 result of such a war, the unsettled and harrassing life they 
 would lead, he had collected and had cooked as food for the 
 meeting all the indigenous roots and berries that their 
 ancestors had formerly lived upon, to show them that they 
 woxild probably have to fall back upon the natural products 
 of their country. Many subjects were brought forward for 
 discussion, but one speech above the rest did Wiremu Tami- 
 hana great credit. A question was asked, " What should bo 
 done with respect to debts due to pakehas ;" and this was 
 given to the different runanyas for consideration; the majority 
 gave it as their opinion that they should not be paid, and 
 some that they should. It was then given to Wiremu Tami- 
 hana for his opinion. He scrutinized the numbers on each 
 side, and then spoke very much in these words : "I sec the 
 majority are for not paying ; but if any of us have incurred 
 a just debt we are in duty bound to settle it ; don't let us fall 
 back, as the pakehas do, upon a law (the Statute of Limit- 
 ations) to free ourselves from our debts ; if any of us have 
 incurred a just debt, let it have been incurred when it will, 
 we are in duty bound to pay it. If it should occur that we 
 have a rupture with the pakeha, let us go into the war with 
 clean hands." 
 
 * Tlie wcll-luiown chief William Thompson.
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 59 
 
 I have had several opportunities of seeing Matutacra, 
 Potatau II., in state. On one occasion I was on business at 
 Horahora, a settlement a short distance below Rangiriri, 
 when it was reported that Matutaera was coming down to 
 see the people of the settlement on state affairs. It was not 
 long after that a messenger arrived informing the tanyata 
 wli&nuas (resident natives) that his Majesty was approach- 
 ing ; whereupon everyone turned out to receive him, myself 
 amongst them, as I had stayed out of curiosity to sec him. 
 The first indication of the approach of the party was a long 
 streaming flag floating high up in the air, advancing steadily 
 along the margin of the river, his Majesty and suite having 
 cuiuc down the river in canoes and, having landed a short 
 distance above the settlement in order to make a display 
 and an impressive entry into the ktdnya, they were soon 
 seen to emerge from amongst the Ji/arakeke and toetoe, a 
 native in advance, carrying the flag. At a short distance 
 behind him came the trumpeter with a tetero, or trumpet, 
 made of the leaves of harakehe, or green flax ; then the 
 advance guard, of thirty men, three abreast, all armed, with 
 one officer a captain ; as a substitute for a band, the body- 
 gxiard sang Maori songs to English tunes. Next followed 
 his Majesty ; after him, his personal friends ; and then, his 
 civil attendants ; the procession being closed by thirty inoro 
 armcd men and an officer a subaltern, both officers bear- 
 ing a commission from his Majesty. Their dresses, or uni- 
 forms, were made of grey dungaree piped with black, blue 
 caps, and no shoes. They were well supplied with arms, 
 such as rifles and double-barrel fowling pieces ; the officers 
 had swords. The men went through their drill and evolu- 
 tions with great promptness and exactness. On their ap- 
 proaching the wharc appointed to accommodate his Majesty, 
 the party halted, and the guard formed an avenue, through 
 which Matutaera passed on his entrance into the house,
 
 GO PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAOKI LANDS. 
 
 After a short time tlic soldiers were dismissed to the quar- 
 ters set aside for their use, and three sentries remained on 
 duty for the first nig] it (after which only two were posted) ; 
 these were relieved at stated intervals, a la militaire. 
 
 Matutacra recognised me : sent for me ; and we had 
 several interviews during his visit. 
 
 On another occasion, I saw the King at Rangiriri, at the 
 time of the assemblage of Wiremu Kingi te Rangitakei. 
 Hori to Kai-o-roto, and several other influential chiefs from 
 the Southward, w-ho had come to see Matutaera on business 
 of state. They expressed their disapprobation of my recep- 
 tion, and of his familiarity with me : but, on his hearing of 
 this, he informed them that he was king, and that I was an 
 old friend of his deceased father. 
 
 After so much chat about war and politics, it is high time 
 to introduce another subject, that of love and matrimony. 
 
 In civilized countries the gentlemen often divide their love 
 amongst favored belles; but in New Zealand the favored 
 belles have often been divided literally amongst their ad- 
 mirers. I have known a case in point, where two pai'ties 
 contended for the possession of a female ; women and land, 
 being, by the way, at the bottom of almost all inter-tribal 
 wars; neither party, in this case, had the best of it, and so 
 they went in for an application of Solomon's judgment, and 
 they coolly each took half ! not for the purpose of kai, but 
 to prevent its being said that the one side had, after all, had 
 the entire woman ! 
 
 The female' branch of a family are considered the property 
 of the mother's tribe, who have the right to appropriate their 
 labor, to betroth them or give them in marriage, as the case 
 may bo, the father hardly having a voice in the matter ; but 
 in such 'marriages de convenance it has occurred that the 
 lady had a secret lover. The knowledge of this sometimes 
 coming to the ears of the betrothed husband's friends, they
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 61 
 
 would prepare to abduct her ; but, on the other hand, the 
 lover's friends would also muster in his behalf, and the 
 result would be a regular case of " pull devil, pull baker !" 
 the lady being the chief sufferer in the operation. At the 
 beginning of such a struggle some little consideration might 
 be shown for decency ; but, as they warmed to their work, 
 the girl would get completely stripped. Sometimes both 
 parties would be equal in strength, and a compromise would 
 be effected by the lover giving a consideration and obtaining 
 the lady. I have heard of a case where the lover's taua was 
 the strongest, and every probability existed of its being 
 successful in opposition to the wishes of the lady's relations, 
 when one of the latter sprung forward, tomahawk in hand, 
 exclaiming, " She shall not go with you alive ; if you persist 
 in wanting her, you'll only get half !" And a few cuts with 
 the tomahawk on the body as it was being dragged almost 
 asunder by the two parties soon did the trick. 
 
 In the case of intestine war, it was not unusual when tho 
 cpiarrel was of a serious nature, and where each party in- 
 tended the extermination of the other, for a chief of the 
 attacking party to secure to himself portions of the enemy's 
 land by throwing a mat on the ground, sticking up a spear, 
 perhaps a taia/ta, or probably turning up a small portion of 
 the soil as a taunaha to enforce his claim. I have heard of 
 considerable blocks of land having been secured by those 
 means and considered by the rest as inviolable ; the rank of 
 the individual may have had some weight in the matter ; at 
 all events the claim was respected, that is, provided that tho 
 party attacked was vanquished. 
 
 The feeling of honor and respect of one chief to another 
 was often exhibited even in time of war. One case I will 
 mention out of many. At the commencement of the war 
 with the Europeans in the Waikato, the King party, finding 
 that a portion of the ISTgatitcata tribe had remained loyal, 
 I
 
 62 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 and that AiMpene Kaihau, the chief, had stayed with that 
 section, sent him word that they would not molest Waiuku, 
 his land. This promise they kept inviolate, though a serious 
 engagement took place at the Mauku, about eight miles from 
 Waiuku, between the volunteers (settlers) and Maories, in 
 which both sides suffered severely. The white force was 
 very small ; the Maori party mustered more than three 
 hundred ; and it is believed that the Mauku engagement was 
 the most dashing affair tlu-oughout the war on the part of 
 the Volunteers : had the information been attended to 
 which Waata Kukutai forwarded to the officer in command 
 at Waiuku, apprising him of a large body of natives having 
 crossed the river, the affair would have been rendered com- 
 plete, as the force could have been strengthened, and the 
 attacking natives met in a manner to ensure their total de- 
 feat. As it was, the Europeans killed three Maories for 
 every one of their own party that fell, and that, notwith- 
 standing their defeat and the loss of their officers. 
 
 I have before mentioned that only on one occasion have I 
 had a real quarrel in anger with a native, and I may as well 
 give the particulars, as they will serve to illustrate the pecu- 
 liarity of the Native's temperament, which can with the 
 most perfect hypocrisy disguise any ill feeling which may 
 exist, brood over a supposed injury, and bide its time for a 
 chance of taking vengeance for it. The man with whom I 
 had the row had really no cause for anger ; but he was very 
 annoyed because when we left Waikato through fear of the 
 Ngapuhi I went to live with another tribe. This loss of his 
 "pakeha" (myself) touched his pride, and he determined some 
 day or another to pay me off. Years after my supposed de- 
 sertion from him I was living in the interior, at Toroakapa- 
 kapa, and proud in the possession of a goose presented to me 
 by a very old friend who had taken it during the Waikato 
 raid on Tawatawhiti, described above. He fancied the cry
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 63 
 
 of the bird resembled my name, so it was reserved from 
 slaughter, tapuod, and given to me. It was the custom of 
 native parties passing by my place to sit down to have a rest 
 and look about ; and of course their numerous dogs used to 
 snuff around. One day, while sonic Maories were resting, a 
 dog of theirs went after poor goosey, and pitched into it 
 most unmercifully. It then walked into a pet pig of mine ; 
 and, as by this time I had got hold of my gun, I rolled it 
 over dead as a stone. One of the natives the veiy man 
 just mentioned came up to me, as I supposed, to claim my 
 gun as utu for his dog ; so I chucked the piece over into the 
 garden, whereon my friend at once closed with me. I did 
 not think there was much the matter, and I let him take an 
 advantage which resulted in my going down, with him on the 
 top of me. Being down, I thought my best plan was to be 
 quiet and husband my strength, while my amiable savage 
 was exerting himself to keep me down. Presently, he asked 
 if I had had enough. Of course I would not grant this ; and 
 we rose and prepared for another tussle, in which I was de- 
 termined not again to give such a chance as I had given be- 
 fore. We were wrestling on a bit of a flat about fifty or 
 sixty feet above the river, the bank sloping pretty steeply 
 down to the water's edge ; so I got my friend close to the 
 brink, by a sharp twist disengaged myself, at the same time 
 giving him a " cross-leg," and down he went rolling head 
 over heels flop into the stream. He came up well soused, and 
 furious, and went away roaring vengeance, but did not try it 
 on. He never has forgiven me, and I am sure he has not 
 forgotten his douse. 
 
 The tapu of burial places in former times was generally 
 strict, and any interference with them was always visited 
 very severely on the offending parties ; sometimes even with 
 death, but always by the muru i. c., a genci-al plunder of 
 their goods and chattels, slaves being looked upon in the
 
 64 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 light of the latter. Often the innocent have suffered for the 
 guilty, the usual custom being indiscriminate retaliation. 
 One case, out of many, I will adduce. It was formerly 
 the custom, and, indeed, still now obtains on certain occa- 
 sions, that, when a chief of rank died, his remains were 
 buried secretly in some place known only to the tohungas of 
 the tribe, so that his enemies might not have the satisfaction 
 of disinterring his bones in revenge for offences committed 
 by him whilst in the flesh. A man of rank departed this 
 life, and was accordingly interred with all due mystery. 
 Some time afterwards it happened that liis tribe had to leave 
 the district, on account of some attack upon them, and did 
 not return to it. Time passed on, and a family connected 
 with the tribe, but of low i-ank, happening to journey through 
 the country, lit accidentally upon the old chief's grave. They 
 had suffered sonic injury at his hands, and this was a fine 
 chance of paying him off: so they made fish-hooks out of 
 his bones. This fearful desecration leaked out, and spread 
 general indignation among the dead man's relations, who at 
 one prepared for revenge. A taua was organized, came up 
 with the offending party, and killed and ate the man and his 
 wife ; the children being made slaves.
 
 PART IT. 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PRESENT WAIKATO. 
 
 I THINK it is Dr. Johnson who somewhere describes tlio 
 delights of travelling in a postchaisc, and expatiates on the 
 pleasurable emotions experienced in gliding along good turn- 
 pike roads, past villages and hamlets, with no further trouble 
 than paying the postboys at each stage. Had he lived in 
 our day, he would probably have painted the comfort of a 
 first-class coupe, inaccessible (thanks to a judicious " tip " to 
 the guard) to any troublesome objector to tobacco. I do not 
 know, however, that he could have brought himself to say 
 much in favor of New Zealand coaches, constituted after the 
 model of King Cobb ; and, in default of railways, he would 
 have been reduced to recommend the buggy and the saddle. 
 
 With both these modes of travelling through the northern 
 island of New Zealand, as well as with a third walking 
 it has been my luck to become tolerably familiar ; and the 
 scenes I have witnessed contrast so strongly with those des- 
 cribed in " Waikato Forty Years Ago," that I have been 
 tempted to tack my experiences on to that description. 
 Where its writer found a country inhabited by thousands 
 of natives, I saw cultivated farms, occupied by a thriving 
 European population : where he wandered through difficult 
 bush tracks, I drove along a metalled road ; and where he 
 witnessed deeds of savage slaughter, I met happy and con- 
 tented English families, pursuing their daily avocations in 
 peace and quiet.
 
 66 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 I must confess to a partiality for the "Waikato District, at 
 least that portion of it south of Ngaruawahia ; I like its 
 country, its climate, and its scenery ; and it is a matter of 
 pleasure to me to mark on each successive visit signs of 
 improvement, of increase in population, and of a general 
 prosperous go-ahcadedness. Perhaps it was from having 
 for a length of time lived in the Bay of Plenty, where 
 surrounding hills gave one always the impression of being 
 cooped \ip, that the rolling plain of the delta, not, however, 
 quite destitute of mountain scenery, made so favorable an 
 impression. Here was a country over which one could ride 
 in more than one or two directions ; it was even possible to 
 contemplate the existence of future fox-hounds or harriers, 
 and some sport was to be obtained beyond wading waist-deep 
 in mud and water after ducks. 
 
 My last visit was in the summer of this year ; but, as I 
 have stated in the preface, I have condensed in one recital 
 the account of what I saw and heard during several trips. 
 
 We were four in number ; the buggy was roomy ; Cobb 
 and Co. had furnished a very fair pair of horses ; it was de- 
 lightful summer weather, and we had plenty of time before 
 us ; so it was decided we should take two days to get to 
 Ngaruawahia and look about iis as we drove along. For 
 several miles after leaving Auckland the road runs through 
 a level plain of volcanic soil, dotted with numerous cones, 
 testifying to the extensive plutonic agency which in prehistoric 
 times made the Auckland isthmus a centre of eruption. 
 Ages upon ages elapsed, and when the first natives made 
 their appearance, whenever that was, they found in these 
 hills positions of great natural strength, of which they at 
 once availed themselves ; terraces were formed on the flanks, 
 and tier upon tier of palisading arose. These have now all 
 crumbled away, Imt the lines are still distinctly visible, and 
 here and there can be found slight excavations, the sites of
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. G7 
 
 old whares or nuts. Now, the cones are turned to another 
 use, and form quarries of scoria, whence is carted on to roads 
 a "metal," which, at first highly detrimental to boots, 
 eventually binds down into a firm, smooth highway. Past 
 the " Harp of Erin," on either hand, the paddocks are 
 littered with large blocks of the same material, and the 
 plough can do but little ; but surface-sown grass takes 
 kindly to the red deposit, and herds of cattle roam amongst 
 these relics of one of nature's fiercest convulsions. Wo 
 passed by the upper waters of the Manukau harbour, the 
 Heads sharp and distinct some twenty miles off; Onohunga, 
 with the strong sunlight gleaming upon its houses, looking 
 actually populous and pretty ; and another mile brought us 
 to Otahuhu, a quiet and dreamy-looking little village, 
 rather altered since 1S32.' 1 ' Some water for the horses, 
 a glass of beer for ourselves, and on we trundled 
 again on the well-kept road, between thorn hedges, furze 
 hedges, and post and rail fences, enclosing paddocks of 
 splendid grass. There was joy among the graziers this 
 season ; the summer had afforded a good supply of rain, the 
 grass was as green as in October, and the cattle were in 
 tip-top condition. It was a treat to sec the plain looking so 
 well ; and the contrast its cultivated surface presented with 
 the dark bush-covered hills of the Hunua sloping down to it 
 right in front of us was most pleasing to the eye. We passed 
 Papatoctoe, where a crumbling mound 011 a rise shews the 
 site of an old redoubt ; and here, for sonic time, we left the 
 good land behind us. From this for several miles the soil 
 quite changes its condition, and becomes a cold clay of tho 
 poorest character, through which more than one stream 
 brawls over a pebbly bed, out of which our sons will some 
 day land the trout their fathers arc introducing. Wo 
 drove without stopping through Papakura, the site formerly 
 * page 3<J.
 
 68 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 of a strong garrison, and the scene of several murders in the 
 early days of the war ; and, three miles further, halted for 
 lunch at Drury. Otahulm had looked dull ; Papakura was 
 not as lively as of yore : but it was not till alighting here 
 that the difference between the past days of 18G3 and the 
 present could be realised. Then Drury was a scene of bustle 
 and activity, full of officers and men of every branch of the 
 service : of orderlies always at a gallop ; of fussy brigade 
 majors, and of all the pomp and paraphernalia of war. Now 
 it was a desert; but if we missed the exciting sights of 
 olden times, we also missed with gratitude the abomination 
 which then formed the Drury soil : it was without 
 exception the most yellow and sticky clay I ever sank into, 
 as slippery as ice, and as tenacious as bird-lime. The 4th 
 Division mud on the slopes of Cathcart Hill was bad enough, 
 but it was a fool to this. Drury used to be a Brigadier's 
 command, and the impetus given to it by the camp enabled 
 an enterprising settler to cut up his property around it in 
 lots, and sell at a price which, it is believed, astounded no 
 one more than himself. It has not, however, leaked out 
 that any of the purchasers have largely enriched themselves 
 by that little speculation in land. Close by this are some 
 disused coal mines : and on the summit of a wooded hill i;i 
 still to be seen a dead tree which was once mistaken by an 
 enthusiastic camp-adjutant for native enemies in white 
 blankets. I need scarcely add that there was considerable 
 chaff on the return of the force sent out to reconnoitre. 
 After quitting Drury the country again improves as the 
 road rises over the Hunua ranges, passing over Razorback 
 and Pokeno hills, through bush which ten years ago 
 was traversed by a narrow track, but which now has 
 receded far back before the axe of the settler. Almost 
 all traces have disappeared of the redoubts and stockades 
 which wero formerly thought necessary for the safety
 
 PAKEI1A RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 69 
 
 of convoys, and pleasant-looking farm-houses, with here 
 and there a small church or a school-house, nestle in the 
 hollows or stand out by the road side. It is still a steepish 
 pinch over Pokeno hill, the range which parts the Auckland 
 basin from that of Waikato, and from its summit we got the 
 first view of the river, flowing apparently straight to where 
 we stood, an intervening height hiding the deflexion to the 
 westward which the nature of the hills on the northern 
 bank forces it to adopt. It was a fine panorama : ahead lay 
 the basin of Middle Waikato, through which the broad 
 stream was winding its course between dark clumps of white 
 pines or sedgy banks : in the furthest distance a range of 
 hills ran across the horizon, the peak of Taiipiri denoting 
 the position of the pass through which the river finds its 
 way from the delta : to the westward was bush, and 
 seemingly nothing but bush, traversed not so long ago by 
 merely a few native tracks, but now rapidly disappearing 
 as the settler creates a home for his family, or the railway 
 contractor pushes on his embankment : eastward was 
 swamp, bounded by the Piako hills ; and behind tis, the 
 inland waters of the Manukau, and the smiling country 
 through which we had passed. At the foot of the Pokeno 
 lull extended a large swamp, the exhalations from which 
 produce a curious scene in the early morning. Standing at 
 such a time on this summit, no sign of the plain appears : 
 all is thick fog, curling so high up the flanks of the adjacent 
 hills that only their tops are to be seen, and the spectator 
 can almost fancy himself looking down upon some placid, 
 milk-white sea, whose waters wash the bases of numerous 
 islets. Forty miles from Auckland we reached the Manga- 
 tawhiri Creek, the passage of which by General Cameron's 
 troops in 18G3 led to the action of Koheroa, fought on the 
 low range skirting the southern bank. Throughout our 
 journey we had passed continuous heaps of earth, remains of 
 
 K
 
 70 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 redoubts erected when, notwithstanding a force of some 
 10,000 men in the field, it was unsafe for small parties to 
 travel along the road ; and, close to Mangatawhiri, were tho 
 debris of the largest, Queen's redoubt. Many a spot, the 
 scene of a skirmish, reminded us of good and brave fellows 
 who had lost their lives in a warfare destitute of glory. At 
 Otahuhu was seen the obelisk erected to the memory of that 
 gallant gentleman, Colonel Nixon ; there was the Drury 
 monument to Percival and Norman, and the men who fell 
 with them at Mauku ; the old camping ground near it was 
 full of reminiscences of the two Hunters ; Shepherd's Bush 
 recalled the cheery aspect of Ring, killed in a vain attempt 
 to carry Orakau by storm : it seemed only the other day 
 that Booth and his 43rd marched into Drury, astonishing 
 all beholders by their scarlet patrol jackets, which contrasted 
 so disparagingly with the ragged blue serge attire of officers 
 coming from the front. Trevor and Phelps, of the 14th, 
 and Mercer, of the Artillery, once more held the Queen's 
 Redoubt ; and the memory of many a hearty laugh enjoyed 
 at mess with men whose fate lias since been a soldier's 
 grave gave a sombre tint to every recollection by the way. 
 About a mile after crossing the Mangatawhiri, skirting 
 the Koheroa hills along a road constructed through a dismal 
 swamp, the Waikato river was reached : a broad stream, 
 running between low sedgy banks backed up by fern and 
 cabbage trees, and bearing here on its bosom small islets, 
 in other words, over-grown sand-banks. This spot is Mercer, 
 the proposed terminus, for the present, of the Auckland- 
 Waikato Railway, the works of which have more than once 
 crossed our road. This railway is the thought by day and the 
 dream by night of nine-tenths of the Waikato settlers. They 
 want it right up to Ngaruawahia ; they have made up their 
 minds to have it, and until it is obtained they are not likely 
 to give much peace to the powers that be.
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. ?1 
 
 At Mercer we stopped for tlic night, taking a swim in the 
 river, which we soon found had a current against which it 
 was hard work to make way. It is a pity to see a line 
 stream like this, with a width varying from 150 yards, almost 
 useless from its shallowness, its snags, and the continuous 
 shifting of its sand banks. None but steamers of the 
 smallest draught navigate its waters, and these are of a 
 miserable description ; but it needs only the increase of 
 agriculture in the Waikato plains and the development of the 
 coal and lime resources known to exist in the ranges to 
 create, pending the construction of the railway, a fleet of 
 vessels built expressly for the purpose, combining with light 
 draught the power to stem a strong current. 
 
 From Mercer a baddish piece of road, fascine made, runs 
 between the river and the skirting hills ; and a mile or two 
 of it brought us to the southern slope of Koheroa, at tho 
 foot of which flows the Whangamarino stream, and from 
 whose summit Pickard's 40-pounders used to drop occasional 
 shells into the Meremere pa, two miles further ; pre- 
 sently we ascended a small rise and we were at Meremere 
 itself, before which General Cameron halted for weeks, 
 only to find it evacuated when he made a turning 
 movement by the river. From this, the country is 
 dreariness itself; to the left there lies a huge swamp, 
 extending apparently right up to the distant hills which 
 separate the "Waikato basin from that of the Thames. 
 On the right are caught rare glimpses of the river, and tho 
 sole growth around consists of dwarf fern or titree. Fifteen 
 miles of this bleak travelling, and on rising a slope we saw on 
 one hand Waikari Lake, on the other, the Waikato ; and in 
 front, on the narrow strip of land between the two, Ran- 
 giriri (angry sky), a small spot of ground, but hallowed by 
 the memory of those who fell at the rash and disastrous 
 assault on the pa, when linesmen, artillery, and sailors had
 
 72 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 to recoil with heavy loss before the fire poured upon them 
 from the formidable and unbreached fortification they were 
 ordered to storm. 
 
 Some time ago a friend of mine was standing on the 
 ruins of these works in company with a chief who had taken 
 a leading part in the defence. " Here it was," said the 
 native, " that I stripped for the fight ; and there is the spot 
 where I buried one hundred sovereigns, wrapped up in my 
 blue shirt. I cannot touch that money now ; my people 
 cannot; it is tapu from the blood which has been shed 
 here." I doubt if every European to whom this talc might 
 have been related would have been so scrupulous as my 
 friend : I fear that in most cases the 'tapu would have 
 speedily been broken. From Rangiriri to Rahui-Pokeka the 
 country begins to improve, and right in front rises a chain 
 of wooded hills, one of whose peaks is Taupiri, the old 
 burial place of Waikato chiefs, and tapu to such an extent 
 that none but funeral parties were formerly allowed to pass 
 along its flank. Ordinary travellers had to cross the river 
 and take to the other side ; but as Moliere's doctor says, 
 " We have changed all that," and Cobb's coach rolls on at its 
 foot quite unobservant of the saeredncss of the spot. Rahui- 
 Pokeka consists of a small inn and a few fenced paddocks, 
 and nearly opposite, on the other bank, a long wooden 
 shoot denotes the locality of the Kupakupa coal mine, which, 
 thanks to the manager's kindness, we were going to visit. 
 After crossing, we climbed up a hill for a short distance, 
 walked through a tunnel where the coal had first been dis- 
 covered, and worked afterwards by the Imperial troops, then 
 along a short tramway in the open and entered a black 
 vault. There was no putting on of miners' dresses, or 
 going down by the " man-engine." We simply took each a 
 candle, and blundered on in the darkness. Presently the 
 eye got accustomed to the gloom, and we were able to make
 
 fAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LAtfDS. 73 
 
 out our surroundings. We wore simply in n vault of coal ; 
 the arched roof above us extending in a straight line for 
 about a hundred yards without a single support was seventeen 
 feet in height ; the side walls were twenty feet apart, and 
 the whole was coal, resting on fire-clay of superior quality. 
 The manager told us that the seam was still several feet thick 
 overhead, and that it extended to some depth below our feet. 
 Then wo went on, and saw the miners at work ; and, 
 through a narrow gallery, emerged again into the open, 
 only to see another drive straight in front in the opposite 
 face of a small ravine. This was also entered, and examined ; 
 and we got an idea of the value of the mine when we learnt 
 that the seam had been struck seven miles inland. The 
 coal is of tertiary formation, and does very well for the river 
 steamers and for house purposes : but, like everybody in 
 Waikato, the manager grumbled hugely at the want of a 
 railway which would enable him to deliver it at decent 
 prices in Auckland. In addition to the coal and fire-clay 
 there is a brick field close at hand, which turns out very 
 good bricks. The nuisance about the place is that the river 
 bed is always shifting ; for instance, underneath the shoot 
 where the previous year ample water existed for the 
 steamers, there was at the time of our visit a depth of only 
 two feet. I have only one suggestion to make Avith regard 
 to the mine, and this I hope the manager will take in good 
 part, as it is given purely with regard to the danger he must 
 constantly run of being drowned or drowning others : that 
 he should induce the company to expend a small part of their 
 profits in the purchase of a boat. I may never have to cross 
 here again, but if I do, I trust it may not be in the ricketty 
 flat-bottomed punt produced on this occasion. The current 
 was no joke, the wobbling qualities of the cockle-shell were 
 in inverse ratio to her steering powers, and complete 
 immobility was our only chance. It was all very well, hi
 
 74 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 answer to our expressions of disquiet, to learn that thcvo 
 were only two feet of water under us, except in the channel : 
 but, how if one upset in the channel ? Anyhow, a spill 
 anywhere would not have been comfortable. 
 
 A drive of some nine more miles along the flanks of 
 Taupiri and thence through a bit of level country, brought us 
 in good time to the old Maori King's capital, Ngaruawahia,,* 
 where we crossed the Horotiu in a punt, this time a wire- 
 worked one and tolerably safe. 
 
 Ihuing the whole of this trip of about ninety miles we 
 had not come upon a single native on our side of the river. 
 On the other bank an occasional hamlet was seen, and now 
 and then a canoe darted from under the bushes, going against 
 the stream in apparently the easiest possible manner. They 
 were, however, but few and far between, the whilom possessors 
 of the land all around us, and chiefly belonged to liapus (sub- 
 tribes), which took the European side during the war, and 
 have been located on part of the confiscated lands to the 
 west of the Waikato Biver. 
 
 Situated at the confluence of two rivers whose union 
 forms Waikato proper, the Waipa and the Horotiu, the 
 latter proceeding from the snows of Ruapchu and in its 
 course traversing the inland sea of Taupo, Ngaruawahia 
 forms the apex of the delta which is considered Upper 
 Waikato. Here ends the sterile land, and for miles iipwards 
 the soil, composed of a fluviatile deposit mixed with the 
 pulverised scoria ejected from the central volcanoes, improves 
 rapidly. All thi'oughout there is a gradual rise ; the plateau 
 of Taupo, where the pumice sand precludes all nutritious 
 vegetation, forming the background of the view. 
 
 We found here the usual hotels and stores, but in addition 
 there were local industries in the shape of a flax (Phormiurn 
 tenax) and flour mill, a newspaper office, and a brewery, in 
 
 * The "a" as in the French " la," The wuole as Narwawaya,
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 75 
 
 combination with which was a pleasant hop garden, remind- 
 ing a home-sick colonist of many a jolly ride through 
 Kentish hop grounds. Ono marvel of ingenuity, which, 
 alas ! no longer exists, was formerly proudly shown as a 
 proof of the scientific skill of the Staff College, being a 
 redoubt erected by a member of that learned body (specially 
 detached for the purpose from higher duties) for the 
 reception of the women and children of the district in case of 
 attack from the interior. It was constructed with such a 
 regard to the principles of fortification, and with such 
 consideration for flanking fire, that its linear defence would 
 have required about four times the number of men the area 
 could have held, and the parapets were built up with sods 
 perpendicularly on the edge of a small stream. The conse- 
 quence was that one dark night a heavy rain pouring down 
 on the soft soil converted the rivulet into a ravine and 
 carried off one entire face ; the rest quietly crumbled away, 
 to the delight of the officer commanding the district. It is 
 now replaced by a red-brick square building, which looks 
 like a miniature jail gone blind, and which competes in 
 ugliness with a wooden mausoleum close at hand, erected by 
 the Maorics over the grave of Potatau, their first King, the 
 father of Matutaera or Tawhiao, the reigning monarch, 
 There must have been goodly changes of level here, for the 
 ravine scooped out near the block-house, or whatever it is 
 called, reveals the fact that at a depth of some feet below the 
 surface lie imbedded the remains of a forest, the stumps of 
 which are still standing, and are chiefly totara* a tree which 
 does not now grow in Waikato. It did not take long to 
 see the lions of Ngaruawahia, and the next morning we 
 were en route for Hamilton. It was all level now, and easy 
 work for the horses. To the right we had a long range of 
 hills bordering the western bank of the Waipa, and extending 
 * Podocarpus Totara.
 
 7G PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 till they culminated in Mount Pirongia, near Alexandra ; 
 in front rose a large detaclied mountain, Mangatautari, 
 beyond Cambridge ; and, far to the left, was a continuation 
 of the same ridges we had seen during the last day's 1 drive. 
 
 Hamilton, prettily situated on the Horotiu, acts as the 
 metropolis of Waikato, the head-quarters of the Con- 
 stabulary, &c. ; and here we obtained horses, and ixxle on by 
 Oliaupo to Alexandra on the Waipa, along a very fair road 
 constructed partly by Road Boards, partly by Constabulary 
 labour. As far as Hamilton we had seen but few traces of 
 habitation and farming, but now we were entering a country 
 which is rapidly being taken up, and which bids fair to 
 become not only populous, but also prosperous. One of the 
 very first things which strikes the visitor in Waikato is the 
 quantity of good land lying idle ; and to any question on the 
 subject the same answer is almost always given, " Oh ! it's 
 military settlers' land." Notably in one instance is this 
 exemplified, and that is in the country between Ngaruawahia 
 and Alexandra, on the right bank of the Waipa. There are 
 to 1)0 found thousands of acres, formerly supporting a large 
 native population and producing corn in abundance, which 
 have once more returned to a wild state. After confiscation 
 they were allotted to military settlers, who sold them for 
 mere songs to speculative buyers, who do not now well know 
 what to do with them ; especially as, when the purchasers 
 can be found, they are sharply pounced upon by Road 
 Boards for rates. In the twenty-five or thirty miles ridden 
 over really good country when I took that journey I do not 
 remember having seen a dozen settlers ; but that was some 
 two years ago, and an improvement may have taken place 
 though I have not heard of any. 
 
 In every settlement where the plan was adopted of 
 granting lands on a quasi-military tenure, the same 
 unhappy result is found. Men without the taste or
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 77 
 
 experience for a farmer's life, and mostly quite devoid 
 of capita], received a grant of fifty or more acres, of 
 as much use to them as if they were in the moon. Some 
 of the men utilised them to pay off small grog scores ; others 
 sought a market in Auckland, where they obtained only 
 nominal prices ; some held on in hopes of good times and 
 increased value ; a few set to work manfully on their little 
 properties; while by good fortune others disposed of their 
 lands to enterprising and real settlers who, whilst cultivating 
 to their own advantage, are also largely benefiting the 
 district. To this state of things there are but two remedies. 
 Either the evil will cure itself as immigration progresses 
 and as present holders are induced to sell the unremunerative 
 lands they possess, or else the Government will have itself 
 to become the purchaser wherever possible, and retail the 
 property thus acquired to the immigrants they introduce, or 
 throw it generally into the market. The latter course 
 would be the speediest means of altering the present desolate 
 aspect of many a fertile tract of country which now lies 
 idle and useless. Whether it be practicable is another 
 question. 
 
 After getting on the Ohaupo road we found numerous 
 signs of cultivation ; considerable tracts of land were well in 
 grass, carefully fenced and amply stocked ; and more than 
 once we were pointed out estates owned by gentlemen of 
 position and wealth who have made the Waikato their home, 
 and who are busy improving properties destined to become 
 most valuable. 
 
 Part of the way was through rather low ground, but 
 from the rises we could see that all the surface water would 
 run into a number of small lakes lying at a sufficient level 
 above the Waipa to ensure good drainage. 
 
 Ohaupo was originally a German settlement, colonised by 
 the members of that nation who formed a company in the 
 L
 
 78 PAKEIIA RAMBLES- THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 Waikato Militia, and some miles after leaving it we reached 
 Paterangi, a formidable position on a saddle taken up by 
 the natives in 1864 to bar the progress of the troops. So 
 strong was it, that, with the experience of Rangiriri fresh in 
 his mind, General Cameron, who was marching up the 
 Waipa, did not care about attacking it, bxit turned it by a 
 flank movement, which led to the fight of Rangiawhia. 
 There was, however, close by it a dashing little affair in a 
 bit of scrub, out of which the Colonial Forces came out 
 with no little kudos. From this hill we could see some two 
 miles off the township of Alexandra, our destination, nest- 
 ling, as it were, under the shadow of Mount Pirongia, and 
 traversed by the deep-banked and sluggish Waipa, spanned 
 by a good bridge ; beyond ' it rose a solitary cone, 
 Kakepuke, which should from its appearance, be all that is 
 left of an. extinct volcano ; and to the left, more and more 
 substantial houses and cultivations filled the view till the 
 latter was closed by the low ridge of Rangiawhia. 
 
 We crossed the Mangapiko, a tortuous affluent of the 
 Waipa, on a good bridge near the mouth, and riding past 
 a pretty new church and a Constabulary station arrived at 
 the hotel, which faced Pirongia. 
 
 From the windows are to be seen the bare spurs the 
 mountain sends down from its bushy summit, and the very 
 spot can be almost perceived where in 1870 Mr Todd was 
 shot while surveying land for a friendly Maori chief : the 
 only premeditated and quasi-political murder, and not 
 resulting from personal quarrel, which has been committed 
 by a King native upon a white man in Waikato since the 
 close of the war.* There is no doubt that this assassination 
 was caused, like so many Maori inter-tribal wars, by land : 
 and that a grievance on this subject, rankling in the minds 
 of individuals, led them to perpetrate the atrocity : in thoir 
 * Vide note at end of chapter.
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 79 
 
 subsequent conduct the leaders of the King party, who had 
 no hand in the murder, acted very much like the peasantry 
 in disturbed parts of Ireland, who, though blaming an 
 assassin, think it a point of honour, or patriotism, or Avhat 
 not, to shelter him. Consequently, the murderers are still 
 at large. In common with eyery colonist who has at heart 
 the true interests of the country, the Waikato settlers are 
 unanimous in their desire for peace : there is among them 
 a total absence of that enmity of race which is so often 
 displayed where the white man and the coloured meet on tho 
 frontier, and which leads to " bead-drawing" and savage 
 reprisals. War means for them farms abandoned before 
 marauding parties, lands lying waste, homesteads in flames, 
 and the substitution of harassing military service for the 
 industrial pursuits by which their district is advancing in 
 prosperity. If any party of men in the colony clamours for 
 what are called "vigorous measures" against the King 
 natives, so long as these as a body remain quiet it is 
 certainly not that most interested in the matter, the settlers 
 on the frontier. 
 
 The general feeling appears to be that all danger would 
 be at an end were it a settled thing that the perpetrators of 
 outrages such as Mr. Todd's murder should be given up to 
 justice whenever they take refuge in the haunts over which 
 the Maori King claims to govern ; and that, once this rule 
 established, Tawhiao might go on as long as he liked with 
 his mimicry of reigning. Till then, however, there is always 
 the chance, remote or not as may be, and certainly 
 diminishing every day, of the extreme section of tho 
 Kingitcs, in whatever minority it may be, repeating such 
 deeds with a view to forcing its more peaceably-inclined 
 brethren into another conflict, which would be undertaken 
 on our part under far different conditions from those in 
 force during tho late wars. Then the interior was almost it
 
 80 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 terra incognita ; in the centre and on both coasts our hands 
 were full ; and in our marches we had to trust to whatever 
 information could be picked up about tracks. Now we have 
 good roads up to the frontier ; on the east coast the 
 turbulent mountain tribes have been brought into sub- 
 mission ; on the west the lingering spirit of disaffection is 
 confined to a small section; in the centre only is to be 
 found anything like cohesion among the malcontents ; 
 and, in addition to this, we know the country. Of 
 these facts the Kingites are as well aware as we are, 
 and they must see that a rising on their part would lead 
 to their inevitable ruin. That such a contingency may 
 never occur is the ardent hope of every settler, in the 
 interests of the colony as well as those of humanity ; for, 
 to use a paraphrase which has been employed before, the 
 very worst use you can put a Maori to, is to shoot him ; not 
 forgetting that there is just as good a probability of his 
 shooting you. Holding this opinion, I could not quite 
 agree with an American gentleman I once met in the South 
 who was giving me some of his experiences in the Far 
 West, in the course of which he made use of the expression, 
 " good Indians." I supposed he meant " friendlies " but 
 his answer disabused me very soon. " No, sir," he said ; 
 " you see, sir, with us, all good Indians are just there, sir, 
 there," and the emphatic manner in which he pointed to 
 the ground showed pretty plainly that he considered 
 that goodness and life could not co-exist in an Indian. 
 My western friend's platform was evidently the "d d 
 nigger" policy, one which will never do for New Zealand, 
 and which General Grant very soon got rid of in America. 
 The first place of interest we visited was the angle at the 
 confluence of the Waipa and Mangapiko, where formerly 
 stood the Matatitaki pa, whose destruction by the Ngapuhi 
 is related at page 15. It was difficult to believe that where
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 81 
 
 we stood, within the fenced paddock of the Constabulary, 
 with a church to one hand, a steamer alongside the bank to 
 the other, a good bridge across the river, houses and gardens 
 around us, and the English flag flying close by, only a few 
 short years ago the Maories were assembled in thousands. 
 Where were they now 1 ? There were certainly a few 
 knocking about : their occupation was selling turkeys, and 
 kits of peaches ; but where were the descendants of the 
 warriors who cultivated the broad plain of the delta, and 
 who were found formerly in such numbers along the banks 
 of the Waipa? The friendly natives of the entire Waikato, 
 from its mouth upwards, assembled to bid farewell to Sir 
 G. Boweii in March 1873, amoiintcd to only about six 
 hundred men ; the Kingite Waikato may muster about 
 seven or eight hundred ; Ngatimaniapoto probably as many, 
 and that is all remaining out of a large population. Inter- 
 tribal strife, disease, the adoption of new habits, clothing, 
 and food, spirits, and war with the European are the causes 
 which have thus decreased their numbers. Not in Waikato 
 alone, but in every other part of the Island is the same 
 result to be observed. Riding along the shores of the Bay 
 of Plenty and of the East Coast one sees a succession of 
 old pas, testifying to a formerly abundant population, now 
 sadly diminished ; and it is impossible not to feel regret that 
 a race which has given so many proofs of its adaptability to 
 a higher standard should thus disappear bit by bit. 
 
 Some two years ago I was at Alexandra during a native 
 meeting, when a tribe named the Ngatiraukawa, who in- 
 habit the right bank of the Waikato, from Taupo to 
 Cambridge, intimated to the representatives present of the 
 King natives that all connection between them, in a political 
 point of view, was at an end. Each party was drawn up 
 on the opposite banks of a short hollow road, and talked to 
 each other pretty plainly, But we were very disappointed
 
 82 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 in the chief speaker on the part of Ngatiraukawa. What 
 he ought to have done was this. He should have stalked 
 out gravely, his head adorned with feathers, a mat round his 
 waist, another on his shoulders, and a taiaha (spear) in his 
 hand. Selecting a piece of ground about ten or fifteen 
 yards long, he should have started from the one end and 
 pranced up to the other, pouring forth rapidly his utterances, 
 and emphasizing them by gestures and contortions of the 
 body : arriving at the further end, a jump or two, accom- 
 panying some telling point, should have concluded a 
 sentence, whereon he ought to have retraced his steps 
 quietly to his starting point and begun again. But these 
 people were evidently degenerate : they were dressed in 
 European clothing ; they stood up and talked to each other 
 as if they were hon. members assembled in Parliament; 
 there was no "taki-ing" up and down; no screaming out 
 arguments in a state of frantic excitement; there was not 
 half the row there would be at a Road Board meeting ; and 
 yet the interview was of tolerable importance, being neither 
 more nor less than an avowal of defection from the King's 
 authority by a tribe which had hitherto adhered to his side. 
 During this very stay at Alexandra there was some little 
 excitement about the opening up of the supposed Tuhua 
 goldfield in the King country, and a friend we met told us 
 he had been once rather sanguine on the subject. After 
 talking in vain to natives, he came across a " Pakeha- 
 Maori" (i.e., an European who has lived for a length of time 
 among the natives), who with many mysterious nods gave 
 him to understand that he knew all about it. Of course 
 our friend s"et to work piimping him, and "shouted" liberally 
 till the old fellow's tongue was unloosed. Now, my friend 
 was ready to swallow a good deal ; a report of a reef likely 
 to yield a couple of hundred ounces to the ton woidd not 
 have frightened him : but when his informant gave him to
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 83 
 
 understand lie had seen solid layers of gold in the rocks, and 
 when he found out that this " truthful James" had never been 
 near the spot described, he quietly stopped the supply of 
 liquor and dropped the acquaintance. While exploring the 
 lions of the neighbourhood, places all known in connection 
 with the late war, we rode over the confiscation boundary 
 into the native territory, feeling very much like school-boys 
 out of bounds. I am not quite sure that some of the party 
 were not prepared at any tm-n in the path to hear the war 
 shout, and find ourselves encircled by an ambuscade of grim 
 savages, armed to the teeth, and eager to avenge on our 
 unhappy persons the wrongs sustained at the hands of our 
 countrymen. We did not see any ambuscade ; wo saw one 
 armed aboriginal, and his weapon was an eel-spear. He was 
 even friendly, and said " tena-koG"* to each of the party, and 
 then he went on his way singing no, not singing : there 
 ought to be a word coined to express the hideous row the 
 Maori makes when harmony is in him ; it isn't singing ; it 
 isn't grunting ; and it isn't exactly howling but it's a neat 
 combination of all three, with uncommonly little of the first 
 element in it. I have heard of seeing spiders and seeing 
 snakes ; but at Kopua, a small village some three or four 
 miles beyond the boundary, in old times a mission station, 
 we saw eels : big eels, and little eels ; eels as long as my arm 
 :md nearly as thick; eels as long as my leg, only not quite 
 as thick ; eels that looked as if half a dozen of them could 
 digest any one of us very easily, and consequently most 
 grewsome eels ; and these were not in dozens, but in 
 hundreds. There was to be a great meeting in a few days ; 
 some visitors were to pass through on their way up or 
 down, and a haul had been made in the marshes lying at the 
 foot of the conical and extinct-volcano-like knoll, some six 
 or seven miles off. Talking of Kakapuke, we heard at 
 * How arc you ? lit., there you arc.
 
 84 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 Alexandra that some time ago a native brought into the 
 settlement a lump of virgin copper : of course, everybody 
 wanted to know where this came from, and the owner was 
 shouted for enthusiastically : eventually our informant was 
 selected as the confidant, and he and a friend started with 
 the native to climb Kakapuke, on whose flanks the oro 
 was said to have been found. It need not be said how 
 during the walk they arranged the future company, settled 
 who were to have preference shares, and what number, and 
 what capital they would name to start the mine, &c., &c. 
 They left off talking when they got to the first raupo 
 swamp : that was damp and unpleasant : then came another 
 and another, so that by the time they reached the actual foot 
 of the lull they were mud and water up to the waist. They 
 searched first one spot, then another; then they went 
 round, dived into every gully, and strained their eyes to 
 catch the first glimpse of the lump from which the native 
 finder declared he had knocked off his specimen. Not a 
 sign of it was apparent : the wretched guide could not 
 remember the exact spot. I have since learned that 
 questions put to these two explorers on the subject of pro- 
 specting for copper do not possess a soothing influence. 
 
 The boundary of confiscation as laid down by Proclamation 
 divides the lands cultivated by settlers who hold from the 
 Crown from those still in the hands of the Kingite natives : 
 of these latter, however, a good number of acres have been 
 leased by Europeans. Still, the line answers somewhat to 
 the system of the " Pale" in force in Ireland centimes ago, 
 the exact Maori translation of which is aukati. An 
 aulcati is an imaginary line, defined by localities, across 
 which the tribes or persons on whose account it is declared 
 must not pass ; should they do so, it is at their own risk. 
 In this case the confiscation line is not treated exactly as an 
 Aukali by the natives, because they still harp upon the idea
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 85 
 
 mentioned at page 57, that the Mangatawhiri creek, near 
 Mercer, is the real northern boundary of their territories ; 
 or by the Europeans, as it is not quite in accordance with 
 English customs of the present day to shoot a man, simply 
 because he goes beyond a particular spot. Yet it has ac- 
 quired a sort of importance, and a tacit acknowledgment 
 that to the soiithward of it we have no business. 
 
 While at Alexandra we had the pleasure of an introduc- 
 tion to a chief whose family history gives a hint as to 
 how his ancestors honoured their fathers : this is what was 
 told us on the subject. His grandfather was a man of mild 
 manners, blessed with rather an impetuous son. A neigh- 
 bouring tribe happened to take some liberties with his crops, 
 or horses, or wives, it is immaterial which, and the young 
 man urged an expedition to chastise the aggressors. Faith- 
 ful to his peace-principles, the aged chief besought him to 
 calm himself, resolutely declined to have a hand in the 
 fray, prophesied disaster, and winked at his son's going off 
 with the best men of the tribe. Success attended the party ; 
 and, returning laden with booty and prisoners, the son met 
 his venerable father, who was standing at the Waharoa 
 (principal gate of the pa), no doubt casting longing glances 
 on the bipeds he deemed himself destined to chew. In his 
 oiliest accents he praised his heroic boy on the valour and 
 talent displayed, and congratulated him on the well-desei'ved 
 laurels he had gained : but, instead of bending his head and 
 meekly receiving his father's blessing, the young leader 
 stormed : " You, indeed ! Why, you wouldn't come with us ! 
 You wouldn't help us ! And now you butter us up ! ! You, 
 why you're not fit to live !" And he shot the old gentleman 
 dead. 
 
 . Another anecdote, but this time of conjugal attachment, 
 was related to us one evening. An elderly Maori lady of 
 high lineage, possessing some land near Auckland, was 
 H
 
 86 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 espoused by Bill Smith, say. After living some time 
 together, they received a pressing invitation to visit Tokan- 
 gamutu, the King's head-quarters, and accepted it. Arrived 
 there, the wife was taken to a whare, and Smith was 
 quietly informed he had been guilty of presumption in 
 allying himself to royal blood, and that the marriage was 
 dissolved. By way of compensation, however, some damsels 
 were trotted out, of which Bill was allowed his pick. A 
 short time elapsed, and Bill, wandering on the outskirts of 
 the Waikato settlements, got into trouble about a saddle and 
 other small things he had found in a whare during the 
 owner's absence, and he was duly sent to Auckland jail. 
 The new spouse at once repudiated the connection : not so 
 with the old one ; she found her way to Auckland and 
 prayed hard for a daily interview with her husband. The 
 request was granted, and the warders' hearts used to molt as 
 from their posts they saw that her feelings were so over- 
 powering as to necessitate her throwing a blanket over her 
 husband's head and her own while she " tangi'd." The 
 cunning old lady knew her darling loved tobacco, and that 
 the rules forbad it, so every day she had her pipe ready, 
 and, while she wailed over her imprisoned spouse, lie, 
 quietly secured by the blanket, managed to enjoy regularly his 
 morning smoke. The reader will be gratified to learn that 
 her love met with due reward and that they are now 
 believed to be living together, a picture of conjugal felicity. 
 
 Eight rhiles east of Alexandra is situated Te Awamutu, 
 formerly a large mission station, then General Cameron's 
 head-q\iarters, and now a small village situated in country 
 which is considered the cream of the Waikato. My notions 
 on the subject of farming are excessively vague, but even I 
 could appreciate the rich luxuriance of the soil, and join in 
 the praises which I heard showered upon it. From an 
 utilitarian point of view nothing could be finer than such
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 87 
 
 farms as were seen about Te Awaniutu and Rangiawhia, 
 and one near Kihikihi deserves mention for the elegance 
 and tasteful care displayed by the owner on his plan- 
 tations and garden. Wheat and oats, I was informed, 
 answer capitally in this soil ; as regards potatoes, I could 
 judge for myself; and as for melons, pumpkins, et hoc genus 
 omne, they were a drug in the market and rotting in the 
 ground. Again there was growling about the railway which, 
 when constructed, is to carry away to Auckland the produce 
 now useless to the farmer. 
 
 Just beyond Te Awamutu comes a slight rise, forming a 
 narrow saddle, on which stood two churches ; one, Church of 
 England ; the other, Roman Catholic. As there is one of the 
 former creed at Alexandra and another at Te Awamutu, 
 it cannot be said that the district lacks buildings for worship. 
 In the Rangiawhia church, now falling fast into decay, is a 
 very handsome stained glass window, which contrasts rather 
 strongly with the dilapidated state of the edifice it adorns ; 
 it is just as if an individual with a very seedy coat, hat, 
 and trousers had on at the same time a brilliantly coloured 
 new waistcoat. 
 
 Once at Rangiawhia we were on classic ground, as here it 
 was General Cameron after his flank march round Paterangi 
 came upon the unexpecting enemy, and a skirmish ensued 
 which is still regarded by the natives in the light of a 
 treacherous attack. They did not consider it fair that ho 
 should have left unassailed the position they had taken up 
 expressly for fighting, and that he should appear suddenly 
 in their rear. Some women unfortunately were accidentally 
 shot during the affair, and of this they have made the most. 
 A depression in the road still marks the site of a wluire 
 whence came the bullet which wounded mortally Colonel 
 Nixon while he was humanely persuading its inmates to 
 come out ami surrender,
 
 88 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 It was at Orakau, not far beyond this, that a determined 
 band of natives, chiefly Uriwera, endured for three days the 
 torments of hunger and thirst, to every summons to surrender 
 answering, " We will fight " Ake, ake, ake" (for ever), and 
 eventually broke through the investing force, with fearful 
 loss to themselves. 
 
 From Rangiawhia one gets a very fairish view. To either 
 hand, enclosing the plain and running on the further side of 
 the rivers, are hills of respectable size ; to the north, others 
 surmounted by the holy peak of Taupiri close the view ; 
 southward the land ascends gradually and low mountain 
 chains arise : and, on a fine day, two milk-white specks, just 
 showing over the furthest ranges and looking at the first 
 glance like fleecy clouds, are pointed out as the summits of 
 Tongariro and Ruapehu. The confiscation boundary is not 
 far off, and beyond it lies an undulating plain, equal in 
 fertility to the soil around us, but covered all with fern ; for 
 the nearest Hau Ha\i cultivations to the frontier are at 
 Aratitaha and Wharepapa, about five miles off. Close by, 
 to the east, a dark belt of Kahikatea bush hid from us the 
 Moana-tua-tua swamp, and through it we rode to see the 
 works in progress for a road to Cambridge. At present to 
 get to that place from any of the western settlements one 
 has to ride back to Ohaupo, and then turn southward again, 
 so that a direct track across the marsh will cause a saving 
 of seventeen miles from Rangiawhia. The constabulary were 
 hard at work, draining, fascining, and forming the road ; the 
 side ditches were fi*om six to ten feet wide cut through a black 
 spongy soil, more like peat than anything I have elsewhere 
 met in the Island ; and imbedded in this, and underlying 
 the present Kahikatea bush, were stumps and logs of totara 
 and matai, trees now unknown in the district, so tough as 
 to defy the axe, and black as bog-oak. The work had 
 so far advanced that we were able to walk across the
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 89 
 
 narrow part selected as the shortest direction for the road. 
 The swamp is really the property of private individuals, 
 who purchased it from Government, and who are devoting 
 a large amount of energy, labour, and capital to reclaiming 
 it. It will pay somebody eventually, for the peat which 
 comes out of it, after lying exposed to the air, crumbles 
 away into very rich soil, and the amount of ditching 
 done by the Constabulary assists the drainage materially. 
 Another day was spent in knocking about Kihikihi and 
 Orakau. With us was a friend who had been present at 
 the fight, but even with his guidance the eye could barely 
 ti'ace the old Maori parapet. A fence ran along what had 
 been one face, the remainder had crumbled away ; and 
 sheep were quietly nibbling the grass on this, the spot 
 where the last stand was made by the natives in "VVaikato. 
 
 At a farm-house not far off, close to the boundary line, 
 we got a wrinkle which might have been of use to Rarey, 
 and which proved that our public school system of impart- 
 ing education & teryo is applicable to horses as well as 
 to boys. 
 
 Our host proposed a lido over the confiscation line, and 
 went out into a paddock to catch a horse. There were 
 about half-a-dozen of these at the furthest end, and no 
 sooner had he begun to crack his whip, than the whole lot 
 deliberately trotted up to him, just like dogs whistled to 
 heel, and allowed themselves to be bridled. It seems that a 
 judicious application of thong to them when young care 
 being taken never to strike them on the forehand induces 
 them to turn their heads towards the crack of the whip. 
 
 While going over Major Jackson's splendid form, I was 
 much puzzled by the appearance presented by a number of 
 kahikatea stumps, standing in a swampy hollow near his 
 house, and all about the same height, as if they 
 had been cut down on purpose to the one level, I
 
 90 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 had seen the remains of a forest mowed down by an 
 avalanche which had left the stumps in a very much 
 similar condition ; but an avalanche theory would not do 
 for Waikato, so I left off conjecturing, and asked questions. 
 It was very simple after all. Years ago there grew on this 
 spot a bit of swampy bush through which ran a small 
 rivulet : this latter was dammed up by the natives to make 
 an eel-weir, the consequence being that a pond was formed, 
 the water attaining the height of the dam, and keeping to 
 that. The trees died ; the part exposed to the air decayed 
 and fell, while that under water remained sound. When 
 the troops came up the embankment was broken, the pond 
 was emptied, and there now remain a swamp, and the 
 puzzling stumps. 
 
 We were now in the country of pheasants ; and, perhaps, 
 a slight sporting digression may not be amiss. It has con- 
 stantly been asserted that there is no such thing as sport in 
 New Zealand, duck and pigeon shooting excepted. Neither 
 of these are certainly very amusing; as wading through 
 mud flats, and oftener crawling along them to get a chance 
 at the wily Parera, is very trying to the temper ; while 
 sitting under a tree waiting for the pigeons to come to it 
 (the very best way to make a bag) is only another name for 
 going to sleep. But the pheasant has been introduced, and it 
 has propagated itself in the most wonderful manner ; about 
 Auckland the birds are pretty well kept down ; but in out- 
 districts they are to be found in abundance. I remember 
 once riding from Ohaupo to Cambridge at dawn, and being 
 astonished at the numbers I saw on the road side, apparently 
 perfectly tame and fearless : with a stock whip I could have 
 made a decent bag ; but, that afternoon I went out with a 
 gun, and it was veiy different then ; they were as wild as 
 hawks, strong on the wing, and devils to run. Once they 
 got into standing ti-tree, of course they were safe. The
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 91 
 
 natives beyond the boundary complain bitterly of them, 
 and look tipon them as the last pest introduced by that 
 pestiferous individual, the pakeha. The Maori has no no- 
 tion of shooting flying, even had he the ammunition, and GO 
 he growls out that his crops are destroyed, the very potatoes 
 being scraped out of the ground when planted. For the 
 matter of that, many an European does the same, not only 
 with regard to pheasants, but also to all acclimatised birds ; 
 but we have not yet got quite as far as a " Sparrow Club." 
 
 In places like the Napier lagoons, where one can go about 
 in a punt, the duck shooting is very fine sport ; and I have 
 seen more than one good bag of curlew (a capital bird for the 
 table) made at Tauranga : were I to state the number 
 brought down on one occasion with two barrels by an 
 officer of the G8th, I could scarcely expect to be credited. 
 
 For a long time I was under the impression that no river 
 fish existed in New Zealand which would take the fly. 
 I had had many a tiissle in Tauranga harbour with kahawai, 
 a salt water fish in shape not unlike a salmon, which takes 
 greedily a gaudy fly with plenty of white about it ; but I 
 was surprised to learn that the Waikato, at Cambridge, 
 affords very fail' sport. Fish have been killed there some 
 three pounds in weight. Now, a three pound trout on a light 
 rod in a Kerry stream gives no end of fun, and the river 
 at Cambridge is rocky and rapid enough in all conscience. 
 The fish is a kind of bull-headed trout ; biit, why it should 
 be found here in goodly numbers, and not elsewhere, is 
 certainly piizzling. 
 
 While at Alexandra we took a walk to Pirongia, intend- 
 ing to have a search for a seam of coal which had been found 
 on its flanks; but somehow or another we missed the precise 
 ravine ; and blundering about in tall fern for some time 
 being voted too hard work, we started home, and went to 
 take a look at the rapids mentioned in page 17 : it was
 
 92 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 lucky we had been told there were rapids at that spot, else 
 we certainly should never have discovered their existence. 
 The coal we had missed is described as being of the same 
 kind as at the Tanpiri mines, tertiary, and quite fit for house 
 purposes, (fee. If worked, it would enable the. settlers to 
 procure lime easily enough, as the formation of the Pirongia 
 ranges and of most of the hills stretching away to Raglan is 
 limestone. From Alexandra we rode back to Hamilton, and 
 the next day, crossing the Horotiu by a sound self-propelling 
 punt, got on to the Cambridge road. What has already 
 been said of other parts of the Waikato applies very 
 much to this portion of it. That it possesses good soil 
 is evinced by the number of farms on it, some of them held 
 on lease from natives who have here extensive reservations ; 
 and that the owners are satisfied is proved by the absence 
 among them of .the proverbial trait of the British farmer 
 grumbling. I am wrong, though ; there is one thing they 
 do grumble about, and of course it is the absence of a 
 railway. 
 
 Away from Hamilton eastward towards the Piako and the 
 Thames valley lies a large extent of swamp, and to the 
 northward of this again a fair amount of good country is 
 reported to exist. Not satisfied with having their Auckland 
 railway begun, the settlers want a line miming through this 
 swamp to the Thames and following what was very probably 
 the coxirse taken % by the Waikato river before it broke 
 through the Taupiri gorge. Whether they get this line of 
 rail or not, the reclamation of the swamp, about to be 
 undertaken, it is said, will at all events allow the formation 
 of a road to the navigation, of the Piako, and thus put 
 Waikato in direct communication with the Thames gold 
 fields. 
 
 Fourteen miles from Hamilton we reached Cambridge, the 
 furthest settlement up the Horotiu and situated at one of
 
 PAKEI1A RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 93 
 
 the base angles of the Waikato triangle, Alexandra being 
 the other, and Ngaruawahia the apex. There is a great 
 likeness about every one of these frontier townships, and in 
 Waikato they all present the very good sign of being small, 
 a proof that the country is prospering and that the 
 inhabitants of the district are living on their farms. The 
 Horotiu runs pretty swiftly here, and, under a good bridge 
 which spans it, whirls about over the boulders encumbering 
 its bed which must prove a nuisance to the angler who finds 
 that the two pounder he has on his fly will persist in trying 
 to get under them, and thereby rubs the silk or the casting- 
 line to the imminent danger of its breaking. 
 
 From Cambridge I started for Taupo ; but, before quitting 
 the Delta, a short retrospect may not be out of place. The 
 reader has seen Waikato under two aspects, there is also an 
 intermediate stage which deserves attention. The first 
 Exiropean who ascended the Waipa River found its banks 
 inhabited by a large and savage native population, whose 
 sole delight and occupation was warfare. It was with a view 
 to preeminence in this that the people toiled laboriously and 
 prepared by hand labour the flax which they bartered for 
 guns and ammunition. Eternally at war with other tribes, 
 or among themselves, the continuous series of fights which 
 took place and the practice so pi'evalent of wholesale 
 slaughter after a victory helped materially to thin their 
 numbers to a considerable extent. 
 
 The next feature was the advent of the missionaries; and, 
 under the influence of the new doctrines preached by them, 
 and adopted by the natives with a surprising rapidity, peace- 
 ful habits were introduced, and agriculture succeeded to 
 strife ; large tracts of land were laid down in wheat, supply- 
 ing to a great extent the Auckland market; mills were 
 built ; schools were erected ; and for a time all was prosperity 
 and peace. With every belief in the thorough conversion of 
 N
 
 9i PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 their pupils, tlic zealous propagators of the faith allowed 
 themselves to be carried away by their enthusiasm, and 
 fancied they had deeply implanted the seeds of religion, when 
 their disciples had adopted in reality only the outer 
 ceremonies prescribed to them ; in many cases, such as the 
 observance of the Sunday as a day of rest, carrying their 
 notions of strictness even beyond those of their preceptors. 
 The attempt to eradicate from a full grown generation, and 
 at one swoop, all ancestral notions and to replace them 
 in its untutored mind by a religion which was entirely op- 
 posed to its former ideas, has been confessed to have been in 
 ninety-nine cases out of a hundred a failure. The old 
 leaven still lay there, and a proof of the truth of this came 
 once under my own observation. A tribe I knew very well 
 had been for years under missionary care ; they had built a 
 church for their worship had retained their Christian faith 
 whilst in arms against us ; and, after submission, had once 
 more quietly settled down to their old agricultural pursuits, 
 living on terms of perfect harmony with the inhabitants of 
 the new settlement which had been formed in their midst. 
 The Hau Hau fanaticism arose on the West Coast, and 
 emissaries were sent round to the East, who succeeded in 
 some cases too well in their mission. In the instance of this 
 particular tribe, one morning the villages were found 
 deserted; men, women, and children had flung their old 
 faith to the winds at the instigation of a few Hau Hau 
 delegates, and had disappeared into the interior. Their lead- 
 ing chiefs were in Auckland, and this may account for tho 
 ease with which the tribe was led away ; but it was not till 
 these returned, and, accompanied by energetic officers of the 
 Government, hunted up the absentees, that they once more 
 changed their minds, and returned to their old homes. It 
 need scarcely be said that this exodus so unsettled their 
 winds, that their exact faith now would be a mutter of
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 95 
 
 difficulty to ascertain, with pi-eciseness. Few in number in 
 comparison with their flocks, it was of course impossible for 
 the early missionaries to pay to the echication of the children 
 that attention which alone could lead to the civilization of 
 the entire race. What they had not the means of doing, can 
 be carried out by the Legislature, under whose auspices 
 village schools are starting up in all directions ; schools 
 where instruction in the English language is a sine qud non, 
 and where every effort is made to train the youthful mind 
 into the ways of European thought. Not that the desired 
 result will be gained in the one generation ; it is only with 
 time that a complete revulsion can be made in the habits and 
 reason of an entire race. Energetic as the missionaries were, 
 they made mistakes ; and gradually, as a body, they lost the 
 influence they had at the outset acquired so rapidly. 
 
 It has been seen above (v. Page 57) how, some years 
 ago, a feeling arose among the Maories that the contiguity of 
 European farmers to native cultivators would be productive 
 of dissensions as to trespass of cattle, &c.. There can be 
 but little doubt that behind this pretext lay a fear of the 
 ever-spreading wave of population which threatened to sup- 
 plant them in their ancestral patrimonies, and a dread of losing 
 irretrievably lands endeared to them by long possession and 
 legendary traditions. Still there were to be found individuals 
 ready to part with their property in exchange for the good 
 things the pakeha brought ; and it was this which made 
 the natives combine in an anti-land-selling league, and en- 
 deavoxir to fix a boundary beyond which the white man was 
 to own 110 property. To carry out this idea and their own 
 views of reform and order among themselves, a King was 
 elected : and in 1803, from a variety of causes, the Waikato 
 tiibes were in arms. The result is known : they have lost 
 the land they so dearly prized. There has lately however 
 been a change which has made itself apparent by a some
 
 96 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 what freer intercourse between the two races on the frontier. 
 The settlers, short of labour, have been but too glad to 
 employ their dusky neighbours ; and these have not less will- 
 ingly taken pakeha wages. The sick too, have found out that 
 they have only to come in to the settlements, and indeed in 
 cases to request the Government medical officer to visit them 
 at their villages, to experience the benefit of remedies unknown 
 to themselves. There have been meetings between the 
 Friendlies and the Kingites, in which the former have 
 spoken their minds out pretty freely in favour of roads, &c., 
 through the country, to the disappointment of the latter; 
 and generally there has been an increased degree of intercourse 
 which seems to pave the way for the abolition at some 
 future period of the self-imposed exile in which the "VVai- 
 kato have been living for past years. 
 
 NOTE. Since the above chapter was written a fresh outrage has 
 taken place on the Waikato frontier ; a European was murdered last 
 April by a party of natives who have sought and found shelter among 
 the King party. The relative situations of the two races on the 
 frontier, the one occupying lands of which the other has been dis- 
 possessed, are in themselves favourable to the commission of 
 occasional acts of violence, and I see no reason to retract anything 
 I have said above, especially as all proceedings since the murder go 
 to prove the entire isolation of the King party from the great body 
 of friendly naj,ives.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 TAUPO. 
 
 From the Waikato to Taupo two different lines of road 
 exist : one by the oldmail track, disused since the war, running 
 from Orakau by Aniwaniwa, where the Waikato rapids were 
 crossed over a fallen tree ; the other, from Cambridge up the 
 right bank of the river. It was the latter which I had to 
 adopt, and even here there was a choice, as one track led a 
 little more inland than the other ; the native who acted as 
 my guide took me by the former, the least frequented and 
 easy of the two. After leaving Cambridge the road passes a 
 good distance through lands occupied as sheep runs : for some 
 four or five miles it is fit for waggons ; and, turning off then to 
 the left, it leads up to Matamata and the Ngatihaua settle- 
 ment where stands the monument to William Thompson.* 
 From this turn the track is only fit for horses and 
 traverses country which, however agreeable it may be to the 
 eyes of a settler on the look out for a run, possesses but little 
 interest to the general traveller. There were slight ups and 
 downs, valleys with small swamps, and fern hills with 
 a sprinkling of bush about them ; but it was some little dis- 
 tance out of Cambridge before any spot was reached from 
 which could be obtained any tiling like a view. It was just 
 after getting out of a small belt of bush that the top of a 
 saddle was attained, commanding enough to afford a really 
 fair prospect. To the eastward lay an extensive valley 
 
 * Thompson was the leading spirit in the war of 18C3, but had 
 submitted before his death, ou which event an English admirer 
 of his character erected a monument to his memory.
 
 98 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 through whose marshes meandered numerous streams flowing 
 northward to unite together and form the Thames and 
 Piako, whose waters empty themselves into the Hauraki Gulf; 
 beyond it again, steep and rugged on our side, but on their 
 further flank sloping gradually towards Tauranga, ran a 
 chain of hills fissured by ravines and clad with the sombre 
 hue so characteristic of New Zealand forests. Following 
 with the eye the northward course of the range, a bold out- 
 standing mass was pointed out as the Aroha* Mountain, that 
 cynosure of Auckland speculators, within whose bosom are 
 believed to exist incalciilable riches in the shape of quartz 
 reefs :' right in rear lay the whole Delta of the Waikato 
 rolled out like a panorama, its two confining rivers gleaming 
 in the sunshine as each pursued its course ; the sluggish 
 Waipa in a series of sinuous bendings, twisting and turning 
 through the limestone country it traverses ; the swift 
 Horotiu steadily keeping in almost a straight line the path it 
 has pierced for itself through the soft sandy soil ; the former 
 the emblem of pliancy, the latter the personification of 
 dogged strength. Through the glasses could be distinctly 
 seen the houses in each settlement, looking like so many toy 
 cottages ; and, beyond them, Taupiri closed in, and no trace 
 appeared of the pass by which the Waikato finds its outlet. To 
 the right I could catch no glimpse of the river which here 
 rolls at the foot of a consecutive series of terraces, three in 
 number, if I remember rightly ; at one place, Aniwaniwa, 
 forcing its way through a rocky gorge, so narrow that a fallen 
 tree spans it, and down which it roars and tumbles and 
 foams with many a whirlpool and heavy swirl : but it flowed 
 between its and the towering peaks of Mangatautari which 
 rise in solitary grandeur from the platea\i of Upper Waikato. 
 Ahead were masses of peaks and wooded heights : and, still 
 a sure guide to locality, could be perceived the snowy 
 * Aroha (love).
 
 fAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 99 
 
 summits of the two giants who keep silent watch and ward 
 over the sterile deserts of Taupo. Far, far away to the 
 right I thoiight I coiild discern a faint white speck, which, 
 from its direction, should have been Mount Egmont, in 
 Taranaki, but of this there was no certainty. This was the 
 last glimpse of Waikato ; and, after winding through a 
 glen or two, we reached a more sterile part where the fern 
 began to get scrubbier and scrubbier, and to give way oc- 
 casionally to tussocky grass. There were inconvenient little 
 places too in the shape of swampy banked creeks which had 
 to be jumped, on one occasion my horse landing in a soft 
 place, sending me flying, and nearly rolling down on to his 
 back in the narrow stream. It was decidedly uninteresting 
 travelling, especially as deuce a track could I see, and my 
 guide's horse now got slower and slower in his pace, till a walk 
 was all that could be extracted from him. It was getting dusk ; 
 still the brute could not be hurried ; and darkness overtook 
 us in a small hollow, where my aboriginal friend declared 
 his inability to get further on. There ought to be a track 
 about, he said, but he was off it, and we must halt till day- 
 light. Pleasant this ; there was not a bit of wood for a fire, 
 nor a drop of water anywhere at hand ; we had no " kai," 
 and all there was for my horse to eat was the com I had on 
 my saddle. However, there was 110 help for it ; blundering 
 about in the dark would probably have resulted in horso 
 and man getting bogged; so, unsaddling, and tying the 
 tether rope to my arm (the only hold about to which it could 
 be fastened) I took a pull at the flask, wrapped myself up 
 in my 'possum with the saddle for a pillow (and when 
 properly managed this makes an uncommonly good one), and 
 lit my pipe. It was a glorious night, though coolish. Tho 
 stars were out by the million, or billion numbers in such a 
 case don't much matter and it was impossible to lie there, 
 looking upward to the countless glories of the sky without
 
 100 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 falling into meditation. I can almost understand the prairie- 
 fever which novelists talk of as seizing the traveller on the 
 vast plains of the regions of the West ; the precise feeling 
 cannot be described, but, while going about and camping out, 
 whether in bush or open, a strange sort of sensation of inde- 
 pendence conies over one, as if one were rid of the cares and 
 anxieties of the world. There is pleasure in such occasional 
 solitude, with no companionship but that of the horse whose 
 movements while grazing are the only sign of life around ; in 
 feeling that one is one's master for the nonce, and servant 
 too ; in watching the blue curls of the soothing tobacco ; in 
 speculating on what lies overhead ; and finally, in turning 
 round in the warm 'possum, and, despite the hard ground, 
 sinking into the sleep well earned by the day's work. So 
 much for the open plain bivouac ; another phase of nature 
 presents itself to the traveller comfortably ensconced in the 
 bush between the roots of some huge tree, a good fire blaz- 
 ing at his feet. Here, all is gloom, save Avhere a streak of 
 moonlight wends its way through the thick foliage and lights 
 up with a silvery sheen the ferns and mosses carpeting the 
 gixmnd ; there is no longer the unbroken stillness and 
 silence of the plains ; for, while the lonely cry of the more- 
 poi'k and the occasional rustle of a branch brushed by a pas- 
 sing night bird fall on the ear, strange soimds, mysterious 
 creakings and groans, and occasionally a crash re- 
 sounding far and wide and indicating the fall of some 
 ancient tenant of the mountain sides, tend as much to 
 murder sleep as silent contemplation of the star-lit sky. But 
 it is chiefly when camping out in the open on nights like these 
 that the profound problem of the rules which govern the 
 orbs sparkling in illimitable space, nay, of one's very exist- 
 ence and destiny, forces itself prominently forward ; and, if 
 at any time, it is then that the mind realizes, as it were, tho 
 infinite and obtains a conception of the littleness of man, of
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 101 
 
 his belongings, and of the theories which conceive the worlds 
 above to have been created merely for his special use and 
 delectation. 
 
 In order however, to be able to indulge properly in 
 reveries of the above kind one thing is necessary. The night 
 must be fine : for a wet jacket, sodden blankets, and a heavy 
 downpour of rain play the very deuce with all romantic feel- 
 ings, and induce no higher aspirations than vain wishes for 
 warm beds and watertight ceilings. 
 
 The next morning the track was found, not two hundred 
 yards off. How I blessed my native friend ! His horse 
 being still pumped, I cantered on at dawn, and pulled up 
 at Te Whetu, a Maori Jcawiga, where the natives were evi- 
 dently astonished to see me. I must explain that these were 
 Ngatiraukawas, and that this ride was taken before their 
 renunciation of allegiance to the King, mentioned in the 
 last chapter. There was evidently some surprise at seeing a 
 pakeha come up by himself, but at the same time there was 
 abundant hospitality : my horse was taken from me, un- 
 saddled, and led off to water and grass, and I was inducted 
 into the " whare-rwwnga" while breakfast (and supper) was 
 getting ready : this, by the way, consisted of a fresh killed 
 pigeon, boiled without having been drawn ; and we were 
 all as thick as thieves by the time my guide came up. One 
 chap did glower at me for a long time, squatting with his 
 blanket up to his mouth and staring as none but a Maori 
 can stare, but at last he left off this amusement, and to my 
 astonishment told me he knew me very well. I rather 
 fancied that when we had last seen each other, it had not 
 been on an occasion so pacific as the present. However, he 
 was as jolly as the rest, and right welcome they made me. 
 Contrasting strongly with the low dens in which the tribe 
 nightly chokes off to sleep was a huge wftare built for the ac- 
 commodation of the delegates at a rumnya (council) about 
 o
 
 102 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 to be held. The ridge pole was fully 20 feet from the floor, 
 and the centre post .supporting it was carved to represent a 
 tribal ancestor : in length, the house was some forty feet, 
 and in breadth about twenty, the side walls up to the eaves 
 being lined with " toe-toe" stalks, stained in different patterns ; 
 the roofing and sides were of course of raupo, both project" 
 ing over the doorway, so as to form a porch, where the 
 indolent natives might bask cpuietly in the sunshine, 
 or sleep in that wonderfully uncomfortable attitude which 
 none but a Maori can adopt. Most nations, even of 
 savages, like to have something under their heads in the 
 shape of a pillow ; but this adjunct to comfort is not re- 
 cognised by the Maori who coils himself up in his blanket 
 so that not an inch of him is visible, lies down on the bare 
 ground, and snores away happily. 
 
 Soon after leaving Te Whetu, ' with a fresh guide and 
 horse, we came upon the ' pumice plateau which I 
 had been led to expect, as bleak, di-eary, an expanse as 
 it had yet been my lot to traverse ; there were hollows in it 
 similar to those read of as occurring in sandy deserts, and all so 
 wofully alike that, where no path existed, it was marvellous 
 how a way could be known. We rode on a few miles till 
 a sudden turn introduced me to new scenery. We were in 
 one of the above mentioned hollows, when Hemiona wheeled 
 off to the right between two hillocks of pumice sand ; I fol- 
 lowed of course, and my astonishment can be conceived at 
 finding that these mounds merely concealed two huge 
 blocks of rock which seemed the portals to another world ; 
 for, straight below, lay a deep ravine, the way down to 
 it being by a cleft between two walls of precipitous rock, 
 The descent was not easy, even though we dismounted, for 
 there wei'e a good many boiilders and loose stones knocking 
 about, but we got safe to the bottom. I could now realise 
 what I had read of " canons" in books of American travel,
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 103 
 
 for this was one, and no mistake. Some 800 or a 1000 
 feet above our heads the plain was traversed by a chasm 
 which sank sheer for about a quarter of the way down, the 
 remaining part consisting of a steep slope formed by the 
 debris of rock which had crumbled away in the course of 
 ages the width of the gulch from lip to lip I guessed at 
 about 250 yards. Looking up the ravine, the further end 
 was closed by dense bush, proving the length of time which 
 must have elapsed since torrents wore out this huge drain, 
 if torrents formed the erosive power ; and, at its lower ex- 
 tremity, it opened into a basin from which branched out 
 similar chasms. Following one of these, I found we had not 
 yet reached the lowest level, for a descent of another fifty 
 feet brought \is to a limpid brook slowly wending its way to 
 join the Waikato. We had crossed this, and I was wonder- 
 ing how on earth we were to get out of the gigantic trap we 
 were in when Hemiona pointed to a zig-zag line along 
 the side some distance ahead, where the slope appeared 
 not quite so steep, and said that was our path. A s above 
 the talus there i-ose certainly a hundred feet of bare smooth 
 rock, I guessed my friend was chaffing ; but, not a bit of it : 
 ariived at the foot he jumped off, gave his horse a lick, and 
 the beast began scrambling up hill. Once the ascent com- 
 menced, I ceased to interest myself in the fate of my nag 
 or companion, for all I looked after was my own personal 
 safety, so abrupt was the rise and so slippery the scanty 
 grass under the feet. It was not till close to the wall of 
 rock that a narrow slit, that is the only woi-cl I have for 
 it, was visible. It was just broad enough for the horses, 
 and both they and their riders were not sorry to emerge 
 again into the upper regions. From this we kept on through 
 the same uninteresting kind of country, bordered on our 
 left by the bush which extends from this away to Lake 
 Rotorua, and we jogged on in silence till, pulling up literally
 
 104 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 at the brink of a precipice, I beheld rolled out below a bit of 
 scenery which was to say the least, a marvellous sight. 
 Many hundred feet below extended a vast plain en- 
 closed on all sides, and, but for the absence of fiery 
 lava streams, bringing to memory the description of 
 the volcano of Kilauea. Winding through it and making 
 its exit by some hidden rent far to the right ran the Wai- 
 kato, while other streams could be traced pouring down 
 their tribute to swell the main river ; a whitish line running 
 eastward was the road leading to Tauranga, and all around 
 the basin rose an encircling coronet of hills suggesting the 
 possibility of their having in ages past formed the cliffs of 
 a prehistoric lake. To the left at some few miles distance 
 shot up the rocky peaks of Paeroa, dark and grim looking, 
 and rendered more grim by a black thunder cloud against 
 which their jagged edges shewed in dim relief. The picture 
 was perfect ; there was before me plain and river, mountain 
 and forest ; and each under different aspects ; for, while the 
 gloom of the approaching sqxiall enhanced the weird and 
 desolate aspect of the precipices on the flanks of Paeroa, 
 the rays of the sun, now sinking in the west, peeping through 
 a break in the bank of clouds which lowered overhead, fell 
 on the surface of the river and threw a sheeny glare upon its 
 sinuous stream. 
 
 I have said the view was grand ; I may add that after 
 gazing on it with pleasure for some time, I lost some sense 
 of its beauties on learning that once more we were off the 
 track ; the real truth being that since the climb out of the 
 deep ravine there had been no track at all, and that we had 
 not touched the right one since leaving Te Whetu. We 
 looked to the light, we looked carefully to the left ; nowhere 
 did a sign exist of a break ; and a chamois with frosted hoofs 
 could not have kept his feet on the slope below us. 
 Hemiona insisted upon it that our way lay to the right ; and
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 105 
 
 as I could not contradict him, I followed his guidance. It 
 took a good hour's ride along the brink of the cliffs before we 
 came upon a spur which could be pronounced safe. So once 
 more jumping off, down we went, sometimes sliding on short 
 grass, sometimes sinking over the ankles in loose pumice till we 
 reached the bottom. From this to Niho-o-te-kiore (the Hat's 
 toot/i,), a kainga on the Waikato, was but a six or seven 
 miles ride during which we passed the first solfataras we 
 had seen on the way. A canoe took us across the river, and, 
 thoroughly tired out, I was not long in disposing of dinner 
 and tot, and in turning into bed. I thought I knew pretty 
 well what strange sleeping places were, biit here I was in- 
 troduced to a novelty. The hut was built against a pumice 
 cliff, into which the inmates were cutting a chimney, the 
 resulting pumice sand being heaped up in the w/tare. For 
 my accommodation this was nicely hollowed out in the 
 centre ; a lot of raupo was laid on it covered by a mat, and 
 over all came my 'possum. I don't know whether it was 
 that I was tired, or what ; but certainly I felt perfectly 
 luxurious lying down on my sandy couch, and surrounded 
 by a lot of inquisitive new friends of the native race, some 
 of whom evidently were practised in European habits, for 
 they insisted on " shouting" rum, and that highly doctored, 
 for all hands. 
 
 From Niho-o-te-kiore to Tapuaeharuru, on the shores of 
 Lake Taupo, the road has been formed by native labour, 
 the engineering portion of course being European, and 
 reflects a good deal of credit on designer and workmen. The 
 Waikato is to be bridged at Niho,* and, once a road estab- 
 lished between Cambridge and this spot, the communication 
 will be open from Auckland to Wellington. The import- 
 ance of even this part of it will be best understood when it 
 is known that it passes close to the spot where poor Lieut. 
 * This bridge is completed now.
 
 10G PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 Meade narrowly escaped with his life in 1865, an episode 
 capitally described in his work. The narrative of his ride 
 in the interior is indeed right throughout most graphic ; 
 there is not one word of exaggeration to be found in it, 
 and it is quite refreshing to come across a work the author 
 of which has to describe marvels of nature, and describes 
 them enthusiastically, and yet truthfully. Now, instead of 
 a narrow track as he found it, about which lurked ambushed 
 savages, there was a broad highway along which I cantered 
 in comfort for about twelve miles, sometimes winding 
 through a ravine by sidings cut high above the stream, 
 sometimes pushing on straight over flats, once native culti- 
 vations; and constantly catching glimpses of white curling 
 vapour, indicating the presence of hot springs. 
 
 The lake itself is not seen till the traveller is close to its 
 cliffs, and the river must be crossed before a fair view can be 
 obtained of its dimensions. The point at which Taupo is 
 struck is called Tapuaeharuru (sounding-footsteps), a 
 capital name, as anyone will testify who has listened to the 
 hollow reverberation of his horse's hoofs while cantering 
 over the ground. A cliff juts out here into the lake, 
 crowned by a palisaded pa now ttunbling to pieces, 
 in which I once ran a chance of standing a siege ; and just 
 at its foot, after traversing the whole lake and depositing 
 in its transit any impurities gathered in its course 
 from the foot of Ruapehu, the Waikato River rolls 
 out in a broad and deep current, whose clearness, trans- 
 parency, and colour remind the tourist of the Rhone 
 at Geneva. The river crossed in a canoe, a view 
 of the lake is obtained from the bank on which 
 stands the Constabulary redoubt. It takes some time 
 to appreciate Taupo, especially if the tourist has in mind 
 the engraving in Hochstetter's book ; one cannot at first 
 look at the lake, at its shores low to the south, high and
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 107 
 
 wood-crowned to the north, for involuntarily the eye turns 
 towards the two snowy peaks which dwarf every hill around. 
 Those plateaux to the soxith-west terminating in the sheer 
 cliffs of Karangahape, rising fully a thousand feet out of the 
 waters at their base, the bush covered heights, broken into 
 many a bay, which border the northern extremity, the cones 
 jutting up beyond Tokanu baby volcanoes as it were all 
 look so small by the side of Tongariro and Ruapehu that 
 they lose any grandeur they might possess if no overshadow- 
 ing majesty were near. Then the southern shore is tame, 
 and it is useless to try and find out the beauties of that 
 opposite it, for to whatever point the eye is turned, it is 
 bound to come round to the main attraction, those two white 
 summits shooting up towards the clouds. Habit does a 
 great deal ; and after many attempts, one can arrive at a 
 pitch of mental concentration, and steadily consider the 
 lake, and nothing more. Even then Taupo Moana for 
 dignified it is by the name of a sea is not lovely ; there 
 is nothing soft about it ; neither is there at a glance to be 
 caught anything grand. Devoid of the ruggedness of High- 
 land lochs, it yet possesses none of the smiling beauties 
 which render so charming the Italian lakes ; it is a sombre 
 piece of water which, situated in the midst of sterility, 
 harmonises well with its .surroundings. 
 
 But though unlovely in itself it yet possesses grand ac- 
 companiments. Away beyond the south-west extremity, 
 with many a lower peak around, from the bosom of a vast 
 forest rise the two great mountains, Tongariro and Ruapehu, 
 the latter a huge imshapely mass, the former an elegant 
 cone ; on the siimmit of each lies eternal snow, but a bare 
 I'ocky spot on Tongariro whence issues a jet of steam, 
 dwarfed to insignificance by the distance, still shews the 
 existence of internal fires which occasionally reveal their 
 presence by rumblings and tluuidcrings loud enough to be
 
 108 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGlt MAORI LANDS. 
 
 heard as far as Taui'anga. Southward, some thirty miles 
 from the lake, stretches the chain of the Kaimanawa, touch- 
 ing to the east the TJriwera mountains, on the west sloping 
 down into the Patea plateau and forming a long barrier 
 through Avhich exist but few passes. Westward, a chaotic 
 assemblage of mountains indicates the regions of the Tuhua, 
 and nearer at hand, to the east, a solitary hill, Tauhara, 
 starts out of the plain, its shape asserting its volcanic origin. 
 For the rest, east and south for miles stretches a barren 
 plateau. Such is the picture presented from Tapuaeharuru. 
 Taupo Moana, 1200 feet above the sea, is a spot celebrated 
 in native history. Here it was that dwelt a cruel taniwfta, 
 who even now makes his presence known by the con- 
 stant agitation of the water between Motukaiho, the only 
 island, and the main land ; it was here that Mount 
 Egmont had his disagreement with his brother Tongariro ; 
 numerous legends exist to account for the volcanic communi- 
 cations between it and the burning mountain of White 
 Island, and generally speaking it was looked upon as the 
 " omphalos" of " Te ika a Maui." Near its banks it was that 
 one of the old school of chiefs, Te Heuheu, reported to 
 have been a giant in size, was with many of his tribe, over- 
 whelmed in a land slip ; of him a story is related that, 
 being rather harassed by missionaries of different persuasions, 
 he made answer somewhat to the following effect : " You 
 tell me to worship in your fashion ; another pakeha comes 
 and says if I don't go his way I shall suffer ; and a third 
 arrives to contradict you both. Which of you is right ? I 
 can't decide ; but I think my way quite as good as any you 
 propose, and to that I shall stick." 
 
 For some time it was supposed Taupo was fathomless ; it 
 has however been sounded by an officer on the spot, and at 
 ho very great depth ; so there is one bit of tradition knocked 
 on the head by a practical experiment. In its native waters
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 109 
 
 no native fish are to be found, but sonic carp introduced 
 seem to be thriving well, as a few specimens in good condi- 
 tion were caught in Maori nets a good way from where they 
 had been put in. To the credit of the natives be it said that, 
 knowing the value the pakeha set on the few fish brought 
 up so far at some expense, they at once turned out again 
 those they had hauled up. 
 
 I believe Taupo has the credit of being an ancient crater. 
 There are numerous other indications of plutonic agency : 
 the soil for miles is many feet deep in pumice sand originally 
 ejected from the bowels of the earth ; and so it is reasonable 
 to suppose that at some time or other, there was some 
 pretty hot work hereabouts, the sole remaining evidences of 
 which are the rare and mild outbursts of Tongariro, and the 
 numberless solfataras scattered around. Except on the flanks 
 of the twin mountains there is but little trace of lava, and it 
 is a moot point whether the pumice sand forming the plains 
 is not a subaqueous formation. There is evidence in favour 
 of this theory; for,. in the sidings which have been cut to form 
 the Napier road, trunks of trees have been found in a hori- 
 zontal position. One I saw was that of a large fem tree 
 converted completely into charcoal ; it was some fifteen feet 
 in length, and was covered by about ten or twelve feet of 
 pumice ; how much of the same soil lay under it cottld not of 
 course be guessed. 
 
 At Tapuaeharuru, I missed on this occasion seeing my 
 genial and stout friend, Poihipi Tukairangi, who behaved 
 very kindly to Meade during his tour, and who, with his 
 hapu, a section of the Arawa, stuck manfully to our side 
 while war was raging around him. The first thing after 
 arrival, and due telegraphy, was of course a swim, and then 
 arrangements as to the morrow's doings. 
 
 After breakfast we started off on horseback, a party of 
 four or five bound for the " Huka" waterfall ; it was u lovdy
 
 110 I'AKEUA UAMULES THROUGH MAOKI LANDS. 
 
 morning, and hot enough in all conscience, so we took it 
 easjr and jogged along quietly in single file, carefully follow- 
 ing the track. This is a precaution not to bo neglected ; for 
 here and there on either hand, a slight depression over 
 which hovers a thin mist-like steam denotes rotten ground 
 with underlying heat which would play the very mischief 
 Avith man or beast who had the ill-luck to roll into it. The 
 hollow sound elicited by t3)e hoofs of the horses when put to 
 a quiet trot brought up classical ideas, and actually elicited 
 a quotation as a proof that Virgil knew what it was to 
 canter over a volcanic country. The line 
 
 Quadrnpetante sorra pntrem petit imgula campum 
 does give a sort of idea of the queer reverberation under foot. 
 But Latin at Taupo ! with a Maori chief at one's side ! and 
 quoted by an Armed Constable too! Quousque tandem! 
 After about a couple of miles ride we struck the river where 
 it makes a sharp bend -between two high cliffs, those on our 
 side receding from the brink and forming a small amphi- 
 theatre around a diminutive flat. The steep left bank was 
 covered with luxuriant ferns, biit that on the right looked 
 exactly what it was, bare, burnt, crumbling earth, presenting 
 the most desolate aspect : one could almost imagine it to be 
 a fire-ruin. Scrambling down a slope, not much affected by 
 the internal heat, we reached the river's edge, and halted 
 opposite a queer looking funnel-like cone sticking a few feet 
 out of the ground, apparently composed of sticks cemented 
 together by a sinter deposit similar to that formed at Roto- 
 mahana. It is hardly fair to tell tales out of school, so I 
 must abstain from mentioning the practical joke usually 
 played here upon the unsuspicious stranger : the proper thing 
 to do is to administer pills in the shape of small sods thrown 
 down the funnel ; presently there is heard a grunting, gurg- 
 ling sound, and out comes the bolus flying high into the 
 air followed by the propelling power, a column of hot water,
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. Ill 
 
 Another mile's ride brought us to a stream and small 
 cascade of water rather too hot to be pleasant, and hero we 
 left our horses and took a traka. This was decidedly 
 pleasant travelling; there was scarcely any necessity for 
 using the paddles, so evenly and quietly we glided 
 with the current on the bosom of the stream ; hot was no 
 name for it, and with coats off and handkerchiefs supple- 
 menting the puggerees we reclined at length, allowing the 
 two most energetic of the party to carry on a pretence of 
 paddling. The banks as we passed them presented a perfect 
 contrast : fclr.it on the right, rising gradually towards low 
 hills, was clad with verdure, though that was only fern, 
 tutu, and koromiko or cabbage trees, with here and there 
 a patch of cultivation surrounding a Maori w/tare or two ; 
 a few creeks bordered by stumpy peach trees opened out 
 to the river, and in them the aboriginal population, male 
 and female, was diving about in great glee. The other 
 side was different : a narrow strip separated the river from 
 a steep but not high rise forming a plateau cleft at 
 intervals by a series of ravines running inland, and the 
 whole was covered with low parched scrub fern. Slowly 
 and lazily we drifted down till a murmur gradually increas- 
 ing in intensity warned us of the proximity of rapids ; but 
 just as our pace was becoming faster, a sweep of the paddle 
 turned the nose of the waka into a little creek, and we 
 jumped ashore. Following the river we passed the rapids 
 above mentioned, and, rising a short ascent, became 
 conscious that an uncertain noise lately distinguishable was 
 now a full-mouthed roar coming from ahead : another bit of 
 climb, and tlie Huka* was in view. At this particular spot 
 the river is about a hundred and fifty yards wide, and 
 right across it runs a massive reef some hundivd and twenty 
 yards in thickness ; it can be easily conceived that at some 
 * Hi;k:i (froth or foaui ; snn\v.)
 
 112 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 period or another the whole river was carried bodily over 
 this dyke, but that some convulsion of nature during the 
 volcanic disturbances by which this region lias been so 
 wonderfully tossed about gave it a new way of escape. 
 About the centre of the barrier, extending in a direct line 
 straight through the thickness of the reef, yawns a chasm 
 only fifteen yards in width, into whose open jaws the river 
 hurls itself with tremendous velocity. We walked on 
 further, till we stood on the actual rock, and peered over the 
 brink at the torrent boiling but a few feet below us. A half 
 moon shaped rapid some hundred yards above the reef pro- 
 pares the river for its race and sends it right up to the 
 mouth of the rift where it takes its first downward shoot in 
 one smooth oily green wave which, actually, a little further 
 on, dives into and under a tormented and seething mass of 
 white water; then follows another tolerably clear shoot, 
 charging, as it were, another confused mass of foam ; then 
 another dive, and more bubbling and tossing which lasts 
 until the reef sinks sheer down, and the river takes a leap 
 of forty or fifty feet into a glorious pool surrounded by cliffs. 
 We stood for some time watching the curious way in which 
 the smooth shoots seemed to slide into and under the foam 
 caused by obstractive rocks, speculating as to the pace 
 attained, and amusing ourselves by throwing in sods and 
 sticks : odd enough, at one particular spot, the lightest 
 thing which has hitherto floated on the surface takes a 
 sudden header, and is no more seen. Whether this is catised, 
 as stated, by the convex shape the surface of the water takes 
 inconsequence of the enormous pressure on the side walls, 
 or not, I cannot tell ; but down went every bit of wood we 
 chucked in. Some twenty yards down from the entrance of 
 the chasm, on the right bank jutted out a small ledge of 
 rock, hardly broad enough for a man to stand on, but sup- 
 porting a tree whose roots had somehow or another found
 
 PAKEIIA HAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 113 
 
 nourishment in cracks and crevices ; and this ledge plays 
 an important part in the tradition handed down concerning 
 the Huka. We got to the end of the reef, and walking 
 round the horse-shoe cliff till we obtained a full view of tho 
 cataract, we lay down on the short grass, lit pipes, and 
 listened to the tale imparted by the old native who had ac- 
 companied us. This is what he related : 
 
 " Eight or more generations ago," he said, " one of our 
 Taupo people went down to Wanganui and there happened 
 to meet a chief much given to bragging. This chief came to 
 him and questioned him about the Huka. This chief 
 laughed at the idea of its being impassable. He said " I 
 have many falls and rapids in my country, and I have eaten 
 (shot) them all. It is you who are afraid : I will come 
 and show you how to eat the Huka." He came accordingly 
 with seventy men, and they obtained a large canoe for the 
 purpose of making the experiment ; on the day when they 
 were going to try it, they took with them the Taupo native 
 who had told them about the place. Many people assembled 
 to see this Wanganui chief conqiier the Atua of the Huka ; 
 but they did not believe it could be done. Some were on 
 one side of the chasm ; some on the other ; and some sat 
 just here to see the canoe come down the fall. They started ; 
 they got Avell over the first small rapid ; the canoe entered 
 the first wave and shot down rapidly. The rowers were 
 elated with the prospect of success, and to a man they stood 
 up in the canoe and shouted in triumph. Biit the Taupo 
 man felt afraid ; he was in the bow ; and just as they neared 
 the white water, he took a great spring, landed on the small 
 bit of rock which sticks out thei-e and clung to the tree ; from 
 that he was easily pulled up. But the canoe got into the 
 foam ; it hit the rock, it broke, and all the crew were in the 
 water ; they were swept down ; and just where you saw sink 
 the pieces of wood you threw in, they all disappeared ! Some
 
 114 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MA011I LANDS. 
 
 of the bodies were afterwards found well down tiie river ; 
 and to this day, wliou tha water is very low, we can perceive 
 occasionally the nosa of the canoe which is jammed between 
 some rocks just at the fall. Often we see its " Atua" (Spirit) : 
 there -there ; you can see it now that colour on the 
 spray !" It would have been of no use enlightening the 
 old gentleman as to the meaning of an Iris, so we did not 
 disturb his belief, but just lay there smoking, basking in 
 the heat and enjoying a regular dolce far niente. 
 
 "We rode back by a different track, meaning to have a 
 warm bath at a spot a little distance off where a hot spring 
 issues from a marsh in a bubbling stream, and runs down 
 through a narrow gully ; but on dismounting and looking at 
 the waters it was voted unanimously that on such a roasting 
 day as this a plunge in the cold lake would be far more 
 seasonable, and so we went on. An attempt is being made 
 in this ravine to make the hot water baths comfortable, by 
 diverting the stream into pools which are to be surrounded 
 by dressing places, &c., the originator of this Taupo spec 
 being, I believe, the Taupo guide, Jack Loffley, whom I can 
 conscientiously recommend to any tourist, never having 
 employed him myself in that capacity, but having seen 
 him in one or two ticklish moments of the kind which test 
 what sort of stuff a man is made of. A stranger at first 
 sight would perhaps be startled at his attire, but after all it 
 is, ininue the arms, die., the very same garb nine-tenths of 
 the Colonial Forces, officers and men, used to adopt on 
 service, consisting of a flannel shirt, sleeves rolled up, a 
 shawl worn kilt fashion, shoes and long stockings : to this 
 dandies added a blue serge jumper. Such a dress is at first 
 rather uncomfortable for the knees when going through a 
 bush full of " lawyers ;" or, a trifle worse if possible, through 
 high burned fern, with the charred stalks, now sharp pointed, 
 preserving the inclination acquired, when green, under the
 
 PAKEIIA KA.MBLKS THROUGH .MAO' 11.") 
 
 influence of constant winds, and bent down in opposition 
 to one's progress. But then in river work its advantages are- 
 palpable : you have to cross a river say sixty tinier-; in one 
 day's march, and that is not an out-of-the-way number ; the 
 trouser-wearing warrior finds a baggy weight gradually in- 
 creasing aboxit his ankles as sand imperceptibly invades his 
 nether garments, well tucked in to his socks as they are ; 
 there is a drag about the waist, and perpetual are the 
 " hitchings-up" and halts to wring out the part flopping about 
 his ankles : not so with him of the kilt ; on entering a stream 
 he simply lifts up his garment, wades through, and ten 
 minutes afterwards is as dry as ever. Notwithstanding 
 this rather savage costume and his slightly brimstony 
 nickname, no tourist will repent having put himself in 
 Lofiley's hands. 
 
 One place which I was very sorry not to be able to visit, 
 Orakei-korako, an old ferry on the Waikato, is celebrated for 
 the number and activity of its geysers, and for alum caves 
 which contain huge stalactites. A trip to this and to To- 
 kanu, on the Western shores of the lake, together with a 
 climb up Toiigariro, form part of a programme which I have 
 not yet been able to carry out. It struck me more than 
 once dining the journey that it would be possible to canoe 
 from Onehunga to Wanganui. Crossing the Manakau from 
 the former place, Waikato Heads can be reached by the 
 Awaroa near Waiuku, and thence, witli but a few portages, 
 the canoeist can easily get to Taupo, cross the lake and 
 enter the head waters of the Waikato : here would lie the 
 difficulty, that of transporting the canoe on to the Wanga- 
 nui river, and I do not know enough of the country to 
 hazard a guess as to the feasibility of the task : but once upon 
 this stream, and a very romantic and beautiful one from all 
 accounts, there would be no difficulty, care being taken at tho 
 numerous rapids, which however are constantly tihot by the
 
 110 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 natives in their wakus. I throw out the hint to any ad- 
 venturous Rob-lloyist in Auckland. 
 
 Taupo and Rotomahana, the latter for choice, must 
 eventually become sanatoria in cases of cutaneous disease or 
 of rheumatism. I have heard of some extraordinary cures 
 under the first head ; and, at my last visit to Taupo, T met a 
 gentleman who, from rheumatism, had barely been able to get 
 so far as Tapuaeharuru, but who now, after six weeks' bath- 
 ing, was walking about as sound and upright as possible. 
 He even had a swim with TIS in the lake. 
 
 Already there is coach communication between Taupo and 
 Napier; it will not be long before Cobb and Co., run from 
 Tauranga and Rotorua and thence join the main line ; and 
 it only needs the construction of a road over the country I 
 had just passed but in another direction, more to the 
 westward, which would avoid the deep ravines I had to 
 cross to bring Auckland into direct coach traffic with 
 Wellington ; and then invalids will experience but little 
 difficulty in reaching the spot.* 
 
 The road to Napier from Tapuaeharuru passes close to 
 the foot of Tauhara and runs through Opepe, a constabulary 
 station established at a junction of native tracks by which 
 communication was formerly kept up between the East 
 Coast rebels and the King party. It is a lonely spot, with 
 however the advantage of a belt of timber close at hand, 
 and of soil which will grow garden produce; a stout 
 stockade renders the post safe against any attack, and the 
 buildings, all constructed by the men, are very comfortable. 
 But Opepe is a place of bitter memories to me, and never can 
 I visit it without the most painful reminiscences of the 
 tragic fate of the party of cavalry volunteers, who, on one 
 
 * Since writing the above, a bridge has been erected over the Waikato 
 Eiver at Nilio-o-te-kiore, and the coach does run from Tauraiigu to 
 Taupo.
 
 PAKEI1A RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 117 
 
 occasion escorted me to Taupo. It was almost impossible to 
 realize that this spot, now full of life and bustle, was the 
 same at which I arrived one morning at grey dawn from 
 Tapuaeharnm to find my poor fellows, among them two per- 
 sonal friends, lying stark and stiff. Surprised by a force 
 more than ten times their number, it is a wonder any 
 escaped ; and that they were surprised is not a matter of 
 astonishment to any one who has ridden over these plains, 
 cut up as they are by ravines and gullies, in which a largo 
 body of men could march with ease without being per- 
 ceived by any one on the plateau itself. 
 
 From Opepe all is fiat and bare till the ranges are 
 reached and only one river is met, the Rangitaiki, which, 
 leaving the Taupo plateau, flows eastward through the 
 Kaingaroa plains, as sterile and desert as those it has 
 quitted, washes the foot of the mountains forming the 
 northern boundary of the Uriwera, near Mount Edgcumbe 
 pours through a narrow defile, and lower dowzi unites its 
 waters to those of the Tarawera river, both falling into the 
 sea at Matata, under the name of Te Awa o te Atua (the 
 river of the Spirit). 
 
 The herbage on these plains is confined to a short tussocky 
 grass, resembling slightly the toe-toe, inasmuch as the edges 
 of the leaves present, though to a slight degree, the same 
 serrated appearance. The roots go but a little way down, 
 and I often used in former days to watch my poor horse pick 
 up bunch after bunch, not lovingly with his teeth, but 
 just with his lips ; the whole thing would come out of the 
 ground, and a slight munch or two was quite enough to 
 satisfy the xmfortunate beast that it was the same vile stuff 
 he had tried so often before to satisfy his hunger ; so he would 
 lazily open his mouth, let go the tussock, and wander dis- 
 consolately till a greener looking bit deceived him again. 
 Had it not been for a few patches of koroiniko found in thy
 
 118 PAKE1IA RAMBLES THROUGH MAOill LANDS. 
 
 vicinity of the camp at Fort Galatea, every horse would 
 have died of starvation. As it was, they were all within an 
 inch of it. Away to the westward there is a difference. 
 The slopes of the Kaimanawa towards that point of the 
 compass are composed of fair soil ; they are already taken 
 lip as sheep runs, and there is a prospect of a further develop- 
 ment of that part of the country by the formation of a road 
 between it and Wanganui. 
 
 Entering the defile through which rushes the Waipunga, 
 we come once more upon sidings and cuttings in 
 pumice sand cliffs, and, from the entry of the gorge, 
 the road becomes picturesque. It is carried high up 
 over the bed of the river on sidings whence can be 
 seen far below both cascades and rapids ; then it 
 drops again to the level of the torrent, only to rise once 
 more on the opposite side ; it winds along, heading the small 
 ravines and gullies which sink into the sides of the moun- 
 tains, now passing through bits of level with thick bush on 
 either hand, now affording peeps into valleys and glens 
 whence comes the murmur of many waters; and again 
 it rises upwards by a series of zig-zags cut into the flanks of 
 steep fern-covered mountains. 
 
 Three posts of Constabulary occupy the line between the 
 plains and the Mohaka river. Runanga, on a hill 2000 feet 
 above the sea ; Tarawera, almost on the bank of the river, 
 and Te Haroto, on the top of Turangakumu, about the same 
 altitude as Runanga. From this latter station one can 
 obtain a good idea of the general character around. In front 
 lies the valley of the Mohaka, a river which has cut a deep 
 channel for itself through what appears from our stand point 
 to be an unbroken plateau ; beyond it, a white streak 
 running in and out along the side of the mountain facing us 
 denotes the road over Titiokura, and to the right and left 
 series after series of hills and mountains are jumbled up and
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 119 
 
 tossed about in the most confused manner. There seems to 
 be some order in the ranges leading down to the sea, which 
 are probably spurs running out from a central mass, but that 
 centre portion, to all outward appearances, is utterly devoid 
 of any regularity. On the summit of Turangakumu crops 
 out a mass of dark conglomerate, thickly encrusted with 
 fossil shells, and tough enough to make good road metal. In 
 crossing these spurs to the eastward, on my way from 
 Wairoa to Napier I found the same kind of formation very 
 abundant, but much whiter, and apparently not so compact. 
 
 The Mohaka is a nasty river to cross; it is swift, 
 freshes very rapidly, is very clear so clear as to be emi- 
 nently deceptive with regard to its depth, and runs over 
 small slippery bouldei'S. At my first attempt at it, look- 
 ing down from the bank, I made sure the water would not 
 be higher than my horse's knees ; by the time I found it up 
 to rny saddle bow and forming quite a small wave at tho 
 wither I made a mental resolve in future always to use 
 the ferry boat, and right glad I was to find myself clamber- 
 ing the narrow track which then led up the face of the steej > 
 cliff. Now a capital road has been constructed by cutting 
 well down 011 the siding, and making a wide " return." 
 
 After this came a weary pull up Titiokura, but from the 
 top of it there was a magnificent view of sea and land. Hawke's 
 Bay was before me ; Scinde Island, the peninsula on which 
 Napier is situated, looking like a solitary rock well out to 
 sea, while beyond it Cape Kidnappers jutted out into tho 
 ocean, and hill rising after hill in the distance closed in the 
 scene. From this the road dips into the valley of the Esk 
 river ; and, after crossing and recrossiug it till the mind 
 is perfectly weary of counting the number of times, the 
 traveller comes out on the shingle beach of Petano, a few 
 milos from the Iron Pot, the harbour of N;!pior.
 
 CHAPTER VII, 
 
 THE BAY OF PLENTY. 
 
 There are two ways of reaching Tauranga from Auckland, 
 by sea, and overland. The road starts from the Thames gold- 
 fields, passes through the unopened and tantalising Ohine- 
 muri country, by the Kati Kati entrance to the inland 
 waters of Tauranga harbour, and runs along their western 
 shore till it strikes the township of Te Papa. A seventeen 
 hours' passage in a steamer is however the easiest method of 
 doing the journey, and the scenery exhibited by the Coast 
 line is very picturesque, for, Cape Colville once rounded, 
 the vessel sails along parallel to a line of high broken cliffs 
 above which towers the Castle Rock of Coromandel ; thickly 
 clothed with bush, indented by numerous small inlets, sites 
 of saw-mills, and here and there meeting the waves in a 
 precipitous wall of rock, these hills, with their bold and 
 rugged features, present a striking appearance. The inshore 
 course, adopted by the small coasters, leads past a succession 
 of islands scattered about in all directions, and of all sizes, 
 from those containing hundreds of acres, to mere needles 
 and pinnacles of rock. One small group, the Shoe and 
 Slipper, I happen to know more of than I ever cared to 
 learn ; for, having for my sins taken a passage in a small 
 schooner whose running rigging was commonly supposed to 
 be composed of worn-out tether ropes, we got caught in a 
 heavy gale ; the skipper was very drunk, and would have 
 run us stem on to a rock had he not been forcibly removed 
 from deck in time, and we just managed to get under the
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 121 
 
 lee of the Slipper when our sails came tumbling down about 
 our ears. We had no boat, and all there was to eat on 
 board was a leg of mutton my servant had brought, but 
 there was no fuel to cook it with. However, another craft, 
 rather better found, was blown into the same shelter, and 
 I soon transhipped myself. But for three days we were 
 jammed here with nothing to do. Perhaps it was wrong, 
 but on a later occasion I could not help a feeling of satis- 
 faction at seeing the bones of the " Hira," at last a total 
 wreck, deeply imbedded in the sand at the mouth of the 
 Opotiki River. 
 
 The entrance to Tauranga harbour lies between a sandy 
 strip of land and Mount Maunganui, which, from its height 
 of some 800 feet, acts as a landmark for miles. Rifrh:g 
 sheer out of the sea, and connected with the mainland by a 
 narrow belt of sand-hills, it resembles a Gibraltar in mini- 
 ature, and history informs us that it once submitted to the 
 same fate as its prototype, having been taken by a surprise 
 and a coup de mam on a stormy night. The seaward face 
 of the rock, exposed to the long sweep of the Pacific, is 
 hollowed out into little " combs" diminutively suggestive of 
 Devonshire coast scenes, and containing tons upon tons of 
 broken shells of the one kind, the volutes of a small conch. 
 
 On entering the harbour the view is really fine ; to the 
 right an estuary extends for sixteen miles till it communi- 
 cates once more with the sea at the Kati Kati inlet ; to the 
 left rises the mountain, from its isolation appearing much 
 higher than it really is ; in front, a cluster of trees on a 
 promontory denotes the cemetery and mission station ; and, 
 from this, a plateau slopes gradually upwards till the horizon 
 is closed by a belt of bush some fourteen miles off. Inland 
 from the estuary, and to our right, the back country is 
 more broken, losing abruptly its character of an easy slope 
 and shooting up in peaks of a respectable altitude. Longing
 
 122 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 eyes have often been turned in that direction, for in it lies 
 the mountain range of the Aroha, believed to be a continua- 
 tion of the auriferous chain of the Thames ; and, beyond 
 Kati Kati, are the Ohinerrmri plains, whose richness in gold 
 is all the more credited that the native owners persistently 
 refuse to let the pakeha work on them. 
 
 There is not much to be seen at Tauranga : the township 
 is only in its infancy, and the objects of local interest are 
 chiefly confined to places remarkable in connection with the 
 late war. Of course we went to see the Gate Pa, or what 
 remains of it, where our troops got so thoroughly "whipped"; 
 then we went on to Te Rangi, where they made up for their 
 late defeat, and walked into the entrenchments with the 
 bayonet ; and from that we rode on to the edge of the bush 
 whose shade was most grateful to men and horses. The 
 country passed over was the gradually rising plateau I have 
 mentioned, throughout bare of timber; great fissures tra- 
 versed it, probably worn by water in days of old, but now 
 dry ravines or swamps ; the soil was of fair quality, but the 
 absence of water and timber had evidently been one of the 
 great preventions to its occupation. Tauranga was one of 
 the military settlements ; and, like most of the others, turned 
 out a failure so far as the original intention was concerned. 
 
 Lying lazily on the clover covered ground, and well 
 shaded by a big " rimu," we had a perfect panorama before 
 us. Tauranga harbour and the coast line, northward and 
 southward for many miles could be all taken in at almost one 
 glance ; and out at sea rose several islands : the Great Barrier, 
 a mountainous mass ; Motiti, or Flat Island ; and, nearest 
 of all, Karewa, a rocky islet abounding in obsidian, and the 
 home of a peculiar lizard, something like a small iguana. 
 They are not handsome beasts these lizards, but they are 
 pretty tenacious of life. One was sent a long distance by 
 post, and arrived safe at his journey's end : another, I w:is
 
 1'AKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAOUI LANDS. ll'o 
 
 assured, had eaten nothing for three weeks, and I was 
 invited to go and look at it ; in this case however, the fast 
 had proved too protracted, and, when the box was opened, 
 the brute was as dead as Julius Caesar. 
 
 It was very pleasant to loll about out of the hot glare 
 of the sun with nothing to do but watch the pretty little 
 fan-tails swooping and diving all around us, their silvery 
 under feathers glistening in the rays as they performed 
 their fantastic antics close to our heads ; and it was 
 difficult to realize that some charred rails close by, and a 
 stump which looked as if it had once belonged to a flag- 
 staff, were the remains of a village, and of a pole around 
 which I had, a few years before, by accident seen the 
 Hau-Hau fanatics go through their worship and dance. 
 A yacht had come into harbour, and its passengers were 
 eager to see something of the interior of the country ; so 
 a few of us set all orders at defiance and rode up with them 
 to this village. When first we sighted the place, the na- 
 tives were engaged in their devotions, which consisted in 
 going round and round the " niu," (or sacred pole), and 
 grunting out exclamations, meaningless most of them, till 
 they attained the porewarewa state of mental intoxica- 
 tion, in which condition the Hau-Haus conceived them- 
 selves inspired with the gift of tongues and jabbered away 
 in Irish, French, German, &c., all of course perfect gibberish. 
 They stopped as we rode up, and I must say that, though 
 we very coolly dismounted, sat down, and made oui'selves 
 at home, we were not annoyed or molested in any way, 
 but there was no doubt we were evidently considered " de 
 trop." However, I don't think any of us felt sorry when 
 on returning we had got clear of a nasty, ambushy-looking 
 ravine, and stood once more on Pye's pa hill. 
 
 After all, they were not a bad lot these people of Orope 
 (Europe, the name of the kainga), though they were Hau-
 
 124 I'AKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LAN U.S. 
 
 Hans. On one occasion they had in their hands one of our 
 officers, who had been in the habit of wandering from his 
 post after pigeons, never " fashing" himself about the natives. 
 This time however, news had come about fighting somewhere 
 down the coast ; Hakaraia, a chief of evil notoriety, was ex- 
 pected up ; so they kept my friend, and it was only after a 
 deal of expostulation that he was allowed away : but even 
 then some people had to go with him to prevent his falling 
 in with any of the mob supposed to be on their way. He 
 had not been long back in the block house at Pye's Pa, be- 
 fore Hakaraia did arrive with a lot of scoundrels, who would 
 have thought it a good deed to tomahawk any pakeha, let 
 alone an apiha (officer.) 
 
 Up to Orope we had been riding on a good made road, 
 with bridges, culverts, &c., but behind us the bush was 
 still thick and untouched. By this time it has assumed 
 another aspect : a road has been cut through it ; the dif- 
 ficulties of the Mangarewa ravines are overcome; the horse- 
 man who has breakfasted at Te Papa may take his evening 
 swim in the warm waters of Lake Rotorua; and mail 
 coaches roll through a belt of bush, traversed till lately by a 
 mere native track difficult even for pedestrians. In addition 
 to improving the communication with the interior this road 
 also opens up some country along the edge of the bush, and 
 in it, where settlements are certain to arise as the land is of 
 an excellent character. 
 
 During our stay at Tauranga we had an opportunity, while on 
 a shooting excursion towards Kati Kati, of seeing some more 
 country, Between the foot of the high range and the estuary 
 lies a gentle slope of ground, intersected by numerous small 
 streams and giving proof of its fertility by the heavy growth of 
 " tup;xkihi," and tall fern which covers it ; this forms part 
 of what was once confiscated territory. After the surrender 
 of the Ngaitorangi tribe consequent on their complete defeat
 
 PAKKHA KAMBLES THROUGH MAOKI LANDS. 
 
 at Te Eangi, the Governor, Sir George G ivy, in 
 tion of the honourable manner in which they had fought, 
 returned to them three-fourths of their confiscated land*. 
 This portion, with some exceptions for reserves, &c., was 
 then purcliased from tliem by the Government, and now 
 presents eligible sites for settlements. 
 
 The Tauranga people arc well aware of the value of these 
 lands, and arc not likely to rest .satisfied till the road 
 through them to the Thames, now in progress, is completed. 
 Not only will this allow the Bay of Plenty settlers to scu-l 
 their stock to market and avoid risks of shipment, but Hit- 
 population of the district is likely to be increased by the 
 close proximity to what is confidently asserted will l>o a 
 payable goldfield. The moment the miner is allowed to 
 peg out his claim on the spurs of the Aroha, or even at 
 Ohinemuri, the prospects of Tauranga farmers arc certain 
 to improve. 
 
 Of course we visited the cemetery where lie the remains 
 of the officers and men slain at the Gate Pa, at Te Kangi, 
 and at the munerous skirmishes which have taken place in the 
 vicinity between the colonial troops and the natives, 
 Washed at its foot by the tide, and weakened by land 
 springs, the whole point of land was gradually wearing 
 away till actually some of the graves had crumbled down, 
 and there was danger to the entire cemetery. A. sea wall, 
 constructed partly by the ifavy and partly by the colonial 
 forces, has arrested the decay. The other side of the 
 tongue of land on which is situated the grave-yard shelves 
 down to the " Juclea ;) creek, at the ford of which one of H.M .'s 
 Brigadier Generals was once wofully taken in by a couple 
 of larking ex-diggers. The troops were crossing, when the 
 ( leneral observed two men of the colonial forces busily engaged 
 in " washing" some sand in their pannikins. For curiosity's 
 sake, he asked what they were about, and with great 
 U
 
 126 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 mystery the secret was revealed : there was some gold dust 
 at the bottom of the pannikins. The General took the 
 men's names, went 011 with the inarch, fully persuaded an 
 important discovery had been made, and on returning sent 
 for the two diggers. Of course they could not be found, 
 and the General learned at a very cheap rate how a mine 
 can be "salted," even in a bed of sand, by the judicious 
 introduction, of the precious metal obtained elsewhere. 
 
 The shore opposite Tauranga is occupied by several 
 native villages, at one of which is established a very good 
 native school ; the largest kainga is Matapihi, where reside 
 the remnants of the Ngaiterangi tribe : higher up is Hairini 
 (Cp-ene); then on the inland waters we tind Canaan and 
 Judea ; so there is plenty of proof that missionaries Avere 
 about when these names were given. 
 
 At Otumaetai, about two miles from the Judea ford, 
 used to be a Roman Catholic Church very prettily built in 
 the Maori whare style, with the interior lining of stalks of 
 the " toe-toe" (Prince of Wales feather grass), beautifully 
 stained and arranged in all manner of patterns ; it has 
 now however fallen altogether into disrepair. 
 
 Pretty scenery is to be found by boating up the Wairoa 
 river as far as a series of falls which it makes shortly after is- 
 suing from the bush ; or in dodging about among the numerous 
 small streams which fall into the harbour. Sites of old 
 pas, Avhether erected for intertribal warfare or defence 
 against our troops are frequent : near one of the latter, 
 at Te Puna, General Cameron had a narrow escape of being 
 captured with his staff, for a nice little ambuscade was laid 
 at the very spot where he meant to land from the steamer 
 to reconnoitre : luckily for him, he changed his mind, and did 
 not disembark. 
 
 As a military engineer it is well known that the JSJaun 
 has a natural talent j and he readily adapts Li* defence to
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 127 
 
 the weapons brought against him. At the Gate Pa, the 
 native flagstaff was erected well in rear of the entrench- 
 ments, of course misleading our gunners, who naturally 
 concluded it must be in the centre of the place, and 
 blazed away at it vigorously. I remember one proof of the 
 readiness with which natives provide against any novelties 
 in danger. Hiding with several others in company with tho 
 chief Penetaka (the engineer of the Gate Pa), just after his 
 first submission and before his second outbreak, we came 
 upon a line of entrenchments barring the road. They were 
 strong and well constructed, and not a soul of us (officers all) 
 had been aware of their existence. Penetaka was questioned, 
 " Oh ! yes," he said " these are the linos we built after 
 the Gate Pa ; then, after our defeat at Te Rangi, I had a 
 quarrel here ; Hakaraia insisted upon our taking up this 
 position, but I objected. Now, if you were coming to 
 attack this, what would you do?" The answer was obvious : 
 there was an accessible mound at some distance on the 
 flank from which the defenders of the trenches could have been 
 enfiladed oft' into eternity. " Exactly so," went on the chief, 
 " 1 foresaw that, and as I wa.s'nt going to be blown into 
 pieces because Hakaraia was a fool, I left him." Friend 
 Penetaka is once more on good terms with his white neigh- 
 bours, and is a very good fellow, though he did fight 
 stubbornly against us. 
 
 From Tauranga southward we had of course to take to 
 the saddle, and here let me give a hint or two to any tourist 
 desirous of seeing the out-districts. Of all the mistakes 
 which can be made for this kind of travelling none can be 
 worse than to hire horses and wear breeches and boots. The 
 screws one gets are not up to any weight; their paces a re 
 brutal, they mostly have sore backs, and they are bound to 
 break down before half the journey is accomplished. A far 
 cheaper and better plan is to buy at the outset and sell at
 
 128 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 the end of the journey. Again, with regard to clothing : 
 breeches are an abomination : for there is always a good 
 deal of walking up and down hill to be done, and any tight- 
 ness about the nether integuments is exceedingly tiring. 
 Kivers, creeks, and small swamps abound ; it is thus nearly 
 impossible to get through a day's work without wet feet, and 
 any one who has experienced it will know what a trial to 
 temper it is to have to pull off and on, day after day, long 
 boots which have once become well soaked. Pantaloons, as 
 loose at the knee as is compatible with comfort in the 
 saddle, good shooting boots, and leggings, form the very best 
 attire for travelling on horseback in New Zealand. Of 
 course the saddle will be a roomy one, with plenty of well 
 fastened D's ; and then, with a blanket, or better still, a 
 'possum rug, in which are rolled up a spare flannel shirt, socks, 
 sponge, and toothbrush, strapped on in front, a waterproof 
 (long) just under the straps, a good supply of tobacco (for 
 that in the coast stores is vile stuff), and a small flask, the 
 traveller may jog along very comfortably. 
 
 It was about a four hours' ride to Maketu along a dreary 
 expanse of sand, though at low water the beach is hard and 
 fit for a canter ; and, the Ivaituna (eel eating) river ferried, we 
 were at the Arawa settlement of Maketu. It is strange how 
 nature has repeated herself about this part of the Bay 
 of Plenty ; from the highlands of the interior, ridges 
 run to the coast, converging in their general direction, like 
 the spokes of a wheel, on the peak of Whale Island 12 miles 
 out at sea opposite Whakatane : between them flow rivers 
 which have gradually worn, down the flanks of the moun- 
 tains, have carried with their current and deposited the 
 detritus held suspended in their stream, and have thus 
 gradually reclaimed land from the sea, and formed, first 
 swamps, and then valleys which now boast of great fertility. 
 As a rule, the country over which the traveller is going to
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS, 120 
 
 pass may be easily anticipated: a ri\or is crossed; then 
 comes a hill, on the other side of which is a sandy beach 
 with the ocean on one hand, and a shallow lagoon, or 
 perhaps swamp, on the, other ; and so on. Again, Makotu, 
 like Maungonui and many other hills on the Kast Coast, is a 
 detached, elevated block of land surrounded by sea, swamp, 
 ami river. Oil its sea and river face the rock rises sheer from 
 the water ; and, about a quarter of a mile from the mouth 
 of the Kaituna, the cliffs, lower here, are the site of a strong 
 pa ; near the centre of the block, a peak with its sides scarped 
 away shews where stood formerly a redoubt, Fort Colville, 
 inaccessible to an attacking party devoid of artillery. Close 
 by the spot where the river falls into the sea a small grove 
 of Karaka trees is shewn by the natives as a relic of their 
 ancestors. It is well known that Maori tradition points to 
 some island in the South Seas, called by them " Hawaiiki," 
 as the spot from which the original migration to New Zea- 
 land took place in several canoes, each of which had a dis- 
 tinct name. That which touched at Maketu was called the 
 " Arawa," and hence this generic appellation has been ap- 
 plied to the tribe inhabiting this district as far as Lake Taupo. 
 The story goes that the chief of the immigrants, on landing, 
 thrust the pole of the canoe into the ground, that it sprouted, 
 and thus became the progenitor of the group of trees now in 
 existence. Numerous other legends of the kind exist. For 
 instance, at Kawhia, a harbour on the West Coast, an up- 
 standing solitary limestone rock is firmly believed to be the 
 original stem of the canoe "Taenui." As for Hawaiiki, its 
 real position, and the truth of the immigration tradition, I 
 believe there have been as many arguments and pamphlets 
 on those subjects as originated from the antiquarian dis- 
 covery made by dear old Pickwick at Cobham. 
 
 Some time ago the only hotel at Maketu was kept by a 
 European \vhosewife, a half caste, had borne a rather con-
 
 130 PAKEHA RAMBU53 THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 spicuous part in the w:iv of 18G3. Her first husband was a 
 native, in arms against us, and she was in the Gate Pa on 
 the repulse of the English, when she humanely ad- 
 ministered water to the wounded who had been left there on 
 the retreat. I cite this as an example that the natives are 
 not always the ferocious savages they have been represented ; 
 in this case the warriors almost all belonged to the Ngaite- 
 rangi, whose boast it was that no white man had been 
 murdered by them ; and on this occasion they kept up their 
 reputation. While on this subject I may mention that I 
 was rather surprised at hearing one day a new comer 
 gravely relate that the regiments repulsed at the Gate Pa 
 could all night long hear the cries of their wounded com- 
 rades undergoing torture : and this was said in perfect good 
 faith, and, but for my presence, might have been credited ; 
 the real truth being that Colonel Booth himself Avas the 
 morning after the defeat found alive in the pa, and that 
 the wounded officers and men had been placed by their foes 
 in as comfortable positions as possible and supplied with 
 water. I know that a personal friend of mine, mortally hit, 
 was thus treated. 
 
 From Fort Colville there is a fine view extending over 
 the horseshoe formed by the Bay of Plenty, the high moun- 
 tains towards the East Cape, topped by Hikurangi, closing 
 the view to the eastward ; about the centre of the Bay, some 
 thirty miles out at sea, a small cloud lying low announces 
 that the volcano of White Island is in full operation; 
 twenty miles to the S.E., Putauaki, or Mount Edgecumbe, 
 backed up by the Uriwera highlands, shews its crater- 
 formed head, in the hollow of which lies a dark, gloomy 
 lake ; to the soxtthward extends a large plain, separated from 
 us by a swamp traversed by a causeway, and growing 
 nothing but fern ; beyond the plain rises a low range of 
 hills, a dip in which indicates our road to the Hot Lakes :
 
 I'AKEUA KAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LA.ND.s. 131 
 
 mid to the westward stretches another chain, on the further 
 side of which lies Orope, where we were watching the fan- 
 tails a few days ago. 
 
 The Maketu Pa used to be a formidable a flair. Built on 
 a rising ground close to the liver, it possesses on its land- 
 ward face a natural steep glacis which has ere now been 
 strewn by the bodies of fallen assailants ; but even this 
 and its fortifications have not always saved it. Mr Wil- 
 son's " Story of Te Waharoa" relates vividly some of the 
 horrible incidents of savage warfare which took place at its 
 capture in early days, even under the eyes of missionaries, 
 helpless to avert the slaughter. 
 
 The pa is* entered at "Te Waharoa" (the principal gate), 
 a rude pointed wooden arch, painted red, and adorned with 
 fantastic and grotesque carvings supposed to represent the 
 human face divine ; the eyes are formed of the inner coating 
 of the " pawa" shell, a kind of blueish mother of pearl; 
 tongues loll out of wooden mouths; arms and legs are dis- 
 torted and misshapen ; the tattoo is imitated to the life ; 
 each spot on the posts not occupied by the figure of some 
 ancestor is filled up with curiously carved scroll-work, and 
 over the whole waves a fringe of pigeon and " kaka" (brown 
 parrot) feathers. Once inside, we find the defence is two- 
 fold : along the crest of the glacis, with flanking angles dis- 
 tributed along the face and at the corners, runs a row of 
 " manuka" poles, with thick posts at intervals of ten or 
 twelve feet. These are all firmly imbedded in the ground, 
 and lashed to cross pieces, the smaller stakes close enough 
 together to prevent any object inside being aimed at by the 
 assailants, but far enough apai't, especially at the bottom, 
 to allow the defenders to use their guns. About a foot and 
 a half in rear of this fence comes a second, similar in all 
 
 * Or rather " was/' At my last visit I found this gate had dis- 
 appeared.
 
 132 I'AKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 respects ; and behind that are rifle pits dug with a due re- 
 gard to shelter from any cross-fire. These palisades are no 
 joke ; round shot and shell go through them like a bullet 
 through a pane of glass, leaving merely a small hole ; the 
 withes, made of split supplejack, are horribly tough, and a 
 party engaged in cutting down such a stockade while the 
 interior was held by a staunch hearted foe would be bound 
 to suffer heavy loss, and most likely meet with a reverse, 
 as we found to our cost in the old war in the North. Of 
 course there are innumerable legends of battles and slaughter 
 belonging to the place. One, which if I am not mistaken, 
 is mentioned in " The Story of Te Waharoa,"*' is too char- 
 acteristic to be passed over. 
 
 Some thirty or forty years ago Ngaiterangi and the, 
 Arawa were at war, and the former occupied a pa called 
 " Te Tumu," situated on the sand hills on the way to Tau- 
 ranga. This was surprised at dawn by the Arawa, and the 
 usual massacre took place. There were however some 
 fugitives, and a hot pursuit took place, during which a young 
 Arawa chief, who was foremost, perceived an enemy struggl- 
 ing to get through a swamp ; on rushing up to him he dis- 
 covered that it was his own uncle : in this case, blood was 
 not thicker than water, and a blow with a tomahawk soon 
 dissolved the relationship. Now, the uncle was a well 
 tattooed man, even all down his back : so by way of a me- 
 mento, the graceless nephew skinned his victim, and with 
 the " rape"! adorned his cartouch-box. 
 
 From such stories of violence and from their scene it was 
 a treat to turn, away and follow a sheltered path leading to a 
 school-house occupied almost entirely by Maori children of 
 all ages, from sixteen to six. Just as we were going in, one 
 little brown imp came doubling oxit. " Hillo, my little 
 
 * Te Waharoa was a noted fighting chief of the Ngatihatia, and the 
 father of William Thompson, 
 f The tattoo ou the lumbar rcgious is so called*
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 133 
 
 man. where arc you oil' to 1 ?" asked one of tin; party. 
 " Fetch my book, me forgot !" answered the urchin in 
 English, to my surprise. 1 had. however to go through 
 some more astonishment. The pupils were all clean, tidy, 
 and respectful to the master and mistress. Not a word of 
 Maori was allowed, except so far as to elucidate the meaning 
 of some puzzling English sentence. The reading was very 
 fair ; the lessons in spelling, geography, and tables, well 
 done, one girl especially distinguishing herself; and the 
 writing was capital. One task set while we were there was 
 for each pupil to write out a piece of English poetry from 
 memory, and I am perfectly certain that the Upper Shell 
 at Harrow, when I was there, would never have turned out 
 such good hand-writing or so much poetry. The lines 
 selected were chiefly from hymns, but " God Save Tho 
 Queen" was also a favourite. The children are provided by 
 Government with bats, balls, &c., and some of the boys were 
 shaping very fairly in front of the wickets. I need not say 
 that we left highly delighted with what we had seen, and 
 ready to accord the greatest praise to the teacher, who, by 
 the way, informed us he did not know a word of Maori. 
 
 This was a good example of the new scheme of education 
 adopted by the Government in opposition to the boai'ding 
 system introduced by the missionaries. Even the stanchest 
 advocates of the latter can hardly deny that it has turned 
 out a failure ; the theory was perfect, but in practice the 
 resxilts did not justify the anticipations. It was supposed 
 that educating highly a few youths of both sexes, and then 
 launching the boys into the Maori world as native clergy, 
 men, &c., or putting the girls out to service, would be tho 
 means of leavening the whole Maori lump ; pity that such 
 an infinity of trouble should have been wasted : the expense 
 has been very heavy, and the consequences far from com* 
 ineusurate, It is a well known fact that many of tho 
 B
 
 J3i I'AKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LA.NU.s. 
 
 scholars Avlio liad distinguished themselves in these .schools 
 used their knowledge against their teachers, and that several 
 have attained an unenviable notoriety in the records of Hau- 
 Hau fanaticism. The idea now is to try and impart to as 
 many as possible of the present rising generation some 
 education ; reading, writing, the English language, and 
 simple rules of arithmetic ; some scholars will of coiu-se go 
 further than others ; but it is assumed, and very properly 
 too, that the children who now learn a little, will, when they 
 become fathers, be eager for the better instruction of their 
 little ones. Numerous day schools have been set on foot, 
 and all over the North Island the natives are evincing an 
 anxiety for the education of their children, and proving the 
 reality of the desire by granting lands as endowments, and 
 bv subscribing for the erection of buildings.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE HOT LAKKS. 
 
 Mr. Trollope mentions tlie fact that before him two hun- 
 dred writers have had their say about New Zealand ; and as 
 it is presumable that more than nine-tenths of them would 
 not lose the opportunity of bringing in such natural curiosi- 
 ties as the Hot Lakes, and as he has followed suit, there 
 has already been a fair amount of expatiation about these 
 wonders of nature, so much indeed, as to leave little or 
 nothing fresh to say about them. But any rambles in the 
 colony are incomplete without a due process of parboiling at 
 Rotomahana, and moreover my fii-st visit to the Lakes was 
 made under circumstances a little more exciting than those 
 under which tourists generally see them, for on the shores 
 of Rotorua actual fighting was going on between the friendly 
 Arawa and the Hau-Haus. 
 
 In the summer of 18G7 the latter had taken it into their 
 heads to break out about Tauranga ; my Orope friends and 
 the Pirirakau led by chief engineer Penetaka were up in 
 arms, assisted by a mob of fast young men from other parts 
 of the country who wanted a bit of diversion, and who took 
 to the amusement of fighting instead of wrenching off 
 knockers and having rows with policemen as customary 
 among their more civilised prototypes. The troubles com- 
 menced by a small party shooting an unfortunate settler 
 who WHS going to set to work on his land: the rest eon-
 
 130 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 Bidered themselves in honour bound to support their friends, 
 rind a detachment of ours marching up a hill was fired upon, 
 the Sergeant-Major of the Regiment being killed ; and so 
 presently we were all at it hammer and tongs. If my 
 description of Tauranga has not been of the vaguest, the 
 reader will remember that a belt of thick bush exists en- 
 compassing the open land ; and in this the Hau-Haus kept, 
 pouncing out whenever they saw a chance, and giving us an 
 infinity of trouble in marching and counter-marching after 
 them. We got up a contingent of friendly Arawa, and they 
 took well to the work. I saw them on one occasion clear a 
 bit of bush beautifully ; without minding the fire we re- 
 ceived on rising a bare hill leading up to it, they went in 
 just like a pack of fox hounds dashing through a small 
 gorse cover with the scent breast-high, and they did that 
 little piece of work very neatly, closely chasing the enemy 
 for about a couple of miles. But presently the Hau-Haus 
 found they were not doing much good about Tauranga, so 
 they bethought themselves that now was their chance for an 
 attack on the Arawa settlements on Lake Rotorua while the 
 men were away ; they occupied the forest which separated 
 us from these villages ; in fact they had interior lines, and 
 of these they availed themselves by qxiietly leaving our 
 vicinity and making their way to Rotorua by tracks which 
 have now given way to the main road from Tauranga by 
 Orope. So, while we were wondering what on earth had be- 
 come of our sable foes, a cry for help arrived from Ohine- 
 inutti. In this case the longest way round was the shortest 
 way there ; we embarked at Tanranga, steamed to Maketu, 
 and set off to tram.]) up country on as hot a March day as I 
 ever remember. There was a great scarcity of water on the 
 road, and the first pool reached, some ten or twelve miles 
 from the kainga, was nothing bvit a nasty puddle of swamp 
 filth : so every one Avas pi-etty well done by the time we
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 1.1" 
 
 reached the camping ground at Te Taheke, the ferry over the 
 Kaituna river at the spot where it issues out of Lako 
 Rotoiti. 
 
 .Long before reaching this a peculiar fragrance manifesting 
 itself eveiy now and then as we topped a rise over which the 
 breeze blew unimpeded warned us of our approach to sul- 
 phurous regions ; and, on emerging out of the bush on to 
 the shore of the Lake, we got our first introduction to 
 volcanic agency in the shape of numerous thin columns of 
 white smoke rolling upwards quietly and noiselessly out of 
 the ferny slopes of the surrounding hills. 
 
 The next morning a short ride took us along the banks 
 of Rotoiti, past the native kainga of Mouria, where we 
 crossed a small stream connecting the two lakes, and brought 
 us through a break in some low pumice cliffs on to the brink 
 of the beautiful circular sheet of water known as Rotorua. 
 
 Opposite us on. the further side, and at the foot of a lofty 
 range of hills, there hung over the shore a misty vapour 
 which, driven every now and then to one side or the other 
 by an eddy descending from the gullies at the back, revealed 
 the wltarex constituting the village of Ohinemutu. 
 
 Away to our right of this the hills sank down, till they 
 ended in a low wooded range fringing the margin, of the 
 lake ; to the left the country was open for a short distance, 
 biit a bare flat-topped eminence rising over bushy heights at 
 a distance was pointed out as the trachytic mountain of 
 Tarawera. From the centre of the lake sprung the grace- 
 fully shaped island of Mokoia, the scene of the oft-repeated 
 legend of the Maori Hero and Leander ; and from numerous 
 points in the semi-circle formed by the shores to our left as 
 far as Ohiiiemutu, jets of steam and volumes of white smoke 
 curled up out of the ground. The great geyser, Wai Whak a n - 
 warewa, showed its presence afar off by a thicker and denser 
 eruption of steam, but evinced, as far as we could see ? no
 
 138 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 very peculiar signs of activity. Indeed it did not behave at 
 all well during this visit, resolutely refusing to gratify our 
 curiosity when we took a hasty look at it; once I saw it 
 spout up ; but as we were in full march back from a blood- 
 less victory, and as it was some distance off, it could not 1)0 
 inspected so as to be appreciated. It was however well 
 worth the ride to Rotorua to watch, as I did subsequently, 
 the proceedings of the geyser as it took leap after leap in its 
 periodical outbursts, each time attaining a greater height, as 
 if it were testing its powers and gathering impetus for the 
 final effort in which it shot heavenward a column of boiling 
 water to an altitude of thirty or forty feet, again subsiding 
 and leaving exposed to view the funnel from which it 
 spouted, pierced down through a high cone formed by succes- 
 sive layers of matter deposited by the falling waters. There 
 were plenty of other curious places around the geyser ; clear 
 pools, mud pools, etc., but my only chance of seeing them 
 was during a flying visit when I had but little time to look 
 around. 
 
 Shortly after striking the lake we reached the Ngae,* 
 where of old the missionaries had planted an orchard the 
 fruit of which was most acceptable on so hot a day. " Bless- 
 ings on their souls ;" for, if they did not, like the monks of 
 yore, " brew good ale," yet wherever they set up their 
 homes, their first care was to introduce English fruit trees. 
 
 From that we rode on ahead, now along the shores of the 
 lake, and now on a pumicey track inland, till, near the 
 village, green slimy puddles, with a thin film of vapour 
 dancing over them, ani each emitting odours far from 
 similar to those in Atkinson's shop, began to grow more and 
 more frequent. Pulling up in a bit of a square opposite the big 
 tn/tare appropriated as a Resident Magistrate's Court House, 
 I found myself face to face with some four hundred Arawa 
 * Pronounced as the word " nigh,''
 
 1'AKEIIA UAMJLiLES TUUUb'UH MAOltl LANDS. lo'J 
 
 (reinforcements Lad conic in from distimt kaingas) who 
 started to their feet, gave three cheers a VAn<ili*<'. and then, 
 a la Maori, started off on the war-dance. It was a cordial 
 welcome, and thoroughly well meant ; but I could not help 
 remembering that the crust of the earth about here was very 
 thin, and really the force with which the eight hundred or 
 so feet came thumping down together upon it seemed quite 
 sufficient to drive a hole through and create an unpleasant 
 cavity quite worthy of an earthquake. We were too lute, 
 after all, for any real work j the Hau-Haus had made their 
 attack before any number of Arawa had mustered up ; and, 
 cheered and excited by a female general, had established 
 themselves on a knoll close to the palisading of the pa. 
 This would never do ; so a combined sortie of young and old 
 was made with much discharge of powder and many shouts, 
 and the enemy were driven off leaving their slain behind. 
 Discouraged by this unexpected repulse the Hau-Haus re- 
 tired a few miles and employed their leisure in building a pa 
 which acted upon our friends just as a red rag does on a mad 
 bull, only they did not care about facing it by themselves. 
 
 After a few days all of us weni at it, displaying such a 
 force of natives that the inmates of the pa very wisely did 
 not wait for our actual arrival, but retired taking all their 
 goods with them. Subsequently to our departure they re- 
 turned, and, at the very spot where we had burned their pa, 
 a small tight occurred in which they Avere well thrashed. 
 Since then, with the exception of a skirmish which took 
 place when Te Kooti was being hunted by flying columns 
 in 1870, not one shot tired in anger has resounded along the 
 shores of Rotorua. 
 
 Of all the queer places 1 ever saw in my life, Ohinoinutu 
 is certainly the queerest; it is a good si/.ed .Maori village, 
 the 'wharen, among which an; some tolerably large, following 
 each other in u sort of street along the little bays and iu*
 
 140 PAKEHA RAMBLES TUROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 dentations of the lake, and comprising, at the time I speak 
 of, one rather more elaborate than the rest, intended for the 
 reception of visitors ; now, regular accommodation exists. 
 Everything is of course pervaded by a brimstoiiy flavour 
 which soon however ceases to be noticed ; and the effects of 
 the atmosphere and of the baths are visible in the shiny 
 skins and bad teeth of the inhabitants. 
 
 (Starting from the whare-runa/nga where we had been met 
 by the population, we were introduced seriatim to some of 
 the peculiarities of the place : turning round corner number 
 one, there was a small open space, the " square" of the 
 kainga, from a slabbed hole in the centre of which rolled up 
 a quantity of steam curling round and almost hiding from 
 view two old gentlemen who were squatting down con- 
 tentedly and peacefully in this natural vapour bath. A 
 little further on, a brook, brawling down a slight incline, and 
 partly concealing itself under the misty steam always hang- 
 ing over it, was bridged by some rough flag-stones ; a few steps 
 beyond this on each side yawned a deep black hole emitting 
 a concentration of stinks, and disclosing a central mass of 
 fetid boiling mud in a state of constant agitation, the orifice 
 in the middle being every now and then closed and covered 
 by a huge bubble which, bursting with a " B b b 
 lobb" let out a fresh collection of stenches ; it was just as 
 if all the rotten eggs in New Zealand were being cracked at 
 one and the same moment. 
 
 To a lazy man, Ohinemutu must be a paradise ; talk of 
 the indolence of the Neapolitan Lazzaroni : pooh, they have 
 to light a fire wherewith to boil their macaroni if the 
 bajocchi are too scarce to allow them to buy their favourite 
 food ready done. But here, the boiler is one of nature's 
 providing : you put yoiir kumeras, potatoes, what not, in a 
 kit, tie a string to this, chuck the whole into a pool of 
 Water, and lie down by the bide of your cauldron, till the
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. Ml 
 
 viands an; done. It is only the epicure in search of roust 
 meat who has to trouble himself about firewood ; and, oven 
 then, should his soul desire pork, he finds the animal ready 
 scalded and has only to slay and cook. It was really 
 amusing to watch the pigs luxuriating in the comfortable 
 warm mud at the edge of the black pools ; there they AS civ. 
 wallowing about in the height of porcine enjoyment, and, as 
 the first feeling of heat disappeared, giving first one roll and 
 then another, to keep up the temperature : by-and-bye how- 
 ever, there would be one turn over too many, piggy would 
 find himself in rather hotter quarters than he liked, and then 
 there was no end to the squeaking and grunting and 
 floundering about and general scramblih'cation which would 
 follow ; but master poaka in each case came out minus a 
 good many of his bristles ; so after seeing a pretty constant 
 repetition of this little game, I came to understand how it 
 was that most of the Ohinemutu pigs walked about in a 
 hairless condition. All about the village these sights were 
 constantly repeated, and one small bay was literally a gi- 
 gantic warm bath. The whole time we were there this pre- 
 sented a lively scene ; it was always full of Europeans and 
 natives swimming about, racing, diving, ducking each other, 
 and disporting themselves like so many mermen, and mer- 
 maidens too ; for, clad somewhat after the fashion of Biarritz 
 or Leuk, the dusky beauties of the pa frolicked in the water 
 as gaily as on shore. 
 
 About ten p.m., or half-past was our favourite bathing time; 
 the pool was then tolerably quiet and better suited to the 
 dignity of the " Rangatiras ": we used to undress inside our 
 whare, stalk down with only a blanket wrapped round d la 
 toya, and rush in for a swim : the constant change of tem- 
 perature was curious as one approached or receded from the 
 supplying fountains bubbling up below, some of them ap- 
 parently more powerful than others, for there were spots 
 T
 
 142 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 where a stroke broiight one into water quite hot enough to 
 warn against a continuance in the same direction. Tired of 
 swimming, we would come on shore, light a pipe, and wade 
 out just far enough to allow us to sit or lie down on the soft 
 mud at the bottom. But here there was occasionally a little 
 source of discomfort ; for every now and then a small jet of 
 steam would issue just underneath the bather's body and in- 
 duce a rapid shift in his position. 
 
 The vapour arising from this huge warm bath, visible at 
 a long distance in the day time, settled down at night in a 
 thick mist obscuring all surrounding objects, and rendering 
 the shores of the little bay invisible even a few yards off, as 
 our Doctor found out one night to his cost. He would stay 
 in after we had left, it was so jolly, and after paddling about, 
 when he struck out for home, there was no home to be seen. 
 His only guide was the temperature, as the cold water 
 meant the open lake ; but he had to be careful in avoiding 
 the other extreme. At last he hit the bank, but at some 
 distance from the whare, and he had to tramp through a good 
 bit of the village in buff, arousing the wrath and dread of 
 several thousand curs, more or less, not then well ac- 
 customed to the sight of a man white all over. 
 
 We never found any need of towels ; the few yards walk 
 back to the whare were quite enough to dry us; and, ye 
 Gods, how we slept after the bath ! 
 
 The Ohinemutu natives are the proud possessors of a 
 magnificent war-canoe, " The Arawa," named after that 
 which brought their ancestors to the island ; and this was 
 made use of one day for the reconnoissance of a supposed 
 position of the Hau-Haus on the shores of the Lake. It 
 was a huge thing, capable of holding about a hundred and 
 fifty men, and carved to a marvellous extent ; the very seats 
 were all adorned witli scroll-work, and the stern and bow- 
 posts were composed of elaborately worked pieces of wood
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 143 
 
 symmetrically carved in a graceful open pattern and fringed 
 with feathers of pigeon and parrot. There were forty pad- 
 dles on each side ; three chiefs stood up on the seats two, 
 sword in hand , the centre one wielding a taiaha ; and off 
 we started, at first with a slow and steady stroke to the tune 
 chanted by these fuglemen : presently the measure changed 
 and the dips of the paddles into the water augmented in 
 rapidity, still keeping in perfect accord : at last the excite- 
 ment of the chiefs attained its height ; they waved their 
 weapons energetically with frantic gestures ; they shrieked 
 out rapidly uttered guttural exclamations inciting to speed ; 
 the paddlers responded, putting theii 1 backs into it at the rate 
 of ever so many strokes a minute, and the canoe hissed 
 through the water, a regular wave forming on each side of 
 her bows. All of a sudden, after a few minutes of such a 
 " spirt," the fuglemen would titter a shout, every paddle 
 was peaked simultaneously and struck by the oarsman with 
 the palm of one hand in such perfect unison as to produce 
 but one clap, and then down again each was dropped to re- 
 sume the original steady pace to the sing-song chant of " he 
 pu ! he pu ! " It was a curious proceeding, looking at it as 
 a passenger : from the shore it must have been a pretty sight. 
 The only approach to it I ever saw was the arrival of the Te ao 
 o te Rangi* canoe at Ngantawahia on the occasion of Governor 
 Bowen's farewell visit in 1873. Standing on the point at 
 the confluence of the two rivers, and looking at the waka 
 racing up, it looked for all the world like a gigantic milli- 
 pede ; the lofty stem-post adorned with long feathers waving 
 aboiit like antenna, and the height of the gunwale concealed 
 the rowers ; so the paddles flashing in and out of the water 
 all together at a furious rate resembled exactly a lot of little 
 legs doing their utmost to bear along the huge body out of 
 whose sides they seemed to sprout. 
 
 * The light of the sky.
 
 144 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 Not seeing anything from the canoe, we landed and climbed 
 up a big hill, from the top of which the Hau-Hau position could 
 be well looked into, without any exposure on our part, and we 
 saw our friends going on quietly about their daily avocations 
 and skurrying about the valley as if there was not a hostile 
 pakeha for miles. I have a distinct recollection of arriving 
 suddenly at the conclusion, while ,going down hill, that the 
 way the chief in front of me, Pokeha, was carrying his 
 double-barrelled gun was not quite safe ; the descent was 
 steep, he had the piece on his shoulder so that 1 was almost 
 looking down the ban-els, and both hammers were at full 
 cock. Not to. interrupt the march I made a pretence of a 
 boot-lace being untied, stepped to one side, and took good 
 care to interpose some half-a-dozen - of our allies between 
 myself and the chance of an accident. As before mentioned 
 the attack made on the pa was fruitless ; so, the enemy having 
 disappeared, we gave ourselves a spell, and some half-dozen 
 of us took advantage of the lull to canter over to Tarawera 
 en route for Rotomahana. The road was not made then ; it 
 was a mere bush track in which our ponies had often to leap 
 over fallen trees, and there was a fair amount of scrambling 
 work along the broken path cut into a steep slope over- 
 looking that exquisite mountain tarn "TikiTapu." Em- 
 bosomed in a deep hollow surrounded by lofty hills whose 
 rocky bases it washes, with barely a trace of beach any- 
 where, and with no visible or known outlet, this lake is an 
 almost inaccessible pool the beautiful dark blue colour of 
 whose waters suggests the idea of fathomless depths. The 
 natives assert the existence in it of a " taniwha," that unde- 
 fined monstrous animal belonging to their traditions : there 
 may be one there, but we did'nt see it. 
 
 Before reaching Tarawera we passed another small lake 
 Roto Kakahi having its exit in the Wairoa, a river form- 
 ing a cascade near the Rev. Mr. Spencer's house which com-
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 145 
 
 mancls a most lovely view of the Tarawera Luke itself, and 
 of the lofty, bare table mountain of the same name overhang- 
 ing the further shore : to the right was heard the subdued 
 roar of the "Wairoa fall, while all around, in contrast with 
 the scenes of beauty displayed by nature, a homely, well 
 stocked and neatly laid out garden contained a quantity of 
 English flowers, the verandah posts being festooned by a 
 luxiu-iaiitly growing honeysuckle, which brought to mind 
 many a walk in deep rustic lanes in the old countiy. There 
 was no one at home, and so we committed a felony and 
 helped ourselves to bunches of the fragrant flowers. 
 
 A friend of mine told me once of a rather curious coinci- 
 dence which happened while he was surveying in these 
 regions : He had to erect a trig, station on the top of the 
 Tarawera mountain, about three thousand feet in height, 
 and started for the purpose with his native workmen. About 
 half way up he observed that they carefully hid in a crevice 
 of the rock the biscuit and tobacco they carried ; and, be- 
 fore he had time to ask their reasons, they requested him to 
 do the same, lest he should offend the Atua of the moun- 
 tain ; in which case they predicted the said Atua would 
 avenge himself by fogs and storms. Of course my friend 
 ridiculed the idea, and went on with his pipe. The moment 
 he got to the top, a dense mist settled down, and no obser- 
 vation was possible that day, while the natives were ready 
 enough with their " Did'iit we tell you so V The next day, 
 the very same thing occurred ; but, odd enough, on the 
 third trial, when by way of humouring his people he put 
 away his tobacco, etc., no fog appeared, and he got all the 
 sights he wanted. 
 
 At Kariri (Galilee) we embarked in a canoe manned by 
 four strapping girls under the charge of a steersman, tin- 
 males being all at Rotorua, and crossed the lake ; but instead 
 of paddling up a narrow stream overhung with bushes which
 
 146 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 forms a connection between Rotomahana and Tarawera, and 
 which is without doubt the capital of the kingdom of mos- 
 quitoes (and a densely populated capital too), we walked 
 over the divide, a bare and hideous range of low hills, and 
 had our first look at Rotomahana from above it. I think 
 this is an advantage ; on my next visit I took the stream ; 
 but the suddenness with which the view bursts upon the 
 eye as one just tops the arid slopes is far more striking than 
 the gradual revealment of the beauties obtained by emerg- 
 ing into the lake at the low level. 
 
 As to describing Rotomahana in a few lines, or even im- 
 parting in any way a full idea of its wonders, the task is 
 simply impossible. All is so new and strange, the accom- 
 paniments to the scene of wood and water which lies at one's 
 feet are so utterly unlike anything one has seen before, that 
 all attempts at comparison are signal failures ; photographs 
 even, and I have come across some most faithful representa- 
 tions of the scenery, are far from conveying any correct idea 
 of what the place resembles ; they lack the colour, and no 
 true picture of the Hot Lakes will exist until a first-class 
 artist makes N"ew Zealand his field of operations. And such 
 a painter will find ample opportunities for his brush. 
 
 From the ridge on which we stood we looked down on a 
 small lake, shut in by low hills in parts covered with brush- 
 wood, in parts open, and presenting slopes and terraces of 
 various hues, from delicate pink to purple. About the 
 centre of the lake rose an island of no great size, and the 
 waters were covered with numberless duck and teal, pro- 
 tected by the Maori local law which forbids shooting over 
 this splendid preserve. 
 
 The lake however is not itself the great centre of attrac- 
 tion. A hasty glance at it suffices at first, and then the eye 
 is at once turned on the terraces, that to the left, and the 
 nearest, Te Tarata, being the chief object of admiration, us
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 147 
 
 Otu kapurangi, tlie pink terrace, is scarcely visible from 
 this spot. Imagine a shelving slope descending gradually to 
 the margin of the lake in an uneven series of steps for some 
 hundred and fifty feet, bounded on each side by low scrub- 
 bush, and culminating at the top in an open crater, whence 
 rolls out cloud after cloud of white steam. The steps appear 
 from the height to be now M r hite, and now purple, contrast- 
 ing strongly with the azure hues of the basins, and glisten- 
 ing under the hot sun whose rays dance on the thin film of 
 water constantly trickling down. At irregular intervals on 
 the grades are pools ; pools ! the word is a profanation ; 
 they are alabaster basins filled with molten silver, blue as the 
 vault of heaven, over whose gracefully-recurved lips pours 
 down with a gentle murmur a never ceasing flow derived 
 from the boiling contents of the crater above. The more we 
 gazed upon the scene, the more difficult it was to realise it, 
 till at length one bold attempt was made at comparison, and 
 
 H * exclaimed that this must be the abode of the 
 
 Queen of Naiads as it would be depicted by Grieve and 
 Telbin in a transformation scene. To reach the Tarata 
 we had to wade across the stream and then we found 
 ourselves on a ripple-marked surface which crunched 
 under every footstep just as if we were walking on so much 
 sugar, and which on the margin of the pools lost its rough- 
 ness and became as smooth as marble. These reservoirs, 
 situated for the most part at the edge of the steps of this 
 gigantic staircase, and resembling in the recurved shape of 
 their rims the basins of the flower-vases in the transept of 
 the Crystal Palace, contained hike- warm, water ; but eucli 
 successive upward step as the terraces rose tier above tier 
 increased the temperature as the distance decreased from 
 the parent fountain. About half way up we reached the 
 
 * Since then shot dead, while gallautly heading a charge at the 
 disastrous affair of Ngutu-o-te-Manu.
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 first really comfortable bathing place, and after undressing, 
 we began to have a dim idea of the comforts of a pilgrimage 
 with peas unboiled in one's boots. The spiculoe played 
 the very mischief with our feet as we gingerly took the few 
 paces intervening between our clothes and the bath, but 
 then came such a header ! Down we went into the liquid 
 blue mirror, piercing, as it were, through different strata of 
 warmth, the water getting cooler and cooler the nearer we 
 sank to the bottom, and then we rose and swam round and 
 round, each bather's limbs looking through the intervening 
 medium blue as Marryatt's chalcedony statues in the Pasha 
 of Many Tales ; then we sat in turns on . a convenient ledge 
 sticking out some two feet under water and smoked ; but 
 the sitting clown part of the business had to be done Avitli 
 caution, for, if any hurry was displayed, the cuticle was 
 bound to suffer. The pipe finished, came another header 
 and swim; then the water was voted cold, and all very 
 gingerly and tiptoedly made their way to a higher terrace, 
 and yet to a higher, till we ended by standing in a row 
 beneath the projecting lip of a basin, and receiving a shower 
 bath at a temperature which, if indulged in at first, would 
 have been simply scalding. It was glorious, but slightly 
 enervating ; so we di-essed and went on to the crater itself. 
 All this time we had of course been walking in water, and 
 this now was becoming so hot that we had to be careful so 
 as not to let it over our ankles ; we climbed through the 
 lowest lip of the crater, thei'eby getting into our boots a lot 
 of hot earth which was not pleasant, and we had a good look 
 down. At first there was nothing but steam ; then came a 
 slight gust of wind wliich continued for a few minutes and 
 showed us a blue, still surface of water; still for some 
 seconds ; then, bubbling and fizzing, the whole mass rose up, 
 and by a vent in the side discharged its over-plus to keep 
 full the basins below. Sometimes, according to the natives)
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 149 
 
 this crater acts as a geyser, and sends up to a fair height a 
 column of water which must be of a huge size. Occasionally 
 it lias been seen empty, and I have been informed that it is 
 possible at such times to descend into the hollow, and, look- 
 ing down the funnel at the bottom, just catch sight of a 
 raging torrent of boiling water running along at a furious 
 rate. 
 
 It was on one of these rare instances, which detract entirely 
 from the beauty of the Tarata, that a hawk, now in the 
 Wellington Museum, was picked up in the crater, encrusted 
 with the sinterous deposit so completely that every feather 
 was preserved. Any object left to the action of these waters 
 speedily gets covered : I once saw a mouse literally cof- 
 fined in stone; and specimens of ti-tree branches and 
 berries, &c., thus acted upon are very common. At the 
 foot of the Tarata we entered a bit of ti-tree scrub where 
 Indian tile wasthe order of the day; to right and left were 
 sometimes mere hollows in the ground with thin wreaths of 
 steam floating out of them, sometimes villainous looking 
 little mud volcanoes, from one foot to three in height, each 
 furnished with a perfect crater and emitting a sulphurretted 
 hydrogen which would have delighted a lecturer on chemis- 
 try. Little upstarts that they were, they aped the customs 
 of their big brothers, and blobbed out their stenches with as 
 much self complacency as Tongariro could be expected to 
 possess when shooting out columns of steam with a roar 
 audible at a distance of a hundred miles. 
 
 It was getting dusk as we reached our camping ground, a 
 narrow ledge of seeming rock just on the brink of the lake, 
 with two or three wkares situated near holes, nature's tea 
 kettles. Our meal was soon prepared: the potatoes wero 
 tied up in a kit and dropped into the "Ngawa" (hot 
 spring) ; water out of this made our tea ; we had brought 
 lots of cold meat, so wo uiado ourselves comfortable. Pre- 
 11
 
 150 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 sently the conclusion was universally arrived at that our 
 resting place had not very deep foundations; the ground 
 was very pleasantly warm, and, in sheer idleness, while 
 listening to the " hakas " of our boat-women I whittled 
 away at the rock with a bowie ; of a sudden, in went the 
 blade, and whizz ! out came a jet of steam which made me 
 jump up pretty sharp : there was just a rind about two 
 inches thick between us and boiling water. It was some time 
 before I could get to sleep : not for need of any blankets, 
 but it did seem so peculiar to hear a confused noise of hissing 
 and boiling just under head, and the thought would 
 obtrude itself that possibly the weight might be too much 
 for the thin shell 011 which we were reclining, and that we 
 might find a way through a crack to regions below. How- 
 ever it did not do to express openly what each felt indi- 
 vidually; and so, between fatigue and the somnolent 
 effects of the numerous hot baths, we all were soon sleeping 
 as comfortably as if there was not a drop of scalding water 
 for miles. At daylight, every one was up, and a kopapa, (a 
 diminutive canoe) took us over to the island. Some people 
 sleep on this during their visit ; but, queer as we had felt 
 our bed of sinter to be, yet there was in it some substance : 
 on the island however, what with its general crumbliness and 
 burnt out appearance, its tendency to let out suddenly jets 
 of steam at unexpected places, and a sort of rumbling, chok- 
 ing and whizzing under foot suggestive of deranged internal 
 machinery and of a possible sky-ward outburst, sleep would 
 seem to be out of the question. The only " kainga moe " 
 comparable to it would be a piece of dough closing, in the 
 absence of the legitimate lid, the mouth of a gigantic tea- 
 kettle, well on the boil. 
 
 We had a look, and that was all, at the Pink Terrace ; 
 for stern duty called us away, and we were compelled to forego 
 * Sleeping place.
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 151 
 
 visiting the numerous nooks and corners around, all so 
 worthy of thorough inspection. Of course we could not 
 leave without another course of hot water at Tarata, and 
 it was with a genei'al regi*et at our inability to remain for a 
 longer time that the nags' heads were turned campwards. 
 
 A few days later saw the little force marching back, the 
 general feeling being, I have no doubt, fully expressed by a 
 practical sub who openly avowed his regret at leaving a 
 place where he got " half-a-crown a day field allowance for 
 the pleasure of swimming in hot wather." 
 
 Before quitting Ohinemutu altogether let me not forget a 
 duty hitherto shamefully neglected by tourists, and which I 
 cannot pass over. Greenwich has its whitebait ; so has 
 Maketu; so in our favoured isle have also other places, 
 where only the accompaniments of Mrs. Hart's cookery, 
 brown bread, and iced cup are needed ; but, Rotorua has its 
 kora, a large prawn, or a diminutive fresh water lobster, 
 whichever you prefer ; he Avill taste as good however he be 
 classed. My duty and pleasure consist in introducing my 
 friend the kora in the fervent hope that some travelling 
 Soyer may study him carefully and lovingly. Good, nay 
 delicious, as the kora is when boiled, or steamed in a hangi 
 an naturel, or even when knocked-up in a curry by the un- 
 tutored paws of a bush cook, what will he not be when 
 science has stepped in, when he has been made the subject 
 of skilful gastronomic experiments, and when it has been 
 decided in solemn conclave ti quelle saiwe il se mangera.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 BAY OF PLENTY. 
 
 One of the discomforts of New Zealand travelling is that 
 so much of the journey has, as a rule, to be performed along 
 the coast line, and that such will continue to be the case 
 until sufficient population has poured in to open up and 
 occupy the interior. Such riding is pleasant enough when 
 one gets on to a nice hard bit of beach for a canter of two 
 or three miles, biit a perpetual recurrence of tramps up and 
 down over ridges, and of ploddings along a deep sandy shore, 
 is exactly the reverse. The ride from Maketu to Matata 
 some twenty miles was of the latter character. Soft sand, 
 sometimes so soft as to be treacherous, through which the 
 horses laboured heavily, put any pace but a walk out of the 
 question ; sand dunes to the right separated us from a dreary 
 swamp ; and to the left extended the vast expanse of the 
 blue ocean, even on such a beautiful day as this swelling far 
 out in huge rollers which advanced in a consecutive array of 
 unbroken lines till the maximum height was reached, when 
 the summits would curl over at one part, the curl extending 
 rapidly to right and left and breaking into white foam as 
 though old Neptune were firing a feu dejoie, and then the 
 whole would hurl itself with a deafening roar on to the 
 steep shelving beach, and swish back again with a loud 
 hissing noise. The sun was beating down on our necks, 
 and the glare of the sand was painful to the eyes, increased 
 as it was by the diamond-like scintillations sparkling up 
 from the minute particles of iron which lie in black patches
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 153 
 
 and form so large a component part of the beach. This is 
 the Titaniferous Iron Sand of New Zealand which, found 
 in millions of tons on the West Coast, is largely distributed 
 over, or rather under, the whole North Island. In the days 
 of bush fighting it used to be a common occurrence at the 
 end of a day's march, when the maemae's* had been knocked 
 up by the side of a stream, to see three or lour of the 
 men gravely set to work with pannikin, or the tin plate some 
 carried in the haversack, and " wash" for a prospect ; in the 
 course of not a few marches I have seen many a bit of dirt 
 panned out at what were supposed to be likely spots ; and I 
 never saw the black sand absent as a residuum, whatever 
 was the soil thus dissolved in water. 
 
 About half-way to Matata the sandhills on the right cease, 
 and give way to cliffs of indurated pumice sand on whose 
 steep faces wind and water have combined to produce gro- 
 tesque and quaint tracings, not very unlike the patterns 
 adopted in the tattoo ; at the back lies a goodly expanse of 
 country, broken, but well adapted for sheep runs once grass 
 has taken root in it and expelled the low fern now forming 
 the sole vegetation. 
 
 Close to Matata we passed under the wide spreading 
 branches of a magnificent old pohutukawha, whose flowers, 
 now well out, made the whole tree a mass of crimson ; and 
 we presently got to the kainga itself, where dried eels, fried 
 in shark oil, followed by a second course of rotted maize, 
 seemed to be the delicacies of the season. 
 
 Of course there had been fighting about here in 1864 and 
 1865, during which the enemy had at first gained the advan- 
 tage, penetrating as far as Maketu where the Hau-Haus very 
 nearly got hold of the officer commanding while he was duck 
 
 * Maemac A low hut worked up with sticks and interlaid raiipo or 
 fern, open in front, with roof reaching the ground on the windward 
 side.
 
 154 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 shooting. However, once opposite Fort Colville they learned 
 that jumping about and singing out " Hau-!-Hau !" did not 
 render them proof against pieces of 121ber segment shells; 
 and they also had a fight with the Arawa in which they were 
 well thrashed ; so they bolted homewards lower down the 
 coast. While the excitement was on, the Eclipse man-of- 
 war threw sundry big shells at different pas, none however 1 
 taking effect at the time. One 401b. shell did not explode (a 
 rather common occurrence with that calibre), and a native 
 genius catching sight of the missile, and observing lead about 
 it, made a prize of it at once. Here was a fine chance of 
 getting material for bullets ; so a big fire was made, the 
 shell was popped into it, and a little group sat contentedly 
 round smoking peacefully, and watching the melting of the 
 lead. Shortly afterwards a " tangi"* was held over those of 
 the party whose remains could be identified. 
 
 Some fifteen miles south of Matata, at the foot of a high 
 spur of the TJriwera mountains which juts out here into the 
 sea and forms Kohi Point, and spread along the banks of the 
 Whakatane river, lies the settlement of that name. For- 
 merly it was situated some four or five miles up the river, 
 but the ubiquitous Te Kooti came down and laid siege to it. 
 After a spirited resistance of two or three days, during 
 which time the garrison was reduced to great straits for want 
 of water, advantage was taken of an opportunity and the 
 defenders made their escape. 
 
 Opposite the pa, on the other side of the river, dwelt an 
 old Frenchman, Jean Guerin, married to a pretty half-caste 
 woman, and father of a nice little girl, Mam'selle, as the men 
 used to call her. Jean had a perfect armoury of weapons, 
 but we rather gave him credit for bragging when he boasted 
 of what he would do if attacked. He kept to his word 
 
 * Any one who has heard the "keen" in the south or west of Ire- 
 land can realise the " tangi."
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 155 
 
 though ; with only two natives in the whare with him he 
 managed to dispose of several of hi.s assailants before a 
 chance bullet killed him. The poor child was tomahawked, 
 and the wife taken away. 
 
 The Kohi ridge is a pretty stiff climb, and on the other 
 side of it exists a beautiful bay, just the spot for a quiet 
 bathing-place, and celebrated throughout the neighbourhood 
 for its pink water-melons. These are simply delicious : I 
 know no greater treat, after a long and hot day's march 
 under a burning sun, than to come across a patch of big 
 oblong felloAvs which, when cut open, reveal a deep-hued pink 
 mass ready to melt in the mouth, and then to set to work at 
 the juiciest of the lot. 
 
 From the top of Kohi Point, where by the way native 
 tradition relates that the Maori immigrants found on their 
 arrival a pa occupied by aboriginals, is seen a fine piece of 
 inland water, the Ohiwa, backed up by broken ranges in 
 which have been discovered thick quartz reefs whether 
 auriferous or not is not yet known and in whose centre rises 
 an island on which the Hau-Haus more than once made 
 their mark, the victim on one occasion being Mr. Pitcaim, a 
 surveyor, who was most treacherously mimlered. Keeping 
 this to our right after descending the hill, another ten miles 
 canter over a splendid hard beach brought us to the ferry 
 over the stream by which it communicates with the sea. 
 Thence for some miles we had to the right high cliffs covered 
 with great Pohutukawha trees whose large crimson flowers 
 spread a gorgeous carpet over the hill sides. Presently we 
 forded the Waiotahi, not unmindful of the times when, if 
 without an escort, we used to dash along here at full gallop, 
 revolver in hand, in the fervent hope of getting safely past 
 R spot where more than one ambuscade had been laid, and 
 some with success. From this, a few miles ride brought us 
 to the military settlement of Opotiki.
 
 156 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 Opotiki is the spot where, in 1865, the Hau-Hau fana- 
 ticism got its first glut of niissionaiy blood, and where its 
 votaries inaugurated their conversion by hanging one of the 
 veiy best friends of the Maori race, the Rev. Carl Sylvius 
 Volckner, and outraging his senseless body in the most 
 barbarous manner. The pulpit in the Opotiki Church, erected 
 by his influence, still bears the stains of his blood left 
 on it by Kereopa, the leading fiend in the whole matter, who 
 has since met the fate to which he doomed his pious victim, 
 and who preached from it a Hau-Hau sermon, with poor 
 Vb'lckner's head, flanked by those of two pigs, on the boards 
 in front of him. 
 
 Vengeance was taken ; an expedition of colonial forces 
 was sent to attack the murdering tribe ; and, after losing 
 heavily in men, the Whakatoea were driven off their 
 ancestral patrimony, which was given over to military 
 colonists. This is one of the few places of the kind which 
 have proved at all a success, though even here in only a 
 small way. In riding over the flat lying between the two 
 rivers which, issuing from the mountainous region at the 
 back, enclose the plain, one does see pleasant looking houses, 
 fenced fields, cultivations, and a goodly lot of stock, all be- 
 longing to original settlers : sights of prosperity, these, but 
 too rare in military settlements in other parts of the country. 
 
 The whole of this district, from Whakatane southwards, 
 was for a long time vexed and plagued with uncomfortable 
 neighbours. The mountains of the interior were inhabited 
 by the fierce Uriwera (a detachment of whom were the 
 " Ake, Ake" people at Orakau), a tribe thoroughly hostile 
 to Europeans, and whose boast it was that its fastnesses were a 
 secure refuge against any foe ; it was their common practice 
 to descend to the coast down one of the gorges, shoot or 
 burn, and then disappear as rapidly as they had come. In 
 addition to the Uriwera, there also dwelt in the interior tho
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 157 
 
 remnants of the Whakatoea, the tribe which had murdered 
 their missionary and had been driven off from their territories. 
 And so for a length of time the settlers had a good deal to 
 contend against, and had to be in constant preparation to 
 meet the foe. I cannot resist here giving one of many in- 
 stances shewing the spirit which animated them. No need 
 exists to relate details ; we were well in the glens of the 
 Uriwera, within five miles of a known strong line of rifle 
 pits which we had started to attack ; the European part of the 
 force was but weak, and just at the last moment, after a 
 skirmish, my guide was induced to leave us. There was no 
 help for it, and I had to order a retreat. Directly the order 
 Avas promulgated, a private of the Volunteer Company with me 
 came up, and in the name of his comrades offered to raise a 
 subscription to persuade the guide to lead on again ; and 
 this was in a country where it would be a mercy to a 
 wounded man to receive a bullet through his head, as it was 
 as much as twelve men in reliefs coiold do to cany one. Of 
 such a stamp were the men who formed the Opotiki settle- 
 ment. It was in these deep gorges of the east country and 
 in the mountainous forests of the West Coast that the 
 colonial forces had their hardest work ; for here they had 
 " Bush fighting" in reality. There were no roads, of course, 
 so there was no transport, and every one had to carry 
 his own provisions for four, five, or six days. No joke tliis, 
 in addition to blanket, rifle and ammunition, and in going 
 through country where the track lay up the bed of a torrent 
 which had to be crossed and re-crossed time after time, or up 
 steep forest-covered hills where projecting slippery roots and 
 a network of supplejack rendered any but the slowest pro- 
 gress impossible. Sometimes the way led over slopes clothed 
 with fern so high and so matted that the leading files had to 
 beat it down to make a track ; and again, deep gullies barred 
 the way, spanned by a fallen tree forming the only bridge 
 x
 
 158 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 across : and at eveiy ford, at every bend of the streams, at 
 eveiy rise, at every difficult spot, there was the perpetual 
 expectation of an ambuscade. An ambuscade in bush 
 means this : a number of men are marching along in single 
 file ; leading them are a dozen picked scouts with senses of 
 sight and hearing ever on the alert, who, with carbine ready 
 in hand, minutely scrutinize each clump of bush, each fallen 
 log, each boulder as they approach it. They turn a comer 
 at a bend in the river ; no -sound betrays the presence of an 
 enemy ; but of a sudden, a cloud of smoke issues from the 
 trees on the opposite bank, some twenty shots come hurtling 
 through the head of the column, and, when all is over, it is 
 found that one or two, or perhaps more, are past seeking shelter. 
 And all this time not a glimpse can be caught of the nimble 
 foe who has started off directly after delivering his fire ; and 
 who will be found a few miles further on awaiting at 
 another favourable place the approach of the invading party. 
 
 Things are changed now at Opotiki. First of all, colonial 
 forces penetrated the innermost recesses of the broken high- 
 lands ; then the glens were swept clean by the friendly 
 Ngatiporou under Major Ropata, and by Major Kepa's 
 Whanganui natives. Most of the Uriweras have been 
 brought down to the coast and are under surveillance of 
 friendly chiefs ; the remnant of the Whakatoea, the former 
 owners of the country, have surrendered, are living close to 
 Opotiki, and, by their extensive cultivations, attest their 
 industry. Schools are also established, and I found the old 
 feeling of hostility had quite disappeared, and that the men 
 who, a few years ago, never met these natives but muzzle 
 to muzzle, now fully appreciate their good behaviour, and 
 are delighted to have them in the vicinity. Indeed, in the 
 matter of road works, there is often a rivalry for contracts. 
 
 It was my fate to be concerned with Opotiki in its dark 
 times, when the most violent sentiments in favour of a.
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 159 
 
 " wiping-out policy" were naturally expressed by men who 
 saw that their lives and those of their families, and the 
 safety of their houses and crops, Avere daily in peril at the 
 hands of savages inhabiting the back ranges. In those days 
 the warning sound of the " Alarm" or " Assembly" was of 
 frequent occurrence ; but now no ears were pricked up in 
 anxious expectation as to what the first note of the bugle 
 might portend, and the revulsion of feeling in the minds of 
 the settlei*s afforded a most pleasing contrast. Not the least 
 apprehension did I find among them of any outbreak ; they 
 were satisfied they could hang up their rifles except for 
 volunteer parades, and they were living on the best terms 
 with the natives, not only with the old friendlies, but 
 with those whom they designated as " the new lot :" i.e., 
 the latest surrendered, who were the chief in rank and im- 
 portance. 
 
 The wrecks of schooners still hampering the Opotiki river 
 testify to the former wealth of the natives who so stupidly 
 changed their faith for a whim ; but the memory of their 
 past comforts and the exhortations of Europeans are induc- 
 ing them to pick up some of their old energy, and all along 
 the coast, south of Opotiki, and in the valleys inland, the 
 Maories are planting very extensively. The nature of the 
 country in this district is precisely similar to that described 
 in page 128 ; ridges running down to the sea and enclosing 
 valleys of more or less width. Some four or five of these, 
 separated from each other by steep ranges and leading down 
 from the interior, were apportioned out to military settlers, 
 but in the then disturbed state of the country, it was im- 
 possible for the allottees to actually settle upon any of the 
 lands thus set apart ; the flat at Opotiki was the only one 
 really occupied, and there are consequently many thousand 
 acres of good land which some day will be turned to profit- 
 able account : but. as in other cases, it Avill be necessary to
 
 160 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 get them out of the hands of speculators who have picked 
 them up at a cheap rate. 
 
 To any tourist who is fond of wild and rough scenery, and 
 who does not mind really hard work, I would recommend a 
 walk up any one of the gorges about here ; the Whakatane 
 for choice, which leads up to the Ruatahuna, the heart of 
 the Uriwera country ; thence the Waikarimoana lake can 
 be reached without difficulty, and from that to Wairoa and 
 Napier is easy travelling. The gorges are really fine ; even 
 when toiling up them with arms, swag, &c., it was impos- 
 sible to help admiring the grand scenery which every now 
 and then presented itself, and I doubt not that this latter 
 must appear still grander to the eye of a tourist untroubled 
 with the reflection that the next bend of the river, the next 
 clump of bush, or the next ford may introdtice him to a 
 rattling volley. 
 
 It was at Opotiki that I had my second experi- 
 ence ot the effects of superstitious fear on the natives. 
 The first occasion was in the Ruatahuna valley, when, 
 after a whole day's skirmishing and fighting our way up* 
 we managed to get into the ancestral pa of the Uriwera, Te 
 Tahora ; just about dusk I heard a great hullabaloo, rushed 
 out of the whare, thinking there might be some fresh Hau- 
 Hau move, and found our native allies grovelling on the 
 ground and singing out lustily. We were in a deep and 
 narrow glen, and near the top of the wooded range on the 
 right, a large ball of fire was slowly wending its way down 
 the vale. It was quite round, seemed to be some six feet in 
 diameter, emitted a dull light, and was unaccompanied by 
 the slightest noise ; presently it turned round a corner, and 
 was lost to sight. The natives all would have it that this 
 was the Atua of Te Kooti, and that it prophesied disaster to 
 
 * It was that morning that Lieut. White, in charge of the scouts, 
 iyas shot dead in an ambuscade.
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 101 
 
 us ; however, except so far as some loss of life was concerned 
 in taking another pa the next day, it proved a false prophet. 
 Again, at Opotiki, at dawn one morning, my sentries saw ;i 
 precisely similar phenomenon, this time coming from sea- 
 ward ; it sailed up the valley, and entered the Waioeka 
 gorge, when it was lost. There were a number of friendly 
 natives present 011 this occasion also, and I saw one of them, 
 a brave man, as I well knew, throw himself on the ground, 
 covering his he'ad up in a blanket and groaning and moaning 
 in dread. 
 
 The inland track from Opotiki to Poverty Bay is now in 
 progress ; but when I knew the place well, taking that way 
 involved a very disagreable and rough journey ; so on this 
 occasion we decided to go by a schooner, pending the depar- 
 ture of which we rode a few miles to the southward and 
 paid a visit to an old friend of mine, and a staunch ally, Wi- 
 remu Kingi Te Tutahuarangi, chief of the Ngaitai, a small 
 tribe residing at a lovely little bay called Torere, where ex- 
 tensive cultivations attest the industry of his people. Wi, 
 (short for Wiremu) is rather a sharp fellow, and the way 
 he knocked up a bridge for me once showed consider- 
 able ingenuity. We were on the war-path after Te 
 Kooti, he with his people, I with some other natives 
 and a few Europeans. Taking different tracks we met at 
 the appointed spot, where, by-the-way, the enemy was not, 
 but between us rolled a foaming torrent, lately a fordable 
 river. The rain had come down, and we were jammed ; 
 the only possible way back was to get over to his side, 
 and cut a track through the bush along the cliffs. We 
 tried every scheme to cross ; I had a huge tree felled which 
 grew on the edge of the flat where we were camped ; no 
 sooner did it touch the water than it was carried away 
 like a straw. Then two or three of my natives very pluck ily 
 swam over, one of them with a line between his teeth ; all to
 
 162 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 no good. Meanwhile, I could, perceive Wi was at work about 
 something on his side, and presently we saw a lot of his 
 men bring down a tripod formed of three poles lashed 
 together near the top, and with the legs connected by flax 
 leaves woven together so as to form a rough sacking. This 
 tripod was planted in shallow water, secured by stones 
 placed in the mat and round the feet, and connected by stout 
 rails with the shore ; another was deposited a little further 
 on, and yet another ; and it was perfectly marvellous to see 
 the way the fellows did their work up to their chins, 
 literally, in a rapid torrent. When it came to this, the 
 deepest part, there was a mob of some thii-ty to each tripod ; 
 directly they had managed, with great difficulty, tor carry 
 it out and plant it in the right spot, a dozen of them would 
 jump up and cling on to it, holding it down by their weight, 
 while it was a race as to who should the fastest bring boul- 
 ders to make it safe. Such a row as there was ! Every 
 one of the fellows was as naked as when born, and the way 
 they leaped up and down in the water, and kept their foot- 
 ing, every now and then one of them being swept away and 
 going down with the stream at express pace amidst the jeers 
 of his friends, was something worth looking at ; as fast as a 
 tripod was down, rails were run out from that last secured 
 and made fast to it ; and all the time every man employed, 
 and every one on the banks of the river not employed, was 
 yelling and shouting out at the top of his voice ; it would 
 have made a capital subject for a painter, for the scenery 
 around was very grand. In about two hours time commu- 
 nication was opened ; we had to crawl sideways on a foot- 
 rail, with another a little above it to hold on by ; but every 
 one got safely across. 
 
 During our Bay of Plenty trip we came across an eld 
 acquaintance who had started as a Maori trader at one of the 
 villages ; and I must beg the reader to fancy himself reclin-
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 163 
 
 ing on some bags of maize by way of a sofa, with the never- 
 failing pipe in mouth, and a tumblerful of rum and water 
 (the liquor drawn from the trader's private cask) close handy, 
 and listening to our friend's recital of his experiences. But, 
 it is only fair he should have a fresh chapter in which to 
 speak for himself.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 HOW WE LIVE IN OUR KAINGA. 
 
 To tell the truth we do not live very comfortably, but 
 then, we have reasons which prevent our grumbling. Our 
 dwelling house is composed of three adjoining raupo* whores, 
 in one of which we sleep and eat, the centre one being the 
 store, and the furthest the receptacle for unopened goods. 
 We live chiefly on pork and salt meat and biscuit, and don't 
 know what milk or fresh butter is. Our clothes are worth 
 about twenty shillings the suit, and our beds consist of 
 blankets laid on sticks stretched across a frame. So you 
 have already some of the causes. of our discomfort. 
 
 Jack and I (we are cousins) have been some time in the 
 Maori trade, aiad a veiy fine business it is. We go on the 
 principle of buying in the cheapest market, and selling in a 
 very dear one. We dispose of our tobacco, prints, hair oil, 
 blankets, &c., at a very fair profit; and when we buy corn, 
 pigs, or potatoes for Auckland, we take care to beat the 
 sellers down to the utmost ; and then, pay them in " trade" 
 which we have bought at auction for a mere song, and on 
 which we naturally put our own price. Upon the whole I 
 am sorry we are leaving off business ; but people are so 
 avaricious. Because we were doing well, others must needs 
 come and set up an opposition most demoralising this to 
 the character of fair Maori traders and as there is not room 
 for two stores, as we are in honour bound not to reduce our 
 
 * Eaupo flax-rush ; next to flax one of the most useful materials 
 to the Maori which he possesses.
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 165 
 
 prices, and as besides we have already pretty well cleared out 
 all the cash of the place, and bought up everything the 
 natives have to sell, Jack and I have concluded to have a 
 shy at some other place. 
 
 Our kainga is situated in the centre of a half-moon form- 
 ing a bay about five miles across from point to point of the 
 abrupt cliffs of the promontories. The pa is built upon a 
 slight rise, at the foot of which brawls a shallow stream 
 which, flowing from the interior, bends to the right, and 
 runs for about a mile parallel to the beach before meeting 
 a mass of rock which turns it sharply towards the sea. 
 Behind us, and on each side, rise high hills, clad with thick 
 bush, sheltering us from southerly and westerly gales. 
 
 Pleasant it is on a fine summer day to lie on the sward, 
 smoking the soothing pipe, gazing on the smooth bright face 
 of the unruffled bay, and listening to the ceaseless whish, 
 whish, and muttered thunder of the wavelets dashing 
 themselves to foam on the steep shingly beach. Just at 
 our back, and to either hand, on the flats at the foot of 
 the surrounding heights are the numerous dealings which 
 used to display plenteous crops of maize and potatoes, and 
 gladden our eyes by a prospect promising well for our pockets ; 
 a few fishing canoes lie motionless out at sea ; children 
 paddle about in the stream ; old women pass and repass, 
 laden with heavy bundles of firewood ; and mosquitoes and 
 sandflies bite freely, and eventually drive us to seek shelter 
 in the sea or in a shady pool of the stream. Now that is a 
 resume of our daily life when not busy in the store. 
 
 Our pa is fortified in exact accordance with the most ap- 
 proved principles of Maori engineering, and although we were 
 really in a blue funk whenever Te Kooti's name was men- 
 tioned, we bluster much about what we have done for the 
 Government, and what we shall do again, when called upon 
 to draw half-a-crown a day and rations.
 
 16G PAKEHA RAJ1BLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 We arc rather a noisy and talkative population, and will 
 sit and discuss every subject under its every possible or 
 impossible aspect. 
 
 A stranger a white man passes through and stops to 
 give his horse a feed ; at once some twenty or thirty people 
 turn out, and squat down in all dignity, wrapping their 
 blankets around them like so many Roman Consuls, smoke 
 their vile burning torore (why they prefer that to our good 
 strong black twist at 8s. the K), I can't understand), 
 and take notes of every gesture. Then in the evening the 
 whole thing is gone over again. What the pakeha said, 
 what he did, how he looked, what he ate and drank, all 
 is repeated for the benefit of the unlucky wights who 
 were deprived of the pleasure of the sight. We are a 
 cleanly race outwardly, for old Hakaraia, our head chief, 
 is supreme, and has issued orders that the Jcainga shall be 
 kept clean ; so, unlike most Maori villages, it would be 
 difficult to find offal or refuse lying about in ours. Then 
 constantly we go into the stream, and lather ourselves to a 
 large extent ; but this, of course, cannot be expected except 
 through the summer. On the other hand, there are one or 
 two little things, connected with the person, which make 
 me doubt the absolute cleanliness of our fellow villagers. 
 We are not very particular about our clothing, though on 
 certain occasions most of us can turn out in riding trousers 
 at 35s., shoes and coats ; but our favourite costume by day or 
 night is the blanket. When at work we vise it as a kilt, 
 and when walking, sitting, or lying down, we wrap our- 
 selves tip in it as if it were a virtue. We do a good deal of 
 sleeping in the day time, consequently we talk constantly 
 the whole night through, and are up betimes. When we 
 go to bed we make up a big fire in the w/tare, roll ourselves 
 up, close every possible aperture, and grunt or smoke our- 
 selves to sleep in an atmosphere which, like the Strasbourg
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 167 
 
 ovens, would give a goose the liver complaint. We work 
 very hard men, women, and children in the sowing and 
 reaping seasons ; but these once passed, we have a holy re- 
 pugnance to anything like labour. "We like talking, we like 
 sleeping, we like sitting down gazing into vacancy ; we are 
 fond of inane and indecent songs ; we love gambling, and, 
 without the pipe, our lives would be a blank. There is 
 one other weakness I have not alluded to because it does 
 not come every day within our reach, but, when we see a 
 chance of getting at waipiro* we don't stick at trifles. Our 
 favourite game at cards is 1dpi, a kind of brag, at which we 
 play for pins and matches ; and, in the way of calculat- 
 ing amusements, we will beat at draughts the best player in 
 Europe. Our musical talent is not highly developed ; but 
 we are great on that melodious instrument the Jew's harp, 
 and we grunt away at liakas : occasionally we get hold of 
 some English tune say " Auld Lang Syne" and distort it 
 to suit our voices and ideas of melody. Our food is not 
 veiy varied. Fish, potatoes, and kumeras constitute the 
 staple ; while luxuries are occasionally indulged in in the 
 shape of rotten corn or eels stewed in shark oil. We have 
 heaps of pigs, but we sell them, and are too lazy to milk 
 our cows. We hoard up carefully any money we have, are 
 pi-ecious sharp at a bargain, and are very distrustful of every 
 one. Amongst us there exists an individual called Matiu, 
 whom Jack has christened " The inspector of Weights and 
 Measures." When we first came he was always pottering 
 about the store, and every day gaining information about 
 our scales. Now that he is perfect in them, not a pound of 
 sugar can be bought without his being brought up to ascer- 
 tain that we weigh it out correctly, and he is particular to a 
 hair's breadth. Talk of doing a Maori indeed ! It would 
 take three Armenians to swindle him ; and an eastern pro- 
 * Lit. Stinkinf,' water; nlm*, spirits.
 
 168 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 verb runs that it takes three Greeks to do an Armenian. 
 What I like about the people of our kainga is their utter 
 absence of shame in asking for things. Among them are a 
 few " rangatiras," pretty well off; but even some of these 
 will beg for anything they see like the veriest " taureka- 
 reka."* Old Hakaraia attended the other day a tangi down the 
 coast over the remains of a cousin. , He was of course mnch 
 affected snuffled and whined after the most approved 
 fashion, and shed several pints of tears. The division of 
 the property took place, and to his share fell a very smart 
 sound whaleboat, complete ; so up got the old man, and, 
 enumerating the different degrees of relationship he stood 
 in to the deceased, and his appreciation of his virtues, 
 " tanyied " again to siich an extent, that another relation, 
 affected at his extreme grief, presented him with a horse. 
 " Ah ! that's very well, " quoth Hakaraia, " but what's the 
 good of a horse without saddle and bridle ] " These were 
 brought brand-new from a store ; and then the old humbug 
 expatiated so largely on the hard-up state of his hapu that 
 he got, in addition, a present of a whole lot of clothing ; 
 and didn't he grin with delight when he returned with his 
 gifts? 
 
 Last Christmas he gave it out as his intention to abolish 
 drunkenness, and it was arranged that neither he, nor the 
 other rangatiras, nor the native policeman, were to enter 
 the store by day, but he tipped us the wink to keep some 
 decent liqxior for the evening. We sold that day over twenty 
 gallons of rum ; and as fast as a fellow tumbled down he 
 was lugged out by the policeman and tied to a flax bush. 
 But didn't Hakaraia and the bobby make up in the evening 
 for their enforced sobriety by ctay ! Only the other day old 
 Hakaraia came to Jack witli a very grave face. It seems 
 the garrison near us were getting up games, including a 
 * Slave ; common person,
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 169 
 
 oanoo race, and had sent down for subscriptions : "I don't 
 mind putting my canoe in" says Hakaraia, " and paying the 
 entrance fee ; but if I subscribe to the races, and my canoe 
 does not win, will my subscription be returned V 
 
 Among o\\i- chief nuisances are dogs, curs rather. They 
 abound in our kainga, are inveterate thieves (and if we kill 
 one there is the deuce of a shine), and growl, snap, and 
 bark at all hours ; they have made us pass many a sleepless 
 night. We have spent an exhilarating day in doing 
 nothing. Times being slack, perhaps we have sold a few 
 shillings' worth of flour and tobacco ; we have nothing to 
 read, and we have talked over every possible topic ; so 
 we have gradually smoked ourselves to sleep, thankful that 
 there is at last some occupation. All of a sudden a yelp 
 is raised by a dreamy cur ; and from every corner, from 
 under the eaves of our wkare, and from every hole about, an 
 answering chorus arises prolonged in a hundred distinct 
 howls. Gradually this sinks, and just as we are thanking 
 our stars it's all over, some morose and discontented cur 
 gravely stalks into the open, and, jealous of the repose en- 
 joyed by his friends, opens his jaws and gives vent to a 
 melancholy yelp. Instantly again commences the universal 
 charivari, which is only quelled by leaping out of whare 
 doors, and with many an "Ah ta" and " D n " discharg- 
 ing sticks and stones at the brutes. Talking of w/we-doors, 
 I don't think, now that I have lived in a Maori kaiiiga, that 
 I shall ever wonder at the phenomenon of the reel in the 
 bottle. I dislocated every joint in my back bone before I 
 properly understood the method of getting into a Maori 
 whare. You first of all stoop down and bend forward, 
 loosening yoiir spinal process ; then yon put your right 
 hip out of joint, advancing it into the wlia/re, at the same 
 time giving your neck a crick ; you then make a violent, 
 shoot forward, and, if the whare'a high enough, spring up
 
 170 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 and hear all your joints clicking back into their normal 
 position. On one occasion Jack and I went a little way up 
 country to buy produce, and were given a shake-down in a 
 big whare where by chance I took up my bei-th underneath 
 the window (an opening with a sliding wooden shutter). 
 By and by men and women flocked in and a fire was lit : 
 this was bad, but as I resisted every attempt to close the 
 window it was endurable. I went to sleep, and had troubled 
 dreams ; I remember fancying I was in the black hole of 
 Calcutta ; then I imagined myself in a much hotter place ; 
 and lastly, I awoke with a choking sensation, perspiring at 
 every pore, and panting for breath. All was dark, and the 
 mephitic air was stifling ; as soon as I regained partial con- 
 sciousness, I felt for the shutter ; it had been closed during 
 my sleep ; hastily I slid it back and thrust my head out. 
 The best claret cup I ever drank after a long innings on a 
 hot day was nothing as compared with that delicious draught 
 of pure mountain air. 
 
 We have among us some half-castes, chiefly girls, who 
 speak English pretty well. A few of them were educated 
 in Auckland, but prove the old saw of " what's bred in the 
 bone." They are as much Maori as the oldest waihine in 
 the place, the only advantage they derive from their educa- 
 tion being the doubtful one of being able to translate for 
 ignorant visitors the very questionable conversations and 
 songs going on. For we are by no manner of means a moral 
 people, though outwardly most religious. Every morning 
 at daybreak I am revised by the tinkle of the bell summoning 
 the pa to Protestant and Catholic worship, and every even- 
 ing the ceremony is repeated ; while on Sunday the bell 
 rings so often that I am reminded of the saturnalia of clangs 
 at Oxford. But, these religious attendances notwithstanding, 
 our talk and morals are of the loosest, with the exception of 
 the married women who aro rarolv known to bi-eak their vo\\ y s.
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 171 
 
 Not far from us exists a military post ; but, notwithstand- 
 ing that we have much traffic with it, we are far too lazy 
 to do anything to the road, though it leads by staircases up 
 and down two high ranges. If a tree falls across the track 
 we go round it even though it entails a steep ascent ; but 
 we don't cai-e ; it's only our horses who suffer. Poor beasts '. 
 we saddle them at two years old, ride them at full split along 
 the level, push them, up the steepest hill, and never consider 
 a sore back. We are good riders too. With a strip of flax 
 for a bridle, without any girths, and with the stirrup iron 
 grasped between the toes, we go at full gallop and turn 
 corners which would, under the same circumstances, shoot 
 many a fox-hunter out of his seat. On these rough ponies 
 of ours we are pretty expert at galloping after young stock, 
 catching their tails, and twisting them over. On one oc- 
 casion while getting in some beasts for us, the Maories got a 
 heifer thus and tied her feet up. There she died. So Jack 
 Maori immediately said he would eat her, as meat would 
 make him very " maroro " (strong). There was an old tin 
 lining to a box at hand, and on pieces of this bits of flesh 
 were singed in the flames, and hastily devoured. Two white 
 men were passing through that day, and, on our return to 
 the pa, they thanked us for the fresh beef we had sent them. 
 Jack looked at me, and I at Jack. " But," said one of the 
 fellows, " I don't- think it was properly bled ; it tasted 
 queerish." We saw at once what it was, and as soon as we 
 could for laughing, told them they had partaken of a dead 
 heifer. They rushed off, and in a quarter of an hour came 
 back with very pale faces begging for a tot. 
 
 It is a very curious sight to see us performing hakus.* 
 
 We, the Ngatikoreros, consider ourselves the best hakaing 
 
 tribe 011 the coast, and we are constantly practising. Two or 
 
 three young men or girls cannot sit down without pi-esently 
 
 * " Haka" native choruses.
 
 172 PEHAKA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 going through the pantomimic gestures. Sometimes a Go- 
 vernment swell visits us, and we give him a treat. Of course 
 we have the war dance first of all after the inspection of 
 arms, and this is moi-e easily imagined than described. In 
 fact, a genuine war dance is enough to shock the feelings of 
 any one, and I have seen more than one which would frighten 
 the most enthusiastic praiser of the noble savage. The haka 
 is of course in many cases as , bad ; but in many others it 
 simply consists of songs relating the deeds of departed ances- 
 tors, chorussed with a series of guttural intonations and ac- 
 companied by contortions of the body, quiverings of the 
 hand, and distortions of the features. Many a time have I 
 smoked my pipe in a large whare full of young fellows 
 squatted down, stripped to the waist, the pei'spiration pour- 
 ing off them from their exertions ; every muscle quivering, 
 and every motion of head, body, and arms carried to such 
 precision that the whole seemed moved by one wire. In the 
 claps of the hands, a frequent feature, the ear could dis- 
 tinguish but the one sound. One pretty haka they have, in 
 which each performer holds a ball with a short piece of 
 string attached, and the different motions given to it with 
 great rapidity and in pei-fect time form a pleasing accompani- 
 ment to the monotonous dreary sing-song recital. At times 
 the voice seems to proceed from the heels, it is so deep. As 
 a rule, we are a graceful race in our gestures, and, as we have 
 a language of signs, we hardly speak without an amount of 
 gesticulation which would delight a Frenchman. Nothing 
 can be more imposing than to see a tall, stout, elderly chief, 
 robed in blankets and flowing shawls, which add so much to 
 the human figure, impressing his ideas on his audience ; oc- 
 casionally as he gets excited and wishes to collect his 
 thoughts, he runs forward a few paces, gives a series of 
 leaps, repeating his last words, and then stalks back to his 
 starting point to go on again. The worst of it is that, oiicc
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 173 
 
 speechifying begins, it goes on almost for ever, and the 
 dignity and grace of the speakers are forgotten in the excess 
 of loquacity. I have jnst been reminded of one period of 
 our existence when it rained for a fortnight. We had but 
 two books, an old arithmetic and a Maori grammar ; but 
 there were lots of eggs. So all we had to do was to beat up 
 an egg in rum, drink it, smoke and sleep for a few hours, 
 and then repeat the dose. After a week we could not stand 
 it and we tossed up for who should have a holiday ; I won, and 
 when I came back I found my cousin looking like a ghost. 
 He swore he wouldn't pass such a time again for all the 
 profits to be made out of the whole Maori nation. On the 
 whole I must say that the days we spent in our kainga 
 passed away miserably slowly ; the only sport was pigeon 
 or duck shooting, both tame work, as the ducks have to be 
 stalked, and twenty pigeons can be got without stirring from 
 under a tree ; but in the season these are delicious eating, 
 especially when they are feeding on miro berries, when they 
 have a peculiar aromatic flavour. They are beautiful birds to 
 look at, with their green and gold plumage, and they are nearly 
 twice the size of the home pigeon. The red-billed pukeko 
 makes very good soup, as rich as hare soup ; and curlews in 
 winter form a capital dish. We tried a shag once, bury- 
 ing the bird for three days, and it wasn't so bad. Our 
 best fish are the tarakihi, patiki or sole, and whitebait. In 
 June and July we devour the latter by the thousand, 
 although we lack the lemon, the brown bread and butter, and 
 the iced cup of the Trafalgar. I never could bring myself to 
 shoot the pretty tuis (parson birds), though Pakeha-Maories 
 aver them to be delicious, neither could I ever relish the 
 brown kaka, the New Zealand parrot. One thing we have 
 good, potatoes ; and our method of cooking them in a hangi 
 is first-rate ; this is the way. Dig a hole in the gi-ound, fill ' 
 it up with dry sticks, set fire to them, and shovel on lots 
 
 7.
 
 174 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 of small stones : these of course will get well heated, and, 
 when they are hot enough, cover them with large dock 
 leaves. On these you place your scraped potatoes, kumeras, 
 pumpkins, or what not ; cover these also carefully with leaves, 
 on the whole pour a couple of gourds of water, and then 
 heap on earth till not a jet of the steam thus generated by the 
 red hot stones can escape. In forty-five minutes, dish 
 iip, and you will say that not even in the most potatophagous 
 parts of Ireland have you ever had more " maly spuds." Of 
 course in former days these hangis were occasionally made of 
 a size sufficient to cook something more than potatoes, but 
 that was on swell occasions only. However, I have seen 
 a small porker prepared for the table in this way, and it was 
 uncommonly nice. 
 
 As a conclusion I may say that our existence since our 
 start in the Maori trade has been like Cowper's traveller 
 " remote, melancholy, slow."
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 TE REINGA. 
 
 Fi-om the summit of Maketu Hill we just discerned a 
 cloud-like appearance far out at sea, denoting the position 
 of an active volcano, and in riding along the ai % c of the Bay 
 of Plenty we have approached nearer and nearer to it, so as 
 to be able to make out that the smoke issues from an 
 isolated cone-shaped island rising in dreary solitude from the 
 depths of the ocean ; only twelve miles off Whakatane a 
 somewhat similar peak exists, Whale Island, but no longer 
 active, the only volcanic symptoms now about it being its shape 
 and hot springs. But White Island is still a true volcano. I 
 never landed on it, though many of my fnends have done so ; 
 one of whom, by the way, discovered that slipping through a 
 thin crust into boiling sulphurous mud was neither a 
 pleasant nor yet an efficacious remedy for the gout. I onco 
 however steamed slowly close past, and was enabled to see 
 that it was a burnt out, bare mountain, with hardly a trace 
 of vegetation on its sloping sides ; to the southward, the 
 lip of the crater had given way, and the opening thus 
 formed allowed \is to judge easily of what the interior con- 
 sisted. We could see a green, slimy-looking lake over whose 
 surface curled the same kind of vapour that we had so often 
 seen at the Hot Lakes ; the interior slopes were steep, and 
 apparently composed of rocks rotted down by the incessant 
 heat ; from numberless nooks and crannies spurted up jet 
 after jet of steam ; here and there yellow patches denoted the 
 existence of masses of sulphur, sufficiently distinguishable
 
 176 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 indeed by the smell ; and, over all, hung as it were a sense 
 of utter desolation. It had a weird and grim aspect, this 
 bare azoic rock, shooting up 850 feet above the calm blue 
 sea which broke in ripplets on the small lava reef at the 
 base, and sending its roots a hundred fathoms down to estab- 
 lish a volcanic communication with Tongariro fcy the chain 
 of solfataras, &c., extending right up to Taupo. Had it been 
 formed during some fierce sitbmarine convulsion 1 Or was 
 it rather the wreck of some mighty peak which had in past 
 geologic ages towered over a range in a now submerged 
 Austral Continent ? Submarine or terrestrial by birth, it 
 forms a most striking, but most sombre and dismal feature 
 in the scenery of the Bay of Plenty. 
 
 By a piece of good fortune, after leaving Opotiki we kept 
 fair weather on both sides of the East Cape, a rather un- 
 usual occurrence ; and, after sailing along for a couple of 
 days with a high broken coast on the right, we caught sight 
 of the first land seen by Captain Cook in these parts, Young 
 Nick's Head, a high white cliff which forms the southern 
 promontory of Poverty Bay. If ever there was a misnomer 
 given by discoverer to a spot, it was the above name ; but 
 in justice to Captain Cook it must be said that the first im- 
 pressions of Turanganui, even now, are not favourable ; for 
 the township is built on a sandy soil, the road leading in- 
 land is ankle deep in sand, and every breeze carries with 
 it clouds of blinding gritty dust. The town is however 
 nothing ; it is in the country at the back that all interest 
 lies, and once the tourist gets three miles out, he soon sees 
 the difference. 
 
 Poverty Bay, indeed ! Not even when scathed by fire and 
 sword, as I first saw it ; its settlers slain ; its houses burnt, 
 blackened stacks of chimneys only remaining to indicate the 
 sites of once happy homes; its orchards and gardens ravaged ; 
 its cattle slaughtered; and indices of murder and rapine
 
 PAKEHX RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 177 
 
 meeting the eye to right and left : not even then did it 
 deserve the name. I had never before seen such rye grass 
 as that through which I rode, up to the horse's girth, over the 
 Patutahi plain ; in the ruined gardens huge vines still 
 trailed over the few buildings which had escaped the gene- 
 ral destruction, or lay thickly matted on the ground ; fruit 
 of eveiy description was in abundance ; in the Bishop's 
 orchard, near the old Episcopal residence, school and indus- 
 trial farm combined in one at Waerangahika, then all 
 deserted and the shell of the house riddled with bullets 
 poured into it during the old fight in 1865, the plums, 
 (unripe !) were weighing down the branches ; and as for 
 apples, they were literally being carted away by loads. 
 
 That was in 1869, and we had not then much opportunity 
 for sight-seeing ; of the few families which remained in the 
 district none resided beyond the township, for Te Kooti and 
 his crew were still in the field ; he proved it to us too, by 
 issuing out of the gorges just in time to assure us he was 
 still full of mischief, notwithstanding the mauling he had 
 received at Makaretu from Major Ropata's Ngatiporou, and 
 we had to follow him up to Ngatapa, and have it out with 
 him there. 
 
 Since then it may be said that no place in the Northern 
 Island has advanced at such a rate of progress as Poverty 
 Bay. In 1869, its population was about a couple of hundred, 
 and its run holders had not extended far beyond Waeranga- 
 hika ; now it numbers about thirteen hundred souls, and the 
 back country is being taken up even along the line of road 
 which is in course of formation between it and Opotiki. 
 Even the mountain on which stood Ngatapa pa^ taken by 
 Colonel Whitmore's colonials after three days' siege in 1869, 
 is now included in land which will shortly be occupied by 
 sheep. 
 
 Before taking a ride round previously to continuing our
 
 178 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 route, it was the proper thing to visit two natural curiosities 
 which may be called the lions of Turanganui. A few 
 hundred yards from the hotel a tidal creek falls into the 
 liver which forms the harbour, and at low water the bottom 
 of the former is found to be a soft sandstone on which 
 sundry queer markings had been for some time observed. I 
 believe it however was the Ven. Archdeacon Williams who 
 first paid attention to these and set to work to make them 
 out. As a reward for his trouble he was enabled to obtain 
 numerous perfectly preserved moa foot-prints, in some cases 
 finding it necessary to shave off a superincumbent slab, 
 while occasionally the marks lay qiiite distinct on the s\ir- 
 face. Those which were discovered have been taken away, 
 and no more are visible at present ; but there is every pro- 
 bability that a search under the sandy banks of the stream 
 would disclose more. At all events I found that a little 
 rubbing with the finger on the friable sandstone produced 
 a very fair imitation of the genuine article. 
 
 The other lion is a petrifying spring on the beach the 
 further side of the main river. We crossed in the boat and 
 landed on a reef composed of a peculiar and disagreeable kind 
 of rock. Its Maoii name is " Papa," its scientific appella- 
 tion I know not ; it is blueish in colour when ' dry ; gets 
 reddish under water; delights in running in ridges and 
 furrows, the former inclined at an angle ; and is, when wet, 
 far more slippery than any well prepared ball-room floor. It 
 was my luck once to ride northward from Poverty Bay to 
 Waiapu, about a hundred miles, and back ; and, when I was 
 not leading my horse up or down steep, high, and almost 
 trackless hills, or occasionally getting a canter on a bit of 
 sand, I was going over acres of this horrible stuff. At eveiy 
 point, in every little bay, jutted out the uncompromising 
 reef; occasionally it was just as much as we could do to get 
 round a bluff between the waves, and that was about as
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 179 
 
 nervous work as could be ; for a fall on the jagged edges of 
 the rock would have been no joke. Luckily, mine was a 
 hoio w/tenua (country bred horse), and the manner in 
 which he picked his way was beautiful. About a 
 mile along the beach after crossing the river we came 
 to a cliff, in which there was not apparently much to 
 distinguish it from any other cliff but, a couple of blows 
 with an axe soon showed a difference. There had evi- 
 dently been a groove here once filled with flax, and down 
 which had run a stream rising from some spring in the lime- 
 stone rock. How long the stream took about it, it is impos- 
 sible to say ; but the hollow is filled up, there is only a 
 trickle of water; and, what was flax is now stone. We 
 hacked away and got out specimens of every kind, from 
 delicate leaves and shoots to coarse masses ; lumps looking 
 just like a breccia of bird-bones ; pieces of stalk and roots ; 
 leaves curled up slightly, or else completely rolled round ; and 
 the greater portion of the whole was thoroughly turned into 
 stone, the very leaves, when broken across, shoAving the 
 petrifaction. 
 
 There are plenty of directions in which to ride from 
 Turanganui. Eastward, along the beach and by the mouth 
 of the " Big River," the Waipaoa, lies the coast way to 
 Wairoa ; a road formerly of climbs and slips, and produc- 
 tive of groans, weariness, and bad language : now however 
 it is improved. In a more southerly direction lies the inland 
 track to Wairoa, by Te Reinga, the route we are boxind 
 to take ; and, beyond Waerangahika, to the westward runs 
 . a long valley, breaking up into others, and into which falls 
 the road from Opotiki. 
 
 There can hardly be a pleasanter ride than to start early, 
 as we did one fine morning, canter out to Patutahi and 
 ascend Pukeameonga, a small conical hill in the plain, and 
 have a look round. From this a view is obtained of the
 
 180 PEHAKA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 whole level of the Bay, from Nick's Head to Turanganui, 
 the former being the prolongation of the low chain which 
 sweeps round the southern edge of the basin, and through 
 gaps and passes in which access is had to the interior. 
 Turning our backs on Turanganui we had to our left the 
 dark Pipiwaka Bush ; and beyond it the sea, the river, and 
 a series of rolling hills ; to the right the view extended up 
 the Waerangahika valley, and just in front gaped in the 
 hills a well known opening, for the mouth of which we once 
 had a tidy race with some of Te Kooti's people. From 
 Pukeameonga we had caught sight cf a party of Hau-Haus 
 creeping along the foot of the hills after a plundering raid, 
 and it fell to my lot to ride down and hasten up our men ; 
 it was not pleasant galloping, as the thick rye grass con- 
 cealed a quantity of holes in and out of which my horse kept 
 blundering, but the falling was pretty soft. It was then a 
 case of "swags off" and "doubling;" but the Hau-Haus 
 had the start, and by throwing away their jrikaus (loads), 
 managed to get first into the gorge, up which we eventually 
 followed them on the march to Ngatapa. That day, which- 
 ever way one looked nothing but ruin and desolation met 
 the eye, and the only people about were armed men. Now 
 there was a difference. Roads crossed the plain ; houses 
 were dotted all over the country, built, or in course of 
 erection ; miles of fencing were visible ; cattle and sheep 
 roamed about in numbers, and all looked prosperous. It 
 speaks volumes for the district that it should have so well 
 recovered from the crushing blow it got while in an infant 
 stage ; and I doubt if any scene in New Zealand could give 
 to one who had seen the place under both aspects a 
 better realisation of a picture of Peace and "War than the 
 view from Pukeameonga. From the hill, we cantered across 
 the flat, where clover is now assuming the place of the old 
 luxuriant rye grass, and, after fording the river, rode on to
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 181 
 
 Wairangahika. Alterations here also are to be seen. Once 
 more is there found a good substantial gentleman's I'esidence, 
 approached along an avenue of glorious willows, and sur- 
 roimded by well fenced and well kept paddocks ; and a 
 couple of miles further we arrived at the station of the 
 Armed Constabulary, the military township of Ormond. The 
 military settlers here at all events have not got one of the 
 grounds of complaint which are heard elsewhere ; they can- 
 not grumble at the quality of the hind ; and some of them, 
 either in person or by substitutes, are working away 
 effectually at it. Beyond this again stretches a long 
 valley in which some miles up are found springs exud- 
 ing petroleum for the exploitation of which a company 
 has been formed ; and the whole of this is being rapidly 
 taken up by runs, the influx of genuine settlers into the 
 district promising well for its future prosperity. Its last, 
 but not least advantage, is the climate, without a doubt the 
 pleasantest in the North Island. 
 
 There is yet another most interesting ride to take 
 to Whakato, where is to be seen a specimen of 
 Maori carving, in which the Ngatikuhungunu (Poverty 
 Bay natives) used to be very proficient. Formerly there 
 was to be found in Poverty Bay a council chamber, 
 the upright slabs of which inside the house were of a black, 
 tough wood, and wonderfully carved with all the grotesque 
 imagery of which the Maori sculptor was so fond. This 
 house was taken possession of during the war, and now 
 forms a portion of the Wellington Museum. There is how- 
 ever a specimen .still to be seen at the abandoned mission 
 station of Whakato, and wo went to look at it; a few 
 miles out of Turanganui wo were ferried over the 
 Waipaoa and found ourselves in a magnificent old 
 orchard in the centre of which stood a high barn-like 
 building, evidently a Maori church. Broken windows
 
 182 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 a ripped-up floor, and holes in the roof shewed that 
 its glory as well as its parishioners had departed ; but the 
 huge carved slabs still remained entire. I think they were 
 a dozen in number, about eighteen feet high, and carved to 
 represent each some departed Taipuna (ancestor). The 
 amount of work expended on them must have been wonder- 
 ful, and it must also have been no slight task on the 
 ingenuity and nature of the workmen to refrain from insert- 
 ing any of the peculiar touches which usually characterize 
 Maori carvings ; however, as the slabs were for a church, it 
 was necessary to keep them free from anything approach- 
 ing to the general style. 
 
 I have briefly alluded above to the Poverty Bay massacre ; 
 there is in connection with it an anecdote which is worth 
 relating as exemplifying a noble ti'ait in the Maori character. 
 Awakened by the news of the ruthless work proceeding 
 around them when Te Kooti and his band fell upon the 
 settlement and destroyed it, and flying in haste to a place of 
 refuge, a small party of Europeans passed by a hut where 
 were sitting an old Maori and his wife, both well-known to 
 them. A short time afterwards a number of Te Kooti's 
 men arrived in hot pursuit and questioned the old man as 
 to the direction taken by the fugitives ; he declined to 
 answer ; threatened with death, he still refused to betray his 
 friends, and was at once tomahawked. The savages then 
 turned on the wife whom they had widowed, but she was as 
 faithful as her murdered husband, and sent the pursuers on 
 a wrong track. Acts of ferocity are loudly blazed abroad ; 
 deeds like the above are but slightly noticed ; yet such an 
 instance of self-devotion merits record as much as any act 
 of heroism mentioned in history. 
 
 There are two ways of getting from Poverty Bay to Te 
 Wairoa, the next settlement to the south ; by the coast 
 line, or by the inland track. The latter was the one I
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 183 
 
 adopted, chiefly with the object of getting a view of " Te 
 Reinga." 
 
 This name applies properly to the " Hades " of Maori my- 
 thology, supposed to be somewhere beyond the Noi-th Cape. 
 The tradition ran that out of the cliffs of this promontory 
 grew a huge tree, from the branches of which the souls of 
 the departed took a final leap into the other world, there to 
 lead a dolce far niente sort of existence, without cares or 
 occupation. Curious, that the highest aspiration of a people 
 should be a hankering after the life of a vegetable ! 
 
 Wo started one summer afternoon and, after passing 
 through the plain, got into a very good undulating sheep 
 country which lasted for some miles ; camped by a little 
 stream, and the next morning entered upon rather more 
 difficult regions. After riding for a little distance through 
 an open valley, we found it of a sudden close in, and we 
 descended a steep slide into the Huangai-oa, a river with a 
 bed of papa rock. It was absurd, whilst on the bank, to 
 watch the floundering of the horses as they slid and stumbled 
 about on the greasy ledges, their hind quarters one moment 
 well out while they were up to the shoulders in a deep hole ; 
 then sometimes all four hoofs seemed to go away in different 
 directions all at once, and the poor brutes looked like awk- 
 ward skaters in trouble and aware of the imminence of a 
 tumble ; and then the riders' faces ! It was a case of stick- 
 ing on "all one knew," and every feature expressed Tin- 
 certainty as to whether the next minute might not inflict 
 the thorough ducking which two of our party got. To this 
 moment I cannot recollect exactly how I scrambled across, 
 as every instant I felt my horse going, but he managed to 
 keep himself up somehow or another. Then came a climb, 
 a descent, and another crossing of the same river over the 
 same kind of stuff : then we were on the hills. Had it not 
 been for the name of the thing, we might as well have had
 
 184 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 no horses, for they were of no use here for riding purposes 
 it was quite a case of "here we go up, up, up, and he-re we 
 go down, down, down." In one of the latter we came upon 
 a lovely little nook : the liver had cut its way through high 
 cliffs of a white chalky looking stone, and at a sudden turn 
 had scooped out a hollow, now clothed with grass and 
 shaded by peach trees ; once down in this it was impossible 
 to tell how to get out again, or even to see which way the 
 river entered or left : altogether it was a charming spot for 
 a pic-nic, and here we lunched. While mooning about during 
 the post-luncheon pipe, I was astounded at the quantity of 
 fossils to be seen ; every boulder was a mass of shells, every 
 pebble bore on it the imprint of some former denizen of an 
 ancient sea ; for the specimens were all marine, and, as far 
 as I could judge, of forms identical with those now found on 
 our shores. 
 
 Topping the liill on the further side we got a grand view. 
 Close by to the left rose a magnificent mass, apparently trachy- 
 tic from its resemblance to the Tarawera mountain, its face 
 for several hundred feet scarped and bare, and presenting 
 occasionally an appearance resembling a basaltic columnar 
 formation. This was Whakapunake, the last home, so 
 Maori tradition relates, of the moa on the East Coast. Be- 
 fore us lay a jumbled mass of mountain and vale, and in the 
 hollow beneath, a number of circular ponds, their edges 
 fringed with reeds and a small circle of clear water in their 
 centre, gave the impression that in fonner times they had 
 been " Ngawas " (hot springs) similar to those of Rotoma- 
 hana. Away to the right were more and moi'e ranges, one 
 mountain top, shaped something like a lion couchant, being 
 pointed out as Mangapohatu, the stronghold of the Uriwera, 
 a tribe still bitterly hostile at the time of my journey. 
 
 We passed the valley of ponds, and after some more riding, 
 stood on the summit of a spur leading down to a narrow
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 185 
 
 gorge, from the furthest end of which was rising a cloud of 
 smoke 1 No : this was the spray of the Te Reinga falls. We 
 were now on one of the spots where Te Kooti was attacked 
 after his escape and landing from the Chatham Islands ; on 
 this occasion the native allies executed a strategic movement 
 up the spur we were now about to descend, leaving the dozen 
 or so Europeans with them to shift for themselves ; and it was 
 only by keeping a good countenance and shooting straight that 
 these managed to hold the enemy at bay and get away. 
 
 At the bottom of the spur we were in a beautiful little 
 valley, through which was rolling our old friend the Huun- 
 garoa, and presently we got into a thick scrub where 
 we had to cut our way, the track being completely 
 overgrown, so that it was getting dusk before we emerged 
 from it and stood at the junction of the Huangaroa and 
 Ruaketuri rivers, directly over the fall. 
 
 The two rivers meet at about two hundred yards from a 
 high range along the western flank of which the Ruaketuri 
 has been flowing, and which extends perpendicularly to the 
 course adopted by the united streams. Straight towards it 
 they flow, till, close to the foot of the range, their course is 
 arrested by a white reef barring their progress and damming 
 up their waters into a large pool. But not right across does 
 it extend ; it stops short a few yards from the face of the 
 cliff on the right bank, and through the narrow opening 
 thus left the whole body of water rushes in a clear wave, 
 shooting some ten feet down to meet a precipitous cliff" 
 which diverts it in a second fall to the left. Of these shoots 
 there are three, in which the river makes a quarter circle ; 
 then, with one mighty plunge, it precipitates itself sideways 
 some ninety feet down into a yawning gulf, strikes the face of 
 the rock on the left bank, turns sharp round to the right, 
 and hurls itself through a chasm which it has cut sheer 
 through the range.
 
 186 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 Standing on the limestone reef which arrests the rivers 
 you cannot see the main fall ; to your right are the small 
 shoots rushing clown to it ; but directly before you is a 
 straight gap some thirty yards in width and three hundred 
 yards in length, an uncovered tunnel if you like, the sides of 
 which are sheer rock, and cut down, as clean as if machinery 
 had been employed, from a height equal to that on which you 
 stand ; above the steep part the lull sides slope off and are 
 covered with dense bush. Through this gulch the river roars 
 down in many a swirl and wave and bound, sending up its 
 spray to moisten the rich growth of ferns clothing the slopes 
 under the heavy forest, tearing madly at the walls of rock 
 which restrain it within bounds, and finally ending its wild 
 career by subsiding suddenly into the quietest of demeanours, 
 and finishing its headlong race in an open and placid pool. 
 Right through the mountain it has cut a straight line, and 
 the vista afforded of the calm lagoon at the further end of 
 the chasm, fringed with low bush and gleaming in the sun, 
 compared with the dark and gloomy glen through which the 
 boiling torrent pours to attain a peaceful haven, forms a 
 scene which, once beheld, can never be forgotten. 
 . There are persons who having once gazed upon some 
 grand natural feature, cannot stoop to the admiration, of 
 similar scenery on a smaller scale. I confess I am not one 
 of these : and it no more entered my head to make any 
 invidious comparisons between Te Reinga and Schaffhausen, 
 or any other cataract of European celebrity, than it would 
 to turn up my nose at my daily joint because I have dined 
 at the Trois Frei'es. The Reinga fall is simply a magnificent 
 sight ; at least I thought it so on first acquaintance, and I 
 know I shall think so again on my next visit. There is but 
 one fault to be found with it ; only from one spot can the 
 main fall be seen in its entirety, and that is from the moun- 
 tain path on the left bank.
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 187 
 
 As in picnic -gully, so here the rock was full of fossils; the 
 white reef running above the fall was one mass of shells 
 deeply imbedded in it, and I naturally set to work with a 
 tomahawk to dig up specimens, which we found could not 
 be carried away : but, as before, I believe they were mostly 
 identical with extant species. 
 
 We knocked up a " maemae" in a deserted Jcainya, the old 
 posts of which came in handy for bivouac fires, and we slept 
 soundly, notwithstanding the noise at hand. Next morning, 
 while getting my horse, I came upon a circular hollow 
 strongly reminding me of the Rotorua pools ; it had the same 
 wide-lipped inverted funnel shape, and it was not till after 
 sundry prods with a stick that I felt reassured enough to 
 trust myself at the bottom. If this was not an extinct 
 tujawa, it ought to be ; hardly a philosophical way to put it, 
 perhaps ; but after all, not much worse than many a theory 
 broached on extra scientific grounds. 
 
 The liver having made a way through the range only for 
 itself, we had to climb over the hill, and it was while on the 
 path that we got our view of the big shoot, but even then 
 the spray was so heavy that much could not be seen. The 
 descent brought us down to the margin of the pool which re- 
 ceives the waters as they come out, and I had a scramble 
 lip into the chasm. For there is gulch within gulch ; there 
 is the main rift, which, when the waters are in fresh, is 
 described as presenting a magnificent appearance ; and, in 
 the centre of this, a smaller furrow has been scooped out, 
 sufficient for the summer flow as we found it. 
 
 The lagoon itself was a charming little spot, so pretty 
 and so soft-looking after the scenery we had just passed 
 through ; and I thought it exactly the spot I would recom- 
 mend as head-quarters for a pic-nic excursion to last for a 
 fortnight, the whole of which time could be very profitably 
 taken up by explorations. (I mean myself to spend a holy-
 
 188 PEHAKA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 day there some time or another.) In the first place, on the 
 further side of the river there are caves the floor of which 
 fe covered by a stalagmitic deposit ; these it would be most 
 interesting to trench thoroughly in search of fossils and 
 bones ; there is the valley of the Ruaketuri, with its wild 
 scenery ; and lastly there is Whakapunake, with its subter- 
 ranean river, its caves, and its grottoes in the face of the 
 cliffs. In short there is plenty to do and to be seen. 
 
 Three or four more climbs and descents brought us to the 
 Wairoa plains, a fine level bit of country, well grassed, and 
 apparently good land, but deserted. However there was 
 not much wonder at this, for the Uriwera were not far off, 
 and it was not so veiy long before this that Te Kooti 
 had come down and done a deal of mischief at the very 
 military township. 
 
 At a prettily situated Maori kainya (once occupied by 
 rank Hau-Haus) we forded the Mangapoiki, flowing rather 
 more peaceably than it did in the Reinga chasm, and a few 
 miles canter brought us to Te Kapu, the military township. 
 Te Wairoa, the district, takes its name from the river 
 which, formed by the waters issuing from the lofty ranges 
 surrounding the plain, rolls down in a fine and broad stream 
 to the sea., but is spoiled for navigation by a veiy ugly bar. 
 
 The position of the settlement is so far disadvantageous, 
 especially as the road to the neai-est port, Napier, is 
 decidedly bad ; but there is abundance of good country, 
 plenty of room for farms and small runs, and the Reinga 
 track is now being surveyed with a view to the construction 
 of a road connecting Wairoa with Poverty Bay.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 WAIKARIMOANA. 
 
 It was OH a subsequent visit to Wairoa that I was enabled 
 to get up to the Waikarimoana Lake. 
 
 From the successes achieved in Wairoa in 18G5 by the 
 colonial forces, and by the friendly Ngatiporou under Major 
 Ropata, may be dated the first break down of Hau-Hauism. 
 Beaten in the open, and in their pas, the Hau-Haus retired 
 on their inland sea and mountainous regions, not without 
 suffering another heavy defeat on the way. But still for a 
 long time the shores of Waikarimoana were closed to Euro- 
 peans, and an expedition which reached them in 1869, had 
 to return unproductive of good. The surrender of the Uri- 
 wera has however altered this state of things, and we possess 
 now a small post of Constabulary on the veiy margin of the 
 " Star Lake," as it is called on account of its numerous bays. 
 
 It is an easy ride from Te Kapu to Waikarimoana ; but 
 still wo started at day-break for comfort's sake. There is no 
 time for travelling on a hot summer's day in New Zealand 
 like the very early morning ; the air is so deliciously balmy, 
 there is no oppressiveness, and everything looks so cool and 
 refreshed ; besides this, one's horse benefits by a rest during 
 the mid- day heat. 
 
 Our path lay up a valley fringed with low hills and con- 
 taining an extent of country able to support a large popula- 
 tion ; as usual, this was military settlers' land, and barren-
 
 190 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 ness reigned supreme, with however one exception ; the 
 track was lined with wild strawberry plants, not yet ripe. 
 Further on, near Waikarimoana, we passed through a perfect 
 grove of raspberries, and at Onepoto we learnt that quanti- 
 ties of the fruit existed on the other side of the Lake. As 
 no mission stations have ever been founded so far, the presence 
 of these fruits in such wild spots is, a puzzle. 
 
 Through the valley ran the Waikare-Taheke river, one of 
 the affluents of the Wairoa ; this we had to ford five or six 
 times, getting into the hills after the last crossing. Half- 
 way up the first rise we came upon a waterfall of really much 
 more respectable appearance than many which are visited at 
 home as curiosities ; here we just pulled up for a look, lit a 
 pipe, and resumed our journey over a series of mild ascents 
 and descents till at length we reached a pretty high ridge 
 from which was caught a sight of the Waikare-Taheke. To 
 the right of the path there was a tolerably steep gully, down 
 which, in 1869, one of the boats belonging to the expedition 
 took it into its head to slide. The intention then was to move 
 a force across the lake, and large whaleboats were tugged 
 up on trucks, the only accident occurring at this spot. 
 The labour of getting the runaway up several hundred feet 
 of a steep ferny hill side may be conceived. 
 
 It may be laid down as an axiom that whenever the 
 tourist in New Zealand arrives at a hill christened " Gentle 
 Annie" he may prepare himself for a breather ; there was 
 no exception to the rule as far as concerned the " Gentle 
 Annie" of Waikarimoana, and it was uncommonly hot work 
 getting up to the top. However, there was a good view, so 
 that was an excuse for a halt. Long before reaching this a 
 peculiar break in the hills had been pointed out as the site 
 of the Lake, and we had it now just before us ; a wooded 
 high range stretched away in front, of a sudden ending 
 in a cliff looking for all the world like a sea-wutshed bead-
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 191 
 
 land, and then sloped steeply down for several hundred feet, 
 sinking into a low ridge which shortly rose up once more into 
 a chain of hills extending to the eastward. 
 
 Far down below and to the right was still the Waikare- 
 Taheke valley, the river running through it at a furious 
 rate ; and, on the ridge connecting the two ranges, we could 
 perceive a couple of small houses shewing the position of 
 Onepoto. Even this saddle was high enough to prevent our 
 getting a glimpse of the lake. 
 
 It had been hot work climbing up the hill ; it was worse 
 going down, for this face was composed entirely of loose, 
 deep pumice sand, into which Ave sank Avell over the ankles, 
 creating at every step a cloxul of stifling dust. To the right 
 we could hear the hollow thundering of a waterfall, and from 
 one point we managed to catch a glimpse of a mass of water 
 pouring over a ledge, but we were far too hot and thirsty to 
 go out of our way to see anything, and so we tramped on 
 still downwards till we reached the brink of the river which 
 lower down formed the cascade. From this we were about 
 a mile from the lake, and strange to say, it was all up-hill 
 work again, first past a " spinney" of raspberries, then along 
 a glen strewn with boulders. These lay around in numbers, 
 and of all sizes, from the round stone resembling a cannon 
 ball to monoliths tit to compare with the slabs of the Temple 
 of the Sun at Baalbec. I must say I should like an explana 
 tion of how they came in this particular spot, whether they 
 were shot out of some ancient volcano, or flung down from 
 the heights when the break was made in the hills at One- 
 poto, whether by an earthquake, by volcanic agency, or by 
 an outburst of the lake. We found afterwards that similar 
 masses lay imbedded in the soil at the spot where the camp is 
 formed, and gave much trouble during the erection of the 
 redoubt. 
 
 Presontlv wo rounded a corner, canterod up a slight ascent
 
 192 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 with a hollow to our left containing a couple of ponds, and 
 saw before us a narrow ridge on which was situated the Con- 
 stabulary post : we walked across the tiny parade ground, 
 and at our feet lay Waikariinoana. The first feeling on look- 
 ing at it from this point is one of disappointment ; there is 
 no extent of water to be seen, and the view is shut up by 
 hills all around. To see the lake properly, there is but one 
 way, and that is to climb up Panekiri hill, the quasi-head- 
 land mentioned above. From this summit the shape of the 
 lake is apparent ; it is a kind of irregular star with arms 
 running Tip inland in all directions, in one case two capes 
 pi-ojecting towards each other so far as to leave between them 
 but a narrow strait, the entrance to another expanse of 
 water, called Te Wairau. Various spots of interest were 
 taken in at almost one glance ; there was the narrow ai-m of 
 the lake which Te Kooti and his hard pressed followers swam 
 on horseback to escape the pursuit of the flying columns on 
 his track ; opposite was the kainya where, in 18G9, he had 
 lived securely and quietly, undisturbed by the preparations 
 for attack from our side ; the lofty and chaotic masses of 
 mountains at the back of this were the home of the Uriwera ; 
 extending away to the right was the Aniwaniwa branch, at 
 the head of which the river of the same name tumbles over 
 a lofty cliff; jitst below a point jutting out to the right of 
 Onepoto lay sunk in several fathoms of water the boats 
 brought up with so much trouble ; and beyond this again 
 was a veritable whirlpool in which the water could be seen 
 to go round and round, exactly as it does in a bath when the 
 stop is lifted. 
 
 With such a view in sight the tourist feels no longer the 
 sense of disappointment; he lias before him a glassy inland 
 sea enclosed around by high cliffs and peaks, and rendered 
 atti-active by the wildness of the scene. For, with the ex- 
 ception of a few patches of Maori cultivations, the country
 
 PAKKHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 193 
 
 all about is just as it was left by Dame Nature when in her 
 last throes she dug out and filled this huge crater, and piled 
 up the mountains surrounding it. 
 
 But few landing places exist on Waikarimoana : the sides 
 of the cliffs are precipitous, and woe betide the boat or 
 canoe well out in the centre when the wild, fierce mountain 
 blasts rush screaming down one of the numerous arms, and 
 raise in a few minutes waves against which no resistance 
 is of avail. Native tradition has numerous tales of canoes 
 never heard of after leaving the shore. 
 
 A few young men of the Uriwera were at the post on our 
 arrival, having come over from the other side, and once more 
 I remarked the difference of features which exists, not only be- 
 tween them and the coast natives, but even among each other. 
 The majority are much darker than the usual type of the 
 Maori, and are distinguished by flat noses and blubber lips, 
 in many cases as marked as those of the negro. Others, on 
 the contrary, have a perfect Jewish cast of countenance, so 
 remarkably developed as to attract immediate attention, and 
 are very handsome specimens of manhood. Mountain and 
 bush bred, they are as active as cats, and it is marvellous to 
 see an Uriwera, laden with his swag and rifle, literally run 
 up and down hills covered with a dense overgrowth through 
 which Europeans have to move at a snail's pace. Their legs 
 would make splendid models, and their feet, as a rule, are 
 very large. I remember on one occasion, after a party of 
 them had attacked a redoubt at Opotiki and been beaten off, 
 seeing a friendly native gazing with admiration on one of the 
 slain they had left behind. The body was that of a well 
 proportioned young man, but it was the enormous feet which 
 rivetted my friend's attention. " Ah " he said, " what feet 
 for walking ! How I should walk, if I had feet like that !" 
 
 The great lion of Waikarimoana is the source of the 
 Waikai'e-Taheke ; and notwithstanding that I had hoard
 
 194 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 some reports about it, I was still greatly puzzled as to where 
 on earth the river came from. When on Gentle Annie we 
 had seen it below us careering along the valley in a series of 
 foaming rapids and in a good wholesome torrent-like fashion ; 
 yet the fall of the ground did not appear to be at all so steep 
 as to justify such behaviour and thus, great was our 
 curiosity. 
 
 Leaving the camp and following the narrow ridge to the 
 right where it commenced once more to ascend, a short walk 
 brought us into a gully from which we emerged on to the 
 shoi-e of the lake, consisting of a reef about six or seven 
 yards wide running along the foot of the cliffs which here 
 formed a small bay. Some fifty yards fui'ther on, the reef 
 ceased, and a promontory with steep sides jutted out into 
 the lake. It was at this point that the whirlpool existed : 
 but no trace of it was now seen, for a westerly wind had 
 sprung up, and the short chopping sea hid the swirl of the 
 water. Walking along the reef we had thus the lake to our 
 left, cliffs to our right. Suddenly a cleft appeared in the 
 latter, and in this our guide and host disappeared. It was 
 certainly a very curious place, to say the least of it ; the 
 side of the reef went down straight for about twelve or 
 fifteen feet below us till it touched the bottom of a narrow 
 ravine littered with a confused mass of boulders. This was 
 evidently the bed of a mountain torrent, but whence came 
 the water which had hollowed it out 1 A glance behind told 
 xis : there was only a space of some six or seven yards of 
 rock between the edge of the lake and the cliff, and we 
 could now understand why it was that the Wairoa always 
 freshed so quickly in westerly weather. The wind from 
 that quarter banks up the lake towards this, its only visible 
 outlet, the barrier of reef is soon surmounted, and down 
 pours the accumulation heaped up in this little corner to 
 come down the Waikare-Taheke valley in a wave and to fall
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 195 
 
 suddenly into the Wairoa river. However there was no 
 overflow this day, and yet the "Waikare-Talieke was, we 
 knew, running merrily, so there was still some mystery. 
 We let ourselves down into the gully which sloped away at 
 a fair incline, and in which the power of water was ex- 
 emplified with a vengeance ; great holes were scooped out of 
 the sides, masses of rock lay across each other at all sorts of 
 angles, all worn perfectly smooth ; and where the stony 
 bottom had presented the least hardness of surface, it was 
 grooved into furrows with jagged edges. As we went down, 
 each moment increasing our distance below the level of the 
 lake, a hoarse and dull roar was heard ahead reverberating 
 
 * O 
 
 along the precipitous walls of the canon and re-echoing 
 in the deep indentations in its side ; it became gradually 
 louder and louder ; and, after walking some two hundred 
 yards we came to a series of huge boulders, carpeted with a 
 green and slippery moss. Warned to be cautious, we crept 
 carefully over these, and, looking over the hugest of the lot, 
 saw the source of the Waikare-Taheke where, a few feet 
 below \\s, the river leaped out of the ground and poured 
 down in a cataract. The main body of the water came from 
 under our friendly boulder ; but, on all sides, tiny streamlets 
 issued from nooks and corners, from cracks in the rock, and 
 from among the roots of the trees which formed a dense 
 shade overhead. It was a beautiful sight ; a living picture 
 of the water gushing out of the rock at the bidding of 
 Moses. 
 
 We went round to the left and, after a bit of a scramble 
 and some careful walking over moss-covered rocks around 
 whose bases murmured numberless rills each hastening to 
 contribute its share to the river, we got to a detached 
 boulder situated about opposite the main shoot. The fall is 
 of no height, some ten or twelve feet, but the adjuncts to it 
 Bet it off to much advantage ; it was fine to watch this muss
 
 196 PEHAKA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 of water burst forth out of its prison and take its leap into 
 the free open air, the whiteness of the foam contrasting so 
 strongly with the black Avail of cliffs, with the grey boulders 
 covered with light green moss, and with the sombre hue of 
 the foliage overhead. 
 
 The little streams around, winding in and out, looked 
 absurdly like so many water-babies who had for a time lost 
 their mother and were doing their best once more to find 
 her, clasp hold of the skirt of her garment and hurry off 
 with her in her mad gallop down hill ; and how they rippled 
 and murmured, and complained whenever a big stone crossed 
 their path and made them turn to one side or the other, or, 
 worst of all, go over it; murmurs and complaints both 
 ceasing when the last happy rush incorporated them into 
 their noisy parent. 
 
 Yerily that boulder was a seat for a contemplative mind ; 
 it was a spot where one ought to be alone, and where a busy 
 brain might weave fancy after fancy, and compose any 
 number of unreadable verses. 
 
 We made a guess at the origin of the cascade, and proved 
 right. The whirlpool pointed out to us communicates, it is 
 believed, by a funnel with underground passages, and these 
 in fine weather form the sole exit of the lake ; during 
 westerly winds, as I have before said, this is supplemented 
 by the waters driven over the reef. 
 
 In going back we learnt a little about what concentrated 
 wind can do. There was not much of it outside, as we 
 found out, but in the chasm it was howling down at a terrific 
 rate, blowing so hard that once or twice it was as much as 
 one could do to make way against it. While struggling up 
 it was almost impossible to resist a sort of doubt as to the 
 soundness of the reef ahead, and the awkward thought 
 would occur, " How if it gave way just now T 
 
 Looking at such a formation one can understand how have
 
 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 197 
 
 originated some of the inundations, historical and pro-histori- 
 cal, which have left their marks so plainly on the face of the 
 earth. Suppose an earthquake, or a few pounds of nitro- 
 glycerine j udiciously applied to the eighteen or twenty-one 
 feet of rock between the lake and the gully ; there would at 
 once be an opening through which would rush a body of 
 water some sixty or seventy square miles in area, and fifteen 
 or more feet in depth. Should such a catastrophe ever 
 occur, there is no doubt that the bar of the Wairoa would 
 disappear ; but then the whole district would go as well. 
 
 By the time we stood again on the reef the waves had 
 encroached upon it certainly a foot, a presage of what was 
 certain to happen in case of a continuance of the westerly 
 weather, and of this there seemed every chance ; black clouds 
 were gathering over the mountain tops, and nature's baro- 
 meter pointed to " decidedly stormy." 
 
 Onepoto was a very pleasant place to spend a week at in 
 fine weather ; we could have sailed, or rather paddled, round 
 the lake and poked about in and out of the various arms, 
 seen the Aniwaniwa falls, &c. ; but the prospect of a week's 
 rain in this high region, with the certainty of being jammed 
 by the rivers for a week more was not lively. So, warned 
 by the ominous look of the skies we started off that same 
 afternoon, and not a bit too soon. The next day it camo 
 down heavily ; even at Te Kapu all communication with 
 Wairoa was cut off by the swelling of an unbridged creek, 
 and it was four or five days before wo could start for 
 Napier. 
 
 I once asked a native what sort of road it was from 
 Napier to Wairoa ; he described it simply by holding up 
 one hand with the fingers outstretched and running the fore- 
 finger of the other hand up and down them, and we found 
 his description correct. Lofty ranges, on the summit of 
 which crops out a hard shelly conglomerate, and deep glens
 
 198 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI 
 
 constitute the character of the country. On the first day's 
 journey a pretty spot was passed where the Mohaka river 
 has furrowed its way through a fairish sized plateau, pre- 
 serving here the dangerous character it has acquired higher 
 up on the Taupo road, and rendered additionally dangerous 
 by the nature of the cliff, " Papa " rock. 
 
 Notwithstanding the nature of- the country, the horse 
 track is good, and a couple of days' riding brings a traveller 
 from Wairoa to Napier without distress to his steed.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 UP THE WEST COAST. 
 
 The reader who lias good-naturedly followed me in my 
 rambles about the East Coast must be by this time as tirod 
 of mountain scenery as I used to be after a continuous series of 
 climbs ; on this trip I can assure him he will find only one 
 hill over which to exercise his legs in imagination. 
 
 It was on a fine February morning that in company with 
 some friends I started off in Cobb's coach from Wellington, 
 and bowled along in comparative comfort on the smooth 
 Hutt road ; the water was just ruffled by a gentle breeze 
 which served to cool the temperature ; the hills enclosing the 
 bay, and which render it an almost perfect lake, were sharply 
 defined against the clear blue sky ; over the Hutt valley 
 hung a morning mist, destined to speedy dissolution ; and 
 the view northward was closed by the saddle-back of Riiuu- 
 taka, the hill of winds, which separates the Hutt from the 
 Wairarapa plains. In. our school-boy days we were taught 
 on Virgil's authority that Eolus dwelt in a cave : had the poet 
 lived in these times and visited New Zealand he would have 
 made the God's habitat on the top of a hill, and that hill 
 would have been Rimutaka. 
 
 At Ngahauranga, the road turns off to the left through a 
 gap in the hills, skirts the margin of the harbour of Porirua 
 on the West Coast, passes through the pretty defile of Horo- 
 kiwi, and rises to the summit of Paikakariki, up which \v<> 
 had to titko our only climb on this journey.
 
 200 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 From this there was a fine view of both sea and land ; to 
 the right ran a range of hills, and between them and the sea, 
 as far as the eye could reach, stretched out a long, level 
 strip of country, widening out as it extended northward ; to 
 the left lay the sea with hardly a ripple on its glassy surface, 
 while the island of Kapiti, only some fifteen miles off, ex- 
 hibited a succession of tints, as the rays of the sun struck 
 upon its dark rocks, brown fern, or green sward of grass. 
 
 The beaches on the East Coast used to appear dreary ; but 
 they were broken every twenty miles or so by hills. Here 
 we had to go seventy miles straight on end on the sand. 
 At first the sensation was very pleasant ; the driver shook 
 his reins, and away we went at full gallop over a beach so 
 hard and firm that we seemed to glide ; there was no shak- 
 ing, no perceptible motion ; it was delightful. Of course 
 this pace could not last for ever ; and after we had done 
 some fifteen miles it dawned upon us that the waves to the 
 left very much resembled each other ; that the sand hills on 
 the right exhibited but little variety, and that the beach ahead 
 always presented the same appearance. In fact, as Mark 
 Twain's friend observed, it was monotonous. There was a 
 change however occasionally, and that was when we got into 
 deep sand, and had to work our passage by walking at the 
 coachman's request. I don't know which of the two was the 
 most tiresome. 
 
 On we went over the everlasting sand, the only variety 
 being an occasional turn inland to change horses or pick 
 up mails ; thus we stopped at "Waikanae and Otaki, two 
 native kaingas ; the latter, the great place of the Church 
 missionaries in New Zealand where, whatever other results 
 may have been achieved, the morality of the resident 
 Maories, according to common report, has not been much im- 
 proved. At last, weary and stiff, we were not sorry to pull up 
 for the night at Foxton.
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 201 
 
 Day-break saw us off once more over the same kind of 
 monotonous beach which made one quite sympathise with the 
 Walrus in "Alice through the looking-glass," when he ex- 
 pressed a wish to see a clean sweep made of the sea-side 
 sand ; and near the llangitikei river, we joyfully turned in- 
 land for good. 
 
 With sand-hills circumscribing the view it is not possible 
 to give any account of what lies beyond them, but on rising 
 up the plateau on the right bank of the llangitikei we could 
 see that, inland of those we had had on our right hand, there 
 was a fine expanse of country, for the most part awaiting occu- 
 pants. It is hoped these will ere long make their appearance, 
 whether under the auspices of the English emigration com- 
 pany which has purchased a large tract of land about here, 
 or under those of the province which is disposing by auction 
 of portions of its landed estate, and is also bent on adding to 
 it by purchase from native owners with a view to attracting 
 population. 
 
 We skirted the llangitikei for some miles, turned again 
 northwards along a good road traversing land under cultiva- 
 tion, passed through Marton and the pretty hollow of 
 Turakina, and on the evening of the second day from 
 Wellington clattered over the really fine bridge which now 
 spans the Whanganui river. 
 
 Were it not for the sand hills which bound one end of 
 the town and which rise up in its centre, Whanganui would 
 be a pretty place. It lies in the hollow scooped out by the 
 river of the same name, whose alluvial deposit lias produced 
 a marvellous loam ; a walking stick can be pushed down to 
 its full extent by the merest pressure, and it need scarcely 
 be said that such soil will grow anything. The town is 
 neatly laid out at right angles, and is embellished, or dis- 
 figui-ed (whichever is the proper term), by a statue to the 
 memory of the loyal natives who fell at the fight of Moutoa,
 
 202 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MA011I LANDS. 
 
 and by a Court House in the Novo-Zealandico style of 
 architecture. 
 
 The Whanganui river takes its rise in the interior ranges 
 close to the foot of Ruapehu, and for miles traverses a 
 broken and difficult country which stands to the West Coast 
 in the same relation that the glens of the Uriwera do to the 
 East Coast. Precipitous cliffs and numerous rapids, as many as 
 180 of the latter having been counted, are the characteristics 
 of the upper portion of the river, while lower down it passes 
 through a less rugged region. It was on its banks at Pipi- 
 riki that a hostile force besieged and reduced to great stiuits 
 a small European garrison ; and on Moutoa, an island in its 
 bed, a fierce conflict took place between friendly and inimical 
 natives in which the former were victorious. The Maori 
 population on its shores cannot now be estimated at above 
 1500 or 2000 souls ; those on the upper waters having only 
 lately abandoned their enmity to the Europeans, while those 
 of the lower part have for years proved true and staunch 
 friends, one of their highest chiefs, Major Kepa te Rangi- 
 hiwinui, being one of the loyal natives to whom Her 
 Majesty has presented a sword of honour. 
 
 During our stay at Whan ganui much discussion was afoot 
 respecting an alleged gold-field at Tuhua, a region about the 
 sources of the Whanganui, and some chiefs of note were in 
 town about it. One of them, Te Mamaku, was a fine 
 specimen of the Maori of old times. He must have been an 
 immensely powerful man in his youth, and now he was as 
 upright as a dart. When young, few warriors had dis- 
 tinguished themselves above him ; and that was a time when 
 any one who cared at all about fighting need not go very far 
 to enjoy the pastime. If there was nothing going on be- 
 tween the Europeans and the natives, the latter could always 
 got up a very fair excuse for coming to blows among them- 
 selves ; for instance, a war broke out once between two
 
 PAKEIiA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 203 
 
 sections of the Ngapuhi, north of Auckland, caused simply 
 by one young girl cussing the tribe of another while both 
 were bathing. In many encounters, both intertribal and 
 against the early settlors, Te Mamaku had been engaged ; but 
 now in his old age thoughts of peace and quiet had stolen 
 upon him, and the proposed exploration of Tuhua with a 
 view to ascertaining its auriferous qualities met with his ap- 
 proval in his capacity as one of the leading chiefs of the 
 district. According to the accounts of his followers, the field 
 is rich ; but how far their statements are to be relied upon 
 remains yet to be proved. 
 
 From Whanganui we started in a light trcip, and at the out- 
 skirts of the town a rise took us out of the valley on to the 
 plateau through which the river has ploughed its way. 
 
 Presently we passed Westmerc and its ponds, and getting 
 011 to a good metalled road, we drove along with well-kept 
 paddocks to either hand. A short distance ahead was a bluff 
 overlooking the Kai Iwi river, and nearly down to this came 
 the bush, formerly the haunt of Tito Kowaru's men when in 
 rebellion. Away to the left lay the sea, and to the right 
 numerous Comfortable houses had taken the place of those 
 burnt by the Hau-Haus in 18G9, or marked the spots where 
 fresh settlers had set up their lares and penates. 
 
 The characteristics of the coast commenced now to shew 
 themselves. It is a strip of magnificent land averaging about 
 six to eight miles in width from the sand-hills on the beach 
 to the bush inland, and we could now perceive that this 
 latter was really very broken country, though none of tho 
 hills compared in height with those of the Uriwera. Issuing 
 from the bush, a number of streams ran down to the sea 
 furrowing the plain in their course, and forming most pictu- 
 resque ravines, some of them being of a decent depth ; tho 
 rivers fresh rapidly and considerably, but we did not hear 
 of their overflowing the banks. One, clement in tho scenery
 
 204 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 is not to be passed ovei*. Soon after reaching the plateau 
 overlooking Whanganui a hnge white mass far inland forcibly 
 arrested the attention ; we knew it at once ; it was our old 
 friend Ruapehu. But right ahead also was another moun- 
 tain, and of this the eye never tired. ' There is only one other 
 that I have seen in the world which can compare with it in 
 beauty of outline, although at the, same time exceeding it 
 far in size, and that is the " Fiuster Aarhorn" in the Ber- 
 nese Oberland. But the Piaster forms part of a chain, 
 while Mount Egmont is solitary in its grandeur. Seen from 
 where we were, it sweeps magnificently up from both sea 
 and land, the outline as clear and sharp against the sky as 
 the edge of a knife ; gradually it rises, shooting up a bare 
 mass from the dense forest which clothes the base, and end- 
 ing in a peak never quite free of snow. When we saw it this 
 time, this only lay in streaks in the ravines grooved along 
 the flanks, but in winter it extends far down. At a later 
 period in the journey a light mist rose aboiit half-way up 
 the cone, yet not dense enough to prevent the eye from trac- 
 ing the graceful contour, while a cumulus cloud hovered 
 around the summit, keeping on the northern side, and 
 presenting the appearance of a huge volume of white smoke 
 rolling lazily out of the mouth of an active volcano. It was 
 a glorious sight. 
 
 Maori tradition relates that Taranaki, as the natives call 
 Mount Egmont, once lived with his brother Ruapehu and 
 his sister Tongariro in comfortable family union on the 
 shores of Taupo. Dissensions will occur, even in the best 
 regulated families ; and in that which ensued in this remark- 
 able household, Tongariro and Ruapehu sided together 
 against Egmont ; so the latter, in disgust at their behaviour, 
 started off determined to commit suicide by throwing him- 
 Keif into the sea. He did not time his journey very well, 
 and so it was getting dark before he reached the coast ; such
 
 fAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 205 
 
 was hi.s eagerness however, that he went blundering on, and, 
 in trying to get past between two hills, which now apj>ear to 
 belong to him, he stuck fast. There he now remains, with the 
 whole country to himself and no one to bother him, except 
 when some sacrilegious European insists upon climbing up to 
 ,see what his head is made of. 
 
 We travelled along a capital road, such a one as Wai- 
 kato settlers would give anything to have between Mercer 
 and Ngaruawahia, which dipped into ravines through which 
 flowed streams, running at present with only a scanty supply 
 of water ; then at other times rose by sidings cut through 
 bits of bush and following the windings of picturesquely 
 wooded gullies, and again ran straight along level plateaux. 
 On one of these we passed by Taurangaika, the stronghold 
 for a length of time occupied by Tito Kowaru and his 
 Hau-Hau band, whence his men, mounted as well as on foot, 
 were wont to sally and roam unmolested over ground which 
 now affords pasture in safety to flocks of sheep and herds of 
 fat cattle. We were now going through country which had 
 known desolation ; abandoned to the enemy in 1869 by the 
 concentration of the colonial troops on the line of the Kai 
 Iwi river (which we crossed a few miles out of Whangamii), 
 not a European could ride about it and live ; and soon after 
 the retreat of the forces the elated natives pushed their 
 parties well ahead, and nightly fires seen from the camps 
 denoted the destruction of homestead after homestead ; nay, 
 alarms were frequent in the town itself. Communication 
 with the Patea district was cut off, and no convoy to that 
 post could pass without a strong escort. It was while on 
 one of these that I saw what effect a long range bullet may 
 have. We had just been relieved as skirmishers and were 
 trudging down to Nukumaru camp for dinner through a 
 small gully, when one of my men suddenly fell ; we could 
 not imagine him wounded, for besides that we were under
 
 206 PAKEIIA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 shelter, the nearest Hau-Hans could not have been less than 
 a mile off. Yet the poor fellow was hit by a stray bullet, 
 fired at a high angle, which had dropped down on his skull. 
 Times were now changed ; the veiy pa, which had been a 
 model of Maori fortification, was a mere heap of earth undis- 
 tinguishable by a stranger ; an hotel stood close to where 
 o\\v men used to have to keep well' under shelter during the 
 attack on the pa, and all sign of strife had disappeared. 
 
 Not far to the left, by some lagoons, was Nukumnru, a 
 spot where General Cameron's camp was boldly attacked by 
 a small party of King natives, who indeed got pretty close 
 to the General's tent and did a considerable deal of mischief 
 before being driven back. 
 
 Not long after leaving Taurangaika a fairish descent brought 
 us to the bank of the Waitotai'a river, crossed here by a punt ; 
 and, a little way up stream, a telegi-aph post on a bluff denoted 
 the locale of the Wereroa redoubt taken, when a hostile 
 pa, by Sir George Grey and the colonials, afterwards held by 
 a party of Whanganui lads against Tito's men, and now 
 merely a crumbling mass of earth. 
 
 Punted across, we found, situated not far from the spot 
 where some of our men were tomahawked in 18 09 while 
 gathering fruit in a peach-grove, one of the most comfortable 
 little hotels that it has been my lot to come across while 
 travelling in the North Island, and we also picked up an 
 incident of Maori character. While at luncheon we saw a 
 very respectably dressed native about the place, and learned 
 about him the following particulars. He had been in 
 rebellion and had surrendered ; but on giving himself up 
 he found that all his ancestral land had been confiscated, 
 and that there was none of it left for him to occupy : this 
 so preyed xipon him that he quite lost his mind and wandered 
 about the mountains, a perfect lunatic. Now, had he 
 happened to conic across a European while in thia state,
 
 PAKEIIA IIAMIH.ES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 207 
 
 there was every chance lie would have thought it his duty 
 to take "utu" ami slay his man, and thence might ha\.- 
 arisen further bloodshed. But his state became known 
 to the landlord, who had bought from the Govern- 
 ment part of the unfortunate fellow's original estate : he 
 sent a party of natives after him, got him in, gave him a 
 bit of the land which he coveted ; and the man is now clothed 
 and in his right mind, living with his people in peifect 
 content at a little kaiiu/(t they have built not far down 
 the stream. A stray fact or two like this gives an insight 
 into Maori ideas so far as the love of the soil is concerned, 
 and shews the intensely passionate feeling with which the 
 native clings to his ancestral patrimony. 
 
 The Waitotara liver forms the southern boundary of the 
 territory which, confiscated in 18G4 for the rebellion of its 
 owners, lias yet only been partially taken possession of. Its 
 original owners clung to the soil ; driven from their habita- 
 tions on the coast they took refuge on the outskirts of the 
 bush, and, as they were pressed, retreated further and further 
 into its recesses, only to issue out again on every possible op- 
 portunity, till in 1868, they achieved success so far as to 
 push us back almost to Whanganui itself. Of course this did not 
 last, and the West Coast tribes were once more driven from 
 place to place, till their confederacy was broken up, and only a 
 small remnant was left which has taken up its abode on the 
 flanks of Mount Egmont, and contents itself with preserv- 
 ing a peaceful though sullen attitude. Notwithstanding this, 
 these very natives have been found willing to take work, 
 and they have by their labour assisted in making the road 
 skirting the coast which forms the highway from Whangamii 
 to Taranaki. 
 
 The whole of the open land extending from the Waitotara 
 to New Plymouth has been a battle-field on which Imperial 
 and Colonial soldiers have time after time met, both in
 
 208 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 attack and defence, a foe whom they soon learned not to 
 despise : almost every mile of road brings the traveller to the 
 scene of some ambush or skirmish ; and at frequent inter- 
 vals are pointed out spots memorable for genuine successes 
 on our part, for doubtful victories, or for palpable defeats. 
 
 After leaving the Waitotara hotel there was not nnich 
 sign of cultivation till we got to Wairoa, but here was 
 found a military township with the best of all signs, a redoubt 
 and blockhouse tumbling to pieces, and a new church built 
 opposite to them. And this was close to the bush out of 
 which in 1868 our men were followed out into the open by 
 the Hau-Haus who had inflicted on us a heavy defeat at our 
 attack on their pa at Moturoa ; now the only distinguishable 
 sign of warfare was the " ping, ping" to be heard to the left 
 where the district volunteers were competing for prizes. 
 
 From Wairoa it is no great distance to the Whenuakura, 
 a nasty, deep-banked, heavy-freshing sti'eam, presently to be 
 bridged ; and after being punted across, we got upon a bit of 
 picked land, which has since our visit been sold by Govern- 
 ment and has realised prices which prove its value. 
 
 It was quite refreshing, after passing over such large 
 tracts on the East Coast all locked up and utterly useless at 
 present, to find at last a quantity of land ready for the 
 market, of such quality and situation as to ensure the for- 
 mation of a prosperous settlement. 
 
 Patea was our kainga moe* that night, and we had here an 
 exemplification of the wisdom of military engineers who, in 
 despite of the Biblical aphorism, did found their town upon 
 a sand-hill ; and this in a region which is evidently a 
 favourite of the winds. The settlers have moved the town- 
 ship higher up, and no wonder ; for the sand storms used to 
 l>e something dreadful, and a general grittiness was wont to 
 pervade everything one ate, drank or smelt. The Patea is 
 * Kainga moe sleeping place.
 
 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. ' 209 
 
 a fair sized river, but possesses a peculiarly nasty bar, the 
 channel making a bend right among the breakers ; possibly 
 this may be amended, and the mouth of the liver has been 
 surveyed with a view to future dredging and improvement 
 of the entrance. 
 
 The township now occupies the position of the old camp, 
 and, before starting the next morning, I strolled up a small 
 rise on which, behind parapets, used to stand my quarters. 
 From this a fair view was obtained for a good many miles 
 of the inland country rising gradually up to the edge of the 
 bush, and constant used to be the watch for fires or any 
 signs betokening the presence of the enemy who could move 
 lip or down the coast, sheltered by the forest from our ob- 
 servation, issue out secretly at any point and lay ambus- 
 cades for convoys or chance travellers. For some short 
 distance after leaving Carlyle as the place is called the 
 soil is sandy and poor, but about Kakaramea (another 
 redoubt in ruins) it once more resumes its fertile character, 
 and this it keeps for miles and miles. There is rich 
 land lying here in a state of nature, calculated to maintain 
 a population of thousands ; and, that it will do so eventu- 
 ally, there can be no doubt; the climate is good, there 
 is abundance of water, the biish is close at hand, the 
 soil I have already spoken of, and the scenery is glorious ; 
 for \ve are getting nearer and nearer to Egmont, and still the 
 mountain preserves the same regular and sublime outline : 
 the road is really capital, and the bridges thrown across the 
 streams which flow through the picturesque ravines grooved 
 into the flat are substantial. 
 
 In the cuttings down to the Manawapou and Tangahoe 
 rivers can be seen slender streaks of lignite, possible indica 
 tions of a rumoured coal bed in the interior ; but of this 
 latter part of the country there is but little known, except 
 that it is heavily Imshed and very rugged in parts, \sj.ile
 
 210 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 portions exist of an undulating character whicli will at some 
 future day be eagerly taken up for settlement. 
 
 Some twenty miles from Patea we came to the small town- 
 ship of Hawera. All along WG had been pleased with the 
 nature of the country, but here we could not help agreeing 
 with two intending settlers on the look-out for land whom 
 we had met off and on while travelling up " By George," 
 said one of them " this is the place for me." And he spoko 
 with good reason. A native I met at Hawera informed me 
 that in former days he had known ten successive crops of 
 wheat taken off the same spot of ground. Not far from 
 Hawera are situated extensive reservations made for the 
 returned rebels of the West Coast. One of the hujtn-s 
 (sub-tribe) the Pakakohe became prisoners almost to 
 a man, were tried, and performed their sentence in Dunediu 
 jail. It was a pretty salutary punishment; they wore 
 pardoned at the end of a couple of years, and returned 
 to their relations in splendid condition, with the advantage 
 of having picked np a fair share of English and learned 
 discipline. Some of the reserves made for them they have 
 leased to Europeans, and on others they have established 
 themselves, setting to work in a way whicli proves their 
 belief in the old Maori proverb, Eliarci te toa taua, he ton 
 jxihekeheke ; tena ko te toa mahi kai, ekore e palwke. [He who 
 is stixnig in war is likely to slip ; but he who is strong in 
 cultivating, he will not slip.] The example they afford 
 to their still discontented relatives some miles further 
 north will probably have a salutary effect. 
 
 About four miles from Hawera lies the frontier constabu- 
 lary station of Waihi ; a really well planned and splendidly 
 built stockade whicli it would puzzle a European force to 
 capture without artillery ; for it combines with oiir views of 
 fortification, all the ingenious ideas introduced in defence by 
 the Maori, who has proved himself to be no moan engineer)
 
 PAKEIIA HAMBLKS THUOUG1I MAOKI LANKS. I'll 
 
 Within sight from the elevated wutclitower situated at one 
 of the angles of the stockade is the. old redoubt of Turu- 
 turu-mokai, where poor Ross was surprised in 1SGS and 
 killed with most of his people, and where some three or 
 four men resolutely held one angle against all that the 
 natives could do until relief came. Now one of them was 
 occupying in perfect tranquillity a farm close by the scene of 
 his exploit, and around him population was gradually cm-p- 
 ing up and fencing in old sites of strife and bloodshed ; in 
 short, security had replaced danger. 
 
 It was from Waihi that General Chute, and subsequently 
 a colonial force also, started for a march to Taranaki through 
 
 ' O 
 
 the dense bush clothing the eastern base of the mountain. 
 Taking pack horses iVc. with him, the General had a good 
 deal of difficulty in getting through in about nine days ; the 
 more lightly equipped colonials, carrying all their ba t u- 
 themselves, managed it in four days, during which not a 
 single clearing Avas found. As in other parts of the Island, 
 so here roads are replacing the eld bush tracks which used to 
 form the only means of communication ; and similarly as on 
 the East Coast former rebels are to be found industriously 
 employed on road-works, so here also the very tribes who 
 fought against us are employed in cutting a track through the 
 forest at the back of the mountain ; in reality they are com- 
 pleting what was begun some forty years ago, at (he instiga- 
 tion of Europeans, by the grandfather of the chief wh<>M; 
 tribe is engaged in the work. The advantage of such a lino 
 to the West Coast is obvious ; it shortens by forty miles the 
 distance between Waihi and the \Vaitara river, runs over 
 level country clad with bush which, though thick, is of a 
 nature to be easily cleared, and passes over very rich soil. 
 Some day an open plain will exist where nought but forest is 
 now to be found, and the whistle of the engine will replace the 
 groanings and creaking* of branches, bending before the g.-.df,
 
 212 PAKEHA RAMBLES THROUGH MAORI LANDS. 
 
 first northward river met after leaving Hawera 
 possesses a name euphonious enough when issuing from a 
 native's mouth, but barbarously harsh as it \ised to be pro- 
 nounced by the British soldier who sounded the " g " hard : 
 in Waingongoro, ' snoring water,' the " ng " is nasal. 
 
 Beyond this, settlement has not yet extended and a large 
 expanse of country exists, all of it splendid land, stretching 
 as far as the Hangatahua river, over which the progress of 
 colonization is evinced by only two indications, the high 
 road, and the small township of Opunake. Once across 
 the Hangatahua the traveller finds himself again in civilised 
 regions. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 I'tttKTJil) BY KOJSKKT BVRRETT, MOLESWOIUI1 IjlIUSET, WKLL1.NUTOK.