Pioneering Reminiscences of Old Wairoa
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When the old Maori runner whose name, even, has been forgotten, gained his breath, he told a story that for a time was disbelieved by many. Then gradually even in the minds of the local military men and the volunteers it was realized that the old Maori's tale was no foundationless war scare, but a reality testified to by the corpses laid out in the village by the sea, and the moana breaking on the rugged coast close by was singing a dirge for those who had so suddenly departed for the Reinga, the fabled abode of the Maori spirits.