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            <date when="1951">1951</date>
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            <figDesc>Spine</figDesc>
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            <figDesc>Title Page</figDesc>
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            <head>
              <add>Dr. G. H. Scholefield<lb/>
from<lb/>
R. T. Kohere<lb/>
<hi rend="u">East Cape</hi></add>
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          <l>
            <hi rend="c">The Autobiography</hi>
          </l>
          <l>
            <hi rend="c">of a Maori</hi>
          </l>
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      <div xml:id="t1-front-d4" type="section">
        <p>Also by <name type="person" key="name-208422">Reweti T. Kohere</name>:</p>
        <list>
          <item>
            <p>
              <hi rend="i">
                <name key="name-150140" type="work">The Story of a Maori Chief</name>
              </hi>
            </p>
          </item>
          <item>
            <p>
              <hi rend="i">Maori Proverbs and Sayings</hi>
            </p>
          </item>
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            <hi rend="c">The<lb/>Autobiography<lb/>of a Maori</hi>
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        </docTitle>
        <byline>by<lb/><docAuthor><name type="person" key="name-208422"><hi rend="c">Reweti T. Kohere</hi></name></docAuthor></byline>
        <docImprint>
          <pubPlace>
            <hi rend="c">Wellington</hi>
          </pubPlace>
          <lb/>
          <publisher>
            <hi rend="c">A. H. &amp; A. W. Reed</hi>
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          <l>First published September, 1951</l>
          <l>
            <hi rend="c">A. H. &amp; A. W. Reed</hi>
          </l>
          <l>182 Wakefield Street</l>
          <l>Wellington</l>
        </lg>
        <lg rend="center">
          <l>Published with the aid of the</l>
          <l>New Zealand State Literary Fund.</l>
        </lg>
        <lg rend="center">
          <l>
            <hi rend="i">Printed by</hi>
          </l>
          <l>
            <hi rend="i">Wright &amp; Carman Ltd., Wellington</hi>
          </l>
        </lg>
      </div>
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      <div xml:id="t1-front-d6" type="dedication">
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          <l>
            <hi rend="c">To my Wife</hi>
          </l>
          <l>sharer in all my joys and sorrows,</l>
          <l>in all my triumphs and set-backs,</l>
          <l>I affectionately dedicate this book</l>
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      <pb xml:id="n10"/>
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          <hi rend="c">Contents</hi>
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                <ref target="#n15">
                  <hi rend="sc">Introduction</hi>
                </ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n15">page 11</ref>
              </cell>
            </row>
            <row>
              <cell cols="2">
                <ref target="#n17">
                  <hi rend="sc">Acknowledgments</hi>
                </ref>
              </cell>
              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n17">13</ref>
              </cell>
            </row>
            <row>
              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n19">I</ref>
              </cell>
              <cell>
                <ref target="#n19">— <hi rend="sc">Early Years at Orutua</hi></ref>
              </cell>
              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n19">15</ref>
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            <row>
              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n27">II</ref>
              </cell>
              <cell>
                <ref target="#n27">— <hi rend="sc">Early Years at Te Araroa</hi></ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n27">23</ref>
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                <ref target="#n57">III</ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n57">49</ref>
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                <ref target="#n71">IV</ref>
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                <ref target="#n71">— <hi rend="sc">At Te Aute College</hi></ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n71">63</ref>
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                <ref target="#n98">V</ref>
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                <ref target="#n98">— <hi rend="sc">At Canterbury College</hi></ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n98">86</ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n106">VI</ref>
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                <ref target="#n106">— <hi rend="sc">At Te Rau College</hi></ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n106">94</ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n115">VII</ref>
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              <cell>
                <ref target="#n115">— <hi rend="sc">Life at East Cape</hi></ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n115">101</ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n148">VIII</ref>
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              <cell>
                <ref target="#n148">— <hi rend="sc">Stray Reminiscences</hi></ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n148">132</ref>
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          <hi rend="c">Illustrations</hi>
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              <cell>
                <ref target="#KohAutoP001a">Early photograph of Te Araroa</ref>
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                <ref target="#n36">facing page 32</ref>
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                <ref target="#KohAutoP002a">Mrs. R. T. Kohere and eldest daughter</ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n39">33</ref>
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              <cell>
                <ref target="#KohAutoP002b">Mrs. Peni Hakiwai and son</ref>
              </cell>
              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n39">33</ref>
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            <row>
              <cell>
                <ref target="#KohAutoP003a">Archdeacon Samuel Williams, Mrs. Williams and friends</ref>
              </cell>
              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n54">48</ref>
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              <cell>
                <ref target="#KohAutoP004a">Archdeacon Williams's house, Te Aute</ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n57">49</ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n57">49</ref>
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            <row>
              <cell>
                <ref target="#KohAutoP005a">Mr. J. Thornton, Mrs. Thornton and Mr. Webb</ref>
              </cell>
              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n72">64</ref>
              </cell>
            </row>
            <row>
              <cell>
                <ref target="#KohAutoP006a">Canon A. F. and Mrs. Williams</ref>
              </cell>
              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n75">65</ref>
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                <ref target="#KohAutoP006b">A group of old Thornton boys</ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n75">65</ref>
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              <cell>
                <ref target="#KohAutoP007a">The author in Maori garments</ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n90">80</ref>
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              <cell>
                <ref target="#KohAutoP007b">The author as an undergraduate</ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n90">80</ref>
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            </row>
            <row>
              <cell>
                <ref target="#KohAutoP008a">A group of <name key="name-124459" type="organisation">Canterbury University College</name> students</ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n93">81</ref>
              </cell>
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              <cell>
                <ref target="#KohAutoP008b">First Matakaoa County Council</ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n93">81</ref>
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            <row>
              <cell>
                <ref target="#KohAutoP011a">Rangiata, East Cape home of the author</ref>
              </cell>
              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n108">96</ref>
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            <row>
              <cell>
                <ref target="#KohAutoP012a">Mrs. Kohere and family</ref>
              </cell>
              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n111">97</ref>
              </cell>
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            <row>
              <cell>
                <ref target="#KohAutoP012b">Mrs. Roha Huriwai</ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n111">97</ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n126">112</ref>
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                <ref target="#KohAutoP009b">The family at home</ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n126">112</ref>
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                <ref target="#KohAutoP010a">Rotorua sight-seeing by coach</ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n129">113</ref>
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              <cell>
                <ref target="#KohAutoP010b">Poverty Bay group of Maoris</ref>
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              <cell rend="right">
                <ref target="#n129">113</ref>
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      <pb xml:id="n14"/>
      <pb xml:id="n15"/>
      <div xml:id="t1-front-d9" type="introduction">
        <head>
          <hi rend="c">Introduction</hi>
        </head>
        <p><hi rend="sc">It is a saying</hi> of the <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou Tribe</name>, "He ahiahi whatiwhati kaheru," literally, "It's evening that breaks the spade." Workers in the field, on the approach of evening, put on a spurt, in order to finish the work before dark. It occurs to me that the saying is an apt description of my efforts to write books on the approach of the evening of my life. In truth, it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.</p>
        <p>I have lived a long and varied life, consequently this volume is also long and varied in its contents. In <hi rend="i"><name key="name-150140" type="work">The Story of a Maori Chief</name></hi>, I describe the life of a chief who emerged from savagery to occupy a seat in the Legislative Council; in the following pages, I describe the life of a Maori boy, ignorant of the outside world, to become, as a young man, an undergraduate in the university, and, later in life, to live his old age in a very isolated spot, there to divide his time between gardening and writing.</p>
        <p>I express regret that owing to restrictions the Autobiography is not a full record of my life; for instance although I have been a member of a local body for over thirty years, there is no reference to that phase of my life. After reading the proofs, I find that in writing an autobiography, one may lay oneself open to a charge of egotism. Be that as it may, my main purpose is to show my people that one can live a happy life under the most adverse circumstances and if the telling of my story is not couched in happy terms, the fault is that I have not learned the art of simulation.</p>
        <closer>
          <signed rend="right">—<name key="name-208422" type="person">R.T.K.</name></signed>
          <address>
            <addrLine>Rangiata, East Cape.</addrLine>
          </address>
          <lb/>
          <date when="1951">1951.</date>
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      <pb xml:id="n16"/>
      <pb xml:id="n17"/>
      <div xml:id="t1-front-d10" type="acknowledgments">
        <head>
          <hi rend="c">Acknowledgments</hi>
        </head>
        <p><hi rend="sc">I wish</hi> once more to express, as I did in regard to the publication of <hi rend="i"><name key="name-150140" type="work">The Story of a Maori Chief</name></hi>, my thanks to the State Literary Fund Advisory Committee for their aid in the publication of <hi rend="i"><name key="name-405405" type="work">The Autobiography of a Maori</name>.</hi> Were it not for that aid my effort to write in a foreign tongue would have been frustrated. And, although I am well on in years, I live in hopes that my next manuscript, <hi rend="i">Thornton of Te Aute</hi>, will also be published. I have spent much time and thought in the production of the manuscript and I think that it will be appreciated by the people.</p>
        <p>I wish also to tender my thanks to the publishers, Messrs <name key="name-209055" type="person">A. H.</name> and <name type="person" key="name-209054">A. W. Reed</name>, for their sympathetic co-operation. I feel that their interest in the publication of my books is more than that of business—it's personal. I must not forget to express also my thanks to the printers, Messrs. Wright and Carman Ltd.</p>
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      <div xml:id="t1-body-d1" type="chapter">
        <head>Chapter I<lb/><hi rend="i"><hi rend="c">Early Years at Orutua</hi></hi></head>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d1-d1" type="section">
          <p><hi rend="sc">I was born at Orutua</hi>, near <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>, on April 11th, 1871, in the open air and under a peach tree, as <name key="name-207604" type="person">Timi Kara</name><note xml:id="fn1-15" n="1"><p>Sir James Carroll.</p></note> was, so it is said, under a cabbage tree. My father and mother, in order to be near their kumara cultivation and to save my mother a long walk, were camping out when I first saw the light.</p>
          <p>The Orutua valley was then closed in by wooded hills on three sides, open to the Pacific Ocean on one and in the middle of it, fed by several mountain torrents, the Orutua winds its sluggish course to the sea. A bar of papa rocks stretches across the mouth of the river, holding back the water and turning it into a strip of a lake. Both banks of the river were lined with large and gnarled pohutukawa trees, which when in flower enhanced the beauty of a beautiful valley.</p>
          <p>Not a week ago I had crossed the Orutua. Piled up along the beaches were logs of all sizes, brought down by flood, and boulders and debris hurled over the rocky bar by the force of flood waters had filled up the space between the bar and the sea. I noticed with deep regret that the beautiful pohutukawa which grew on the left bank of the river near its mouth, and others further up, had wholly disappeared, torn up from their roots by the weight of the logs piled up against them by the flood. All my life, I had known these trees, and one of them I had particular reason to remember. Now, my trees are gone—gone for ever. They were strewn on the beach, like dead soldiers on a battlefield.</p>
          <pb xml:id="n20" n="16"/>
          <p>Here in this valley I was born, and here I spent the earliest days of my life.</p>
          <p>Before I write down my recollections of this period of my life, first, I should explain why my people came to <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name> and later to Horoera and Orutua. This would naturally necessitate a brief sketch of my leading forbears and events which occurred before I was born.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d1-d2" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Hauhau Troubles on the East Coast</hi>
          </head>
          <p>My mother, <name type="person" key="name-101493">Henarata Pereto</name>, belonged to Horoera, and my father, <name type="person" key="name-101454">Hone Hiki</name>, was one of a large family, and the eldest child of <name type="person" key="name-110504">Mokena Kohere</name>, a chief of the <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> tribe, who in 1865 led the friendly Maoris against the Hauhaus. After the brutal murder of the <name type="person" key="name-209539">Rev. Carl Volkner</name> at Opotiki, the Hauhaus, led by emissaries from Taranaki, made their way towards <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>, drawing in sub-tribes as they went along. At Mangaone stream, near Tikitiki in the Waiapu valley, they met with resistance, chiefly at the hands of the Aowera sub-tribe, who inhabited the district at the foot of <name key="name-400896" type="place">Mount Hikurangi</name>. Armed as they were with primitive weapons, the Aowera suffered at the hands of the rebels, losing amongst others two of their chiefs, <name type="person" key="name-100554">Henare Nihoniho</name> and Makoare. Elated with their success, the Hauhaus occupied Pukemaire, the tableland above Tikitiki.</p>
          <p>Here sub-tribes who sympathised with the Hauhau movement came to swell its number. Wai-o-Matatini, just across the Waiapu river, had been the centre of the Kingite movement, and therefore readily threw in its lot with the rebels. <name key="name-101323" type="organisation">Ngati-Hokopu</name>, led by <name type="person" key="name-110504">Mokena Kohere</name>, alone remained loyal of the immediate sub-tribes. By sheer force of number, <name type="person" key="name-110504">Mokena Kohere</name> was driven towards the sea, and entrenched himself with a small garrison in the Hatepe pa. The chiefs <name key="name-101339" type="person">Wiki Matauru</name>, <name key="name-101405" type="person">Pine Tuhaka</name> and <name type="person" key="name-101406">Arapeta Haenga</name> joined <pb xml:id="n21" n="17"/>him. <name type="person" key="name-110504">Mokena Kohere</name> would have been crushed in Hatepe if white troops had not come to his relief. The Hauhaus were ousted from Pakairomiromi, then from Pukemaire, and took up their last stand at Hungahungatoroa, in the Karaka-tuwhero valley. <name type="person" key="name-110504">Mokena Kohere</name>, recognising that the position of the rebels was desperate, and taking pity on his fellow-tribesmen who were in the pa, pleaded with them to surrender and thereby to save themselves. On his second attempt to save the doomed rebels he succeeded. As his fellow-tribesmen trooped out their instigators from Taranaki, Waikato and the <name key="name-400542" type="place">Bay of Plenty</name> followed on their heels and slid down a steep bank and disappeared in the dense wood and so escaped.<note xml:id="fn2-17" n="1"><p>I give a more detailed account of the incident in <hi rend="i"><name key="name-150140" type="work">The Story of a Maori Chief</name></hi>.</p></note></p>
          <p>Mokena Kohere took upon himself to pardon the rebels, to resist confiscation of the <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> lands, a policy which has been proved to be wise and statesmanlike.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d1-d3" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Maori Soldiers were not Paid</hi>
          </head>
          <p>At the conclusion of the campaign on the East Coast there was a shortage of food and both rebels and friendlies suffered alike. It may be mentioned here that Maoris who fought for the Government were not paid anything. My grandfather and his family moved to Horoera where sea-food was plentiful. They later moved to Orutua, where my grandfather built a weatherboard house. My second birthday was a great event and people in hundreds attended the celebration at Orutua. The principal food eaten and enjoyed was what is called doughboy, that is, flour boiled and stirred in water and sweetened with sugar or wild honey. Potfuls of the preparation were poured out into canoes around which sat the guests, each armed with mussel and paua shells. My <pb xml:id="n22" n="18"/>grandfather made an occasion of my second birthday because I was the senior grandson in the family, or even the senior grandchild.</p>
          <p>My grandfather was the only one for miles around who owned a flock of sheep which had survived the war on the East Coast. The flock provided us and our neighbours with meat. It was my father's habit when he went round to look at the sheep, to put me on the back of a favourite horse while he led it. It was on one such occasion I had my first fall off a horse and my father was so anxious about me that he kept me in cold water until I suffered more from the cold than from the effects of the fall.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d1-d4" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Escaped Drowning</hi>
          </head>
          <p>When I was about four years old, I had a more serious fall which nearly terminated my young life. One of the pohutukawa trees I have already mentioned grew aslant over the Orutua. I climbed up this and fell into deep water. My young companion had sense enough to realise I was in mortal danger. He hurried into the house and, seeing my mother, began pulling her skirt; at the same time pointing towards the river. My mother instinctively gathered I was in trouble. She arrived just in time to save me, although there was grave doubt whether I would come round.</p>
          <p>People have often asked me the cause of the large scar on my right wrist. I was watching a man putting a rope round the neck of a new-born calf and, as the calf cried, its mother became very excited and kept running about. I ran into a shed and instead of standing on the flat ground, of course, I stood on a round log. As the cow became excited, I grew more excited and lost my balance and, in falling, I put out my right hand to support myself and put it on the broken bottom of a bottle. The broken bottle with its sharp edges stuck into my wrist. When my <pb xml:id="n23" n="19"/>mother pulled it out it left a nasty cut in my wrist. I remember honey was used as a remedy to heal the wound and it quickly healed.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d1-d5" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">My Dog Fights an Octopus</hi>
          </head>
          <p>I must relate the battle that was fought between my dog, Taake, and, of all enemies of a dog, a young octopus. (By the way, I have already written in the present volume two stories about octopuses) I had been sailing my little boat in a pool in the rocks when I saw an octopus in a small round pool. Its eyes were almost dropping out of its ugly head with fright. The creature looked so hideous that I felt a very strong repugnance to it. With delight I set my dog on to it. The dog seemed to share my animosity for the octopus, for it leaped on the enemy, his and mine. There was a battle royal and I was the sole eyewitness. As the octopus entwined the dog with its tentacles, the latter became more furious and began tearing the body of the octopus until the water of the pool became discoloured with matter from its torn body. Taake was conqueror, and he was lucky the octopus was no bigger than it was or it would have gone hard with him.</p>
          <p>My grandfather left for Wellington to take his seat in the Legislative Council in 1872. I was too young, of course, to remember the occasion of his departure. The Government steamer <hi rend="i">Luna</hi> picked him up, otherwise, I do not know how he could have got to Wellington. When I was a little older, I remember standing on the beach and gazing seawards at a small steamer coming in. The vessel was the <hi rend="i">Luna</hi>, bringing back my grandfather. The arrival of the boat always excited the people for it not only brought back my grandfather, but also, with him, a large quantity of flour, biscuits and sugar, much of which was given by the Government under <name type="person" key="name-208095">Sir George Grey</name>'s scheme.</p>
        </div>
        <pb xml:id="n24" n="20"/>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d1-d6" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Family Superstitions</hi>
          </head>
          <p>My family, for Maoris, were remarkably free from superstitions. My grandfather had one pet superstition, that was the itching of his nose. His nose led him.</p>
          <p>I was often told how my grandmother rebuffed my grandfather when making love to her because he was older than she, and, besides, she did not like his tattooed face. When grandfather waxed persistent in his advances, my grandmother thought her safety lay in flight; thereupon, without letting anybody know of her intention, she fled to some unknown spot where she could remain in hiding and unmolested. When my grandfather found out that his stubborn sweetheart had given him the slip he betook him to a tohunga who could cast a spell over the fugitive and so bring her back to him. My grandmother often related how she was caught in a whirlwind which turned her right round to the way in which she came and suddenly she felt her soul yearn for her despised lover.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d1-d7" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">The Love-sick Periwinkle</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Here I would introduce the legend of Te Aoputaputa<note xml:id="fn3-20" n="1"><p>In another version of the legend, <name type="person" key="name-405448">Te Aoputaputa</name> is called Taoputaputa. The former version is correct. Taoputaputa should be correctly written T' Aoputaputa, with the vowel "e" elided.</p></note> and Niho-makuru, although it is more than probable it has been recorded. For short, I would call the two Te Ao and Niho, quite a Maori custom to abbreviate names. Te Ao and Niho lived together in Titirangi pa, on the left bank of the Turanganui river. Te Ao grew up to be a pretty maiden and was admired by all the young men around. Niho was no exception to Te Ao's charms; on the contrary, he fostered the emotions of his heart and avowed his love for Te Ao quite openly. She, however, did not view things in the same light as did Niho. She could not encourage <pb xml:id="n25" n="21"/>him and she had to tell him to desist, but Niho persisted. Then Te Ao, in desperation fled to Opotiki, in the <name key="name-400542" type="place">Bay of Plenty</name>. Niho waited and waited for Te Ao to return, and, despairing of ever seeing her again, he descended the steep hill down to the beach below where he picked up a periwinkle. Into it he poured his love-sick soul and heart and bade it speed on its way with its message of love.</p>
          <p>The tide was good and women were diving for crayfish where the dainty crustaceans were usually found in large number. When the other women's kits bulged with crayfish, they left the water and warmed themselves with a fire on which had been thrown small crayfish. Meanwhile, Te Ao was desperately looking for crayfish for she dreaded going home with an empty kit, but not one could she find. Everywhere she looked even in caverns, where crayfish were usually found, the only object that met her eyes was a solitary periwinkle. To return home with an empty kit would be a disgrace and would form a lively topic for gossip. The tide was coming in fast and she had not a crayfish. She dived once more and, sure enough, the periwinkle was there. Disgusted and ashamed, she put it in her kit and waited for her companions to leave for home, lest they should see her empty kit. She walked slowly towards the fire and, pushing the sticks together, she threw the fateful periwinkle on the fire. As it became heated, it began to sing<note xml:id="fn4-21" n="1"><p>Readers may be aware that shell-fish, like a periwinkle, when heated in the fire, do sing.</p></note>, to sing such a sweet song as she had never in all her life heard. The plaintive song entered her soul; in truth, Niho's soul, which had been poured into the periwinkle had entered hers and, although they were miles apart in body, in soul and spirit they were one, eternally one. As Te Ao had fled from Niho, now she, borne on the wings of love, sped to his arms, ready to receive her at Titirangi.</p>
          <pb xml:id="n26" n="22"/>
          <p>The story of <name type="person" key="name-405448">Te Aoputaputa</name> and Nihomakuru, if it has been written already, I am sure, can stand repetition.</p>
          <p>The name, Nihomakuru, appears amongst those of my ancestors. The ancestors of <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> once lived in Titirangi pa as they did also at Whangara, It may also be mentioned that the larger southern boundary of the <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou Tribe</name> is the <name key="name-405419" type="place">Turanganui River</name>, or, to be more correct, Te Toka-a-Taiau in the river, and it thus includes Titirangi pa. Taiau, after whom the rock was named, was an ancestor of the <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou Tribe</name>.</p>
        </div>
      </div>
      <pb xml:id="n27"/>
      <div xml:id="t1-body-d2" type="chapter">
        <head>Chapter II<lb/><hi rend="i"><hi rend="c">Early Years at Te Araroa</hi></hi></head>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d1" type="section">
          <p><hi rend="sc">When my grandfather</hi> went to Wellington, my father and mother moved to <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>, which was then known as Kawakawa, where my father opened a small store. My family's sojourn at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>, for many years, was a very happy time, and I often look back to it with pleasure, for here I passed many years of my boyhood, and, as there was no school in the district, every day was a holiday.</p>
          <p>There was an abortive attempt to open a school, about the year 1878. I remember how I listened with amazement to what I now learn to be a recital of the Lord's Prayer and the singing of the song, "Pull for the Shore, Sailor," from Sankey's collection.</p>
          <p>At last, I was old enough to go to school. The master's name was McMahon, and he wore a long beard. Two long, double desks ran almost the whole length of the room, and, as the children sat on each side of the desk and facing one another, there was irresistable temptation to talk and make faces at one another, but the greatest commotion took place under the desks, where dangling legs, on one side, waged continuous warfare against the legs on the opposite side, for it was the easiest thing in the world to go over the frontier. Fortunately for the legs, the feet they carried were not encased in shoes and boots.</p>
          <p>The children did very little work at school. The most we did was to look out for the approach of an old man called Boyle. He lived out in the country, where he had a hops garden and he often came to the school. His visits were too frequent, especially when they were timed to coincide with meal hours, <pb xml:id="n28" n="24"/>It was our duty to give warning to Mr. and Mrs. McMahon of Boyle's approach, and we never failed in the discharge of our duty. Often after we had sounded the alarm, we could hear the rattling of crockery as it was being hurriedly removed from the table. The children had no lunch, for bread was a rare item in those days. My family was the only one who ate bread with any regularity. Children often chewed the ripe fruit of the sweet-briar to assuage their hunger. When maize was ripe, we went after school into the fields and, lighting fires, we roasted the cobs whole and ate them greedily. Roasted maize is much nicer than maize boiled. It has a flavour of its own.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d2" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Watermelon-stealing Rampant</hi>
          </head>
          <p>When watermelons were ripe, unless a strict watch was kept over them, the owner might wake up in the morning, to find his or her crop of watermelons depleted. It was easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than it was for a Maori boy not to steal watermelons. If a patch of watermelons happened to be near a road, melon thieves, armed with wooden lances, mounted their ponies at night and, after stabbing large melons with the lances, galloped away as fast as their horses could go, carrying the watermelons on their lances. To find your patch of watermelons, which you had tended for several months, robbed overnight was indeed exasperating, and yet Maoris as a rule regarded melon-stealing lightly and a melon-thief was never prosecuted. Only recently did I read in the press of a prosecution in the Police Court for melon-stealing and several elderly natives were surprised to hear of it.</p>
          <p>After an old woman's crop of watermelons had been raided at night, all the boys in the village were called for an examination. An old man named Ihaia was <pb xml:id="n29" n="25"/>the examiner. He had in front of him a box filled with fine earth. Every boy was requested to place his foot on the fine earth and the measurements of his footmark were compared with one found in the melon garden. The thief was too cunning, or perhaps he came from another village for he was never found out.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d3" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">An Inadequate Wage</hi>
          </head>
          <p>A more kindly and a more upright man than <name type="person" key="name-405452">Wi Tito</name>, I had never met, and yet, now, since I am sophisticated, I am set wondering whether Wi paid us adequately for our services. He had a large bullock which was found necessary to keep on the rope. Every afternoon after school a number of children climbed the steep slopes of Te Whetu-mata-rau in order to get karaka and mahoe branches with which to feed the bullock and, for what each of us could carry, he was paid one small boiled lolly. On present-day values one small boiled lolly for a load of green branches obtained with no small effort, does seem extremely inadequate. And yet we were happy to receive that one lolly as the bullock was, I am sure, to get the green branches. The bullock's need for the green branches was far greater than ours for the lollies; as a matter of fact he would have perished without the green branches, but it would not have mattered in the least if we never saw a lolly. However, the owner of the bullock should have paid us a great deal more than a small boiled lolly. The world has, in a sense, progressed very slowly. Before the Labour Party took over the reins of Government in 1935, the old Government was paying, on Public Works, 12/-for a white man and 5/-for a Maori, and a leading member of the old party was a grandson of <name type="person" key="name-405452">Wi Tito</name>.<note xml:id="fn5-25" n="1"><p>Sir Apirana Ngata.</p></note></p>
        </div>
        <pb xml:id="n30" n="26"/>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d4" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">The Common Lolly and Pipe</hi>
          </head>
          <p>I am complaining now of the inadequate wage of one boiled lolly, but in the good old days, it never entered our heads to grumble, for lollies were very rare. The one lolly was as good as a feast. It was not licked out of existence in one operation—it was made to last, if possible, until the next lolly was earned. A lick now and then was sufficient, and often the lolly was passed round to be licked by the younger members of the family, who were, unfortunately, not old enough to have joined the union of green-branch carriers.</p>
          <p>This puts me in mind of a habit amongst the elders of passing round the pipe as we youngsters passed round the boiled lolly. Only clay pipes were in vogue then. After a Maori had been using a clay pipe for years, a semi circular groove was formed in his teeth, into which the mouthpiece of the pipe fitted. Old women stuck their clay pipes in the lobes of their ears as gay women put gold earrings in theirs. In <hi rend="i">The Story of a Maori Chief</hi> I relate the incident, how my grandfather and grandmother, after the capsize of their boat, swam for their lives, my grandmother landing with her precious clay pipe still between her teeth.</p>
          <p>One incident in connection with the school I must place on record. All that the boys had to wear were shirts; trousers were a luxury in those days. Some of the shirts, having been inherited, were too long and impeded the movement of the legs, especially in running and jumping. During lunch hour a number of boys, some distance from the school, were having a keen competition in hop-step-and-jump. One boy, because his shirt interfered with his jumping, took it off. His example infected the others and, in a few minutes, half-a-dozen little boys were stark naked. For this lapse, each of them received cuts with the cane. <pb xml:id="n31" n="27"/>And now we hear of nudist clubs being formed in New Zealand! Perhaps it is more natural to be nude than to be clad.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d5" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Mr.</hi>
            <name type="person" key="name-209000">J. H. <hi rend="sc">Pope</hi></name>
          </head>
          <p>Mr. J. H. Pope, inspector, paid one visit to the school before it closed. I do not know what I learned at school, but at least I knew what a lake was in English. Mr. Pope held up a large piece of paper and, pointing at it said, "Land is here, land is there, and land is all round, what do you call the piece of water in the middle?" Nobody knew or understood, but I had an idea of what he was driving at, so, after some hesitation, I cried out, "Lake." I was correct and I have never forgotten my triumph.</p>
          <p>That was my first meeting with <name type="person" key="name-209000">Mr. J. H. Pope</name>, and, at <name type="organisation" key="name-401445">Te Aute College</name>, I met him several times. I have an undying admiration for the man although it is some years now since he went to his rest. He was of a lovable nature and so perfectly transparent that he won your respect and confidence on your first meeting. He was a big man and I never cease to wonder how he managed to travel all over New Zealand and much of it on horseback when the roads were so bad and many rivers unbridged.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d6" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Poisoned with Tutu</hi>
          </head>
          <p>With the school closed, spring, summer, autumn and winter were one long holiday, for the children roamed everywhere, looking for peaches which were then growing wild, for <hi rend="i">kotukutuku</hi> or konini berries, and squeezing the sweet juice of the <hi rend="i">tutu.</hi></p>
          <p>I was a victim of <hi rend="i">tutu</hi> poisoning and I might have died from it. Our elders had not forgotten to warn us repeatedly against eating the kernel of the <hi rend="i">karaka</hi> and the fruit of the <hi rend="i">tutu</hi>, I was not ignorant, for my mother and I had often gone out to pick <hi rend="i">tutu</hi> berries <pb xml:id="n32" n="28"/>and I had watched her straining the fruit before giving me the juice to drink. I had gone out with other children and we found <hi rend="i">tutu</hi> berries in abundance and ripe. While the others carefully strained the berries, I, out of sheer bravado, began filling my mouth with the delicious fruit and challenging my companions to see me "drop down dead." On our way home I felt queer and then I felt dazed. My companions and I had parted and there I was, like a drunken man trying to find my way home. I could hardly see when I was near our house. My mother found me looking underneath the house. By the purple marks on my lips she gathered at once that I had been poisoned with <hi rend="i">tutu.</hi> Then I lost consciousness. My father took me down for a dip in the sea and the cold water brought me round a little. He then lit a fire on which he put <hi rend="i">piripiri</hi> (native burr) and as it smoked he hung my face over the fire so that I might inhale the smoke. The treatment seemed to have done me good for I revived. For days I lay in bed feeling weak after my strange experience.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d7" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">A Strange Game</hi>
          </head>
          <p>During hot weather, the children practically lived on the bank of the Awatere river. After being in the water too long, we rolled in the hot sand, as did our grand ancestor, Paikea<note xml:id="fn6-28" n="1"><p>After the sinking of Huripureita, of all Uenuku's sons, Paikea was the sole survivor. A taniwha in the form of a whale took Paikea on its back and brought him to Aotearoa, landing at Ahuahu. By rolling in the hot sand he revived himself. Paikea married Huturangi, a descendant of Toikairakau and the issue of the union is the <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> tribe. It is the boast of young <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> that their great ancestor came to New Zealand on the back of a taniwha as befitting the descendants of gods, and not in a prosaic material canoe.</p></note>, before us when he landed at Ahuahu, or we put flat hot stones on our backs. Lying flat on our stomachs, we often indulged in a strange <pb xml:id="n33" n="29"/>game. While each held a flat round stone between his hands, the command would be given for the competitors to spit on the stones. The competition consisted in seeing whose spit evaporated first. It was not unusual for an impatient competitor to recite the short <hi rend="i">karakia</hi><note xml:id="fn7-29" n="1"><p>Incantation.</p></note> which begins:
<q><lg type="verse"><l>Whitiwhiti te ra, pokopoko te ra.</l><l>Shine, shine, sun; out, out, sun.</l></lg></q></p>
          <p>It never occurred to the reciter that the sun was severely impartial; that it shone alike both on the just as well as the unjust. Invariably the losers always murmured that the winner must have been sparing in his spitting.</p>
          <p>When a mother appeared carrying a big stick in her hand, it was not then a case of imploring for mercy—there was only one thing to do, pick up your shirt, or even without it, and make a bee-line for home, there to await the tyrant and her big stick.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d8" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">The Sacred Moki</hi>
          </head>
          <p>The opening of the <hi rend="i">moki</hi><note xml:id="fn8-29" n="2"><p>Latris ciliaris.</p></note> season always roused great interest and was attended with some ritual. Its harbinger is the appearance in the middle of June of Matariki (The Little Faces) or the Pleiades, commonly called the Seven Sisters. And also when the kapua (bush mushrooms) are plentiful it is a sure sign moki will be plentiful also. Very early in the morning, long before sunrise, the removers of the tapu put out in their canoe, without tasting food and even without using the beloved pipe. People on shore, too, are forbidden to light a fire even for the cooking of food. The landing place is also regarded as tapu. On the return of the fishers, a woman prepares the hangi in which the moki caught that day are cooked and eaten by the fishers only. Moki has become very scarce on <pb xml:id="n34" n="30"/>the coast, probably owing to the effect of erosion interfering with the beds frequented by moki. Cape Runaway is the only place now where moki are still caught in large numbers. The white settlers there have their own moki ground where they can fish, and eat their lunch and drink their beer without fear of breaking the immutable laws of the moki. I have been told that as many as twenty boats have gone out at <name key="name-400964" type="place">Cape Runaway</name> on one day.</p>
          <p>The cooked fish was <hi rend="i">tapu</hi> and could be eaten only by the fishermen, even the mere woman who had been good enough to get things ready for them must be content to look on, although she had been fasting also. In their hunger and greed the men gorged themselves and entirely forgot the mere woman, even though she might be the wife of one of the eaters. Other fish which were not <hi rend="i">moki</hi> were not eaten, but were suspended on a tree as offerings to Pou, the god of fish. No other persons besides the fishermen should tread on the landing-ground and I have been compelled when riding along the beach to turn aside and pass the holy ground by some other way. I have always suspected that these rules were formulated by some greedy ancestor or <hi rend="i">hapu.</hi></p>
          <p>Fishing grounds belong to particular <hi rend="i">hapus</hi> and some of these fishing-ground-owning <hi rend="i">hapus</hi> are notorious for their stinginess. The Treaty of Waitangi recognises the claims of the Maoris to their fishing-grounds, even though these grounds may be outside territorial waters.</p>
          <p>When rights under the <name key="name-122436" type="work">Treaty of Waitangi</name> were being discussed at the Maori Labour Conference held in Wellington in 1936, I pointed out that claims to fishing-grounds could not be enforced, for the sea belonged to everybody, and outside the territorial waters it belonged to all nations. While some laughed, others looked quite serious. In the assertion of exclusive rights to fishing-and landing-grounds, there <pb xml:id="n35" n="31"/>is, I am afraid, behind it a spirit of selfishness. I have openly stated on more than one occasion that, but for the white fishermen and hawkers, the majority of people, even of Maoris, would not be able to obtain fish. Private people supply only their friends and important people while the vulgar herd is left out in the cold.</p>
          <p>I have treated with levity the customs relating to <hi rend="i">moki</hi>, and some ethnologists would probably take exception to my remarks. If they do it is because they are superstitious themselves and lack a sense of humour.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d9" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Maori Justice</hi>
          </head>
          <p>I wish to insert here an account which I wrote some time ago of a Maori case over a dispute regarding the ownership of a fishing-ground a few miles south of <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>. The case illustrates what I term "Maori Justice" and it may illustrate pakeha justice as well. A decision by a Maori committee can be ignored, but a decision by a Native Land Court, often confirmed by a perfunctory Native Appellate Court, glaringly untenable, clothed with legality, is almost impossible to set aside when political influence is exercised to sustain it. Might is still right, even in democratic New Zealand.</p>
          <p>For years a serious dispute as to the tribal ownership of the Maunga-whio hapuku ground, seven miles off <name key="name-401849" type="place">Port Awanui</name>, was carried on between the <name key="name-405415" type="organisation">Ngati-Horowai</name> hapu of Te Horo and the Ngati-Puwai hapu of Tikapa, sub-tribes of the <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name>. It was at last agreed that the matter must be referred to a Maori committee for settlement. Among the members of the committee was the well-known <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> chief, Whakatihi, who had some impediment in his speech. Notwithstanding, the chief, as Maori chiefs usually are, was outspoken and fearless.</p>
          <pb xml:id="n36" n="32"/>
          <p>The committee arrived on the scene on the day fixed, Whakatihi, with keen perception, took in, as it were at a glance, the whole situation, and practically arrived at a conclusion as to the ownership of the disputed hapuku ground. He observed that in the <name key="name-405415" type="organisation">Ngati-Horowai</name> camp all was astir: fish and fat carcases of pork were suspended from trees, and hangis were already ablaze, while, on the other hand, there was little movement in the opposite camp, as though fear of coming defeat had already possessed it. In reply to the greetings of the local people, Whakatihi lost no time in expressing his own feelings on the question in dispute and there and then uttered his own decision. He cried out, "E, e, e nui e te whakahere e tau e Tamaiwaho," in other words, "The greater the offerings, the more pleased would be the gods." The gods, pleased with good things, gave their decision in favour of <name key="name-405415" type="organisation">Ngati-Horowai</name>.</p>
          <p>Whetu-tawere, one of the elders of Ngati-Puwai, sprang to his feet and, poising his spear over his head, threatened to strike Whakatihi, who, unperturbed, cooly remarked, "E, e mate e au, e tangihia, e nehua," "If I should be slain, my death would be mourned and I would be given a decent burial," but "E mate e koe, e taona, e kainga," "But you, you would be killed and eaten."</p>
          <p>The dispute was finally settled by both sides accepting the committee's judgment.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d10" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">A Taniwha's Lair</hi>
          </head>
          <p>While we were living at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>, a ship's lifeboat was washed up on the beach at Orutua. My father put it into order and it was anchored in the estuary of the Awatere. I was in it constantly, and occasionally I went out in it with my friends for a sail in the bay. I was very proud of this boat which I rigged as a yacht. My father and his friend, the <pb xml:id="n37"/>
<figure xml:id="KohAutoP001a"><graphic url="KohAutoP001a.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP001a-g"/><head>An early photograph of <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>. Waha-o-Rerekohu the giant pohutukawa, is on the extreme right. The hill at the back is the historic Whetumatarau.</head></figure>
<pb xml:id="n38"/>
<figure xml:id="KohAutoP002a"><graphic url="KohAutoP002a.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP002a-g"/><head>Mrs. <name key="name-101494" type="person">R. T. Kohere</name>, with her eldest daughter, <name key="name-405460" type="person">Hinekukurangi</name>.</head></figure>
<figure xml:id="KohAutoP002b"><graphic url="KohAutoP002b.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP002b-g"/><head>Mrs. <name key="name-405458" type="person">Peni Hakiwai</name>, sister of Mrs. Kohere, and an old East Cape resident, with her son, Ara.</head></figure>
<pb xml:id="n39" n="33"/>
chief, Houkamau, often went out in it on fishing expeditions and they invariably took me with them, not as a passenger, but as the helmsman. Once, after fishing near Iron Head and close to the rock Aumiti, where, I was told, a <hi rend="i">taniwha</hi><note xml:id="fn9-33" n="1"><p>A fabulous monster that lives in deep water.</p></note> lived, we wished to go ashore where the finest of peaches were going to waste. There was a considerable sea running, but from out at sea we could not see this. My father and Houkamau bent to their oars, and, looking back, I saw a large wave pursuing us. It went right over the boat and threw me into the water, but carried the boat with it. As I came to the surface my first thought was of the <hi rend="i">taniwha</hi>—I could almost feel myself being sucked into the monster's maw. My father came to the rescue and carried me to land. We could not put out to sea so we pushed the boat along the beach until we came to the mouth of the Karaka-tuwhero, where we were able to pull out. We arrived late at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>, hungry, wet, sad, but wiser men.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d11" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Pawa and Rongokako</hi>
          </head>
          <p>The two elders and I planned another fishing expedition, and this time we went farther afield. When we rounded the <name key="name-405412" type="place">Matakaoa Point</name>, which the Maoris call Te Whai-a-Pawa or Pawa's Stingaree, I was shown the gray stingaree which could be seen at the bottom of the sea. It is a gray rock.</p>
          <p>Pawa was the navigator of the canoe Horouta which the <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> tribe claims to be their tribal canoe. He was also the man who was involved in a Herculean struggle with the long-legged giant, Rongokako, and who, to catch the foe, planted a trap on Tawhiti hill which today bears its name, and the other end of the bow he fastened to Puketiti, the sugar-loaf near Mr. A. B. Williams's home. Rongokako was too wary and with his mighty strides evaded Pawa's machinations. <pb xml:id="n40" n="34"/>He took one stride from Tapuwae (footprint), near Whangara, to Tapuwae, near Orutua. I was often shown Rongokako's footprint, which certainly was large and which has now, unfortunately disappeared. We are told in the Bible that "there were giants on the earth in those days," so Rongokako was not altogether a myth.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d12" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Maroheia Petrified</hi>
          </head>
          <p>In his pursuit of Rongokako, Pawa left behind him, near his "stingaree" his little daughter, Maroheia, and, on his return, found her petrified and clinging to a rock called Ihu-toto, and even today you may find remnants of the forsaken little maid still clinging to Ihu-toto.</p>
          <p>In Hinetawhirirangi's well-known song, wherein she mourns the death of her relative, Hamaiwaho, who jumped into the sea in order to escape from his Ngapuhi captors when near the <name key="name-405417" type="place">Rurima Islands</name> in the <name key="name-400542" type="place">Bay of Plenty</name>, an allusion is made to the legend. Hamaiwaho was drowned and his body was washed up on the Rurima rocks:
<q><lg type="verse"><l>Naku i moumou, na Pawa i whakarere,</l><l>Koia Maroheia e awhi mai ra Ihu-toto.</l><l>I never tended thee as Pawa cast away</l><l>Maroheia, now hugging Ihu-toto.</l></lg></q></p>
          <p>It was probably the casting of Hamaiwaho on the rocks that suggested to the Maori lyric, Pawa's neglect of his daughter, Maroheia, which led to her death as she hugged Ihu-toto rock. The poetess, in a sense, blames herself also for the neglect of her relative whose body was found on the Rurima rocks, as Maroheia's was found clinging to Ihu-toto rock. The weaving of the idea of neglect into the two incidents, her neglect and Pawa's, is clever and displays high imaginative powers and a decided poetic turn of mind.</p>
          <p>Maoris are fond of naming children with names <pb xml:id="n41" n="35"/>which perpetuate the memory of an incident. I knew an old woman called <name type="person" key="name-405427">Arihia Rurima</name>, so named because of the incident of Hamaiwaho's drowning near <name type="place" key="name-405417">Rurima Islands</name>.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d13" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">My Mother's Fairy Story</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Maori mothers and grandmothers, in entertaining little children, delighted in telling stories of giants and giantesses, particularly of the latter. I don't know why they preferred giantesses, unless they considered them uglier and more wicked than giants. Giantesses are certainly, from all accounts, diabolical.</p>
          <p>Let me give a brief, typical story of a giantess, told me by my own mother:</p>
          <p>A little boy wanders into the forest and loses his way. After wandering about for a few days and subsisting on wild berries, he hears a peculiar noise, like the snorting of a wild horse. He looks for the cause of the noise and suddenly he espies a <hi rend="i">nanakia</hi> (ogre)—a terrible-looking giantess, whose gray dishevelled hair covers her rugged body, and who, with her long tapering fingernails, could pierce wild pigeons as they perched in the trees. The next day, curious to find out the home of the <hi rend="i">nanakia</hi> the boy climbs to the top of a high hill, from which he can survey the country around and find out his bearings. In the valley below he notices puffs of smoke rising above the trees. To investigate the mystery of the fire, he hurries down into the valley and, warily approaching a dark mass in the wood, he notices it to be a rocky cave from which the smoke is issuing, and by the fire with her back towards him and the gray hair covering her recumbent body and her long fingers pointing in a heap towards the back of the cave, the <hi rend="i">nanakia</hi> is fast asleep. Judging by the heap of fresh pigeon bones lying near the fire, the boy gathers that the giantess has devoured several pigeons <pb xml:id="n42" n="36"/>at one meal and she is likely to sleep for many hours. He loses no time in turning his face towards where his home lies and runs, afraid lest the <hi rend="i">nanakia</hi> should wake up too soon. As he nears the edge of the forest he hears the cracking of broken trees and the same unmistakable snorting he had heard the day before. He knows that the <hi rend="i">nanakia</hi> is after his blood. Instead of walking through the bush, the monster is stepping from tree-top to tree-top and gaining on him rapidly. He is now in the open and crossing a plain. He again hears the snorting. As the giantess snorts she throws her terrible fingers in front of her as though her little victim is within striking distance. The boy can almost feel the hot breath of the gigantic hag as she snorts and lurches forward. The boy now cries, "Te kohatu nei e matiti, matata!" ("O rock, split and crack"). It opens sufficiently to let him in and then closes. After travelling along the channel revealed by the opening, he comes to the surface, but the <hi rend="i">nanakia</hi>, bewildered by the boy's disappearance, is some distance behind. The race once more continues. When the <hi rend="i">nanakia</hi> is again within striking distance of her victim, the boy once more cries, "Te wiwi nei e, matiti, matata" (O rushes, split and crack.") As the rushes open out the earth opens also and the boy leaps into the opening and is safe once more. The <hi rend="i">nanakia</hi>, fearful lest she should be too near the abode of mortal man, stands and hesitates and then turns back to disappear into the dark and lonely forest.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d14" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Maomao Fishing</hi>
          </head>
          <p>The chief, Houkamau, my father and myself, spent a very enjoyable time in my father's life-boat at Whanga-a-rumia, near Lottin Point. It was the <hi rend="i">maomao</hi><note xml:id="fn10-36" n="1"><p>Ditremus aureus.</p></note> season and it was our purpose to take home smoked what we could not eat. We used a circular <pb xml:id="n43" n="37"/>net, called <hi rend="i">matarau</hi>, about five feet in diameter and seven feet in depth, and stretched out on a supple-jack frame. About half-a-mile off shore we let down the net and, as it was being lowered we threw into it pieces of crayfish shell. It was most exciting to watch scores of the dainty fish swarm into the net after the bits of crayfish. As the net was pulled up I craned over the gunwale to see the small sparkling fish struggling and tumbling helplessly in the large meshed bag. After letting down the <hi rend="i">matarau</hi> two or three times we had caught enough fish for the day.</p>
          <p>An elderly couple had ridden overland specially to cure the fish for us. They also acted as our cooks. The evening meal was eagerly looked forward to, for it consisted chiefly of broiled <hi rend="i">maomao</hi>. A green pointed stick was thrust through the fish and with the other end stuck in the ground it was bent over the embers. After being out at sea for hours, to watch a <hi rend="i">maomao</hi> sizzling over the fire and the juice running down the stick and falling into the fire, is most appetizing, and only those who have tasted broiled <hi rend="i">maomao</hi> could appreciate the deliciousness of the fish. In addition to the fish we had potatoes and <hi rend="i">kumaras</hi> roasted in the hot ashes, and, to wash down the fish and vegetables we drank pure, icy-cold water from a nearby mountain torrent.</p>
          <p>The bush grew to the water's edge while <hi rend="i">pohutukawas</hi> grew on rocks and rocky banks. A little bay ran for chains past our camp into the bush. Wild honey was plentiful.</p>
          <p>A period of sixty years has intervened since I visited that lovely spot although, I am afraid, all the virgin bush has been destroyed. Even so, the coves and caves must still be there, and the sea, and the <hi rend="i">maomao</hi> in the sea must still await one's pleasure. What a pity it is, we are too busy to claim nature's goodly gifts strewn at our feet.</p>
        </div>
        <pb xml:id="n44" n="38"/>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d15" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Chasing the Monsters of the Deep</hi>
          </head>
          <p>A few years after, as a member of a whaling crew, I spent several months on this same coast. The whole coast was then still in its virgin loveliness. Besides the whalers' camp there was not a sign of human habitation. While the men were on the look-out for whales, it was my duty to look after the boat which was then moored to the rocks in a sheltered cove. The water was so clear that I could see a fish swallow my baited hook. In this way I provided fish for the evening meal. My father was the skipper of the boat, and although I was really too young, he had taken me as one of his crew. I had the stroke oar which was regarded as an unimportant position. Although for a boat to be fast to a whale was very dangerous, it was never my fortune to undergo the experience. Several times we got fairly close to as many as three or four whales, but never near enough to fasten on to one with the harpoon. That was all the whaling I ever did in my life, but I enjoyed the simple life immensely—sleeping at night in caves, catching fish, and even vainly chasing the monsters of the deep in the day-time.</p>
          <p>There was dense bush everywhere during the years of which I write. I don't think there was one cleared acre of bush except where the people had their cultivations. Wants were very few. Sheep-farming and dairy-farming had not been thought of. After the crops of potatoes and kumaras had been gathered in, the only employment during the winter was fishing and hunting.</p>
          <p>Shooting the wild pigeons was a popular business. Pigeons were found in large numbers everywhere and the natives did not spare them, for, like fish, they were one of their chief articles of food. The birds fed on the <hi rend="i">ti</hi> (cabbage tree), <hi rend="i">miro, kahikatea</hi> and <hi rend="i">hinau.</hi> Pigeons are most delicious when they are <pb xml:id="n45" n="39"/>feeding on the <hi rend="i">miro.</hi> It is my opinion that there is nothing more delicious than a fat wild pigeon. Maoris as a rule never open or clean a wild pigeon before cooking it and there is a very good reason for this practice, though strange it may sound. When a pigeon is opened it is found that the berries inside it are still fresh and their flavour has permeated every bit of the bird. A Maori would be quite indignant if he saw a fat pigeon cleaned before it was put into the pot.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d16" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Slaughter of Wild Pigeons</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Pigeon-snaring and piercing was an art in the old days, but in these days of guns, shots and powder, pigeon-shooting is downright business. I always went with my father on his shooting expeditions. At Takapuwahia we found hundreds of pigeons feeding on the berries of the <hi rend="i">ti</hi> (kouka). As'the berries cluster amongst the long leaves, the birds, with wings spread out, just flopped on the leaves. The noise they made with their wings was great, but it was nothing compared to the thunderous noise made by hundreds of birds on the wing after a shot had been fired, and the sky became darkened with them. Often a shot was fired into the flock of birds on the wing. The birds would only lift for a few minutes, then once more they would flop down to feed, and again a few of their number would be brought down. The destruction would be greater when half-a-dozen guns were at work. A shrewd native could fill a bag with pigeons without firing a shot by simply picking up dead or wounded birds at the edge of the bush. The sight of hundreds of pigeons feeding on the <hi rend="i">ti</hi> and then lifting in the sky was, to me, most exciting and, the little savage that I was, I never had the least compunction in regard to the shameless destruction of the beautiful wild pigeons, but that came in later years.</p>
          <pb xml:id="n46" n="40"/>
          <p>Friday afternoon was the time for leaving home so as to be near the bush. The camping ground was a small cave about eight miles up the Awatere river. The sportsmen, if they could be so designated, always allowed themselves sufficient time to secure a bird or two for the evening meal. The camp rule was one bird to every person, and even I had a whole bird allotted to me. Anyone who was unfortunate enough not to have secured a bird was given one. Only a hurried breakfast was had early on the Saturday morning, after which the party broke up into sections, each section going in a different direction. I always followed my father, my duty being to pick up and carry the birds. Late in the afternoon, all met again at the cave and together rode home satisfied with the day's shooting.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d17" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">A Community Breakfast</hi>
          </head>
          <p>It was the custom at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> for all in the settlement to have one common breakfast at the meeting-house on Sunday morning, each housewife bringing her contribution. Every adult person was provided with a whole pigeon while one bird was shared amongst three children. I often look back on those glorious days when the whole community was like one family, the leading members of which were the chief, Houkamau and my father. My father and mother were loved by the people.</p>
          <p>The meeting-house, called Hinerupe, was not carved, but it holds for me very sweet memories. There, daily morning and evening prayers were read and on Sunday evenings a Bible Class was held. It was there that I first learned to like my Bible and my earliest religious impressions were then planted in my heart.</p>
          <p>In the year 1938 the second Hinerupe was pulled down and a fully carved one took its place.</p>
          <p>On Anzac Day of that year the third Hinerupe was <pb xml:id="n47" n="41"/>opened. It is without doubt one of the most beautiful carved houses in the country and I am pleased, for old time's sake, to have had a hand in its decoration.</p>
          <p>When, owing to ignorance and petty jealousy, a clique at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> treated me as a black sheep during the construction of the house, the old people, who remembered my father and mother and the happy associations of the first Hinerupe, were much grieved and <name type="person" key="name-208832">Sir Apirana Ngata</name>, who had much to do with the renovation of the house, reminded my antagonists of the history of the old house and of my connection with it. The narrow-minded people evidently thought they would please <name type="person" key="name-208832">Sir Apirana</name> because we were politically opposed to each other.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d18" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Fat Kakas Shaken from Trees</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Though I am now an old man and my father died fifty-two years ago, one memory will ever be green in my mind, and that was the night we spent in the forest. When the <hi rend="i">hinau</hi> berries were ripe and falling to the ground the <hi rend="i">kaka</hi> (native parrot) was fattest. The bird descended to the ground to eat the fallen berries and became so fat and heavy that it could not fly from the ground. When disturbed it could only climb up a small tree or a supple-jack, and, to bring it to the ground, one had only to shake the tree or the supple-jack. All <hi rend="i">kakas</hi>, of course, were not as helpless as this. It was to shoot or catch the <hi rend="i">kaka</hi> that my father and I penetrated far into the forest at Tauri. Our expedition was so successful that nightfall found us still in the forest. After our evening meal, my father heaped up some dry, dead leaves on which we could lie. I crept close to my father and, turning my back to his so that I could face ghosts and wild animals if they should happen to come along, I gazed into the impentrable darkness. But for the cry of the morepork, perfect stillness <pb xml:id="n48" n="42"/>reigned. As a matter of fact, the doleful cry of the morepork added to the weirdness and uncanniness of the night. The songs of the <hi rend="i">tui</hi> and of the bell-bird heralded the dawn and dissipated all my childish fears and imaginations.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d19" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Snaring the Kaka</hi>
          </head>
          <p>In early spring it was the habit of the <hi rend="i">kaka</hi> to fly about in large numbers. Because some have been found exhausted near the coast, the natives say the <hi rend="i">kaka</hi>, like the shining-cuckoo, is a migratory bird, and it is on its return to New Zealand that it is seen in large numbers. This view is, of course, incorrect. It is probable that a bird was blown out to sea by a strong gale and, in flying back to the land became exhausted. I have never troubled to find out why the <hi rend="i">kaka</hi> did fly about in large numbers and very often over grassy and bare hills where no berries could be found.</p>
          <p>Snaring the <hi rend="i">kaka</hi> was a very fascinating practice. Strangely enough, my father did not take any interest in snaring the <hi rend="i">kaka</hi>, one reason, I suppose, was because at this season the bird was not in good condition. I generally accompanied Pepene on a kaka-snaring expedition. A prominent hill where a large tree grew was chosen as our base, and here a little hut of green branches was erected Just outside the hut, and between it and the tree, a perch was provided and tied to the perch was the decoy. As soon as a flock of <hi rend="i">kaka</hi> was seen, the hunter would imitate the cry of the bird and the flock, hearing this, would make for the tree. He at once concealed himself within the hut and urged the decoy to entice its unwary fellows to come nearer. A large flock filled the tree and in response to the invitation of the decoy, the more curious ones left the tree and alighted on the perch. The hunter adroitly snared one of the curious birds and pulled <pb xml:id="n49" n="43"/>it inside the hut. As the bird was being dragged inside, the man caught its head and instantly crushed it between his teeth. It was necessary to kill the bird quickly before it could give a warning cry to its fellows. A first-class and well-trained decoy was incessant in its enticing cry and often scratched the ground with its talons as though he were digging up some dainty morsel. It was an instance of most disgusting treachery.</p>
          <p>Usually a flock of <hi rend="i">kaka</hi> had a leader, or <hi rend="i">manu-whakataka-pokai</hi> as it is called in Maori, and when its plumage was redish it was called <hi rend="i">kaka-kura.</hi> An experienced snarer always tried to catch the leading bird, for if he succeeded in doing that he could catch the whole flock for there would be no one to give the command to move on. A kaka-snaring spot was always regarded as private—it belonged to the family and for anybody else to use it without permission was to trespass.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d20" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Catching Fish with Hinaki</hi>
          </head>
          <p>A method by which I was fond of catching fish was by the use of the <hi rend="i">hinaki.</hi> The term is also used for the eel-pot. It was usually about eight-feet long by three-feet wide at its mouth and was conical in shape. The frame was covered with net made of flax. The entrance, which was suspended about half-way inside the pot, was also made of flax. The pot is placed in a long channel that runs out into deep water and it is then fastened with ropes to a bar laid across the channel and driven into the rocks. As the tide recedes, fish naturally get into the channel on their way out to sea and are thus caught in the <hi rend="i">hinaki.</hi> It was my pleasure to empty the pots and I have counted as many as half-a-dozen in one pot. It was a simple and cheap method of catching fish and of replenishing the family larder. Usually, of course, whenever there <pb xml:id="n50" n="44"/>was a good catch we shared the fish with our neighbours. The <hi rend="i">hinaki</hi> has fallen into disuse because people nowadays are much too busy and chiefly because poachers empty the pots at night time. I do not remember my fish-pots ever being interfered with when I was young.</p>
          <p>I have said just now, we shared the fish with our neighbours, and, of course, our neighbours always returned the compliment whenever they were in a position to do so. An ancient law of the Maori—the law of <hi rend="i">aroha</hi>—is generosity. It is an astounding custom. Generosity is always regarded by the Maoris as one of the highest virtues—it is a characteristic of a <hi rend="i">rangatira</hi>, and the absence of it is a sign of the low-born. When carrying food like fish, birds or mussels, a Maori would rather wait for darkness before passing through a settlement. It is the correct thing to part with your best. For instance, you must give away the larger and fatter of two fishes. To give a neighbour a hog's head instead of a portion of the body is to insult him. A stranger is never refused hospitality. A chief would give up his bed to a visitor and lie on the hard floor. To place a poor meal before visitors is considered a disgrace.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d21" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Heremaia the Generous</hi>
          </head>
          <p>I want to write a little about old Heremaia. He and his wife lived at Horoera, near <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>, and they kept an open door to one and sundry. Heremaia was a very humble man; unlike his race, he was not fond of talking but he was of working.</p>
          <p>Before the time for sowing and planting arrived, when the little <hi rend="i">riroriro's</hi><note xml:id="fn11-44" n="1"><p>The grey warbler.</p></note> song would be heard, old Heremaia would have fenced in and cleared an area for cultivation. Then, as a matter of course, a woman would appear on the scene and coolly peg out a portion <pb xml:id="n51" n="45"/>of the area for herself, then another woman would come along and do the same. Good-natured Heremaia, without saying a word, nodded his assent to the confiscators. A third woman would probably have come along if it were not for the fact that Heremaia would have had no garden for himself.</p>
          <p>It was generally known how often Heremaia went out at night to dive for crayfish so his guests would have a nice breakfast. There was heartfelt mourning when Heremaia passed away.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d22" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Wheat-growing Industry</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Before the Hauhau war broke out on the East Coast in 1865, the Maoris sowed wheat extensively. With the surplus wheat, the <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> tribe were able to purchase their own schooners in which they took their produce to the Auckland market. With hand-mills, pieces of which can still be seen today, the Maoris ground some of the wheat into flour for their own use. The war put an end to the industry.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d23" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Bread Unknown</hi>
          </head>
          <p>When my family first went to <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> from Orutua, the people were without any means by which they might provide themselves with food and clothing. Bread and tea were then unknown in this district, and occasionally my own people went without these luxuries. We always kept cows which supplied us regularly with plenty of milk. It was not at all uncommon to see a whole family drink milk with potatoes and kumaras. Another regular meal was marrow taken with fat. The marrow was cut up into pieces into which was poured hot fat. My father often killed a bullock which he distributed amongst every family. Today, to have no bread and butter would be considered a hardship; and today the Maoris can provide as sumptuous a meal as can be obtained in a good hotel.</p>
        </div>
        <pb xml:id="n52" n="46"/>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d24" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Maize-growing Industry</hi>
          </head>
          <p>My father and another Maori, Reihana Moari, took a trip to Auckland by a vessel which called to take a quantity of maize. At Auckland they met <name type="person" key="name-405432">Captain J. H. Skinner</name>, who agreed to bring them home. This led to <name type="person" key="name-405432">Captain Skinner</name>'s entering the East Coast trade in which he was engaged for very many years. With transport assured the natives started to cultivate maize to a large extent, and this developed into quite an industry. Handicapped though they were by the lack of necessary implements, the natives went about their work with a will. They had no working horses; the only implement of any size they possessed was a small wooden plough. When the Corn was ripe they began to pick it. The coats of the cobs were not pulled off but pulled down. From half-a-dozen to ten cobs were tied together with flax and paired with another bundle so that the two bundles could be hung up on a willow tree whose branches had been lopped off. To sling a couple of bundles to a man perched on the tree was hard work when it was kept up all day. I have seen as many as ten trees in a row loaded with maize. Shelling the corn was a tedious job. When a schooner called to lift the corn, the whole settlement was astir. Sledges loaded with bags of maize and pulled by small horses made their way to the mouth of the river where a couple of whale-boats were waiting to take the corn out to the waiting schooner. It took two men to lift a bag of maize on to the boat. Only in recent years did it ever occur to the shipping companies that it would expedite matters to provide surf-boats. In Waiapu, Maoris carried bags of maize on the necks of their ponies for a distance of over five miles to <name key="name-401849" type="place">Port Awanui</name>.</p>
          <p>Captain Skinner sold the maize at Auckland and brought back goods for the Maoris. The people did so well that they began building weatherboard houses for themselves, and everybody was anxious to become a <pb xml:id="n53" n="47"/>storekeeper. The relics of some of the houses are still to be seen at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d25" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Captain Skinner's Fleet</hi>
          </head>
          <p>I always admired <name type="person" key="name-405432">Captain Skinner</name>'s schooners. With their white hulls and leaning masts they looked like yachts. They were named Waiapu, Gisborne, Awanui, Aotea and Kaeo. I remember once seeing the whole fleet moored to the Gisborne wharf and in their proper order. It was the advent of the steamships that pushed <name type="person" key="name-405432">Captain Skinner</name>'s fleet out of business. The <hi rend="i">Kaeo</hi>, the finest ship in the fleet, was wrecked in the islands, and the <hi rend="i">Aotea</hi>, with the loss of the crew, including <name type="person" key="name-401403">Captain Nicolas</name>, Mrs. Nicolas and their child, was wrecked at <name key="name-401108" type="place">Waipiro Bay</name>, East Coast. Old Captain Skinner kept a store at Little Awanui, <name key="name-400542" type="place">Bay of Plenty</name>, where his vessels often sought shelter during storms, and where he spent his last years.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d26" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Ngati-Porou Tribe Engaged in Rye-grass Industry</hi>
          </head>
          <p>In summer, hundreds of the <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> tribe, both men and women, went to <name key="name-100562" type="place">Poverty Bay</name> to engage in the rye-grass industry. The East Coast Maoris were so poor and ignorant that they were a by-word amongst the other tribes. Many of them rode without saddles and, to avoid being seen and ridiculed for their uncouth appearance, they waited till it was dark before they passed through the town of Gisborne. As they rode along the roads the night was loud with their boisterous talking and the clattering of the hoofs of their horses.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d2-d27" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Inter-tribal Fights</hi>
          </head>
          <p>For years, a feud was kept up between the <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> and <name key="name-100562" type="place">Poverty Bay</name> tribes. Each side brought with it its own fighters and the usual place of meeting was a paddock at Matawhero, near the Royal Oak Hotel and the usual day was Sunday. No rounds were <pb xml:id="n54" n="48"/>stipulated and only bare fists were permitted. It was a fight to a finish.</p>
          <p>The contest was kept up for some years, until an old man stepped into the ring and stopped the inter-tribal fights.</p>
          <p>Today, the <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> tribe are considered the most progressive and advanced of all the tribes. (Note: The history of the tribe has yet to be written, although, in <hi rend="i">The Story of a Maori Chief</hi>, much may be learned of the <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati Porou</name>.)</p>
          <pb xml:id="n55"/>
          <p>
            <figure xml:id="KohAutoP003a">
              <graphic url="KohAutoP003a.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP003a-g"/>
              <head>Archdeacon <name key="name-209651" type="person">Samuel</name> and Mrs. Williams and friends. The <name key="name-208422" type="person">author</name> is seated in the front of the group.</head>
            </figure>
          </p>
          <pb xml:id="n56"/>
          <p>
            <figure xml:id="KohAutoP004a">
              <graphic url="KohAutoP004a.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP004a-g"/>
              <head><name type="person" key="name-209651">Archdeacon Samuel William's</name> house, <name type="place" key="name-401618">Te Aute</name>.</head>
            </figure>
          </p>
          <p>
            <figure xml:id="KohAutoP004b">
              <graphic url="KohAutoP004b.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP004b-g"/>
              <head><name key="name-401445" type="organisation">Te Aute College</name> in the author's time.</head>
            </figure>
          </p>
        </div>
      </div>
      <pb xml:id="n57"/>
      <div xml:id="t1-body-d3" type="chapter">
        <head>Chapter III<lb/><hi rend="i"><hi rend="c">An Innocent Abroad</hi></hi></head>
        <p><hi rend="sc">When Mr. McMahon</hi>, the schoolmaster, and his wife left because the attendance at the school had so decreased that it was considered hardly worthwhile continuing it, only two white men remained in the district, but they also left soon after. The two were old Mr. Boyle, who had planted a hops garden at Tokata, and <name type="person" key="name-405438">John Reid</name>, an ex-schoolmaster, who had married a Maori woman. A white man was therefore rarely seen and the arrival of one never failed to arouse great interest of the community, particularly among the children. One visitor, who had come ashore from a schooner lying nearby, impressed me very much. He was a huge man, the biggest human being I had ever seen, and as he walked down the terrace towards the beach, I stood and stared at him, for he seemed to roll along. He wore a new suit, the finest suit of clothes I had ever then seen. I heard the elders whispering among themselves as to who the distinguished personage was. He was Rire (Maori for Read). That was my first and only glimpse of Captain Read, who made history in <name key="name-100562" type="place">Poverty Bay</name> and whose memory is kept green by Read Quay in Gisborne.</p>
        <p>When my father suggested that I might go with him to Gisborne, I was filled with joy. The local tribe had decided to call a big <hi rend="i">hui</hi><note xml:id="fn12-49" n="1"><p>A gathering of any kind.</p></note> in 1880 to celebrate the opening of a Church and it was hoped to regale the visitors with plenty of fat <hi rend="i">moki</hi> and wild pigeons. It was, of course, necessary to procure a large quantity of shot and powder, if a large number of pigeons was required, and, to do this, a trip to Gisborne had to be undertaken. To ride there on horseback would take about a week and there was also the difficulty of <pb xml:id="n58" n="50"/>bringing home the ammunition. Pack-horses were then unknown; as a matter of fact, I had not then seen even a pack-saddle. There was no choice but to make the trip by a whale-boat.</p>
        <p>Early one morning we put out to sea, my father being in command of the expedition. I was still very young when I found myself actually on the way to Gisborne. I had heard much about the town from Maoris who annually visited <name key="name-100562" type="place">Poverty Bay</name> during the rye-grass-seed season, had heard of its straight streets, of its wonderful shops, and of the ships being tied up to a wharf. To me, this was an exploration trip. We called in at <name key="name-401068" type="place">Tokomaru Bay</name> for the night and were treated with the traditional hospitality of my race. Having had only a piece of dry bread—and that was a luxury in those days —to eat the whole day, I was very hungry. We were given <hi rend="i">kumaras</hi> and <hi rend="i">paua</hi><note xml:id="fn13-50" n="1"><p>A shell-fish, or mutton fish.</p></note> I have never enjoyed <hi rend="i">paua</hi> more than I did that evening.</p>
        <p>We started very early the next morning and there was promise of a fair breeze. While our boat was speeding along a flying-fish flew across our bow. The sight delighted me immensely as I had heard of flying-fish before, but this was my first glimpse of one. Later in life I learned the Maori saying: "<hi rend="i">He maroro kokoti ihu waka</hi>"—"the flying-fish that cuts across the canoe's bow"—signifying an unexpected obstacle to one's progress. Being young, of course, the incident meant nothing to me, but I think the elders expected some trouble that day. Another flying-fish was startled and it dropped into the boat. I watched the beautiful creature as it lay helpless before me. To see such a fish with pretty, delicate wings was a novel sensation. I handled it fondly and wished I could keep it for a pet. Off Tolaga Bay the wind increased considerably and now and then we shipped some water, but, with my father in charge of the boat, I was not <pb xml:id="n59" n="51"/>in the least concerned. The wind again increased when we had passed the bay and we shipped more water. Just then a school of porpoises seemed to be keeping time with us. Suddenly one came very close to the boat and old Rewiri pulled a hair from his head and threw it into the sea. At the time I did not think anything of the old man's act, but I was afterwards informed that the porpoise was Rewiri's guardian fish, come to assure its ward that all was well with the boat's crew.</p>
        <p>Off Gable End Foreland, or Pari-nui-te-ra, as it is called in Maori, the wind moderated, and by the time we entered <name key="name-100562" type="place">Poverty Bay</name> it had died down completely. We pulled the rest of the distance to the town of Gisborne, and as we pulled up the river channel I noticed <hi rend="i">manuka</hi> sticks stuck in the solid rocks and on the top of each stick was a kerosene tin, upside down and awry. I was told that these were beacons to guide boats entering or leaving the river.</p>
        <p>By the way, the name <name key="name-100562" type="place">Poverty Bay</name> has been a source of recurring controversy carried on in the columns of the <hi rend="i">Poverty Bay Herald</hi> (now the <hi rend="i">Gisborne Herald</hi>)<hi rend="i">.</hi> The opponents of the name <name key="name-100562" type="place">Poverty Bay</name> could at least boast of scoring some success over the conservatives when the popular daily changed its name. The name Poverty is, of course, a misnomer, but to contend that it affects the prosperity of the district is nonsensical and merely superstitious. As a rule, when I enter the controversy, I wait until all arguments of the reformers are exhausted and then steal in with my pet argument, which is: If there is anything in the contention that the name <name key="name-100562" type="place">Poverty Bay</name> affects the prosperity of the district, I suggest that the name be changed to Fat Bay, and so Young Nick's Head to Fat Head. This argument usually gives the controversy a rest for a year or two. Truly, he laughs best who laughs last.</p>
        <p>The sight of a schooner tied to a wharf interested me <pb xml:id="n60" n="52"/>very much, since I had been so used to seeing boats anchored out in the bay.</p>
        <p>We turned up the Waikanae creek and landed at a small Maori settlement. It was some distance from the town and thick with sweet-briars. We camped here for fully a fortnight and the day after our arrival we went into town, this being my first experience of being "in town." I was delighted with everything I saw, but what delighted me most were the shops with large windows in which wares of every description were displayed to attract customers. In country stores there were no such windows; in fact, what were meant for windows were guarded like gaols with iron bars. The people who served in the shops were, I thought, perfection itself, with their charming manners and neat clothes. And the fruit shops!—I revelled in these. My father also introduced me to <name type="person" key="name-405442">Mr. C. P. Browne</name>, the photographer and, with a mat my grandmother had woven for me over my shoulders, I was photographed for the first time in my life.</p>
        <p>We learned that permission to buy ammunition had to be obtained from Wellington and before this could be done we had to wait fully a fortnight. Naturally I did not regret the delay. With an indulgent father supplying me with money, I was as happy as the day was long.</p>
        <p>It was on this visit to Gisborne that I first tasted butter, baker's bread and sausages. I dreamed about sausages in my sleep. It was an unkind <hi rend="i">pakeha</hi> who in later years disturbed that dream by remarking that he did not like sausages for he always liked to know what he was eating. As for bread and butter, I could not eat enough. The two articles are, in a figure of speech, regarded by the white people as the staff of life, but not so by the Maoris, as these articles were unknown in the early days.</p>
        <p>Even today, the Maoris of Wairoa regard <hi rend="i">rohi</hi> (loaf, <pb xml:id="n61" n="53"/>or baker's bread) as the cause of a tribal calamity. When some of the elders of the tribe visited Napier, they were given <hi rend="i">rohi</hi>, which they enjoyed as a great delicacy. On returning home they told the rest of the tribe what a wonderful food <hi rend="i">rohi</hi> was, and so impressed them about the quality of this rare food that it was decided to sell a block of land, Raua Block, at a price that would enable them to discard the common bread of their own baking and to buy the <hi rend="i">rohi</hi> of the pakeha. Of course, when all the money from the sale of the land had been spent, they had to return to their own bread and so had neither <hi rend="i">rohi</hi> nor the block of land—a calamity indeed!</p>
        <p>With regret I bade farewell to Gisborne. Since that time I have visited all four main centres of New Zealand, as well as other towns; I resided for three years in Christchurch, and spent nearly a month in Sydney and <name key="name-110004" type="place">New South Wales</name>, but I did not enjoy my visits to these places as much as I did the occasion of my first visit to Gisborne.</p>
        <p>On the trip home from Gisborne, we camped at Cook's Cove, near <name key="name-400776" type="place">Tolaga Bay</name>. The sea was perfectly smooth when we pulled through the narrow passage that divides the little island of Pourewa from the mainland. The narrowest part of this passage was quite shallow at low water and over this we had to drag our boat. At the foot of a steep cliff on the island nestled a little hut, outside of which I noticed gooseberry bushes, laden with ripe fruit. Attracted by the noise of our arrival, an old man<note xml:id="fn14-53" n="1"><p>Lockwood, who married a Maori woman and the progenitor of a well-known <name key="name-400776" type="place">Tolaga Bay</name> family.</p></note>, with gray hair and beard, came out of the hut. He was all alone in this lonely, but picturesque spot. With its owner, in his rustic clothes, standing at the door, the little hut added to the picturesque and romantic atmosphere of the spot. The hermit came towards us and inquired who <pb xml:id="n62" n="54"/>we were. On being informed, he extended to us a warm welcome and a cordial invitation to help ourselves to the fruits in his garden. We, particularly I, were only too glad to accept the invitation.</p>
        <p>We decided to camp in the cove which was on the mainland and took the opportunity to look for Cook's well. We found a small round hole cut into the rock over which water fell, and above the hole the word "Cook" was graven in the rock. According to Canon Stack, who as a boy visited the cove in 1842, the name "Cook"<note xml:id="fn15-54" n="1"><p>Read Canon Stack's description of the locality in <hi rend="i">Early Maoriland Adventures.</hi></p></note> was cut into the bark of a tree that grew close to the fall.</p>
        <p>The Maori name for Cook's Cove is Opoutama. The whole locality, with its narrow passage, its precipitous little island, its cove and peculiarly shaped rocks standing out of the sea near the entrance to the passage, its isolation and wildness, was strikingly beautiful and romantic. I don't wonder why a wealthy sheep-farmer a few years ago tried very hard to persuade the natives to alienate the island to him.</p>
        <p>Pourewa, like Opoutama, is historic, for here, in this fastness lived Hinematioro, the grandmother of <name type="person" key="name-101257">Te Kani-a-takirau</name> who refused the Maori crown when it was offered to him by the Taupo chief, <name type="person" key="name-400085">Te Heuheu</name>. A war-party of the <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> tribe once besieged the island in an effort either to take Hinematioro captive or to slay her. The party would have succeeded if the chieftainess had not put out to sea in a canoe. Even so, she perished and her body was later washed up on to the beach. The early missionaries described Hinematioro as "the queen of the south," but the story contradicts the opinion generally held that Hinematioro's <hi rend="i">mana</hi> was paramount throughout the whole of the East Coast.</p>
        <p>The following morning we resumed our voyage and <pb xml:id="n63" n="55"/>bade farewell to Pourewa and its hermit. We were favoured with a southerly breeze that enabled us to reach <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> towards evening. The trip was highly successful for we brought with us as much ammunition as could have been expected and for this we were heartily greeted by the tribe. Thus ended an innocent's first trip abroad.</p>
        <p>With so much ammunition procured, a good slaughter of pigeons was assured. The <hi rend="i">hui</hi> was a great success because of the amount of pigeons and <hi rend="i">moki</hi> provided for the guests who attended in large numbers.</p>
        <p>I shall now give an account of my second trip to Gisborne, if only for the purpose of showing the tedium and the difficulties of the overland route. My father and I undertook this journey on horseback and it took us four days to do it and that was considered quite good going.</p>
        <p>My father had his doubts about taking me for the reason that I had not learned to ride. However, to be sure I could go, I at once began to learn riding. One day, when going through a simple lesson in horsemanship, I fell from my pony and though I was not hurt, I was much afraid lest my father might hear of my simple fall and so refuse to take me with him. I told some boys who witnessed my mishap to tell my father, should he inquire, that I came off the horse because it had shied. It was a lie, perhaps—a boyish lie—but I have never forgotten it.</p>
        <p>The day we set out was cold, for a southerly wind was blowing. Along the Hautai beach, near <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>, we rode into the gale and though I was cold and miserable, I was determined to see Gisborne again.</p>
        <p>As I observed the ruggedness of the land behind <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name> and saw the herds of wild cattle that roamed over it, I never thought that this wild place would one day become my home. But here, today, I have managed to provide a comfortable home for my family, <pb xml:id="n64" n="56"/>and it is here that I pen these lines. Two of my children also have their own comfortable houses in this area, and a third child has her neat cottage here also.</p>
        <p>It has become a habit of mine on awaking in the morning, to step out on the high verandah, to admire the beautiful view that can be seen from there. In the foreground is a fresh green paddock, on the left is a wooded hill, on the right is another hill on which a lighthouse is situated. Beyond the green paddock is the broad Pacific Ocean, and to the right lies East Island. Overseas vessels pass fairly close to the island practically every day and night, but coastal boats pass between the island and the mainland.</p>
        <p>Before reaching Rangitukia we rode over the highest point of the Kautuku hill, on which is a perfectly round tarn, where, centuries ago, Paikea found Hutu bathing in its still waters. It was Paikea who was rescued by a <hi rend="i">taniwha</hi> from drowning and brought on its back to New Zealand. To make a long story short, Paikea married Hutu and the issue from that union is the <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> tribe.</p>
        <p>We started out very early the following morning. We had to be ferried across the dangerous Waiapu in a canoe and our horses were towed behind. Our route— it could not be called a road—then followed the beach and was very rough in places. Often, where it was impossible to follow the beach, hills had to be climbed and usually we were unable to descend without first climbing practically to the summit—it was not just a matter of going over the brow of the hill. An example of this was our climb over Tawhiti Hill, between Waipiro and <name key="name-401068" type="place">Tokomaru Bay</name>, where the track came to within a few yards of the trig station before descending steeply to the beach on the other side.</p>
        <p>We spent the night at Te Puka, the home of the loyal chief, <name type="person" key="name-100550">Henare Potae</name>, the father of <name type="person" key="name-401147">Wiremu Potae</name>. Although travel-stained, my father and I slept between <pb xml:id="n65" n="57"/>two clean sheets. I well remember this because the Maoris had not then adopted the pakehas' custom of sleeping between sheets.</p>
        <p>On the next stage of our journey, between <name key="name-401068" type="place">Tokomaru Bay</name> and <name key="name-400776" type="place">Tolaga Bay</name>, we rode over five hills, two of which were very steep and high. As usual, the road took us to the highest points of these hills. One thing in favour of these steeply-graded roads was that they were not muddy and boggy, for every shower flushed them. That evening we reached <name key="name-400776" type="place">Tolaga Bay</name> where we were hospitably entertained.</p>
        <p>The next morning we again made an early start. Coming upon the <name key="name-405422" type="place">Uawa River</name>, a few chains below the ferry, my father chose to ride across it, his excuse for not using the ferry being that there was no punt and he did not want our horses to get wet. To my surprise I found that the river was not too deep to cross. I have often since looked at the <name key="name-405422" type="place">Uawa River</name> and thought that it might be considered almost impossible to ride across it, but, as I have said, my father and I did it. The Tolaga Bay hill, over which we rode, was not steep and here the engineers' old idea of surmounting the highest point of a hill was fortunately not observed. From the foot of the hill to Gisborne the route followed the beach almost the whole distance, and in several places it was impossible to get through at high tide. All along the route there were small native settlements which have since disappeared. There was, I recall, a settlement on either side of Gable End Foreland, or Pari-nui-te-ra, as it is called by the Maoris. The northern settlement was called Waitotara and the southern Pokotakina, but both disappeared many years ago.</p>
        <p>The Pakarae and Waiomoko rivers and the Pouawa and Turihaua streams were always dangerous when in flood. They could be forded only near their outlets to the sea. I once knew a promising young man who <pb xml:id="n66" n="58"/>was washed out to sea when endeavouring to cross the little Turihaua.</p>
        <p>We arrived at Gisborne on the fourth day. We both had fine horses and had been fortunate in regard to the weather. Had it rained we might have been delayed for days or even weeks. The above is an account of the East Coast main road over seventy years ago.</p>
        <p>At that time, Cook County included what are now Uawa, Waiapu and Matakaoa Counties. When Waiapu County was instituted road facilities began to improve and an enterprising firm inaugurated a coach service. This service had a very up and down career and was finally run off the road by the introduction of a motor service. I have said that my father and I took four days to ride from <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> to Gisborne; now, by motor-car, it takes only as many hours to do the journey.</p>
        <p>Before returning home my father and I attended the races. I had been to Maori races at home, but this was my first experience of big racing and all its glamour. The race-course was at the "Island" near Waerenga-a-Hika. There was a very large crowd and the day was delightfully fine. The ladies paraded in their pretty frocks, but what most took my fancy was the brightly coloured costumes of the jockeys. The racehorses were the most beautiful that I had ever seen. Used as I was to seeing the mongrels on the coast, I had had no idea that horses could be so beautiful.</p>
        <p>On our way to Gisborne we passed a Maori mounted on a fine-looking horse. He was wearing riding breeches and Wellington boots and I guessed that he was a shepherd for he dismounted to pull a sheep out of a drain. I believe that the adjacent land was then in the possession of a Maori, and this dandy was his shepherd. It was many years after this incident that I again met the same man in a Maori pa. Gone were the splendid riding-breeches and gorgeous <choice><orig>Well-<pb xml:id="n67" n="59"/>ington</orig><reg>Wellington</reg></choice> boots. I supposed he enjoyed life while he had the chance; at any rate, he did not seem to worry whether he had Wellington boots or not, for he was a true Maori.</p>
        <p>A little further down the road, at <name type="place" key="name-401446">Te Hapara</name>, a scene of a different kind presented itself to my astonished gaze. I thought I was really seeing things! The actors in this scene were a man and a woman. Both were on horseback and had evidently been to the races. The lady looked very neat in her riding-habit and on her side-saddle which helped her as she leaned towards the man who had his left arm about her waist. They were so absorbed in their love-making that they did not seem to care who looked on. To an innocent abroad like me, the love-scene was unique, colourful and intensely interesting, perhaps even instructive. Hitherto, I had noticed that, in Maori life, love-making was usually done in secret.</p>
        <p>Later on in life, I came to know intimately <name type="person" key="name-207604">Sir James</name> and <name type="person" key="name-401159">Lady Carroll</name>. <name type="person" key="name-207604">Sir James</name> is a well-known figure in New Zealand history. <name type="person" key="name-401159">Lady Carroll</name>, or <name type="person" key="name-401159">Heni Materoa</name>, as she was called in Maori, was reputed to be wealthy, and though she was a chieftainess she was always modest and unassuming, never seeking popularity and always giving liberally to deserving causes.</p>
        <p>I accompanied my father and others to <name key="name-401068" type="place">Tokomaru Bay</name> for the occasion of the opening of the carved house Ruatepupuke. After the <hi rend="i">hui</hi>, <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> people left for their homes in three whale-boats. Our boat, "Te Kapara," was the smallest of the three. We called at <name key="name-401849" type="place">Port Awanui</name> and, while we were ashore, the southerly breeze increased considerably. My father must have had forebodings, for, before we left on the final stage of our journey, he borrowed a large iron bath which later proved to be our salvation. The first boat, the "Heni," left a few minutes ahead of us, and our own and the other boat left about the same time. The wind <pb xml:id="n68" n="60"/>was pretty stiff and we scudded along. My father was at the steer-oar and I sat on the sternsheets at his feet. Suddenly he called out that the foremost boat had capsized. This happened about a mile and a half from the mouth of the <name type="place" key="name-405178">Waiapu River</name>. The other boat and our own picked up the people who were struggling in the water. Among them were two or three girls who had the fear of death in their eyes. It was fortunate that we were early on the scene for the sea was very rough.</p>
        <p>The "Heni" had turned over six miles from <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>, in normally comparatively safe waters and nobody could tell what fate awaited us at <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>, notorious for high winds, rough seas and a tidal rip. The "Heni" was a larger boat than ours and, in addition to the members of her crew that we had rescued, there were three other extra persons in our boat. Fortunately, I was too young to realize the serious position we were in. We could not pull back to <name key="name-401849" type="place">Port Awanui</name>, and to seek a landing was impossible, so there was no choice but to face our peril. With the larger boat behind us we sailed quite close to the island where the water was deepest, without any thought of swimming ashore if we turned over. Fortunately, the tide was right, but the passage was far from being safe for a shell of a boat such as ours. A wave lifted our boat without any harm, but, as it passed, the boat seemed to slide back and we were in a boiling trough. Then a succeeding wave towered astern of us, dashed over the boat and almost filled it with water. As the boat slid back into yet another trough it seemed to wobble with the weight of water. At my father's orders, two strong men baled the water out with the iron bath which we had brought from <name key="name-401849" type="place">Port Awanui</name>. With a bulging sail and relieved of the weight of water, the boat struggled out of danger. But soon we were again sucked into a trough and <pb xml:id="n69" n="61"/>another big wave dashed over the stern and almost swamped the boat. Once more the iron bath was put to good use, and again the boat struggled on under my father's magic seamanship. By this time we had passed the point of the island and my father swung the little craft under the lee of the island and we were able to breathe a sigh of relief. The larger boat kept fairly close to us and even yet I can see the anxious look on the skipper's face as he watched the little "Kapara's" fight for the life of its crew. I do not think we could have been saved had the worst happened.</p>
        <p>I have often wondered why my father left <name key="name-401849" type="place">Port Awanui</name> when such a gale was blowing. I have now lived long enough to learn that many disasters could have been avoided if people had been circumspect and had taken no unnecessary risk. Probably, my father would not have left <name key="name-401849" type="place">Port Awanui</name> if the other boats had not decided to leave. As it was, the crew which had showed least concern had got into trouble and her crew and passengers would have all perished had it not been for the timely arrival of the companion boats.</p>
        <p>It was my father's foresight and superb seamanship that brought us through. It was old Tatari who advised me, after he had finished a boat for me, never to put out to sea when the weather was uncertain, but, when overtaken by bad weather out at sea, to keep one's head and fight for one's life.</p>
        <p>East Cape is notoriously rough. I can think of half-a-dozen wrecks that have happened there. My brother Henry, who now lies in a foreign land, saved the sole survivor of the scow <hi rend="i">Whakapai</hi> and for his bravery was awarded the bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society. The ketch <hi rend="i">Sir Henry</hi> turned over off <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>, and although her captain made a great bid for his life, the elements proved too much for him. He disappeared in the boiling surf but his body was later <pb xml:id="n70" n="62"/>washed up on the island. Captain Goomes' body was buried on East Island by the lighthouse keepers.</p>
        <p>Te Rangitaukiwaho, a chief, was strongly advised not to put out to sea, for the moon was in its <hi rend="i">takirau</hi><note xml:id="fn16-62" n="1"><p>The fifth night of the moon.</p></note> phase and the sea would be rough, or <hi rend="i">kani</hi><note xml:id="fn17-62" n="2"><p>Literally, to saw, as the bow of a canoe cuts into the sea.</p></note>. The chief replied that he was aware of the fact but he was prepared to risk the <hi rend="i">takirau.</hi> He and all his crew perished when sailing off the notoriously dangerous Tauhinu Point, off Tokararangi reef, and a child which was born later was given the name <name type="person" key="name-101257">Te Kani-a-Takirau</name>. This child grew up to be the great <name key="name-400776" type="place">Tolaga Bay</name> chief, known throughout New Zealand.</p>
      </div>
      <pb xml:id="n71" n="63"/>
      <div xml:id="t1-body-d4" type="chapter">
        <head>Chapter IV<lb/><hi rend="i"><hi rend="c">At Te Aute College</hi></hi></head>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d4-d1" type="section">
          <p><hi rend="sc">In the second chapter</hi> I said that I first went to school at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> and I learned hardly anything. When the school closed down the nearest school was at Wai-o-Matatini and news was frequently heard of the remarkable progress of the pupils there. Both my father and my mother were anxious that I should go to school and I was keen too, so keen that a friend of mine named her first child Tawhai-kura (or Straining-after-school). Unfortunately the child did not live long and later when my youngest brother was born he also was called Tawhai-kura.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d4-d2" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">I Attend Wai-o-Matatini School</hi>
          </head>
          <p>It was arranged that I should attend the Wai-o-Matatini school and that I should stay with a family at Te Horo. Tuta and Maraea were exceedingly kind to me. My father supplied flour, which at the time was not in general use among the Maori people, so I always had bread for my lunch, but without butter. All the other children of the pa had potatoes baked in hot ashes. The potatoes were strung together and hung over one's shoulder. During the lunch-hour the children went into the scrub to cook the potatoes and there would often be a number of fires burning at the same time. A stick was pushed through several potatoes and one end of it was stuck into the ground so that it slanted over the fire. I immensely enjoyed this mode of cooking and often exchanged my bread for some potatoes thus cooked. The only children who had bread and butter were those from the small white settlement at <name key="name-401849" type="place">Port Awanui</name>.</p>
          <pb xml:id="n72" n="64"/>
          <p>Although I enjoyed going to school and Tuta and Maraea were exceedingly good to me, after a while I began to be homesick. So homesick did I become that often, on the way home from school, I would ascend a little hill from which I could see the Pukeamaru Range, for somewhere in that vicinity was my home. Finally, my father had to take me home to <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>.</p>
          <p>Wai-o-Matatini was one of the earliest schools, if not the earliest, on the East Coast. About the year 1876 a school was established at <name type="place" key="name-401950">Te Hatepe</name>, my grandfather's old pa, but the conduct of the children was so bad that it had to be closed down and the teacher was transferred to Wai-o-Matatini, where he opened a school in the Native Land Court house.</p>
          <p><name key="name-110510" type="person">Paratene Ngata</name>, father of <name type="person" key="name-208832">Sir Apirana Ngata</name>, told in the Native Land Court, how my grandfather, <name type="person" key="name-110504">Mokena Kohere</name>, restricted <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> lands from alienation. The chief would not even have the lands surveyed, for he contended that a survey led to the Land Court and this went on to the land sales. When the court house was built at Wai-o-Matatini, Mokena Kohere threatened to set fire to it. He was compelled to narrow down his reserved area to the lands across the <name type="place" key="name-405178">Waiapu River</name>, and, finally, to Marangairoa No. 1. The imputation<note xml:id="fn18-64" n="1"><p>Published in <hi rend="i">Te Wananga</hi> by <name type="person" key="name-203011">Felix Keesing</name>.</p></note> that <name type="person" key="name-110504">Mokena Kohere</name> wished to sell Marangairoa is, therefore, the more malicious.</p>
          <p>When I returned home, <name type="person" key="name-208832">Sir Apirana Ngata</name> had already been to <name type="organisation" key="name-401445">Te Aute College</name> and education was such a rare thing among Maoris, that exaggerated stories about the wonderful performances of <name type="place" key="name-401618">Te Aute</name> boys were quite common. One such story was that an old <name type="place" key="name-401618">Te Aute</name> boy was keeping the books on a cutter, in fact, he was said to be the purser. I later met this same "boy" and am sorry to say he is not as he was reputed to be when he was a boy.</p>
          <pb xml:id="n73"/>
          <p>
            <figure xml:id="KohAutoP005a">
              <graphic url="KohAutoP005a.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP005a-g"/>
              <head>Mr. <name key="name-209466" type="person">J. Thornton</name> (right), headmaster of <name type="organisation" key="name-401445">Te Aute College</name>, Mr. Webb, his first assistant, and Mrs. Thornton.</head>
            </figure>
          </p>
          <pb xml:id="n74"/>
          <p>
            <figure xml:id="KohAutoP006a">
              <graphic url="KohAutoP006a.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP006a-g"/>
              <head>Canon A. F. and Mrs. Williams. <name type="person" key="name-131395">Canon Williams</name> prepared Te Aute College pupils for confirmation.</head>
            </figure>
          </p>
          <p>
            <figure xml:id="KohAutoP006b">
              <graphic url="KohAutoP006b.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP006b-g"/>
              <head>A group of old Thornton boys. Back: <name type="person" key="name-140961">Sir Maui Pomare</name>, M.D., D.S.O.; Ven. <name type="person" key="name-405426">Archdeacon H. Hawkins</name>, L.Th.; Sir <name type="person" key="name-202886">Peter H. Buck</name> (<name type="person" key="name-202886">Te Rangihiroa</name>), Kt., D.S.O., M.D., Ch.B., D.Sc., M.A. (Yale), F.R.S.N.Z., F.R.A.I. Front: <name type="person" key="name-405436">Hamiora Hei</name>, LL.B.; <name type="person" key="name-208832">Sir Apirana Ngata</name>, Kt., M.A., LL.B., D.Litt.; Rev. <name type="person" key="name-208422">R. T. Kohere</name>, L.Th.</head>
            </figure>
          </p>
        </div>
        <pb xml:id="n75" n="65"/>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d4-d3" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">I Try to get into Te Aute</hi>
          </head>
          <p>All such stories increased my wish to go to <name type="place" key="name-401618">Te Aute</name>, and, in 1885, my father and I were once more on the road to Gisborne. All my clothes were rolled in a swag and tied in front of my saddle. My father bought some extra things for me at Gisborne, then we parted and I went by boat to Napier. I was not at all lonely for there were other boys with me. Besides, the knowledge that I was actually on my way to <name type="organisation" key="name-401445">Te Aute College</name>, that seat of learning, inspired me. I had fully made up my mind to seek knowledge—the knowledge of the white man.</p>
          <p>I found Napier to be an improvement on Gisborne. My first trip on the railway was, of course, an unforgettable experience. As the train sped past the college, handkerchiefs were fluttered from the windows to signal that pupils were arriving. At the Pukehou siding, we found boys awaiting our arrival. Our heavier luggage was put into a hand-cart and behind it we formed a small procession. The college was about a mile from the siding and as we drew near the outer gate I noticed an old-fashioned house on the left, amid tall trees. I afterwards learned that it was the home of <name key="name-209651" type="person">Archdeacon Samuel Williams</name>, who, in later life, I learned to respect and adore. We were greeted by a number of boys who were immensely enjoying themselves at football and other games. We were led into the large dining-room and were there given tea in enamel mugs, and bread with treacle. I, the greenhorn from <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>, the country bumpkin, was at <name type="organisation" key="name-401445">Te Aute College</name> at last.</p>
          <p>I first met <name type="person" key="name-209466">Mr. John Thornton</name>, the headmaster, at prayers that evening. He was a big and fine-looking man, upright, dignified and with a kindly face. He had a fine voice, and, though I knew very little English, he spoke so clearly and simply that I was able to follow <pb xml:id="n76" n="66"/>something of what he said. After the lesson and a short talk, Mr. Thornton offered extempore prayer. These, my first impressions of Mr. Thornton, were decidedly good.</p>
          <p>After prayers I was ushered into a long dormitory where I noticed how scrupulously clean everything was and how neatly the beds were made. The white clean sheets and quilts shone in the candle-light.</p>
          <p>As the bathroom was not large enough for the eighty pupils in residence, the boys got up in batches, the first batch getting up at six o'clock. Morning prayers were read in the schoolroom at seven o'clock, and, after prayers, a breakfast consisting of tea with bread and dripping was had.</p>
          <p>After breakfast, <name type="person" key="name-405444">Mr. Watarawi Paipa</name>, the Maori assistant, called me aside and told me that, as there were more boys than there was accommodation for in the college, the headmaster had decided to send home some of the boys. I knew at once that I had no hope of staying, for I knew very little indeed, and, as a matter of fact, could not say the alphabet properly. Though I was disappointed, I put on my best face under the circumstances. Watarawi was also sad for besides my being a fellow-tribesman, I came of a distinguished family. However, there was no help for it. Mr. Thornton examined us and, as I knew next to nothing, I was the very first to be weeded out.</p>
          <p>The next morning about ten of us rejects, all from the East Coast, left for Gisborne. On arrival, I was very glad to see my father who, fortunately, had not then left for home. I say that I was very glad to see him, but he was sadly disappointed upon seeing me perhaps because whatever hopes he might have entertained in regard to my future had been dashed to the ground by my appearance. My poor father! But he did not give in. He decided to leave me in Gisborne to attend the central school which several other Maori children <pb xml:id="n77" n="67"/>also attended. He arranged for me to stay at <name type="person" key="name-405445">Paora Parau</name>'s, whose name a street in Kaiti bears.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d4-d4" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">I Attend Gisborne Central</hi>
          </head>
          <p>My attendance at the Gisborne Central school for a year and a half was really the turning point in my life. Even then a man was so unkind as to tell me that I was too old to learn anything and that my best plan would be to go home and look for a wife.</p>
          <p>Paora Parau was a fine-looking old man. He was fully tattooed but always dressed like a European and was always neat. His son, Epiha, was also a fine specimen, well-educated and moved in the best pakeha circles. Unfortunately, he later got into bad company and was led astray, his beautiful wife being broken-hearted over the sad incident. They both died soon afterwards.</p>
          <p>During my sojourn in Gisborne I learned much more than the three R's—I learned other things which I would not have learned had I gone home. For instance, I learned to cook and to wash up, something that I was never permitted to do at home. As there were two of us in the house who were attending school, it fell upon us to get up early in the morning to light the fire and prepare the breakfast. Fortunately, there were no cows for us to milk.</p>
          <p>On the first morning, my father himself took me to the school where I met <name key="name-405413" type="person">Mr. Triomas Morgan</name>, the headmaster. I owe much to this gentleman, much more than he could ever have realised. With his cheery and encouraging words, he won my young heart and I felt that although I was only a green Maori boy who had been suddenly taken out of his natural surroundings and dropped in the midst of pakehadom, I had a friend in this headmaster.</p>
          <p>I was first put into the infant school, although I was by no means an infant. The headmistress, Miss <choice><orig>Daw-<pb xml:id="n78" n="68"/>son</orig><reg>Dawson</reg></choice>, showed much interest in my welfare—I both saw it and felt it—and so was encouraged. When I stood in line with other children, I towered over them as did Gulliver over the Lilliputians. Strangely enough, due to the encouragement I received from the staff, Miss Dawson, <name type="person" key="name-405443">Mr. Fred Faram</name> and others, I did not feel my position. Mr. Morgan led me to understand that he considered it an honour that I, a descendant of a chief, and a distinguished one at that, should be in his school. Despite the handicap of a strange language, I progressed remarkably well. I was moved from the infant school to the second standard and placed under the charge of Miss McIntosh. She was a strict Scotswoman, but she never once showed anger with me and perhaps that was for the best for I found that I was now making rapid progress.</p>
          <p>Among some Maori boys who attended the school were <name type="person" key="name-401160">Pare Keiha</name>, <name type="person" key="name-401159">Lady Carroll</name>'s brother, and <name type="person" key="name-405425">Albert Karaitiana</name>, the latter being reputed to be wealthy. They were, of course, in the senior classes and I wondered if I would ever be able to speak English as well as they did, never dreaming that I should one day be writing my own life story in that language. <name type="person" key="name-405425">Albert Karaitiana</name>, who was envied by the whole school because he had a bicycle of the bone-shaker type, later married a white girl. He died early in life, but <name type="person" key="name-401160">Pare Keiha</name> lived until quite recently.</p>
          <p>Only once did my father come to the school to see me. He took the trouble to bring me a kitful of <hi rend="i">kao</hi> or dried kumaras, and also brought my pony, Karakara, and later sent my little model boat to me by Skinner's schooner. I think somebody must have told my father that I was making good progress with my lessons for he seemed very pleased. He gave me his Rotherham watch which I mention here because I later had the sad experience of losing it. I was wearing a shirt into the pocket of which I had placed the watch without <pb xml:id="n79" n="69"/>fastening the chain to the shirt. I was standing on the Gisbome wharf watching a schooner leave when a man on board called to me to let go the hawser. As I stooped to untie the rope, my watch slipped from my pocket and dropped into the water. I was stricken with grief over the loss of my treasure and that night, when the tide was out, I actually took my clothes off, though nobody saw me, and went into the water to look for my watch. In spite of my efforts I did not recover it and I nursed my sorrow for days.</p>
          <p>Every Sunday, a number of students from Te Rau Theological College came to take divine services in the old church. I enjoyed their hymn-singing, especially that of <name type="person" key="name-405437">Hone Papahia</name> of Ngapuhi. He came from one of the leading families of the north and was much loved by his people. Young though I was, I felt instinctively that I was listening to and seeing a great man, as indeed he was. Years later I entered Te Rau College as a tutor and edited the <hi rend="i">Te Pipiwharauroa</hi>, which, in later years, chronicled the life and death of <name type="person" key="name-405437">Hone Papahia</name>.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d4-d5" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Davis, the Ferryman</hi>
          </head>
          <p>I must mention Mr. Davis, the ferryman. He was a rough old chap who kept a firm hand over the children who needed his services. In the morning we had to be down on the Kaiti side of the river on time, and the same applied to our arrival on the town side in the afternoon, for if one of us was late he would miss that trip and would then have to wait until another passenger arrived before being taken across. As a rule, the children were punctual on their way to school in the mornings, but on their way home, after school, there was always trouble with the boys. From a boy's point of view it was the right, or perhaps the excusable, thing to be late. How could a boy hurry away from his after-school game or rush through the town without a <pb xml:id="n80" n="70"/>word with a pal or without looking at the lovely things displayed in the windows? He would not be a boy if he did not do such things. Old Davis was not a boy, and though he had been one once, it was a waste of time to expect him to view the situation from a boy's angle. The boys had no choice but to face the lion in his den. It was his delight to leave us sitting on the bank of the river awaiting his pleasure. After being punished on the bank of the Turanganui for being late, extra punishment awaited us for the same crime on our arrival home. It began to dawn upon me that this was an unjust world.</p>
          <p>When I got the "sack" at <name type="place" key="name-401618">Te Aute</name>, to add insult to injury, a fellow-tribesman borrowed two half-crown pieces from me, promising to pay them back "next week." Hundreds of weeks have now come and gone and I am still waiting for my money.</p>
          <p>Davis was a tyrant, but he was also a fine disciplinarian, and, although we hated him, I must confess that it was he who impressed on my mind the importance of being punctual. But, nevertheless, when you come to think of it, punctuality is not everything, is it? Just think how much is missed on a country roadside because our every step is timed. Recently we—my cousin and I—divided time into two categories—pakeha time and Maori time. We have found that there is something to be said for Maori time which really means any time.</p>
          <p>A Native Minister, hardly a month ago, was timed to arrive at the carved meeting-house at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> at eleven o'clock in the morning. Although the leaders of the local tribe had assembled, no Minister turned up; he had changed his mind, excusably enough, and had gone to <name key="name-400864" type="place">Hicks Bay</name>. He appeared on the scene at two o'clock in the afternoon. We thought nothing of it, for, being a Native Minister, the gentleman seemed quite in order in carrying on racial traditions by observing <pb xml:id="n81" n="71"/>Maori time. As it was nothing untoward happened; at any rate, the meeting was a success and the Minister was able to keep all his appointments that day. The only hitch was that the Maoris had to wait a long time. What of it? We were Maoris and accustomed to anything, and that was the end of the matter.</p>
          <q>
            <lg type="verse">
              <l>"What is this life if, full of care,</l>
              <l>We have no time to stand and stare?</l>
              <l>A poor life this if, full of care,</l>
              <l>We have no time to stand and stare."</l>
            </lg>
          </q>
          <p>Ultimately, a time came and we had our revenge on old Davis. The Gisborne Borough Council resolved to span the <name key="name-405419" type="place">Turanganui River</name> with a bridge. We hailed this idea with jubilation for we knew that it would mean the end of Davis's career with his ferryboat. As the work of construction proceeded it seemed to us that a kindly providence was providing us with a citadel from which we could fire our broadsides at the ferryman and his boat. Long before the bridge was finished we began using it and Davis's days were then absolutely numbered.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d4-d6" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">My First Circus</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Before I close this account of my days at the Gisborne Central School, I must say something about my first circus, which was St. Leone's. I was dumbfounded to see two horses with a man standing with one leg on the rump of each horse, galloping around the ring with more horses in front. I was in a seventh heaven. I did not know that anything could be so grand. I was spell-bound and felt that I would give anything to be that gorgeously-clad rider. Then there was the dog race—real dogs ridden by real monkeys decked in bright robes. I looked on, amazed. The clowns playing the fool in <pb xml:id="n82" n="72"/>their quaint costumes delighted me immensely. I was so excited that I felt I was in another world altogether.</p>
          <p>Many years passed and then a circus came to <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>. My daughter and her little brother went to see it, taking with them sufficient money for one night only, and with the strict injunction that they should come home the next day. The children did not turn up the next day and when they did come home the girl explained that she could not get her little brother away from the circus grounds. When I asked how they fared in regard to money, she said that she did not go to the circus on the second night but that her brother stood outside the tent while the fun was on. I fully sympathised with my son, understanding his feelings. Then the boy tried hard to persuade his mother and me to buy Silver Mane, the performing pony, as a birthday present to him.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d4-d7" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">I Enter Te Aute College</hi>
          </head>
          <p>In 1887 I again tried to get into <name type="organisation" key="name-401445">Te Aute College</name> and this time was more fortunate. My friend and fellow-tribesman, <name type="person" key="name-405444">Watarawi Paipa</name> had died and Warihi (Wallis) Puha, another fellow-tribesman, had taken his place as a teacher. Wallis was then a famous rugby player.</p>
          <p>Because I was a big boy—I was sixteen years of age —I was put into the third standard. I still had not mastered the English alphabet. Whenever I tried to pronounce the word "lord" I pronounced it "rod," much to the amusement of my classmates and the neighbouring two classes. This went on for days, but at last I conquered the word. Of the arithmetic set for my class, I had no more idea than had the man in the moon, so I used to watch the boy next to me do his sums. It was a good thing for me that the teacher did not pull me up for copying, for I was not actually copying, but <pb xml:id="n83" n="73"/>was studying hard. I soon conquered this also, and at the mid-year examination I was head of my class.</p>
          <p>During my five years at <name type="place" key="name-401618">Te Aute</name>, I was consistently head of my class, and during my last year I was dux of the college. I passed the matriculation when twenty years of age, and I really deserved to get on for I worked very hard, like a person quickening his steps at the approach of night.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d4-d8" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">I Buy a Webster</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Although I was good at all subjects I was particularly fond of English and I remember Mr. Dunn, our master, commending me to the whole college when he discovered that I possessed a large and well-bound Webster's Dictionary. He wished me success with it. I think I may say that for whatever knowledge of English I may now have, I owe much to Mr. Dunn. I have forgotten all else I learned at school and at college, but English literature and English poetry remain as one of the chief solaces of my life. I have always maintained that English is one of the chief subjects that young Maoris must concentrate on. Apart from the accomplishment, it is the key to all other subjects, for with a good knowledge of English one is able to continue one's education to the end of one's life.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d4-d9" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">How Mr. Thornton Taught English</hi>
          </head>
          <p>It is remarkable how well <name type="place" key="name-401618">Te Aute</name> boys speak English considering that they are cut off from European company; their only models are their teachers. A member of the Board of Governors of the Gisborne High School once stated that the finest spoken English he had ever heard had been spoken by <name type="place" key="name-401618">Te Aute</name> boys. This statement has been qualified to refer only to what are termed Thornton boys, that is, pupils who were at the college during Mr. Thornton's regime.</p>
          <p>Mr. Thornton was not a university graduate, but he <pb xml:id="n84" n="74"/>made up for what he lacked. Apart from his own excellently spoken English he took much trouble to impart English to his classes. His favourite method was oral teaching, and I think this was the secret of his success as a teacher of English.</p>
          <p>Sir Apirana Ngata, <name type="person" key="name-209622">Dr. Wi Repa</name> and myself once spoke at a public meeting in Hastings and a Presbyterian clergyman remarked afterwards that he was struck by the fact that all the speakers seemed to have the same English model. I do not think there are any better speakers of the English language than the first two men I have mentioned above.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d4-d10" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Reminiscences of Mr. Thornton</hi>
          </head>
          <p>I have been told again and again that there has never been a generation of <name type="place" key="name-401618">Te Aute</name> boys like the Thornton generation. John Thornton was a remarkable man in many ways. He was a very strict disciplinarian; strict, I am sure, because he felt his responsibility to the young lives placed under his care and whose character he was expected to mould. He enforced neatness and cleanliness and, though many of the boys were very poor, he often held inspection parades at which the boys had to appear with clean boots and with every button intact. He would not tolerate haphazard work of any kind. At morning prayers, at seven o'clock, every boy had to be in his place before the arrival of Mr. Thornton and we knew it was his habit to have a cold bath regularly every morning. I have often wondered why the school woke up at six o'clock right throughout the year, for only those who have lived at <name type="place" key="name-401618">Te Aute</name> can realise how bitterly cold it is in winter. It was Mr. Thornton's intention to harden the boys and to accustom them to early rising. Every morning, he had a gang of boys working in the gardens or in the fields and every flower garden had to be well trimmed and the lawns neatly mown. My own love for neat gardens and mown <pb xml:id="n85" n="75"/>lawns must have been obtained from Mr. Thornton's teachings.</p>
          <p>Mr. Thornton was a man of firm religious faith. I always enjoyed his evening talks on religion and his sermons in the village Church on Sunday evenings. I well remember the rage Mr. Thornton got into when a clergyman read the Commination Service. It was the first and only time I ever heard such a service read, so perhaps Mr. Thornton's wrath was justified. Good Friday was observed by the college only in the morning. The Venerable Archdeacon Samuel Williams and his family were also evangelical, as were their missionary forbears, so the religious atmosphere of the whole settlement was decidedly evangelical. I considered the religion I learned then sufficient, and I did not want anything external to augment it in the way of forms, ceremonies, and such.</p>
          <p>Mr. Thornton was also an out-and-out teetotaller. This was a very important point in his character and must have had a great influence over the boys. Accustomed as they were to drunken scenes in the pas, meeting a white man, who never touched strong drink and who was the headmaster of a well-known college, must have been a wholesome lesson to them.</p>
          <p>Mr. Thornton was a simple man in all his ways and tastes, was always plainly but neatly dressed and there was nothing of the Epicure about him. He had one aim in life and that was to conduct his life as a model to the boys under his care. He inculcated in their minds the elementary rules of health; for instance, never to sit or lie on damp ground; he also taught them never to wear damp clothes or boots, to avoid draughts, to be careful with money, and numerous other things necessary to remember. All ray life I have endeavoured to avoid lying on damp ground, and have been blest with good health, for which I think I must, to some extent, thank Mr. Thornton, He did not give us any set <pb xml:id="n86" n="76"/>lectures on health, but he imparted the lessons occasionally, and then, generally, out in the fields.</p>
          <p>During my long life I have had many controversies with people on the subject, "What is the Noblest Calling or Profession?" Most people, of course, maintain that either the medical profession or the clerical profession is the noblest. I maintain that the teaching profession is the noblest and I am usually hauled over the coals, but I still maintain that view. My concrete example of the nobility of the teaching profession is Mr. Thornton. The teacher moulds the character of the child and he also moulds the body and leads the mind to appreciate the aesthetic. A doctor may repair a broken limb, a parson may mend a broken character, but the teacher moulds them both.</p>
          <p>Mr. Thornton could never stand lounging about or putting one's hands in one's pockets. When he sent a boy to fetch something, the boy had to either run or step it out, but could not drag his feet. I often heard him ask a boy after the class had shown him its work, "Rangi, why must you always be the last." I suppose he even knew that boys might develop inferiority complexes. Constantly, in season and out of season, he watched the boys with a fatherly care and took every opportunity to teach and guide them to useful and good lives.</p>
          <p>The boys revered Mr. Thornton and among themselves always referred to him as "Jack," as though he were one of them. In private company Mr. Thornton was jovial and entertaining and boys felt perfectly at home with him.</p>
          <p>Before coming to New Zealand, Mr. Thornton was headmaster of a mission school in India, and his appointment to the headmastership of <name type="organisation" key="name-401445">Te Aute College</name> in 1876 followed his being headmaster of the Oamaru Grammar School. Owing to his failing health he resigned from the college in 1910 and died on July 4th, <pb xml:id="n87" n="77"/>1913, at Hastings, at the age of 69 years, and he was buried at Te Ante.</p>
          <p>When I found myself established at <name type="place" key="name-401618">Te Aute</name>, I felt elated, as though my name had already been engraved in the scroll of honour. <name type="person" key="name-208832">Sir Apirana Ngata</name> was then still a student, but in a senior class. At the college there were representatives from all the tribes in New Zealand, from the <name key="name-124369" type="place">North Cape</name> to the Bluff. Some could speak English very well, but others, like myself, could speak only in halting English.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d4-d11" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Life at Te Aute</hi>
          </head>
          <p>The boys did all the work in the college except laundry work and scrubbing the bedrooms, this being done by maids. Washing the sheets and clothes was also done by the boys under the supervision of the matron. The most coveted position was that of assistant masters' waiter, for this flunkey was permited to eat what was left on the table. The college meals were not appetising, and I often yearned for the varied meals of home. The food was, however, wholesome, and the boys certainly thrived on it.</p>
          <p>During the football season boys became very hungry and enjoyed their simple meal of tea and bread and butter. If a boy wanted more pieces of bread he indicated the number by the fingers he put up. It was by no means unusual to see a boy with all his fingers up, and there would often be a competition to see who could eat the most pieces of bread at one meal.</p>
          <p>As a rule, boys who came from a distance and who could not afford to go home for the winter holidays, stayed at the college, but those who, like myself, had friends in <name key="name-100292" type="place">Hawke's Bay</name>, stayed with them. It was during the winter holidays that we had meals like the ones I generally had at home. There is nothing a Maori likes better than <hi rend="i">puha</hi><note xml:id="fn19-77" n="1"><p>Sowthistle.</p></note> with pork, fish of any kind, and <pb xml:id="n88" n="78"/>shell-fish of all kinds. Even Maoris who attended the university never lost their taste for the simple foods of their fathers.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d4-d12" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">We Discover the Vegetable Caterpillar</hi>
          </head>
          <p>During the winter-holidays I led two expeditions and was a member of two others. The first expedition I joined was to discover the vegetable caterpillar. I had heard of this extraordinary object but was somewhat skeptical about its existence. Our field of exploration was known as Tatham's Bush and we found this, though not extensive, still intact. As we entered the bush we had a feeling of great adventure and of curiosity, perhaps somewhat akin to the feelings Jason experienced as he approached the little bush in which was the Golden Fleece, the difference here being that we were spared the dragon's teeth and the ferocious dragon. Our trusty guide looked confident and we felt hopeful. After wandering about the bush and closely studying its floor, the guide called out, "Here's one!" We all rushed towards him. His finger was pointed at a little plant sticking out of the ground, then with his knife he dug around the growth and gradually unearthed the perfectly shaped body of a caterpillar. It was about two inches in length and the growth which looked like its tail was just as long. We found about half-a-dozen which we carried home in triumph.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d4-d13" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Failure to Scale Ruahine</hi>
          </head>
          <p>I led the next expedition myself during the Easter holidays, and its object was more ambitious than vegetable caterpillar-hunting, for it was no less than the scaling of one of Ruahine's snowy peaks. We allowed ourselves just a week and, if favoured with fine weather, might just manage to achieve our objective. We carried everything, provisions, equipment, etc., on our backs. Our first camp was near the cave at Groome's <pb xml:id="n89" n="79"/>and we inspected this and saw, for the first time, stalactites and stalagmites which we found to be in a perfect state of preservation—I mean, they had not been damaged by vandals.</p>
          <p>We started early next morning and crossed the Ruataniwha Plain which, after the luxuriant growth of the English grass we had been accustomed to seeing at <name type="place" key="name-401618">Te Aute</name>, looked like a desert. After crossing the plain we passed near the small village of Hampden, but not a soul did we see. Not far from Hampden is Tikokino where we spent our second night out and here the mighty Ruahine appeared to be much nearer. The next morning we would make the final dash, even though the top of the range seemed so far away.</p>
          <p>We really did bestir ourselves early the next morning. None of us knew the country so we were, in a sense, resorting to blind flying. Undaunted, we entered the forest and for hours we worked our way up the steep spur. We had made good progress by lunchtime, for which meal we had only bread and butter. After lunch, we had only travelled a few chains when we came upon a deep gully which lay between us and the snow-capped ridge. We were debating whether to descend into the gully or to follow the ridge for some considerable distance further, when the sky suddenly darkened and rain began to fall. We sheltered under some large trees but as there seemed little prospect of the rain ceasing and as our supply of food was running low, I gave the order to retrace our steps. We had no compass and in the darkness of the forest we lost all sense of direction. By a stroke of luck we struck a survey line which we followed until it brought us to a grassy opening where, to our delight, we saw a hut. It was, by this time, almost dark. A lonely shepherd gave us a hearty welcome. He had just baked a large loaf in a camp-oven and he offered it to us for our tea. We were famished and finished the whole loaf. The <pb xml:id="n90" n="80"/>shepherd told us that we were wise in turning back for, had we descended into the gully we would not have been able to go much farther without more time and a good supply of provisions, and, besides, we would probably have become bushed. <name type="person" key="name-405434">Dan Ellison</name> was the only member of the party about my own age, the rest being junior boys. I often wonder why people persist in attempting to scale the Himalayas; I think it is very foolish; and yet Ruahine might easily have been my own and my companions' Himalaya.</p>
          <p>During the mid-winter holidays I led a walking expedition over a large portion of <name key="name-100292" type="place">Hawke's Bay</name> and, though it was not attended by any unusual incidents it was more utilitarian than the abortive attempt to scale the heights of Ruahine. This expedition launched the Young Maori Party.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d4-d14" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Te Aute and Football</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Te Aute College is famous throughout Australasia for rugby football, and <name type="person" key="name-405449">Tom Ellison</name>, who was a member of Warbrick's Maori team which visited England and other countries in 1886, could be regarded as the greatest exponent of the rugby code. I was a member of the first <name type="organisation" key="name-401445">Te Aute College</name> team that went on tour in 1888. This team went as far as Timaru and won the majority of the matches played against leading clubs. The team was welcomed with open arms, particularly in the <name key="name-036461" type="place">South Island</name>. It was an eye-opener to young Maoris to meet charming young gentlemen at parties.</p>
          <p>One outstanding incident during the tour still lingers in my memory. We were on the balcony of a hotel at Masterton when an elderly Maori in the crowd below addressed us, the burden of his remarks being a criticism of <name type="organisation" key="name-401445">Te Aute College</name> for the part it took in advancing the interests of a dangerous game like football. Since the man seemed to be directing his words
<pb xml:id="n91"/>
<figure xml:id="KohAutoP007a"><graphic url="KohAutoP007a.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP007a-g"/><head>The <name key="name-208422" type="person">author</name> clad in Maori garments.</head></figure>
<figure xml:id="KohAutoP007b"><graphic url="KohAutoP007b.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP007b-g"/><head>The <name key="name-208422" type="person">author</name>, an undergraduate at Canterbury University College.</head></figure>
<pb xml:id="n92"/>
<figure xml:id="KohAutoP008a"><graphic url="KohAutoP008a.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP008a-g"/><head>A group of students at College House, <name key="name-124459" type="organisation">Canterbury University College</name>, Christchurch.</head></figure>
<figure xml:id="KohAutoP008b"><graphic url="KohAutoP008b.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP008b-g"/><head>First Matakaoa County Council, 1920-29. Back: <name type="person" key="name-208422">R. T. Kohere</name>, W. Walker, <name key="name-405411" type="person">Kingsford Reid</name>, <name type="person" key="name-405424">A. E. Kemp</name>, <name type="person" key="name-405430">C. R. E. Wood</name>, <name type="person" key="name-209622">Dr. Wi Repa</name>. Front: <name type="person" key="name-405429">C. I. B. Beckett</name>, <name type="person" key="name-405451">W. F. Metcalfe</name> (Chairman), <name type="person" key="name-405433">D. J. McNaught</name> (County Clerk).</head></figure>
<pb xml:id="n93" n="81"/>
at me I took it upon myself to reply defending the sport. I pointed out that it was essential and natural for the young to indulge in some wholesome form of sport, and, though I do not know whether my arguments convinced the old man, he certainly seemed to admire my pluck in replying to him on such an occasion.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d4-d15" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Historic Roto-a-Tara and a Sad Event</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Before my admission to <name type="organisation" key="name-401445">Te Aute College</name>, Karetai, a very popular boy from Otago, had been drowned in Roto-a-Tara<note xml:id="fn20-81" n="1"><p>This lake derived its name from the same Tara after whom Whanganui-a-Tara or <name key="name-030608" type="place">Port Nicholson</name> was named. A smaller lake nearby is named Roto-a-Kiwa. The Maori name for the Pacific Ocean is Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, Kiwa's great sea. Kiwa was a great navigator.</p></note> when swan-hunting on its waters. He was in a canoe and while chasing a young swan the canoe had capsized and, being unable to swim, the boy was drowned. The body was recovered the next day and was finally taken to his home in Otago for interment. The gloom of this tragic happening still hung over the college when I began to attend.</p>
          <p>The name Karetai is easily recognised as one of the greatest in the Maori history of the <name key="name-036461" type="place">South Island</name>, and should be classed with those of Tuhawaiki, or <name key="name-101757" type="person">Bloody Jack</name> as he was familiarly known to early settlers, Taiaroa and Tainui, of the <name key="name-025242" type="place">West Coast</name>.</p>
          <p>Roto-a-Tara is itself a celebrated name, and the little island near the eastern shore of the lake is of particular interest. Peach trees once grew on the island and human bones could once be seen lying about. Its name, Peach Island, was a natural adoption. When the peaches were ripe, of course, boys, having no scruples, used to eat and enjoy them, but the old Maoris regarded the island as <hi rend="i">tapu</hi>, and this also meant that the peaches should not be eaten. When young Karetai <pb xml:id="n94" n="82"/>was drowned, they attributed the sad fatality to the desecration of the sacred island by boys from the college. The students never again chased young swans on the waters of Roto-a-Tara, although they continued to catch eels in its marshes.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d4-d16" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">A Historic Island Disappears</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Both the lake and the island have since disappeared for, due to the enterprise and engineering skill of <name key="name-209651" type="person">Archdeacon Williams</name>, the Waipawa river was diverted and the lake was drained into the dry bed of the Waipawa.</p>
          <p>It was to the little island that Pareihe and other <name key="name-100292" type="place">Hawke's Bay</name> chiefs once betook themselves and their tribes for protection against attacks by tribes from Taupo, Waikato and elsewhere. When they considered their position untenable, the defenders migrated in a body to the <name key="name-401093" type="place">Mahia Peninsula</name> where they could be safe under the protection of <name type="person" key="name-110533">Te Wera</name>, the Ngapuhi chief who had equipped himself and his men with firearms. It was here at Mahia that Kakatarau, my grand-uncle, once came to ask <name type="person" key="name-110533">Te Wera</name>, Pareihe and other chiefs to help him to avenge the death of his father Pakura<note xml:id="fn21-82" n="1"><p>See Chapter I.</p></note> and this they consented to do. I do not know whether Kakatarau actually reached Roto-a-Tara, but it is affirmed that chiefs from Wairarapa joined Kakatarau's war expedition in 1836.</p>
          <p>While I was attending the college an old man, who lived at Wiwipatiki on the shore of the lake, asked me if I was a descendant of Kakatarau and, on being told I was, showed great interest in me. At that time I did not know the reason that prompted the question but I learned that later.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d4-d17" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Huhuti Swims to Her Lover</hi>
          </head>
          <p>The little island in Roto-a-Tara was also the home of Whatuiapiti, the grand-ancestor of the <name key="name-100292" type="place">Hawke's Bay</name> <pb xml:id="n95" n="83"/>tribe. He once met a young chieftainess, named Huhuti, of a neighbouring tribe and made advances to her, but her people opposed the match. Huhuti took matters into her own hands and ran away to Roto-a-Tara. She arrived on the shore of the lake at night and, failing to find a canoe to take her across, she decided to swim to the little island on which her lover lived. Arriving at the island she waited in the water until somebody came along and she then sent a message to Whatuiapiti that she had come and was waiting for him to take her to his home.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d4-d18" type="section">
          <head><hi rend="sc">Friends</hi> I <hi rend="sc">Adore</hi></head>
          <p>I cannot conclude this chapter without paying tribute to some of the people whom I learned to respect and adore during my sojourn at <name type="place" key="name-401618">Te Aute</name>.</p>
          <p>I first saw and heard the <name key="name-209651" type="person">Venerable Archdeacon Samuel Williams</name> at evening prayers at the college one Friday evening. He read the short service in Maori. He was a venerable-looking old gentleman but the point that struck me most of all was that he spoke excellent Maori, He spoke the language as adeptly as a Maori.</p>
          <p>Apart from taking a service in Maori once a week at the college, the Archdeacon had no other means of coming in contact with the students of the college of which he was founder. Not until many years after I had left the college were boys occasionally invited to tea at "the House," a name by which the Archdeacon's home was familiarly known. When I later joined the college staff, I found more freedom to go across to "the House" where I always received a welcome. When I attended <name key="name-124459" type="organisation">Canterbury College</name> and taught at Te Rau College, it was my habit to spend part of my holidays at "the House." I now count it as a privilege for me to have been permitted into that home, an ideal English home. What may be refined in my character is due <pb xml:id="n96" n="84"/>in a large degree to my association with that home; what principles I may have formed were strengthened by the inspiration I received there. Others more or less shared the privilege with me. "The open door policy" to young Maoris, adopted at <name key="name-209651" type="person">Archdeacon Williams</name>' home, I would say, advisedly and sincerely, was brought about by the influence of Miss Keith who was a companion to the Archdeacon's blind daughter, Lydia, and a more unselfish being I have never met. I am sure that this opinion is also held by the large number of people who knew Miss Keith. The Rev. <name type="person" key="name-131395">Canon A. F. Williams</name> and Mrs. Williams also adopted the "open door policy" towards the boys of the College.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d4-d19" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">A Religious Revival</hi>
          </head>
          <p>When a religious revival took place in the college, its results were far-reaching: One or two of the senior boys decided to surrender their lives to God. They began holding prayer meetings and reading their Bibles. When Mr. <name type="person" key="name-207413">F. A. Bennett</name>, late Bishop of Aotearoa, visited the college and spoke to the boys, religious enthusiasm was set ablaze. Students in a train on their way to play football at Napier, sang hymns instead of their usual songs and this proved rather disconcerting to people who kept their religion to themselves.</p>
          <p>It was as a result of this revival that the Young Maori Party was launched and bands of students tramped the country, preaching the Gospel and social reform. Though there were a few who tried to damp the ardour of the young reformers, other helped them as much as possible. It was to help these young enthusiasts and to show sympathy with them that the "open door policy" was adopted both at <name key="name-209651" type="person">Archdeacon Williams</name>'s home and at that of his nephew, the <name type="person" key="name-131395">Rev. Canon A. F. Williams</name>.</p>
          <p>At first, a Christian Endeavour Association was formed in the college and this ultimately merged with <pb xml:id="n97" n="85"/>the Students' Christian Union. As might be expected, the Christian Union met with some opposition among the boys themselves. This opposition manifested itself in what was called the "Te Kooti Gang," one of the leaders of which was <name type="person" key="name-209434">Henare Wepiha Wainohu</name>, well-known as the Padre of the Pioneer Battalion which distinguished itself during the first World War. A fine monument which was erected to the memory of Wepiha can be seen in the town of Wairoa North.</p>
        </div>
      </div>
      <pb xml:id="n98"/>
      <div xml:id="t1-body-d5" type="chapter">
        <head>Chapter V<lb/><hi rend="i"><hi rend="c">At Canterbury College</hi></hi></head>
        <p><hi rend="sc">When Mr. Thornton asked me</hi> to join the teaching staff of <name type="organisation" key="name-401445">Te Aute College</name> I was greatly pleased for I had always entertained a high opinion of teaching as a profession.</p>
        <p>I was given a private room and, as I sat at the master's table, I could not help taking a mental review of my life and, though I felt quite pleased, I was disappointed that my father, who had done so much in giving me a good education, had died in 1886 and was thus unable to share my satisfaction.</p>
        <p>I rather enjoyed my work and felt glad that I was at last earning my own living. Mr. Thornton one day congratulated me for the progress my classes were making, but I always felt that he did not like my being on friendly terms with people outside the college. There were people who thought that Maoris should be kept in their place and to show them too much kindness would spoil them. The kindness shown to me by many white families who received me into their homes remains with me as a guiding star for which I am profoundly thankful. I realize they showed much interest in me because I was a humble follower of Jesus Christ.</p>
        <p>In my second year as a teacher at the college I was not very happy. Mr. Thornton, in a very officious manner, sent me a note which said that the headmaster had seen me sitting down with my legs crossed and that I had mispronounced the name Hooker. It made me feel quite uncomfortable for I did not know it was wrong to sit down with legs crossed; and as to the pronunciation of Hooker, I wondered how on earth I was <pb xml:id="n99" n="87"/>supposed to know any difference. I had a wish to proceed to the university and Mr. Thornton's attitude increased that desire. I confided in my friends and they at once set to work to pave the way for my desire. As a result, in 1895, I found myself in Christchurch, an undergraduate at the <name key="name-124459" type="organisation">Canterbury University College</name>. I stayed at College House under <name type="person" key="name-405431">Canon Walter Harper</name>. I was not there to obtain a degree, as <name type="person" key="name-208832">Sir Apirana Ngata</name> had done earlier, but to gain further insight into the life of the pakeha. I enjoyed my three-year stay at College House and while there I made it a rule not to go out and have a good time though I made the acquaintance of a few families who were all very good to me. I enjoyed my Sunday walks over the Port Hills to the native settlement at Rapaki where I conducted divine services. I often spent a weekend here, staying at the Tikao's.</p>
        <p>I also often rode on my bicycle to Tuahiwi and was on many occasions accompanied by young white friends. I was once asked by the Presbyterian clergyman at Kaiapoi to preach in his pulpit and I consented to his request. Not long after this, <name type="person" key="name-405431">Canon Harper</name> called me aside for he had received a complaint that I had preached in a Presbyterian Church and he advised me not to do it again, not that he minded, but he thought it best not to give people occasion to talk.</p>
        <p>As a matter of fact, I found myself in great demand and spoke at many meetings of various kinds, Church meetings, prohibition meetings and I once spoke at an annual meeting of the <name key="name-405418" type="organisation">Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals</name>. I was curious to learn what the latter meeting would be like and, to my surprise, I found <name type="person" key="name-208364">Bishop Julius</name> there. He was to speak first and I was to follow him. It was a large meeting and I observed that the ladies were quite well dressed. I knew that, since the foundation of the society, annual meetings had been held and speakers had generally <pb xml:id="n100" n="88"/>spoken on kindness to dumb animals. I knew also that I was asked to speak because I was a Maori, the only Maori undergraduate at <name key="name-124459" type="organisation">Canterbury College</name>. It was a novelty and, I must say, something out of the ordinary. Evidently Bishop Julius had a similar line of thought for he gave a very interesting address as only he could give. He described a trip he had once taken to the wild <name type="place" key="name-025242">West Coast</name> where he found birds and animals were not at all timid, the inquisitive <hi rend="i">weka</hi> having almost fed out of his hand. Years later, he visited the same spot and found that the conduct of the birds and animals had changed, even his friend the <hi rend="i">weka</hi> gave him a wide berth. They had learned in the meantime that man was a beast! I was tickled by the bishop's metaphor and I have never forgotten it, though in all probability the bishop has by now forgotten all about the meeting and his brown seconder.</p>
        <p>To follow an orator like <name type="person" key="name-208364">Bishop Julius</name> was an ordeal. But I had to say something. Whatever I said, I would probably make a fool of myself. The bishop had tried to be funny and humorous, and I intended to be the same. I spoke on the evolution of the dog. I pointed out that in the past Maoris ate their dogs but that today they slept with them. I was too confused to observe the effect of my speech but I noticed some of the ladies giggling. Next morning one of the newspapers referred to my speech as having given the ladies "a creepy feeling."</p>
        <p>It was my habit to saunter down to Cathedral Square to listen to soap-box orators. I found the prohibition advocates the most interesting, particularly that unique character, <name type="person" key="name-209412">T. E. Taylor</name>. The liquor traffic, to me, is one of the world's enigmas. How a traffic that has caused so much suffering in the world could be accepted and bolstered up by Christian nations, is beyond my comprehension. Thinking of the beautiful girls who are led astray by the influence of drink, I am sure, <pb xml:id="n101" n="89"/>would make even the angels weep.</p>
        <p>I was one of the delegates from the Canterbury Christian Union who went to attend a conference in Sydney. It was my first trip from the shores of New Zealand. We had a pleasant trip across the Tasman and I looked forward with pleasant anticipation to seeing Sydney and its famous harbour. The harbour was beautiful, but it struck me that it looked more like a crack in the coast-line, and was very different from the Waitemata harbour in the picturesque <name key="name-120026" type="place">Hauraki Gulf</name>.</p>
        <p>I found that my friend, <name type="person" key="name-405436">Hamiora Hei</name>, was in the Auckland delegation. We stayed at the same home which was across the harbour. I have forgotten now all that took place at the conference, remembering only that I was asked to read a short paper on missionary literature. I seemed to have made another hit, like I did at the S.P.C.A. meeting in Christchurch, for everybody laughed. I stressed the importance of reading missionary literature if the Church folk wished to push on missionary enterprise. I said, "People find missionary books dry, they would rather read 'The Sorrows of Satan.' I tell you, if we kept ourselves posted up with what the Church is doing in the missionary fields our own faith would be quickened and then Satan's sorrows would be real." At that time, <name type="person" key="name-405440">Marie Corelli</name>'s novel was very popular.</p>
        <p>I saw as much of Sydney as I could and visited the royal mint, the museum, some Chinese factories where I saw the chopsticks being used, <name type="person" key="name-000168">Anthony Hordern</name>'s great stores and many other interesting places. A friend was kind enough to take me to historic Parramatta where I actually stood by the grave of <name type="person" key="name-208673">Samuel Marsden</name>, the man who said of the Maoris: "From my first knowledge of these people, I have always considered them the finest and noblest race of heathens known to the civilised world."</p>
        <pb xml:id="n102" n="90"/>
        <p>As I write these words, my friend, the charming Bishop of Aotearoa, accompanied by a Maori choir of young people, is in Sydney where he has been invited to attend the one-hundredth anniversary of the death of the great missionary, <name type="person" key="name-208673">Samuel Marsden</name>. In all probability he will stand by that grave, as I did over forty years ago.</p>
        <p>My guide and I returned to Sydney from Parramatta in a little boat which was loaded with peaches for the Sydney markets.</p>
        <p>I rode also out to <name key="name-400757" type="place">Botany Bay</name>, where I thought I might come across King Billy and his tribe, but not a black soul did I see. The first and only Australian aborigine I saw was on a railway platform in the <name key="name-405406" type="place">Blue Mountains</name>, and he was either the worse for liquor or just being idiotic.</p>
        <p>I went with a number of friends to Katoomba, in the <name key="name-405406" type="place">Blue Mountains</name>, where we spent a delightful week. I also went with some friends for a day in the bush expecting to find snakes but we found only the shed skin of one. I was later told that a snake had been seen not far from the cottage we occupied.</p>
        <p>I went everywhere inspecting the sights of the <name key="name-405406" type="place">Blue Mountains</name> and at the top of Govett's Leap my friends and I had a swim in the warm pool. There was I, a Maori, far from home, in the <name key="name-405406" type="place">Blue Mountains</name>, splashing in the water with white-skinned young men. There was no colour-line there for we were all brothers in Christ. The next day I felt adventurous and set out on my bicycle on the road to the far-famed Jenolan Caves, but at Blackheath I turned back.</p>
        <p>The Deck family were very good to me—they could not do enough for me. <name key="name-405410" type="person">Dr. Northcote Deck</name> is now a well-known missionary in the islands.</p>
        <p>Mr. <name key="name-405459" type="person">Quong Tart</name> made me a guest at his fine restaurant for as long as I remained in Sydney.</p>
        <p>When, for three years, I was resident in Christchurch, <pb xml:id="n103" n="91"/>I regularly attended morning services at St. Michael's and yet I never knew one family in the whole congregation. I knew some Presbyterian and Methodist families very well, particularly the Gardner family to whom I owe much, and I often wish I had more leisure and freedom so that I could go and see them. Mrs. Batten, one of Mrs. Gardner's daughters, named her son Rawhiti because I came from the rawhiti, or east. Another family named a little boy Kohere. Since leaving Christchurch I have not met either Rawhiti or Kohere. They must both be grown men now, probably with families of their own. In accordance with Maori custom I should have adopted both boys or given them some land, but my hands are full just now and for over thirty-eight years I have striven to recover my ancestral lands.</p>
        <p>The only Anglican family I had the pleasure and privilege to know in Christchurch was Mrs. Grant's, and I met them again later in Napier.</p>
        <p>I have indeed been rich in the number of my friends. It is, I know, for His sake that they show interest in me.</p>
        <p>I was at Christchurch when Mr. J. R Mott, organiser of the World's Student Christian Federation, arrived. He was accompanied by Mrs. Mott. When we said good-bye to them on the Lyttelton wharf we knew we were wishing godspeed to two of the greatest people in the Christian world.</p>
        <p>As a result of Mr. Mott's visit, a Christian Union was formed in <name key="name-124459" type="organisation">Canterbury College</name> and it was pleasing to note that there was no hostility in any shape or form shown to the introduction of religion within the college precincts. For social activity, we opened Gordon Hall in the city, where we might entertain lads, the riff-raffs of the city, in the evenings. I was surprised to notice how attentive the boys were when I addressed them.</p>
        <p>We wanted better premises and I wrote a letter to <pb xml:id="n104" n="92"/>one of the daily papers asking for assistance. It was bread cast upon the waters. A few years later I read in the newspaper that <name type="person" key="name-208129">Sir John Hall</name> had in his will left a sum towards the Gordon Hall building fund. It was decided that the money should be paid to the Y.M.C.A., Christchurch.</p>
        <p>I went to <name key="name-124459" type="organisation">Canterbury College</name> intending to learn, and, I think, I learned a great deal, although I did not obtain my degree—I obtained only the first half of it. I could not pass in mathematics which was a compulsory subject. The reason for my failure in this subject was because I had never had a proper grounding in the subject and not, as somebody once said, because I had reached the end of my intellectual tether. Instead of taking two years study in mathematics I tried to get through in one year. It is comparatively easy to obtain a B.A. degree without mathematics.</p>
        <p>All the learning I have had has been of little material benefit to me, but other people might have made more use of it. For instance, I applied for the headmastership of the Waerenga-a-Hika school and was refused. I was teaching at Te Rau College at that time, but I wanted to teach boys, not men.</p>
        <p>I have suffered injustices nearly all my life and have struggled to keep a large family clothed and fed and to give them a good education. In spite of it all, with faith in the fatherhood of God and with a mind attuned to face troubles, I have led a happy life. My mind has been so trained that there is hardly a subject that I cannot grasp intelligently or explain to others. I am an optimist, and I thank God for that blessing. The homes of uneducated people are monotonously dull.</p>
        <p>I have learned also to concentrate on whatever I am doing; speaking is no effort to me for I am never at a loss for something to say. I state all this, not to brag, but to show those who may be interested in knowing what education has done in <choice><orig>broad-<pb xml:id="n105" n="93"/>ening</orig><reg>broadening</reg></choice> my mind, in sharpening my intellect and in cultivating my tastes. My mental horizon has been extended. I may almost say that it is universal. I take the keenest interest, not only in local, but also in national as well as international affairs. I love reading and, of course, writing also. I suffer with those who suffer and rejoice with those who rejoice.</p>
        <p>I should not attribute all this to mere college education, for that is only a gateway to the higher college of the world. I have been very fortunate in my friends, especially in my pakeha friends. If there is anything worthy in me I owe it to them, to their sympathy and to their love. Alas, except for one or two, they are all gone.</p>
        <p>Lastly, whatever sort of Christian I may be, life without religion and faith would, to me, be desolate and meaningless. Truly, "man liveth not by bread alone."</p>
      </div>
      <pb xml:id="n106" n="94"/>
      <div xml:id="t1-body-d6" type="chapter">
        <head>Chapter VI<lb/><hi rend="i"><hi rend="c">At Te Rau College</hi></hi></head>
        <p><hi rend="sc">When I left Canterbury College</hi>, before completing my B.A. degree, I was appointed assistant tutor at Te Rau Theological College. The principal was the <name type="person" key="name-209644">Venerable Archdeacon H. W. Williams</name> who was later appointed Bishop of Waiapu. I found that when I taught, the Archdeacon knocked off for the day, yet there was ample work for both of us. I also considered the curriculum adopted by the college to be antiquated. All the teaching was done in Maori and, consequently, the students did not read any books in English. The field of study was very limited.</p>
        <p>When the Rev. <name type="person" key="name-131404">F. W. Chatterton</name> was appointed principal of the college, a new system was introduced. Students who had had a good education were prepared for the Grade Examinations, Mr. Chatterton taking the class while I took the older men. The college became very popular and many old <name type="place" key="name-401618">Te Aute</name> boys joined it. Several of the students became members of one of the town football clubs and some of them played for <name key="name-100562" type="place">Poverty Bay</name> in representative matches.</p>
        <p>While teaching, I also studied for the Grade Examination and passed the Fourth Grade. This examination was by no means an easy one, so it is a credit to the college and to Mr. Chatterton that four others besides myself passed the examination. The others who passed were <name key="name-405416" type="person">Pine Tamahori</name>, Tamati te Kanapu, Wiremu Tureia Puha and <name type="person" key="name-208911">Wiremu Panapa</name>. Every holder of the Fourth Grade Certificate was entitled to wear the black and purple hood and to have the letters L.Th. affixed to his name. It is not every European Anglican clergyman in New Zealand who wears the purple hood.</p>
        <pb xml:id="n107" n="95"/>
        <p>Mr. Chatterton commenced his career as a bank clerk and later took holy orders. He was vicar of the parish of All Saints, Nelson, before he was appointed principal at Te Rau College. He always evinced the greatest interest in the Maori people and even a week or two before he passed away at Tauranga, he expressed, in a letter to me, the wish that, if he were ten years younger, he would once more work among the Maoris.</p>
        <p>Mr. Chatterton was an able teacher and scholar, a fact which many people would not suspect. That many of his students passed the Grade Examinations was testimony of his abilities as a tutor. He was exceedingly popular wherever he went or worked. Although he was evangelical in his creed he was quite broadminded.</p>
        <p>When Mr. and Mrs. Chatterton went to England on leave, the <name type="person" key="name-405408">Rev. E. Ensor</name>, of the Nelson diocese, was appointed <hi rend="i">locum tenens</hi>, but before the college re-opened he was drowned while bathing at Waikanae beach. Archdeacon H. W. Williams was appointed to take charge of the college and this meant that I had to do most of the work by myself. After teaching all week and preaching oh Sundays, by the end of the year I was thoroughly fagged out. I could not trust myself to sit down in the lecture room for the fear that I should fall asleep. So tired was I, and so anxious to get away for a rest, that, when the college closed for the summer holidays I walked out of the lecture room, out of the college gates and stepped into the gig in which my wife was waiting, and we immediately drove to Whangara, fifteen miles up the coast.</p>
        <p>Due to the fine type of men we had to train, I found work at the college very absorbing. Every Sunday, students went in many directions to conduct services at various settlements, Mr. Chatterton and I also taking our full share in these duties. I usually concluded the day by taking an English service in the <pb xml:id="n108" n="96"/>country and three times held services in the Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne.</p>
        <p>I considered the work at Te Rau important and even today I look back on my thirteen years at the college as the best work in my life. Today, in many parts of New Zealand, there are clergymen who were once my pupils. The first and only Maori Archdeacon, and one of the two Maori Canons, are both old pupils of mine. Surprise was expressed on all sides when <name key="name-405409" type="person">Bishop Cherrington</name> appointed Hori Raiti Archdeacon. But when I met him in 1934 I found him to be a mature, impressive and attractive personality. Canon Keretene would also make an excellent archdeacon. When Raiti and Keretene left college the latter was far more promising than the former, but time willed otherwise.</p>
        <p>When the movement to appoint a Maori bishop was afoot the Maori clergy in the Auckland diocese unanimously decided to nominate me for the position although I was not then in active service. I was told later that when these clergymen sought information from the East Coast they were informed by somebody, who should have known better, that nobody cared for me. When I received the letter asking for my consent to the nomination, I felt humbled, but at the same time was pleased that my old pupils thought their old tutor worthy of the high position of bishop. I, of course, declined the offer.</p>
        <p>I have always felt that no honour that man could confer on me could ever be greater than the fact that I am descended from distinguished ancestors.</p>
        <p>When I became editor of <hi rend="i">Te Pipiwharauroa</hi>, I at once attacked, with much zeal, tohungaism in all its various forms. I was fully convinced that it was all humbug and said so, and, naturally, for this attitude, those who believed in it, disliked me. I was uncompromising in that attitude.</p>
        <p>In the year 1922, by the decision of the bishops, Te
<pb xml:id="n109"/>
<figure xml:id="KohAutoP009a"><graphic url="KohAutoP009a.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP009a-g"/><head>Rangiata, the author's home at <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>.</head></figure>
<figure xml:id="KohAutoP009b"><graphic url="KohAutoP009b.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP009b-g"/><head>The family at home. From left: The <name key="name-208422" type="person">author</name>, <name key="name-405460" type="person">Hinekukurangi</name> (eldest daughter), <name key="name-027843" type="person">Paratene</name> (eldest son), <name key="name-405461" type="person">Kakatarau</name>, <name key="name-405462" type="person">Oha</name>, <name key="name-101494" type="person">Mrs. Kohere</name>. In front is the dog, Rowe.</head></figure>
<pb xml:id="n110"/>
<figure xml:id="KohAutoP010a"><graphic url="KohAutoP010a.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP010a-g"/><head>Rotorua sight-seeing in the old picturesque way. The <name key="name-208422" type="person">author</name> is second from the right and the coach is standing alongside the Blue Lake.</head></figure>
<figure xml:id="KohAutoP010b"><graphic url="KohAutoP010b.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP010b-g"/><head>A Poverty Bay group of Maoris clad in a wide variety of garment. Back: Paul Amohau (huru-kuri or dog's hair), Haare Hone, <name key="name-208847" type="person">Tute Nihoniho</name>—well-known <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> cheif, <name type="person" key="name-402074">Matenga Taihuka</name>—<name key="name-100562" type="place">Povery Bay</name> cheif, Hati Poutu. Front: <name type="person" key="name-401170">Charles Ferris</name>, Tom Porter (Kiwi), <name type="person" key="name-208422">R. T. Kohere</name> (korowai), <name type="person" key="name-405446">Paratene Tatae</name>, Hatea (paaki or rain-cape).</head></figure>
<pb xml:id="n111" n="97"/>Rau College was closed down and the students were transferred to St. John's College, Auckland. This action was very much criticised by the Maori people. At a Church meeting at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>, presided over by <name key="name-131398" type="person">Bishop Sedgwick</name>, <name type="person" key="name-209622">Dr. Wi Repa</name> moved a resolution condemning the precipitate step taken by the bishops. He contended that the bishops could, at least, have taken Church leaders among the Maoris into their confidence. I supported <name type="person" key="name-209622">Dr. Wi Repa</name> by pointing out that the greatest training given at Te Rau College was the practical work undertaken by the students at various settlements. "The students at the college enjoyed taking these services and the people appreciated the visits, but by transferring Maori students to St. John's, they would be cut off from their own people. <name key="name-131398" type="person">Bishop Sedgwick</name> took the resolution ill—he did not like it. In 1937, Maori students attending St. John's were transferred to <name type="organisation" key="name-401445">Te Aute College</name> where they are still being trained, thus justifying the attitude adopted by <name type="person" key="name-209622">Dr. Wi Repa</name> and myself.</p>
        <p>Among the numerous friends of the students in <name key="name-100562" type="place">Poverty Bay</name> were Mr. and Mrs. Tom Halbert. Tom, in his time, was a great worker and this probably hastened his death. He was a remarkable man in many ways; strict and unbending. He neither smoked nor drank, which was a very remarkable thing for a man brought up as he was. He was an enthusiastic Church worker and endeavoured to live a consistent Christian life.</p>
        <p>A sad incident happened during my residence at the college. A number of the students put out to sea in a dinghy. Not one of them was a boatman or had any idea of the habits of the sea. A southerly gale had been blowing and, though the sea looked smooth, there was a swell running in. The students, instead of pulling out into deep water, sailed too close inshore, and, as they pulled across a reef, the sea rose up and <pb xml:id="n112" n="98"/>swamped the little boat. Fortunately, the mishap was observed from the shore and a little steamer went to the rescue, but one of the students, a young man named Cartwright, had disappeared. Here, again, was an accident caused by an error in judgment.</p>
        <p>At this time several Maori boys had come to Gisborne to work. Some were employed in offices and others were engaged in trades, and, to assist them, they were permitted to board at the college. I do not think any of those boys continued long in their jobs. I do not blame them altogether, for they probably found it was impossible to make ends meet.</p>
        <p>A letter from an old <name type="place" key="name-401618">Te Aute</name> boy who used to work in Auckland was published in <hi rend="i">Te Pipiwharauroa.</hi> It was a very pathetic letter, telling of the terrible time they had endured in Auckland until they found it was impossible to carry on with the small earnings they received. The writer died soon after penning the letter.</p>
        <p>I have not been an advocate of employing young Maoris in cities, either in the professions or at trades. A Maori could never compete in business with a pakeha or a Chinaman. It was not the life of his ancestors. Further, I also do not think a Maori could compete with a pakeha in a profession unless he be brilliant. A doctor, to be able to progress, must go out of New Zealand for further training. I do not know of any Maori who has been successful in a profession. The open life is the life for a Maori, not the cramped town life. We must ever remember that, though man made the town, it was God who made the country.</p>
        <p>I tried to put by as much of my salary as I could, in view of marriage. A Maori, as a rule, never worries about providing a decent home into which to take his bride, his policy being to find a wife first and the house can look after itself. I am, in a sense, eccentric.</p>
        <p>During the visit to Gisborne of Lord Ranfurly, there <pb xml:id="n113" n="99"/>was quite a throng on its way to the Botanic Gardens. During the crush I bumped into two girls to whom I apologised most profusely. I thought, at the time, that one of them looked very pretty. That girl later became my wife and faithful sharer of my somewhat up-and-down life.</p>
        <p>Both my wife and I were of some standing in our own tribes and the correct thing, therefore, was to hold a big feast to which anybody could come and eat as much as he could and could carry away as much as he liked, and when the wedding was over the young couple would have nothing with which to start life. To carry on my eccentricity, we decided our wedding should take place in the Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne, and that "the breakfast" should be a simple one.</p>
        <p>In one of <name type="person" key="name-405441">Mark Twain</name>'s books, the author gives an account of an island monarch who broke a bad custom when he was drunk by sitting among the women in the Church. Mark Twain remarks that this was the best job liquor ever did, for it put an end to a bad custom.</p>
        <p>We lost our second baby, a beautiful boy. My wife was much distressed over the child's illness and death. She had tried everything she knew and had even implored me to call in a second doctor, but it was too late. I mention this sad event in our united life because, now, with experience, we can see that we need not have lost our child for the matter was just a summer trouble but we did not then know how to stop it. Infant mortality among my people is great. I hailed with all my heart, therefore, a measure which the Labour Government has introduced in New Zealand, that of providing mothers with free medical service. Could anything be more Christian?</p>
        <p>We—my wife, two children and myself—severed our connection with Te Rau College when we shifted to <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name> at the end of 1908. I had then been ordained curate and wanted to go home. Perhaps it was the <pb xml:id="n114" n="100"/>call of the wilds. Whatever it was, it was irresistible. When, owing to an accident, I lay on my back for many weeks with only a nurse for a companion, I longed to re-visit my old boyhood haunts. I dreamed of them— I dreamed I was re-visiting the scenes of my boyhood days.</p>
        <p>On our arrival at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>, the whole place was in mild excitement over the decision of the Native Land Court in the Wharekahika Block case, and it seemed that hardly any notice was taken of our arrival. A change had already set in, not only in the attitude of the people, but also in the whole atmosphere. Here I was destined to work as a country parson for over a decade, with only a pittance of a stipend.</p>
      </div>
      <pb xml:id="n115"/>
      <div xml:id="t1-body-d7" type="chapter">
        <head>Chapter VII<lb/><hi rend="i"><hi rend="c">Life at East Cape</hi></hi></head>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d7-d1" type="section">
          <p><hi rend="sc">In the previous chapter I</hi> said that, whilst lying sick in hospital, the "call of the wilds" came to me. I literally obeyed that call, for I took my family from Gisborne, from a comfortable little home, to the fastness of <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>. No place could possibly have looked wilder. So wild was it that wild pigeons almost alighted on the roof of the house, and wild pigs could often be seen from the windows. My wife and I have often gone out pig-hunting and when we came home we have each carried a dead pig. Between East Cape and <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>, a distance of fifteen miles, there was nothing that might be called a road, and to make the journey two tidal creeks and a river had to be crossed. Between East Cape and Rangitukia, a distance of ten miles, the track wound up a steep hill. It was on this hill that I was once nearly killed when my horse fell over a steep bank, throwing me out of the saddle. In its fall, the horse would have landed on me had I not had the presence of mind to roll out of its way, and thus I escaped being crushed to death. My wife could not see me over the bank and anticipated the worst. I heard her crying so I called out that I was all right. She heard me and was intensely relieved. Over this same hill we have many times carried our children, the baby being tied tightly to its mother's body so that her hands might be free to guide the horse. On receipt of a message that one of my children was very ill I once rode over this hill at midnight. Leading a pack-horse, and in the pitch darkness, I had to dismount so that I might feel the mud of the road and thus guard myself against falling over the cliff. Even <pb xml:id="n116" n="102"/>to the present day we have to pack our stores from <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>. We have indeed been dropped into the wilds.</p>
          <p>In our home, only a small cottage, were three families, but it was not really poky and was well ventilated. Our bed was separated from the rest of the household by means of a tent-fly. Since this house was built with timber from a wreck, it might truly be said of us, as was said of the Peggotty family in Dickens's story, that we lived in a wreck. Nevertheless, even with the slight discomforts, I was very happy to be near my mother, my sister and my brothers.</p>
          <p>By "the call of the wilds" I do not, of course, mean it to be taken in the literal sense; it means that, after a man has been educated and enlightened, he goes back to the old conditions under which he was weaned. Many a <name type="place" key="name-401618">Te Aute</name> boy has been said to have "gone to the mat," or to have answered "the call of the wilds," because, after receiving a college education he has gone back to the pa, making little or no use of his education. To a certain extent this charge is justifiable. Boys who have been educated at <name type="place" key="name-401618">Te Aute</name> or at any other college, and who have gone back to the pa, have done neither good for themselves nor good for anybody else. But, naturally, some of these boys are not at all to blame. A boy once did so well at the university that there was talk of his being nominated for a Rhodes Scholarship, but the next thing I heard of him was that he was a navvy working on a public road. Yet, he was a brainy boy; but those who were in high positions, for instance, members of Parliament, did not help him when he needed help most. I have met several such men. These boys, unsuitable for any manual work, should be assisted into the professions by people with influence. There is the teaching profession<note xml:id="fn22-102" n="1"><p>Facilities are now provided to enable Maoris to enter training college.</p></note>, for instance, and as teachers these young men <pb xml:id="n117" n="103"/>could train their own people, a job for which they need not go into the towns. Surely, if education has done any good for the Maori people, one result should be that Maoris should today be teaching their own people.</p>
          <p>Take my own case. Should I have "gone to the mat" or answered "the call of the wilds"? Or should I have looked for a job in a town, married a white girl, and lived the life of a pakeha, cut off from my own people? This is the alternative.</p>
          <p>I have tried, I have yearned, to do more for my Maori people, yet all the time, placed as I am, I feel cramped. I have been driven into this position and accept it as God's will for me.</p>
          <p>After my father's death in 1886, my mother and her family moved to Rangitukia where my father had had the foresight to build a cottage. Before dying, my father asked my mother not to leave my grandfather<note xml:id="fn23-103" n="1"><p>Read <hi rend="i"><name key="name-150140" type="work">The Story of a Maori Chief</name></hi>.</p></note> but to look after him in his closing years. With my grandfather's death on March the 4th, 1894, my mother considered that she had carried out my father's wish and so was at liberty to go back to her own home.</p>
          <p>She decided to go back to <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name> where she and her aunt had lived before the Hauhau outbreak in 1865. Not one of her own people was living to give my mother a welcome home and she stayed with some old people in the neighbourhood. Later, my sister and her husband followed her and built a thatched shanty in which they lived for several months. I visited them during a holiday and found them feasting on wild pigeons. I had often expressed the hope to move to Rangitukia but my children had always opposed me for they did not wish to leave the spot they had learned to love. It was a vain hope, for I cannot go where my ancestral home and sacred places are in the possession of other people.</p>
          <p>Our arrival at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> from Gisborne was not <pb xml:id="n118" n="104"/>reassuring. The whole place was then in the throes of a Native Land Court decision which, as I have said earlier, was investigating the title to the Wharekahika block of 42,000 acres. The people were in a state of excitement because the court had dismissed <name type="person" key="name-110510">Paratene Ngata</name>'s case. Some two weeks later, <name type="person" key="name-101489">Judge R. C. Sim</name>, who had presided over the case, received word that his services would no longer be required. I was at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> when he boarded the Government steamer Tutanekai which took him to Wellington. He was a very able judge and understood Maori customs on which decisions had to be based. This cannot be said of some of the recent appointments to the Native Land Court bench. At any rate, Mr. Sim's Wharekahika judgment has not been altered.</p>
          <p>After years in pursuit of pakeha knowledge and of wandering, I have now returned to <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> where I spent my childhood days—a prophet, to his own country. I returned with a wife and a family of three. Our old home was there, but it was in the possession of another.</p>
          <p>At Te Araroa there was no parsonage where we might live, even had there been I could not have stayed for my purpose in returning home was to establish a home for my children on my own paternal ground.</p>
          <p>I had seen the <name type="person" key="name-405447">Rev. Nikora Tautau</name>, after years of hard work in the Waikato, come home to live and die in a tent.</p>
          <p>I had always thought that the best way to teach a primitive people like the Maoris was by example, not only in spiritual things but also in secular. All my life I have taught that the Christian cannot divide his life into two sections, religious and secular, for every act of a Christian must be Christian. I have always endeavoured to live such a life. I have struggled; I have suffered; I have triumphed; and I have rejoiced.</p>
          <p>As I have already stated, we took up our abode at <pb xml:id="n119" n="105"/>East Cape. I was not altogether happy about living with others in the same house, and decided to move out with my family. The frame and shell of a large house which I had planned and had started to build during a visit home, had already been finished. In this I pitched a tent for a bedroom. Outside, with timber obtained from a wreck, I constructed a sort of kitchen. The roof was covered with <hi rend="i">nikau</hi> leaves, and the chimney, the inside of which was lined with sod to prevent it from catching fire, was built of timber. It remained our kitchen for the few years I struggled to complete the house. The weatherboards and the studs of the house were pit-sawn. To bring this timber out of the bush to the site, it had to be sledged to the top of a hill, let down on a wire to the bottom on the other side, and finally sledged again over very rough and slippery rocks. The rest of the timber was obtained from a wreck. I employed two carpenters to finish the inside of the house and to make bedsteads and wardrobes, but before the carpenters came, with the help of a native carpenter, I had completed the bathroom and a large scullery. With its porcelain bath and hot water service, we found the bathroom exceedingly useful, some of the children having hot baths two or three times a week. When the house was completed, it was a very delightful sight, its white walls and red roof contrasting beautifully with the green paddock in the front and the wooded hills at the back and on either side. My wife was very happy and at night she and I would often go outside to gaze at our home glistening in the moonlight. Without exception, every visitor admired our place and a director of education once called it a paradise.</p>
          <p>When the Young Maori Party was inaugurated I read a paper, entitled "A Model Pa," at one of its conferences. In the paper I visualised a model native settlement, the houses of which were built with split <pb xml:id="n120" n="106"/>palings. I had seen some homes built with palings and I thought them a great improvement on the thatched <hi rend="i">whares</hi>. A few years later I saw those very homes being replaced by modern houses and I do not think you could now find a paling home in any East Coast settlement other than camps. On this coast there are many native homes which have every modern convenience.</p>
          <p>I found my headquarters were at the extreme eastern end of my pastorate and this was the most roadless part in the area. It promised hard horseback riding. I had not come home to take a parish, but to establish my family. However, I made up my mind to do my best under these difficult conditions. What rendered my task, and, I may say, my lot, more difficult was the smallness of my stipend, being only £75 a year. On that amount I was expected to bring up a family decently, keep a modern home and gratify cultured tastes. It was a problem and a problem that ultimately led to my resignation. I was earning £75 a year, while men whom I had trained were earning about twice that amount.</p>
          <p>Some hapless reader of these memoirs may remark, "There you are! That's what college has done for you: It has unsuited you for your life." My life! Was this to be without a good home, without cultured tastes, without the pleasure of books, without the faculty to criticise? I would rather live on shellfish and edible sea-weed than live without the attainments of which I now can boast. It was my desire to set an example, not from a pedestal, but by living amid and rising above the difficulties that others were meeting.</p>
          <p>It was my habit on a Saturday to ride out to the settlement at which I was to preach on the Sunday. I often stayed with my father's old friend, Houkamau, at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>, going on the next morning. I could not be happy when staying with a poor family when I saw <pb xml:id="n121" n="107"/>that they were putting themselves to unnecessary expense for my sake.</p>
          <p>Tides, tidal creeks and flooded rivers were always the same. I arrived at the Awatere River one evening to find that it was in high flood but, on inquiring at a nearby home, I was told that people had been crossing the river all day and that it was perfectly safe to cross. I took another look at the river and past experience convinced me that it would not be safe to attempt a crossing.</p>
          <p>It was so un-Maori to urge a visitor to pass on instead of inviting him inside. I invited myself into the home and was given a cup of tea and a dry hard biscuit. I soaked the biscuit in the tea and enjoyed the frugal meal. At this very time, the dead body of a boy who had been drowned while attempting to cross the river higher up, was being carried down in its raging waters. There was a <hi rend="i">tangi</hi><note xml:id="fn24-107" n="1"><p>Mourning for the dead.</p></note> for the drowned youth, and, when it was learned that I had been urged to cross the Awatere the evening before, there was quite a hullabaloo.</p>
          <p>My wife and I once rode out early in the morning to attend a wedding at which I was to officiate. We found that the sea was running into the mouth of the Orutua creek, so, as a precaution, we double-banked on my horse which was higher than my wife's. As we picked our way across the slippery rocks two waves washed right over the saddle and we received a thorough soaking. We had to dry our clothes before we could proceed but the wedding was held though the inevitable feast was rather overcooked.</p>
          <p>I found the riding rather strenuous during the period of the First World War, when my two brothers were away at the front. My brother-in-law had died, and the work of looking after our little station fell entirely on my shoulders. As we had no shearing-shed, our sheep <pb xml:id="n122" n="108"/>had to be driven to Horoera, about seven miles away. There were five stands in the shed at Horoera and when my sheep were to be shorn, two of the shearers stayed away, consequently my bill for wages was very high. The next year one of the owners of the shed suggested that I engage my own gang, as he had done. I did so, but the other owners objected very strongly to the employment of shearers from outside the district.</p>
          <p>Another year I took my sheep to Rangitukia. Matters went smoothly, but the arrangement caused me much work and inconvenience.</p>
          <p>Though poor Henare died at the war, the return of my other brother, Tawhai, was a great relief to me.</p>
          <p>As I could not leave Kate and our small family by themselves in such a lonely spot as <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>, I started work very early in the morning, conducted two or three services and returned home the same night. My longest and stiffest ride was to <name key="name-400864" type="place">Hicks Bay</name> and back, a distance of some forty-eight miles. When I arrived late of an evening, poor Kate would still be awake awaiting my return. At that time she did not look at all well.</p>
          <p>One night, Kate, a friend and myself left <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> late and though the weather looked threatening, we had to get home to the children. I let the two ladies travel on ahead for I had to attend to something and this delayed me. When I got to the bad bluff, I found the ladies huddled against the precipitous cliff waiting for me. It was bitterly cold and the wind was blowing hard, as only an <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name> wind could blow. They told me that they had not dared to move in case they should have taken a false step and fallen headlong into the boiling sea below. However, with me to lead them, they clutched to each other and to me, as alpinists do, and in single file, we reached home in safety.</p>
          <p>The wind was once blowing with such terrific force that my horse refused to face the pelting sand, so I had no option but to take the saddle off and let him go. <pb xml:id="n123" n="109"/>On some parts of the narrow track, to avoid being blown off my feet, I had to fall flat on my stomach and crawl along on hands and knees. When I arrived home, my face was bleeding from the pelting I had received from the driving sand and grit.</p>
          <p>I had to travel on weekdays to take funerals and to officiate at weddings. Though I did not charge or receive money for funerals, I did expect a small token at weddings.</p>
          <p>To supplement my meagre stipend we had to grow potatoes, kumaras, maize, pumpkins and other small vegetables. My family also had some sheep and cattle. But for the assistance we received at home we would never have been able to carry on with a stipend of only £75 per annum.</p>
          <p>I think my preaching and teaching was acceptable for with the training I had received I should have been able to give interesting and edifying sermons. I have always been interested in imparting knowledge and information. Between the services and after lunch on Sundays, it was my practice to tell the people important world news. Maoris are always thirsty for news and information and it is regrettable that those who are in a position to do so have not started a really good Maori newspaper. Members of the Waiapu Hospital and Charitable Aid Board recently complained that natives were spending too much on the Talkies and were not meeting their hospital expenses. The complaint can be quite justifiably answered. Maoris rush the Talkies because they usually lead very dull lives at home, many of them having nothing to read.</p>
          <p>When a man, who carried the mail to the lighthouse on East Island, gave up the job, at the request of the principal keeper, I took it on because I thought the job would give me the opportunity to do some fishing and would give my family a little more, and besides, it enabled us to gather some shell-fish which were <choice><orig>plenti-<pb xml:id="n124" n="110"/>ful</orig><reg>plentiful</reg></choice> on the little island. Being a new broom, I was anxious to make a start and so, with two companions, I set out late one afternoon to cross the passage, a distance of three miles, in a small boat. We lost no time in delivering the mail and in taking on board the outward mail.</p>
          <p>We were but half-way across the passage on our return journey when darkness fell. By the outline of the hills against the sky we were able to judge the whereabouts of the landing but it was too dark to see the entrance to the narrow channel. To run the risk of missing the channel might mean striking the dangerous rocks so we bided our time. However, we realised that we could not stay out in the open sea all night, for, at <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>, a change in the tide and weather might take place quite suddenly. I was just on the point of deciding to run the risk of missing the channel when, to our joy, we discerned the glimmer of a light on shore.</p>
          <p>My old mother, true to mother's instinct, had guessed that we were in trouble and had come all alone for half a mile to guide us into the channel by the light of a lantern. So guided, we landed safely and my mother told me, with tenderness, not to run any risk in future. We had run a risk, and had narrowly escaped with our lives.</p>
          <p>Some others and myself once had a narrow escape from drowning. We had pulled across the passage to East Island and on our way back I noticed that the landing was not going to be very easy; with the incoming tide a heavy surf was running. I was at the steer-oar and had just given the order to pull when I saw heavy waves forming behind us. I gave the order to backwater but my sister disputed my order and, having no time to argue, I called out to them to pull for their lives. But we were caught squarely and, like a cockleshell, the little craft was lifted out of the water <pb xml:id="n125" n="111"/>and turned over. When I came to the surface I clung, with the others, to the overturned boat, but another wave washed us off. I took many mouthfuls of water. We managed to reach the boat once more but again a wave washed us off. We were in a bad way and I was feeling exhausted. Fortunately the overturned boat had gone over the reef and was in deeper water where the sea did not break. I noticed my sister holding up the little boy and heard her calling for help but I could not go to her assistance. A life-buoy which I had placed in the boat was providentially floating her way and this, she grabbed, finding it sufficient to keep them afloat until I pushed a sweep towards them and to this they clung until they were washed up on the beach. The best swimmer among us had struck out for the rocks and was by this time watching us struggling for our lives. Fortunately the tide was coming in and after about a quarter of an hour we were safe on the beach. Had the tide been going out we would have been unable to reach land. Ours was a merciful deliverance.</p>
          <p>At this time my beautiful little boy was lying ill and he did not recover.</p>
          <p>As my brother-in-law was dead and my two brothers were away at the war, it fell to me to look after the farm. I had to do many things that were foreign to my upbringing. I had to plough, pack, fence, muster, drove, attend to the shearing of the sheep, and, on Sundays, conduct my services.</p>
          <p>I had always wished for an opportunity to enable me to give more time to Church work.</p>
          <p>The problem of education of our children soon confronted me. The nearest school was at Horoera, about five miles away, and to attend it the children had to ride on horseback along an exposed beach.</p>
          <p>On Tawhai's return from the war, in 1918, I shifted my family to <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>. Although I could get about <pb xml:id="n126" n="112"/>and our little children could go to school, I was not happy during the three years we were at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>. My brother always left the Cape at week-ends and our beautiful house was left without anybody to look after it. I worried at night and often dreamed that the house was on fire. One of my parishioners who must have appreciated the difficulties of my position, one day asked me how I could leave my beautiful home.</p>
          <p>We had to keep an open door at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> and a depression was on. I often rode to <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name> during the week to get meat and to fetch a fresh horse. With a stipend of only £75, we soon found ourselves in financial difficulties. But for the generosity of the storekeepers, we would have starved.</p>
          <p>At the Cape we had working horses, implements, good soil and good paddocks, but at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> we had either to borrow or pay. My wife and I worked hard to grow potatoes and kumaras but the soil had been exhausted and it was almost impossible to eradicate the weeds. We found a great friend in Rawinia who often brought us a sledge-load of potatoes, kumaras and pumpkins and occasionally watermelons. Another woman, by no means a saint, often brought us fish. I am pleased to acknowledge the kindness of these two good Samaritans, though both of them have long since died.</p>
          <p>The chief Houkamau died in 1916 and I could not help observing that there was rivalry as to who should be chief or chieftainess. Houkamau really belonged to <name key="name-400864" type="place">Hicks Bay</name>. The leading man at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> was undoubtedly <name type="person" key="name-101358">Hori Mahue</name>. He was a picturesque figure, tall, big, handsome and, adding to these striking features was his intellectuality and spirituality. He was of great assistance to me in my Church work. He was also a regular attendant at Church and at Holy Communion, and he would always be at his seat before the first bell rang. He once said to his friend, Pira
<pb xml:id="n127"/>
<figure xml:id="KohAutoP011a"><graphic url="KohAutoP011a.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP011a-g"/><head>Rangiata, East Cape, home of the author.</head></figure>
<pb xml:id="n128"/>
<figure xml:id="KohAutoP012a"><graphic url="KohAutoP012a.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP012a-g"/><head><name key="name-101494" type="person">Mrs. Kohere</name> and family: (from left) <name key="name-405461" type="person">Kakatarau</name>, <name key="name-027843" type="person">Paratene</name> and <name key="name-405460" type="person">Hinekukurangi</name>.</head></figure>
<figure xml:id="KohAutoP012b"><graphic url="KohAutoP012b.jpg" mimeType="image/jpeg" xml:id="KohAutoP012b-g"/><head>Mrs. <name key="name-405463" type="person">Roha Huriwai</name>, Te Araroa.</head></figure>
<pb xml:id="n129" n="113"/>Hauiti, "Pira, time was when I did not care to go to Church, but now it is a pleasure and a joy to me." His wife, Mihi, was a dear old soul, had a fine character, and was always bright and happy. She passed away in October, 1949, her husband having predeceased her by several years.</p>
          <p>St. Stephen's Church, one of the oldest Churches on the East Coast, was built in 1861. On the occasion of its opening, a small sum of money was collected and this formed the nucleus of the Waiapu Bishopric Fund and this was one reason for the diocese being called Waiapu. When I took over the parochial district, the Church had been blown down. I took steps to rebuild it, the cost being £1600. The usual Maori way to pay for Churches and other public buildings was to call a big hui. <name type="person" key="name-101358">Hori Mahue</name> and others, adopting my advice, were determined to pay the debt on the Church by direct giving which was quite a new method among the Maoris. At a meeting called to discuss the matter, Hori's cousin stood up and put down a ten pound note; Hori followed with a similar amount and others brought contributions from outside districts. Every penny owing on the Church was paid before it was consecrated. I always advocated a system of direct giving and I hoped that this occasion would launch it as a permanent arrangement but other influences stood in the way.</p>
          <p>Sir Apirana Ngata, who is credited with founding the Young Maori Party, always had a fondness for huis and gatherings which Maoris have. The debt on the Church had been paid, but he organised a large meeting the purpose of which was to collect money to help returned Maori soldiers within the Eastern Maori Electorate. A large number of people from <name key="name-100292" type="place">Hawke's Bay</name> came by special boat, and the sum of £3,170 was collected. Money raised as the result of a queen carnival brought the total amount to £4,570. It may be briefly stated that the returned Maori soldiers' <pb xml:id="n130" n="114"/>fund amounted to over £42,000.</p>
          <p>An incident in connection with the building of the Church might well be recorded. It was decided to cover the roof with slate tiles and to use sheet-lead to cover the upper portion of the tall spire. A man came from Auckland to put on the tiles, a job which he carried out fairly well, but, on the advice of two Maoris, he also covered the steep roof of the spire with slate tiles though the lead was actually on the spot. I at once saw that the job was unsatisfactory and before the carpenters dismantled the scaffolding, I asked them to leave it erected as I was not satisfied with the work on the spire. The foreman readily agreed and told me that he had expected me to interfere. In a short time people, both Maori and pakeha, came from every direction, the Maoris protesting but the pakehas siding with me on the matter and telling the Maoris that it was beyond them as it was not a kumara pit.</p>
          <p>While I was telephoning I overhead the young chieftainess asking an old clergyman to come to see what I was doing. I was prepared to meet the situation. The old clergyman arrived in a towering rage and told me to leave the spire as it was, in spite of the fact that I was responsible for the re-erection of the Church. However, the Maoris were all angry with me and practically told me to mind my own business and to let the women's committee alone. <name type="person" key="name-401577">Mr. George Kirk</name>, who was financing the job, came to inquire into the trouble. At a meeting of the people an old man contended that the chieftainess was responsible for the work of building the Church and that nobody else must interfere. I explained that I had consulted the chieftainess and that she had agreed that the work on the spire was unsatisfactory and that in reply to my telegram the architect had stated that it would be dangerous to put tiles on the spire. An expert had to come from Auckland to Te Araroa to inspect the work which, <pb xml:id="n131" n="115"/>of course, he condemned The trouble was perhaps only a storm in a tea-cup, but it shows that there is always jealousy in a Maori community. St. Stephen's is now one of the most beautiful Churches on the East Coast.</p>
          <p>In the Church is a brass tablet to the memory of the <name type="person" key="name-110541">Rev. Rota Waitoa</name>, who was the first Maori to be admitted into the ministry of the <name key="name-008358" type="organisation">Church of England</name>. He met much opposition from the chief, <name key="name-101382" type="person">Iharaira Houkamau</name>, who resented the idea of a Maori from another tribe assuming the position of a teacher and a leader. By forbearance Rota won over the chief who, after preparation, was baptised with the name Iharaira (Israel). To show how contrite he was, Iharaira requested that he might be appointed bellringer and sweeper of the Church.</p>
          <p>In the early days of the Church, the Maori Christians were very strict in their observance of the Lord's Day. No work of any kind was permitted, no clothes were allowed to be hung out to dry, no firewood chopped, no potatoes or kumaras peeled, and no travelling could be undertaken. Today, Maoris have gone to the other extreme.</p>
          <p>After the carved whare, Hinerupe, and the Rongomaitapui hall were completed in 1938, <name type="person" key="name-209622">Dr. Wi Repa</name>, some others and myself, were officially appointed trustees of the Hinerupe marae. <name type="person" key="name-209622">Dr. Wi Repa</name> declined his appointment because, as he told me, there would always be squabbling among the people and the trustees would be the target of criticism. I did not resign, thinking that I would be able to help look after the two beautiful houses. A self-appointed committee was then in charge and received all money paid for the use of the hall. Although I was elected chairman of the trustees and was urged by the elders to take control of the marae and its finances, I refrained from interfering. A fellow trustee drew my <pb xml:id="n132" n="116"/>attention to the state of the hall: tanks were leaking and crockery and bedding had disappeared, I then agreed to take action, with the consent of the other trustees.</p>
          <p>The trustees took control of the marae for over a year and showed how it should be run. They replaced the leaking tanks, bought new crockery and took charge of the finances. At this time the soldiers were returning home after the conclusion of the war. In accordance with the custom, we had to present every soldier with money, and a fresh batch of soldiers was arriving every week. One time, a large batch of returned men, under <name type="person" key="name-208379">Col. Reta Keiha</name>, arrived and in the morning, I set to work to find money. I was able to collect the sum of £42. Each man was given £3 and the officer, being a new arrival in the <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> territory, was given £10. Even after this, our enemies did not cease to move heaven and earth to oust the legal trustees. We were actually hauled before the Native Land Court. Judge Carr, fearful lest a charge of misappropriation of funds be brought against the trustees, wished me to settle the dispute out of court. But, when the court opened, the enemies could not formulate a charge.</p>
          <p>At the annual meeting of trustees, the treasurer, <name key="name-405420" type="person">Turei Brown</name>, submitted a properly audited balance-sheet, showing a good credit. Trustees wished to emphasise the importance of properly disbursing public money, for rafferty rule had been and is still the practice, especially in the case of big huis.</p>
          <p>Once more our enemies called a large meeting which I was not bound to attend. They could not bring any charge against the trustees. The meeting was obviously divided into two sections, the young, whipped up by fanatics, siding with the enemy, and the elders siding with the trustees. I gave the people an opening by reading out the trustees' report and balance-sheet, but, even then, the opponents could not pick holes. However, <pb xml:id="n133" n="117"/>as chairman and on behalf of the trustees, I handed over the marae to the irresponsible agitators. I was thoroughly sick of the whole business. My wife was glad to see me come home and said, "Wash your hands of them and let them go to hell."</p>
          <p>Strangely enough, not long after these happenings, the ring-leader lost a lucrative and very important position. Needless to say neither the trustees nor myself had anything whatever to do with his dismissal.</p>
          <p>In 1946, the lead which covered the tall spire of the beautiful Church, began to peel off. Nobody took the slightest notice. As time passed the tear opened further and the Church began to leak. My daughter, Rewa, took it upon herself to collect money for the purpose of repairing the damage and she collected the sum of £137 which she deposited in the bank. Meanwhile the marae committee looked on with complacency, waiting for something to turn up.</p>
          <p>In 1947, a meeting was called at the marae to decide how much the people should contribute to <name type="person" key="name-208832">Sir Apirana Ngata</name>'s gigantic hui at Ruatoria. As we had contributed £100 to the V.C. meeting in 1943, it was unanimously decided to contribute £150 on this occasion. When Sir Apirana Ngata was notified of the proposed sum, he was displeased and said, "Is that all?" Only when the sum was raised to £500 was he satisfied and he smiled. And still the beautiful Church at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>, with its spire pointing to heaven, remains unrepaired.</p>
          <p>No more, august body of visitors could have honoured any marae than that of <name type="person" key="name-202886">Sir Peter Buck</name>, with his fellow-scientists and Government officials and others, with <name type="person" key="name-208832">Sir Apirana Ngata</name> as cicerone. They had had only a cup of tea at Rangitukia, before coming on to <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>, and so were ready for a feast, as might well be expected. They were given poor mutton boiled with kumara and puha. I felt so ashamed that I walked from the <pb xml:id="n134" n="118"/>table. I heard <name type="person" key="name-208832">Sir Apirana</name> call out, "Where are the crayfish and sea-eggs?" They were still in the sea, not far off. It was a consolation to my harassed soul that <name type="person" key="name-208832">Sir Apirana Ngata</name>'s own people were responsible for the meal.</p>
          <p>I confess that I am not a strict Sabbatarian, nor, for that matter was Christ Himself as strict as the Jews or the Maoris in their observance of Sunday. Christ hurt the susceptibilities of the Jews on this very question. I have been guided by His word that the sabbath was made for man and not man made for the sabbath.</p>
          <p>We have a fine tennis court in front of our home at <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name> and although I connive at quiet games being played on Sundays I draw the line at organised tennis parties. Once, cricketers asked one of my sons to approach me about playing a match in my paddock on a Sunday. My son's advice was "Don't ask the old man for permission for he would assuredly say no. Go on with the match and he won't say anything." On my return home on that Sunday afternoon, a pretty scene presented itself to my eyes. The men, rigged up in their best clothes, were playing in the middle of the green paddock, and the women, also in their Sunday best, were preparing afternoon tea, while the children gambolled like lambs. Now, would I not have been a brute to have spoilt these people's simple pleasure by forbidding the play? What I should have done was to have called for a short service, but even this, laudable though it may appear, might have spoilt the fun.</p>
          <p>One day, on returning to <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> from a trip to <name key="name-400864" type="place">Hicks Bay</name>, I found my wife in one of our gardens. Though she was not really fit to do any work, there she was on her hands and knees weeding the ground. I told her we were going home to <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>, and, later, when the Bishop came, I told him of our plight. I told him I intended to resign. Before accepting my resignation, the Bishop suggested my transference to <pb xml:id="n135" n="119"/>another district. But with the country in the midst of a depression, I did not like the prospect of shifting my large family and thus leaving behind a home to which I had done so much, and a farm which was the only thing I could bequeath to my children. I knew of other Maori clergymen who had died, leaving behind them debts for their families to pay. If I were to be transferred elsewhere I would leave behind me unpaid debts at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>. I was determined, therefore, to resign.</p>
          <p>Some people took it into their heads that to resign a charge was tantamount to resigning from religion. They had not then learned that religion was part of one and could not be set aside as one would take off one's Sunday clothes.</p>
          <p>I continued taking services until I found the hard riding too much for me. I still celebrate marriages, administer the Holy Communion, christen children and take funerals, all, of course, without any remuneration. Even today, I would do much more if I could get about more easily than by riding on horse-back.</p>
          <p>I must briefly refer here to an unpleasant incident that occurred when I attended a sitting of the synod at Napier.</p>
          <p>The Maori clergy were invited to Bishopscourt for a conference during which the Bishop referred to Maori clergymen who were working on their own lands; he expressed his disapproval. He said that the trouble with the Maori clergy was that they were not converted. I felt he was aiming at me though I was not the only clergyman who was doing something on ancestral lands. What made the conference more painful was the attitude of a clergyman who stated that, although his aged father was helpless, he had left him behind in order to do God's work elsewhere, for he obeyed the Master's words to let "the dead bury the dead." The Bishop held this man up as a model for <pb xml:id="n136" n="120"/>others to copy. A fellow-tribesman of the model protested by saying that the East Coast clergy had good lands whereas he and others had only pumice lands that did not call for development. It was a painful incident and I had to restrain myself.</p>
          <p>After my arrival home, I forwarded my resignation to the Bishop, but, of course, he did not accept it.</p>
          <p>Economic stress later compelled me to send in my resignation to <name key="name-131398" type="person">Bishop Sedgewick</name>.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d7-d2" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">A Sad Day at East Cape</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Here I should like to record a very sad page in our family history. Before referring to it, however, I mention a case of gross carelessness committed by one of my brothers who was regarded as a model of commonsense and carefulness. He arrived from Rangitukia and borrowed my gun to do a little shooting. He came back without firing a shot, but, instead of taking the live cartridge out of the gun and putting both out of the children's reach, he left the loaded gun on a low platform and came to see us while we were working in the gardens. As soon as the children saw the gun, three of them—a boy and his two little sisters—of course, made for it. The boy got hold of it and pulled the trigger. The gun went off, miraculously missing the two little girls. When we heard the noise of the shot my brother cried out, "That's my gun." I knew the children were about so I ran towards the back of the house and under a platform I could see three pairs of little legs and so I knew that the three children were safe. After the gun had gone off the boy threw it away and was expecting some punishment, but, of course, he could not be blamed for the incident.</p>
          <p>One afternoon in 1946 Kate and I harnessed up the farm cart to take the children to the watermelon patch. We went first to the kumara cultivation to get some kumara for tea. The little children pulled up the <pb xml:id="n137" n="121"/>runners and dug up the tubers. Turiri, Heni's two-year-old son, was one of the diggers and helped to take the kumara runners to the cows waiting outside the fence. From the kumara patch we went towards the watermelons which were then ripe. That, was the main objective and it was looked forward to with the keenest interest. Arriving at the garden, I put a strong rope around the horse's neck and tied the other end to a post. What I should have done—wise now, after the event—was to have undone the trace-chains, but I thought everything was secure. We had gathered a heap of watermelons and, to cover this, I called out to the biggest boy asking him to fetch some rushes, but instead of bringing an armful he picked up a whole bush which had been uprooted, and placed it on his head like an umbrella. The horse saw him approaching and became restive, but the boy, his sight blinded by the rushes, could not see the effect his umbrella was having on the horse. The nearer he approached the more restive the horse became. I tried to quieten the animal but to no avail. I could not, of course, see what was frightening it. At last, it tugged on the rope and broke the post. I clung to the rope and was dragged some distance. However, the children were so far safe, for the horse, with the cart behind it, made for the gate. One of my sons went after it and I heard him yell, "Look after the children," for the horse was coming through the tall maize and I couldn't see it. I ran forward to try to divert its dangerous course. I thought the children were safe, but when I looked back I saw my wife dragging Turiri. The tall grass impeded her and both fell down, the little boy falling right in the path of one of the wheels of the cart. It passed over his body and injured his kidneys, and he died the same night. Turiri was a lovable little boy with a shy look in his eyes. His mother and father, who lived nearby, used to let him visit us almost every <pb xml:id="n138" n="122"/>day, so his death caused deep gloom in our family.</p>
          <p>I shall now mention some of the more pleasant sides of our life at <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>; two of my neighbours, one on my right and the other on my left, share with me the opinion I am about to express. The three of us consider our homes to be the best places in the world, not that we claim to be correct, but that is nonetheless our opinion. Provided a man is happy in his home it follows that it must be a good home, no matter what other people think of it. We can truly sing, "Home, Sweet Home, there's no place like home."</p>
          <p>With such a state of mind and such an attitude towards life, I may, unconsciously, introduce some elements of self-praise and conceit. At any rate, I am confident that the life that my wife, our children and myself live here at <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name> is the proper life for a Maori family to live if they wish to be happy. It may be argued that I have been fortunate in receiving an education, denied to most of my race. All the education I ever received has not helped to give me a living wage or salary. The highest salary I received as a tutor in a college was no more than £150 per annum. For three years I worked at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> for a mere pittance of £75 a year, and on that amount I kept an open house and brought up a large family. Life then was a terrible struggle and even at present, on my own sheep station, I have been compelled to live on the old age benefit. For some years we somehow managed to live on my own benefit, without the addition of my wife's.</p>
          <p>By the loss of our ancestral land at Kautuku, my family and I were crushed.</p>
          <p>It may sound incredible that in spite of difficulties and drawbacks we, as a family, are happy and contented, for we have been fortunate to secure this lovely spot where I pen these lines.</p>
          <p>At present, my wife and I are passing rich with <pb xml:id="n139" n="123"/>two age benefits a year. We have dependants and often entertain visitors. This, I hope, will not be taken as a hint that our friends are not wanted on the premises. We have managed to keep our heads above water only by saving money and living a simple life.</p>
          <p>We live in a really fine large house which some people have dubbed, not ironically, a mansion. The old house does look very beautiful with its walls of cream and roof of red. It may be old fashioned, but, nevertheless, its gables give it a stylish appearance. The inside, though not grand, is simple and pleasing. The bay window, carved by a visitor and decorated by my wife and myself is the admiration of everybody who sees it. The house has every convenience but one, an important exception which I need not mention. I hope soon to rectify this one defect in our home which is lighted by electricity and is supplied with water from a spring.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d7-d3" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">"They Live in Their Gardens"</hi>
          </head>
          <p>The grounds around are in keeping with the appearance of the house. At the front are a well-kept tennis court and mown lawns; at the sides are flower-beds. From the bay-window can be seen a large bed of rose-bushes which, as I write, are in full bloom and are of all shades and colours. Beyond the rose-bed is a bed of about two-hundred gladioli.</p>
          <p>Perhaps a little about the gardening side of my wife's life may now be mentioned. Though we are both fond of gardening, my wife is more successful than I She toils incessantly in her flower and kitchen gardens and also in the larger cultivations of kumaras, potatoes, maize, pumpkins, marrow, and water and rock-melons.</p>
          <p>In order to keep down the weeds in the kumara cultivations, my wife starts to work before breakfast, takes a spell when breakfast is brought to her, and <pb xml:id="n140" n="124"/>then starts again and continues until lunchtime. Lunch is also brought to her. For an hour or two after lunch, she takes a siesta for which she does not go home but, instead, lies on a rug spread out on the long grass under a shady tree. When she wakes up she is soon back at her hand-hoe and works on until it is time to go home for tea. My wife works in the kumara cultivation until the runners become too long. She repeats the performance every year but does not neglect her flower and kitchen gardens.</p>
          <p>In 1947, the Under Secretary of the Native Department, <name type="person" key="name-101465">Mr. G. P. Shepherd</name>, with a party of nine, visited <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>. Mr. Shepherd was delighted with the kitchen gardens of such an out-of-the-way place. He was particularly thrilled by the peas which were at various stages of maturity. He said to Mrs. Kohers, "I am sure you've kept your gardens in such splendid order, not in anticipation of a visit from my party, but just for your own pleasure and for the good of your family. I wish all Maori families did the same. How much better off and happier they would be." Later, I called on Mr. Shepherd in his office at Wellington and he told me that the day he and his party had spent at <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name> was one of the happiest days of his life.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d7-d4" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Green Peas at Christmas Time Only</hi>
          </head>
          <p>When Mrs. H. V. Fairlie, of <name key="name-401068" type="place">Tokomaru Bay</name>, with her sister, spent a week with us, she was very struck by seeing green peas on the table every day. She remarked, "You know, we have green peas only at Christmas time." Mrs. Fairlie was educated at Hukarere and was a very refined lady and pillar of the Church. She died recently at the age of eighty-three years.</p>
          <p>A well-spoken Maori briefly summed up our life at <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name> in the following words: "You know, those two <pb xml:id="n141" n="125"/>live in their gardens." Wasn't it the great <name key="name-110348" type="person">Lord Francis Bacon</name> who described gardening as the purest pleasure? Nearly every white resident at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> has a garden in which he spends all the spare time he has, but few Maoris have gardens. If people only worked more in home gardens they would have less time for the "pub" and they would be much happier.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d7-d5" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">And They Sleep in Their Gardens</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Though we have no rabbits on the East Coast, we have much trouble with hares, there being abundant cover for them close to the kumara cultivations. They are very fond of the tender young plants, so in an effort to keep them away we tied dogs along the fence but the hares seemed to realise that, like the lions in <hi rend="i">Pilgrim's Progress</hi>, the dogs were tied up and were perfectly harmless. They did most of the damage in the early morning, so my wife and I decided that we should sleep at the cultivations. We improvised a roof by placing half-a-dozen corrugated iron sheets between two wires of a fence and placing heavy weights on the ends of the sheets touching the ground. We found ample cover from rain under the protruding ends of the iron sheets on the other side of the fence. Under this shelter we placed a spring mattress on two cross logs and on the top of the spring mattress another mattress. We even had sheets. It was a novel kind of camp and we immensely enjoyed our unorthodox life there. We tied an old iron dish to the fence and this we used as a gong which we beat occasionally. The loud beating of the gong sent the hares scampering into the jungle.</p>
          <p>If the wind changed we had only to reverse our shelter and place our bedding on the other side of the fence. It might have been termed a sort of see-saw camp. As a precaution against a sudden change of wind and rain, we put oilskins over the blankets.</p>
          <pb xml:id="n142" n="126"/>
          <p>When the kumara plants were sufficiently established the hares would not touch them and it was, therefore, no longer necessary for us to sleep out. But fresh troubles arose. A neighbour owned a Tamworth boar which was as large as a young calf. He warned us that he found it was impossible to confine the pig to a sty. In the daytime, the boar disappeared into the jungle but at night he raided the cultivations. One morning we found that it had been in our kumara patch. I was given permission by the owner to shoot the brute, so I kept my loaded pea-rifle handy in case it favoured us with another visit. That night we again had our bunk on the outside of the fence. Very early in the morning, upon opening my eyes, what should I see but the gigantic red boar, only half a chain away, curiously watching us as we slept. Evidently it was not sure whether we were living things or not, but he very soon found that out, for I fired at his head with my 22. The charge didn't seem to hurt him much for he just gave a grunt and turned away, but the noise awoke Kate who asked excitedly, "What are you doing? You startled me."</p>
          <p>I couldn't help but think that if the boar had had a bit of intelligence he might have attacked us and we would have been helpless and Kate might have easily been eaten in her sleep.</p>
          <p>Having put on my clothes, and with my rifle in my hand, I followed the wounded boar. When I came upon him I found he was groggy, and with another shot from my rifle he rolled over on his side. He was a huge pig and the pork was cut up and distributed among the whole <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name> community.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d7-d6" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Simple and Cheap Living</hi>
          </head>
          <p>I have already stated that we live a simple life at <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>, and I may add a cheap life and wherewithal a happy life. On the farm we have milk in plenty <pb xml:id="n143" n="127"/>and also cream and butter; we have chicken, mutton, pork and bacon and poaka tahu—pork preserved in its own fat. Occasionally we have wild pig or hare. We get sea-foods: crayfish, paua, pupu, limpet and karengo the edible seaweed and sea-eggs. We can catch <hi rend="i">kehe</hi><note xml:id="fn25-127" n="1"><p>Kehe, granite trout.</p></note> whenever we choose, day-time, night-time; fine weather, rough weather. My sister, on her last visit to us, enjoyed kehe so much that she pronounced that it was "the champion of fish." Many people don't like it, but, in time, they could probably learn to relish it, as we do. Here at <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>, kehe is tender and fat in autumn. In my young days, catching the fish was my daily joy during summer and autumn. At the right turn of the tide and at night-time one could always expect to bring home a kitful of kehe. So fond was I of netting the kehe that I earned the sobriquet, "The Kehe-catcher of Pouretua." We also caught eels, of course, in our little lake, Manawa-arohia.</p>
          <p>We have vegetables throughout almost the whole year. Time was when the luscious tomato was unknown among the <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name>. About the year 1880, my father and his friend Reihana Moari paid a visit to Auckland. On their return they told the people of their first experience of the tomato which they had seen displayed in the shop windows. "We saw this delicious-looking fruit for the first time," narrated my father, "and it looked so tempting that we bought some. We didn't know its name but it was easy to point out. We looked for some quiet spot where we could eat this new fruit. Our first taste was not at all re-assuring. We chucked away the whole lot." When my wife and I migrated, with our family, to the <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name> in 1908, we grew tomatoes but others looked askance at them. We can now claim that we taught the people here to discover what an indispensable fruit the tomato is.</p>
          <p>Two Maori foods, kina (sea-egg) and rotten corn, <pb xml:id="n144" n="128"/>could never be enjoyed by pakehas, and yet Maoris are passionately fond of them. There is nothing really objectionable about kina except its appearance. As a pakeha lady friend of mine once said, "How could you eat a thing like that? I don't like its looks." Of course, it is not the looks which the Maoris eat, but the pulp inside the prickly shell. As a Maori, I love kina and I think there is nothing, either in the sea or out of it, that can be more enjoyable than the white kina in season.</p>
          <p>Very few Maoris turn up their noses at the mention of rotten corn. Steeped in running water for several months, the corn must smell, and yet its smell is not like that of putrid matter. It is strange how Maori children take to rotten corn. Both my wife and I occasionally enjoy a dish of kaanga wai, as the Maoris of Rotorua call it, although we can't help but think rotten corn is not a wholesome food.</p>
          <p>Despite our half-hearted objection our grand-children have taken two bagfuls of good maize and have thrown them into a running stream until the corn becomes soft and ready for consumption. There is no accounting for tastes. I may point out that corn is not a native food; it was introduced.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d7-d7" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Two of My Neighbours</hi>
          </head>
          <p>I have mentioned my neighbours who live on either side. As I face the sea, <name type="person" key="name-405435">George Goldsmith</name> lives in the house on the right and Willie Walker on the left. They are both good sheep-farmers and we all have spent a good portion of our lives at <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name> and we all like it despite its isolation. Because of its lack of access we don't travel about much, we don't often attend huis, tangis or sports meetings although we are all fond of sport. Willie Walker, during his life, made a name as a runner. Consequently, in accordance with a Maori point of view, we have fallen from grace by paying too <pb xml:id="n145" n="129"/>much attention to our stations and to making money. I don't know anything about making money, but, at the same time, with the high prices ruling for stock and wool, all sheepfarmers are doing well. Willie Walker worked very hard on his wife's land, and today he owns three other sheep-stations, two leasehold and one freehold. Two of his three stations belonged to pakehas. Three other Maoris in the Matakaoa County have each bought out a pakeha sheep-farmer, and two, two pakeha dairy-farmers.</p>
          <p>Mr. and Mrs. Walker lost their youngest daughter, Elizabeth, on October 14th, 1949, and on the 21st of the same month, Willie Walker himself followed his beloved daughter.</p>
          <p>Willie Walker has left behind him an example for the Maori people to follow. He lived for his home and his children and though he died suddenly, nothing was dislocated because of his death, for he had established his wife and family in their own comfortable home and on a prosperous sheepstation. No father could have done more. Each of his three surviving sons now has his own home and sheepstation.</p>
          <p>Henry McClutchie has also done remarkably well. When he came to the Matakaoa County he left behind him all the ancestral lands he owned in the Waiapu Valley. Now he owns three farms and has built a fine place for himself in the <name key="name-400864" type="place">Hicks Bay</name> hinterland. Henry and his good wife, Annie, have worked very hard during their lifetime, so hard in fact, that they impaired their health. Annie died suddenly three months ago and Henry does not enjoy very good health.</p>
          <p>I may, perhaps, also mention that other Maoris in the Matakaoa County are doing well as sheep-and dairy-farmers.</p>
          <p>I am pleased to record the success and progress of Maori farmers for I consider them the salt of Maori society. They are the leaders of the Maori people and <pb xml:id="n146" n="130"/>are demonstrating that the life for the Maori is in the country where he has his own piece of land on which to build a home; where he can always have work; and where living is simple and healthy.</p>
          <p>Despite the pleasure I derive from recording these successes I have mixed feeling about the future of the Maori people as a whole. I have no reason to be optimistic, there being every reason to be the opposite.</p>
          <p>Since the law has been altered so that a Maori may take liquor to his home or anywhere else he likes, drinking has increased very much among the Maoris, particularly among men and youths. Very few Maori men do not drink or would decline to drink and they are treated as a class by themselves. Drinking among the Maoris in the past was bad enough; it will be a great deal worse in the future, for, whether the elders know it or not, by drinking in the home and before the eyes of the children, they are schooling the children to be the drinkers of the future. I have always taken up an uncompromising attitude to drink, for its evil results far outweigh its advantages, and I always think of the children. Probably, if I took drink it would not do me much harm—nor, for that matter, would it do me any good—but I dread to think that my example may lead my own children and grand-children, or even other people's children, to start a habit which has led thousands of men and women down the road to perdition. "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones who believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!"</p>
          <p>A fondness for excitement is a weakness in Maori character. Maoris seek excitement in huis, tangis, races, sports, parties and the Talkies. Excitement is his chief <pb xml:id="n147" n="131"/>reason for drinking for the average Maori home is so dull that its occupants are only too glad for some excuse to get out of it.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d7-d8" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">A Hypocritical Practice</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Today, so degraded has the Maori's sense of the fitness of things become that a death in a home is used as an occasion for merriment and excitement. After a funeral the usual thing now is to "takahi" the deceased's home or remove the tapu by holding a drinking party in the home. No-one seems to question the propriety of the thing and even I, with such pronounced views on drinking, am expected to conform. I once attended a takahi party. A whole sackful of bottles of beer was dragged into the house. No-one would have thought that in the forenoon of the same day, the dead body of a well-liked man had lain in this same house and that much crying had then been heard. I felt disgusted and so left the party and swore that I would never attend another.</p>
          <p>I am at a loss to know how this custom came about; at any rate, it cannot be very ancient for the old Maoris never had liquor with which to celebrate. Some drunkard must have started it and now it is considered a national custom.</p>
          <p>I am pleased to note that, on the whole, the women don't drink, and those who do, do not do so to excess. I hope and pray that, for the sake of the children they will not admit liquor into their homes. The future of the race is in their hands.</p>
        </div>
      </div>
      <pb xml:id="n148" n="132"/>
      <div xml:id="t1-body-d8" type="chapter">
        <head>Chapter VIII<lb/><hi rend="i"><hi rend="c">Stray Reminiscences</hi></hi></head>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d1" type="section">
          <p><hi rend="sc">When at first I jotted down</hi> a few of my reminiscences, I had no idea that it would lead to my writing such a long chapter to record them. But, after all, an autobiography is, in reality, a story built up of reminiscences. In this chapter I give a few of my stray reminiscences, of which some may be good, some may be bad, and others may be indifferent.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d2" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">An Unrehearsed Performance</hi>
          </head>
          <p>After having been at <name type="organisation" key="name-401445">Te Aute College</name> for two years one of the things I had learned was to dress well.</p>
          <p>One day I took some friends to see a swimming pool that I had used when I was a youth. My friends and I stood on the bank which, long before, I had used to leap or dive into the pool. As I verbally described the children leaping and diving into the pool I lost my balance and dived headlong into the deep water below. I, of course, completely disappeared, but my new hat floated on the surface while my friends stood holding their sides, laughing. I felt humiliated, but the unrehearsed performance had at least amused my guests.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d3" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Showing off</hi>
          </head>
          <p>I realised that the Maoris regarded anything connected with the dead—such as a burial-ground—as <hi rend="i">tapu</hi>, or sacred. But, fresh from college as I was, I thought I would show my superiority by doing something that would shock the children, their parents and even the whole community. The Orangai Cemetery was within the pa and was therefore within an area where my intended impudent deed would be well advertised. <pb xml:id="n149" n="133"/>With the other children, I stood outside the fence enclosing the cemetery. Just inside the fence was a grave on which dahlias were in full bloom. Without warning, I put my hand through the fence and plucked a bloom. That was enough to shock my young friends and they protested against my profanity. This encouraged me to go further and I put the flower into my mouth and chewed it. The children were disgusted at my bravado and scattered to spread the news that I had committed an unheard of thing for which, according to superstition, I must pay with my life. But today, though well on in years, I am still very much alive. I don't know whether or not my mother said anything about my reckless deed; at any rate, I must have been conceived a heretic.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d4" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">"I am the Law"</hi>
          </head>
          <p>The following anecdote was omitted from the biography<note xml:id="fn26-133" n="1"><p>"<name key="name-150140" type="work">The Story of a Maori Chief</name>."</p></note> of my grandfather, <name type="person" key="name-110504">Mokena Kohere</name>, because I thought that it was merely "Maori talk," but the story has been so persistent that I shall now record it.</p>
          <p><name key="name-208847" type="person">Tuta Nihoniho</name>, the well-known <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> chief, had committed a breach of the law and, on a visit to Gisborne, he was arrested. In those early days, for a chief to be arrested was, from a Maori point of view, unthinkable. My grandfather happened to be in Gisborne at the time and, in dismay, the Maoris told him of what had happened. He summed up the situation and agreed that it was a disgrace that a relative of his and a fellow-tribesman should be arrested and imprisoned. He hastened to meet the policeman and his charge, then he grabbed Tuta's hand and pulled him from the officer. The officer remonstrated and told Mokena that Tuta had broken the law. The chief then clapped his forehead with his hand and said, "I am the <pb xml:id="n150" n="134"/>law." The officer wisely said nothing, thereby avoiding a delicate and dangerous situation.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d5" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">A Lawyer's "Criminal Practice"</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Having faultless English and also a strong sense of humour, <name type="person" key="name-209622">Dr. Tutere Wirepa</name> was the best after-dinner speaker I had ever heard. He and I happened to be at <name key="name-401849" type="place">Port Awanui</name> during a sitting of a Magistrate's Court. In the evening we were invited to a dinner to be given by a well-known storekeeper, in honour of one of the lawyers who was on the eve of his departure for service overseas during the first world war. When the Doctor was called upon to speak by the magistrate who presided, among other things, he said, "Mr. Chairman, I am sure the guest of the evening would be sadly missed by the riff-raff of the East Coast, for many of them have been pulled out of gaol by the guest of the evening. While far away on the fields of France and Flanders, wrapped in his greatcoat, I could see the spirit of a Nati<note xml:id="fn27-134" n="1"><p>Nati, short for <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name>, meaning the virile, devil-may-care, type of the tribe.</p></note> hovering over our friend and guarding him. Mr. —, good luck to you, and I hope that when the war is over, the same faithful spirit will bring you safely home, once more to resume your "criminal practice."</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d6" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Toffee and Prayers</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Before a Mormon elder came to stay with us, he had gained quite a name among our neighbour's children for toffee-making. One evening, before he took prayers, he had put the frying-pan, with the mixture in it on the stove and by the time prayers were over, the toffee had been burnt and spoilt. The next evening the same process was repeated but while the elder was saying the prayers, he thought of the toffee, stopped, stood up, got hold of the handle of the frying-pan, shook it vigorously and asked, "Would God mind, <pb xml:id="n151" n="135"/>do you think?" And, while still shaking the handle, he answered his own question, "I don't think He would mind." Then he resumed his prayers while his audience giggled.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d7" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Meat and Grace</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Old Taipene, a big man, was known to have a healthy appetite. He and a number of boys had a scrub-cutting contract somewhere in the Waiapu Valley. Harmony reigned in the camp except on the question of sharing the tucker for the boys thought that the old man took more than his share out of the common dish, particularly in regard to the meat. At the end of the day the gang retired to their camp where awaiting them was a simple meal consisting of potatoes, kumaras, puha and meat, all served out in one large dish from which each was to help himself. The boys noticed that Taipene ate the meat at such a speed that, before they had received their fair share of it, it was all gone. This went on for a few days until the boys could not stand it any longer. They therefore thought that while the elder closed his eyes when saying grace, each of them would pick out how much he thought he should have. At meal-time the plan went off without a hitch, but the old man viewed the matter grimly and one night, when pork was the meat, Taipene made up his mind that he would not be cheated out of a good share of the tasty pork. As usual, the old man was asked to say grace. But, instead of bending his head, he stood up and, lifting the dish of food high over his head, out of the reach of the youngsters, said, "For what we are about to receive," and so on. Instead of responding with "amen" the boys, amused by the ludicrous sight, burst out laughing.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d8" type="section">
          <head>"36"</head>
          <p>I once had a silly habit of writing down the number "36" and ultimately began to believe that I <pb xml:id="n152" n="136"/>would die at the age of thirty-six. For the whole of my thirty-sixth year I felt much apprehension and quietly awaited my death. However, I survived and entered my 37th year with a glad heart and gratitude. I did not divulge my secret fear to anyone, not even to my better half. I have not even told her yet, even though I have rid myself of the silly habit. I don't know why I took to writing down the number; perhaps it was its spirals and the neat look of the number that attracted me.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d9" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">"To His Eternal Shame"</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Often, on a fine day, Kate and I would go to one of the beautiful beaches that are to be found at <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>. Kate had a craving for crayfish but neither of us had learned the art of catching the tasty crustacean. We later learned that the method was to catch it by the back, where the tail joins the body. (For many years I had thought that the tail was the head for I had seen a crayfish swimming backwards.) So intense did poor Kate's craving for a feed of crayfish grow that one day she dived into the water and when she came to the surface she said that she had touched a large one with her foot. Once more she disappeared under the water, and once more she came to the surface without a crayfish. She said the crayfish was a large one but that it gripped the sea-weeds so firmly that she could not move it. It was a man's job, but the only man present looked on—to his eternal shame. We returned home feeling disconsolate and I, ashamed. This college-bred man was useless; he could not even catch a crayfish.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d10" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Wiping out a Sad Past</hi>
          </head>
          <p>My unmanliness preyed on my mind and I determined that I would make amends for my failure at the first opportunity. Another fine day induced us <pb xml:id="n153" n="137"/>to go out once more to the rocks. We caught only one fish with our hand-net, but we found a colony of <hi rend="i">pauas.</hi> Kate suggested that we should look for crayfish. I readily agreed, hoping to wipe out my past. Kate caught three small ones, but I was after big game—a pawharu, or full-sized crayfish. I was feeling along with my foot when I put it into a hole and felt a large crustacean. I dived, forgetful that a stingaree might be about, and with both hands I gripped the large crayfish and bore it ashore with glee. I had retrieved my reputation and had regained Kate's respect.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d11" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Sport and Religion</hi>
          </head>
          <p>The Maoris take their sport very seriously, almost as though it were the most important thing in life. One season when the Hicks Bay Football Club won the cup in the Matakaoa Sub-Union Competitions, the whole sub-tribe celebrated the occasion. I happened to be present at the celebration. In the centre of the long table the coveted trophy was placed. After congratulatory speeches had been made, the cup was handed over to the blind chief who was sitting in a corner. Holding it between his hands, he recited:</p>
          <p>"Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation."</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d12" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Football and Prayer-meeting</hi>
          </head>
          <p>The contest among the five sub-unions of the East Coast Rugby Union, for the <name type="person" key="name-209647">K. S. Williams</name>'s Cup, had been keen and exciting. There remained the <name key="name-400776" type="place">Tolaga Bay</name> and the Matakaoa sub-unions to play off the final. The star of the former team was <name type="person" key="name-405428">Billy Lockwood</name>, and his fame was the cause of anxiety to the Matakaoa elders. The match was played at Ruatoria and was witnessed by a very large crowd. Before the Matakaoa team left the hotel for the battle-field, the elders asked <pb xml:id="n154" n="138"/>the players to hold a short prayer-meeting and when Matakaoa proved victorious the elders, of course, put their success down to the potency of prayer.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d13" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">One too Many</hi>
          </head>
          <p>The Tai-Tokerau (North Auckland) came to Gisborne to meet the Tai Rawhiti (East Coast), holders of the Prince of Wales Cup. The match caused intense excitement among the tribes, for added to the Maoris' love of rugby, the match provided the first meeting of the northern and the East Coast tribes since Hongi's invasion of the <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> territory in 1818. Tai-Tokerau had no trouble in lifting the Royal Trophy. The next day the two teams were entertained by <name type="person" key="name-401159">Lady Carroll</name> and her people at the Awapuni marae. In reply to the complimentary speeches of the local leaders, one of the visiting elders attributed their success to the help of the Almighty. No sooner had the speaker resumed his seat than <name type="person" key="name-405450">Tom Parata</name>, who had come all the way from Waikanae to referee the match, was on his feet and, facing the northern visitors, said, "The law of rugby football is that each side should not field more than fifteen players; if I had known that Tai Tokerau had placed sixteen players on the field, I would have blown my whistle and ordered the game to stop." All present enjoyed the joke, with the exception of the northern speaker who appeared conscious of having said something out of place.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d14" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">A Referee Ordered Off</hi>
          </head>
          <p>A junior game of football was being played at Tikitiki, and, somehow or other, the referee's ruling did not please one side and therefore one might naturally conclude that it must please the other side. However, during a stop in the progress of the game, the two skippers met for a brief talk while the referee stood with his whistle in his hand ready to re-start the game.<pb xml:id="n155" n="139"/>As he stood, the two skippers approached him and told him that both teams had decided to order him off the field; and off the field he went.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d15" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Should the Stingy be Killed?</hi>
          </head>
          <p>My great-grandfather, Pakura, and his brother, Hihi, were once the terror of their whole district. It, was their habit to sit on a bank overlooking the beach where people passed by on their way home after catching fish and gathering shell-fish. No food carriers would pass without leaving something behind for the two chiefs. It was customary to do so. One day, however, while the two chiefs happened to be absent from their perch, a party of food-carriers passed by without observing the usual practice of leaving a tribute of food. On the return of the chiefs, they were told of the party, which had been carrying crayfish and had passed by without leaving anything. Pakura and Hihi got their spears and at once gave chase to the offenders. The pursuers came upon the carriers of crayfish just as they were nearing their pa. The crayfish were gathered and Tiritahua, the leader, was killed and eaten with the crayfish.</p>
          <p>More than a century afterwards a similar incident happened at <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>, only it was without bloodshed. There is a small lake on our estate, and it has a reputation for yielding nice eels. Our neighbours, who lived on the other side of the hill came over to spend a night catching eels in the little lake. The next morning it rained and the poachers were obliged to pass near our home. They had a pack-horse loaded with eels. My children saw the party pass by and, like true Maoris, quite expected to be given a few eels, especially since the eels had been caught on our property. No eels were given them and my little boy ran inside, a little excited, and said, "Papa, I know now why Pakura killed stingy people."</p>
          <pb xml:id="n156" n="140"/>
          <p>The next day the same people came over the hill again, but my children, without a word from me or their mother, went in a body and one of the little girls told the poachers to leave the place.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d16" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">No Sermon Without Notes</hi>
          </head>
          <p>When I was tutor at Te Rau Theological College, one of my duties was to give an outline of a sermon for the students to preach at various settlements on the following Sunday. I made the students work out the subject themselves and at the end I gave the outline with notes. Some of the students who had not acquired confidence studied the notes closely. One Sunday, a student went to a small settlement about five miles out of Gisborne. When it was time to preach the sermon, the man felt in his pockets for his notes but could not find them. Then, without closing the service, he went all the way back to the college to get his notes. By the time he returned to the settlement, the people had had lunch and it was time for the afternoon service at which the student preached his lost sermon.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d17" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Pudding as Stake</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Boys at <name type="organisation" key="name-401445">Te Aute College</name> often indulged in harmless betting, the stake being the Sunday pudding which was served only once a week. The Sunday pudding was also the stake at small games. So at dinner on Sunday the winners went round the tables collecting their pudding stakes from the unfortunate losers who, honour-bound, submitted meekly. I can't say whether the practice has since been banned—at any rate, it was not banned in my time.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d18" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Maoris Poor Debt-payers</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Maoris are notoriously poor debt-payers. In my own case it was not a matter of choice at all. When I visited the <name key="name-120136" type="place">Chatham Islands</name> in 1905, I was much amused to find that the islanders' term for booking or debt was <pb xml:id="n157" n="141"/>"rongo taima," i.e. "long time." When an islander had put in his kit that which had been served to him over the counter, he would look at the server and, smiling urbanely, would whisper, "Rongo taima," and the storekeeper would nod his approval and look for his pen.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d19" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">A Child's Awkward Questions</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Lately my five-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter has asked some difficult and awkward questions. While we were in bed, the wind blew so hard that she turned to me and said, "Grandpa, what makes the wind blow?" At school I had been told why the wind blew, but why it blew so terrifically that it carried a gig right across a paddock, I could not explain.</p>
          <p>About this same time there was a terrific thunderstorm. The girl's boy cousin had told her that forked lightning often killed people, so she often asked me about it. When the heavens thundered she would ask, "Who made the thunder?" When she was told that God made thunders, she remarked, "God should not have made thunders."</p>
          <p>It is the little girl's duty to collect the eggs and one day she asked her aunt, "Why doesn't a rooster lay eggs?" She later wanted to know if an egg came out of a hen's stomach.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d20" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">The Young Maori Party Started</hi>
          </head>
          <p>On our way back to college, after <name type="person" key="name-140961">Maui Pomare</name> (<name type="person" key="name-140961">Sir Maui Pomare</name>), <name type="person" key="name-101495">Timutimu Tawhai</name> and I had visited the Maori settlements in <name key="name-100292" type="place">Hawke's Bay</name> during a winter vacation, we passed through Napier with swags on our backs, and a little boy, unaccustomed to seeing Maori boys carrying swags along the road, halted and, turning towards us called out, "Eh, where did you scoot from?" Farther on down Shakespeare Road we met <name key="name-120667" type="person">Mr. Henry Hill</name>, for many years inspector of schools to the Hawke's Bay Education Board and he greeted us and asked where <pb xml:id="n158" n="142"/>we had been. I told him that we had been on a tour with the object of telling our people the necessity of altering their mode of living if they wished to survive as a people. Mr. Hill was so interested that he invited us to go with him to his home on Bluff Hill so that we could tell him more about our mission. At dinner, three dust-covered Maori boys sat at Mrs. Hill's table with her family. The next day after being photographed, we continued our walk as far as Hastings where we boarded the train for Pukehou and the college. I wish to express our gratitude to Mr. and Mrs. Hill for their hospitality to those three weary and hungry Maori boys. Of this trio, Maui died in California and his ashes were brought home, but Timutimu and I are still living, though we are both well on in years.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d21" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Incredible Fish-stories</hi>
          </head>
          <p>A student at Te Rau College once told me that the Maoris in the north Auckland district used to dive into deep water where large eels might be found, and, having located one, would hook it in the body and then come to the surface and haul it up. I believe this method of catching eels is not uncommon among other tribes. I have also read that an Islander, armed with a sharp knife or dagger, dived into a part of the sea that was frequented by sharks. Before a shark could attack him, however, the diver had plunged his knife deep into its body.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d22" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Diving for Octopuses</hi>
          </head>
          <p>The above stories are credible and generally accepted but the following story seems rather incredible, but what I am about to relate is not a rare thing and is perfectly true. My late friend, <name type="person" key="name-209622">Dr. Tutere Wirepa</name>, narrated the story to me and a great-grandson of <name type="person" key="name-405439">Katene Ngatoko</name>, <name type="person" key="name-405453">Wiremu Hoerara Henderson</name>, recently confirmed it.</p>
          <pb xml:id="n159" n="143"/>
          <p>Whenever Katene Ngatoko, progenitor of the Henderson family of <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>, wanted a change of diet, he would go to Iron Head to catch an octopus or two. The haunt of the cuttle-fish was near the Aumiti rock where, as I have stated in a previous chapter, a taniwha had its lair. Taniwha or no taniwha, old Katene could not be deterred whenever he wanted octopus steak. He would dive into the sea and, having located an octopus, would turn his back to it and naturally the octopus would entwine its tentacles about the body of the intruder. Feeling that the octopus had clung securely to his body, he would come to the surface with his prey still clinging to his body and would then carry it ashore. All he had to do to shake it off was to squeeze its body and the octopus would then fall limply to the ground. I am sure the octopus must have been only of a small size, and not as big as those we sometimes read of in novels.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d23" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">A Maori Woman's Struggle with an Octopus</hi>
          </head>
          <p>After writing the above story, of which I had some doubts as to its credibility, I learned that catching octopuses was a fairly common practice among the Maoris at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>.</p>
          <p>Rua Hoerara once told me that his sister, <name key="name-405414" type="person">Mrs. Paea Henderson</name>, a grand-daughter-in-law of <name type="person" key="name-405439">Katene Ngatoko</name>, referred to above, used to catch octopuses at Paripaopao. On an incoming tide the presence of an octopus would be indicated by the scattering of crayfish and crabs. Paea would then slip into the water and feel under the rocks with her feet until she touched one.</p>
          <p>One day, when searching in this fashion, a fair-sized octopus sent some of its long tentacles right up round her neck. Her head was just above the water but when she tried to move out of the water with the octopus clinging to her body she found she was unable to do so because its other tentacles were still clinging <pb xml:id="n160" n="144"/>to the bottom of the rocks. As the tide was rising she soon found herself in difficulties. She knew that unless she could lift the clinging octopus out of the water she would soon be drowned. The only person within call was a white man who was working on the shore, but, as she was naked, she was afraid to call him to her rescue. She was in a desperate situation. She felt for the creature's body and then with flax which she took from the kit which was tied round her waist she managed to strangle the octopus. It then became limp and so loosened its grip on the rocks and she was able to carry it ashore. The octopus was then taken home and many people came to see it.</p>
          <p>Rua once pointed out to me the particular channel in which his sister used to catch octopuses. He also mentioned that a family in <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> regarded the body of an octopus as a delicacy.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d24" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">More Fish-stories</hi>
          </head>
          <p>When I was editing <hi rend="i">Te Pipiwharauroa</hi>, for a change from the serious subjects I would often refer to some ridiculous Maori superstitions which invariably brought protests. But I scored well over my opponents. I suppose fishing, being one of the principal means of food supply for the people, is hedged in with superstition. When fishing for <hi rend="i">moki</hi> the Maoris are so superstitious that not even a particle of food is carried out to the fishing grounds in a canoe. I ridiculed the notion that a fish at the bottom of the sea could see any food in a canoe when it couldn't see the barbed hook hidden in the bait. The article was much read and discussed and when <name type="person" key="name-209622">Dr. Wi Repa</name> introduced me to the old and lame Popata, from <name type="place" key="name-401270">Te Kaha</name>, a stickler for Maori traditions and superstitions, who had come with a football team to <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>, he said that I was the man who had laughed at the notion that a fish could see food in a canoe but could not see the fatal hook wrapped in a <pb xml:id="n161" n="145"/>bait. The old man was wise enough not to be drawn into an argument and simply said, "Doctor, I came to play football and, not to meet <name type="person" key="name-208422">Reweti Kohere</name> with his 'hook hidden in a bait.' "</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d25" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Fish and Stone</hi>
          </head>
          <p>I must put this on record, if only for the reason that it is an <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name> reminiscence.</p>
          <p>Old Tete Korimete, two or three other young men and myself had pulled out for a day's fishing off East Island. Before we dropped anchor, Tete warned us against letting any fish we might catch come in contact with the stone sinkers or the spare stones we had with us, and, to be doubly sure, he asked us to put all stones into bags. He said that if a fish touched a stone we would catch no more fish that day and we then might just as well go home. After an hour's fishing we caught so many fish that they became mixed up and Tete's next fish was accidentally placed in the bag in which he had put his stones. The boys noticed Tete's oversight but they kept quiet. Suddenly, Tete realised his mistake and called out, "No more fish today, boys. I have put a fish in the same bag as the toone (stones); better pull up the anchor and go home." The boys giggled, but would not pull in their lines. Still they caught more fish. But old Tete, stubborn, conservative, and true to his up-bringing, would not admit that the old Maori notion was nonsensical. No more fishing for him that day. The boys made fun of old Tete when they got ashore and for many weeks and months they called him, "Toone" (stone).</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d26" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">An Ominous Fish</hi>
          </head>
          <p>One more fish story. It is a Maori notion that a fish hooked by the belly instead of by the mouth is a sure sign that the fisher's wife is misconducting herself on shore and it inevitably spoils a man's fishing for the day.</p>
          <pb xml:id="n162" n="146"/>
          <p>Two fishing boats had put out of <name key="name-400864" type="place">Hicks Bay</name> for a day's fishing in the vicinity of <name key="name-405412" type="place">Matakaoa Point</name>. The two boats dropped anchor close to each other. Tauranga felt a bite on his line and he pulled it in. It revealed a snapper and also Popata's line, tangled with his own. Popata, who was in the other boat, was not paying much attention to his line. A mischievous idea struck Tauranga and he quickly unhooked the fish from his own line and hooked it by the belly to Popata's line. Popata felt the fish wriggling on his line and gladly pulled it up. As he looked over the gunnel of the boat to see the bright pink snapper coming up, he saw, to his amazement, that it was hooked by the belly. He took great care not to let his companions notice his misfortune, but the mischievous Tauranga, in the other boat, was laughing up his sleeve. Popata quietly unhooked the ominous fish and put it in his kit. When the boats reached the shore, the women, of course, were there ready to clean the day's catch. Popata stepped ashore and, seeing his wife, threw the fatal snapper at her feet, saying at the same time, "There's your fish, yours and his." When Mrs. Popata,' puzzled by her husband's conduct, asked, "What's the matter with you?" he replied, "I know what's the matter with me, for I know all about it. I have been told by the gods." For weeks the couple lived apart, but Tauranga's conscience began to prick him and he humbly owned up that he had played a mean trick on poor Popata.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d27" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Jealous Husbands</hi>
          </head>
          <p>It is my opinion that Maoris, on the whole, do not realise that jealousy is a very serious fault. I have heard Maoris openly say they were jealous men as though it was nothing to be ashamed of.</p>
          <p>A grandson of a well-known <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> chief told me that his grandfather was so suspicious and jealous <pb xml:id="n163" n="147"/>that when he went out fishing off-shore in a canoe, he took care that his two wives sat on the rocks where he could keep an eye on them until his return to shore. I knew another great chief who, when he saw a man looking at his wife, would remark, "That's mine."</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d28" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">A Cruel Slander</hi>
          </head>
          <p>I have been the victim of a cruel slander, set afoot by people who should have known better. Evidently they judged other people by their own standards. My wife was a delicate girl when I married her and after the births of our first children she became thinner and was often unwell and at times I thought I might lose her. Gossips made out that her ill-health was caused by my frequent thrashing of her. The slanderers should have known that Kate was the last person in the world to tolerate cruelty and insults. When she went on a seven-month holiday to her people at Manutuke, some of her friends asked her whether there was anything in the rumour which they had heard. When she denied unequivocally the slanderous accusation, they thought she was only endeavouring to shield me. Some Maoris have a peculiar idea of married life: they are quite sure that a man who has a pretty wife must naturally be a jealous husband. Kate is prepossessing in her looks, and I am not. Therefore, so they infer, I must be jealous and must occasionally give her a hiding to keep her subdued.</p>
          <p>As I pen these perhaps too personal lines, my wife is on holiday. My old detractors, were they still alive would hardly know her for she is not the skinny girl they once knew; she is now a robust-looking woman, and, as a matron, she has grown quite fat.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d29" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Some Greedy Men I Have Met</hi>
          </head>
          <p>The following instances of greed and selfishness may seem trifling, but, though they happened many years <pb xml:id="n164" n="148"/>ago, they are vividly stamped on my memory.</p>
          <p>It was a rainy day and, without any pre-arrangement, quite a number of people came together to Hinerupe, the <hi rend="i">runanga</hi> house, and the usual rendezvous for talk, gossip and cards. We all began to feel hungry, but being hungry was preferable to getting drenched. Out of the rain emerged a good Samaritan, old Riria, carrying between her hands a large dish of green corn on the cob. The oldest in the company, a man of some standing, flopped on the mats, crossed his legs and picked out not one but two large cobs of corn, one of which he placed safely between his legs while he began to eat the other, quite unconcerned that there was not sufficient corn to go round.</p>
          <p>There being a Native Land Court sitting at <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>, the small township was full of people and in accordance with Maori custom, the local people were to some extent obliged to find food for the visitors although they had come on business. <name key="name-405423" type="person">Waiheke Puha</name> and others had left early to fish near <name key="name-405412" type="place">Matakaoa Point</name>. When the boat was seen returning a large number of people were at the landing, in hope of getting some fish. I was among them. As the boat touched the land, Waiheke threw a hapuku at my feet, but before I had touched it a Rangitukia man, who might be regarded as a rangatira, dashed in and carried off my fish. I went home with nothing for my family, even though I was in charge of the pastorate.</p>
          <p>My wife and I had gone to <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> to help with the tukutuku<note xml:id="fn28-148" n="1"><p>Ornamental lattice work between the slabs of a carved house.</p></note> work for both the meeting-house and the hall. Only young people were engaged on the work and we were not paid, though other workers were all paid. The least the tukutuku workers could expect was decent meals. Even this we did not receive, for as a rule the meals were rushed by some who did very <pb xml:id="n165" n="149"/>little work. A woman took pity on me and brought me a small crayfish. An oldish man who sat at the farthest end of the table noticed the woman bringing me the crayfish and followed her. Before I had touched the crayfish the man came along and grabbed it and took it away without even offering me a piece of it. He devoured it all. I may perhaps add that the man came from <name key="name-100562" type="place">Poverty Bay</name>.</p>
          <p>The chief <name type="person" key="name-101358">Hori Mahue</name> and I were invited to a birthday party at Whakaea. The table was laid out on the green grass. Hori, with his grandson, and I were asked to sit at one end of the table where I noticed the only wild pigeon, a fat one, was placed. We were the honoured guests. I said grace. Before the "amen" was said, a man, on the opposite side of the table stretched across and lifted the pigeon from under our very eyes. After securing the bird, the man turned his back to us and ate it all himself.</p>
          <p>I have mentioned elsewhere that the Maoris regard stinginess as a cardinal fault, yet these four instances of greed and selfishness were not instantly condemned. I also know that some Maoris regard grabbing food with respect, for they term it <hi rend="i">kamakama</hi>, or smart. I have taken the trouble to record these four instances of brazen greed and selfishness and I have also termed them trifling. They are extremely trifling compared with the gigantic and organised greed that occurs all over the world. The principle involved, however, is the same. I may also add that a person's character is often betrayed by his conduct at the table. The Maoris have a saying, <hi rend="i">"To te ware tona-patu he kai"</hi> — "Eating is the downfall of the low-born."</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d30" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Eels and Snakes</hi>
          </head>
          <p>It is customary among white people to speak disparagingly of eels as food, and often, with a wry face, they ask, "How can you eat the thing?" A young <pb xml:id="n166" n="150"/>school-teacher who apparently thought much of his own superior qualities, said to a Maori, "Eels! I don't like them, they look too much like snakes." The Maori coolly and sarcastically remarked, "Oh, now I know why I am so fond of snakes, because they look like eels." The pakeha didn't know whether to laugh or not.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d31" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Ngati-Porou Wags</hi>
          </head>
          <p>A number of men had put out to do some fishing at <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name>. Their luck was in and they filled a bag with snapper. On their return, when nearing the channel, somebody suggested that as the boat had been leaking, the water should be bailed out. He was over-ruled, another contending that there would be time enough to let the water out when they got ashore. However, a small sea came up and one wave lifted the stern of the boat and sent the water rushing to the bow. The boat dived and was swamped. Fortunately, the rocks were quite close and some of the men swam to them. Raihania, who was lame, could not swim very well and cried out for help. Two of the men standing on the rocks took no notice of his appeal, but philosophically discussed the serious question as to who should marry his fine-looking wife after he was gone. They even tossed up to settle the matter. It was another man who pulled Raihania out of the water. The boat was later dragged ashore but the bag of snapper was lost. Raihania soon recovered and forgot his trouble. He thought he would steal a march on his mates by dragging for the lost bag of snapper. His method was to throw out a fishing-line with hooks and sinker over the submerged bag of fish and then to pull in the line. On his second throw, one of the hooks caught in his hand and he could not get it out. He cut the line and rode to <name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name> where the doctor extricated the hook. Raihania's troubles came in battalions. Both he and his wife, however, have now gone to their long rest.</p>
        </div>
        <pb xml:id="n167" n="151"/>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d32" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Tangi over a Wounded Pigeon</hi>
          </head>
          <p>In an earlier chapter I stated that when we first came to <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name> in 1908, wild pigeons were plentiful, but as the bush disappeared, so did the birds. Occasionally, however, a few visited the little native bush near our house. They came to feed on the berries of the tawa-a-pou, or the New Zealand olive. There was always a difference of opinion among the members of my family as to whether or not the pretty birds should be left alone. The vandals argued that if the birds were not shot, other people would do so somewhere else. One day, a pigeon alighted on a pohutukawa tree near the house and one of the young boys quietly got his pearifle and brought the bird down. The noise made by the rifle caused the children to rush out of the house and two little girls, Oha and Rewa, came across the wounded pigeon with its wings spread out on the ground as though imploring for mercy. They could not bear the pathetic sight, and they stood over the bird and wept. The culprit sneaked away and swore that he would never shoot another pigeon should any pay us another visit.</p>
          <p>On the other hand, we read that the Guthrie-Smith family, of Tutira, tamed and made pets of wild pigeons. The birds became so tame that often they flew from the tall trees right inside the house at meal-time and perched either on the heads or on the shoulders of some members of the family, there waiting to be given the feed which they invariably received. The four pets were often seen feeding with the domestic birds and they were given names, such as Budget, Uncle Harry, and other names which have since slipped my old memory.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d33" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">The First Horse They Ever Saw</hi>
          </head>
          <p>I remember listening to the <name type="person" key="name-110539">Rev. Mohi Turei</name>, when I was young, as he told the story of how frantically <pb xml:id="n168" n="152"/>excited he and another boy had been over the first horse they had ever seen. It was ridden by a white man who came from the south and who stayed the night at Rangitukia. They stood and gazed at the animal in amazement, but, more amazing than the horse itself, was the docility of the animal when it quietly permitted a little man to sit on its back and make it go wherever he wished it to go. The man and his horse left early next morning for Kawakawa (<name type="place" key="name-401269">Te Araroa</name>), and Mohi and his mate, without telling their people, decided, not having seen enough of the creature, to follow it all the way to Kawakawa, a distance of fully thirty miles. The man and his animal had an early start and by the time the two boys got on the Waiapu beach they had disappeared. The boys soon found the hoofmarks on the beach, however, and with their eyes rivetted to the track, like bloodhounds on the scent, they kept up a brisk pace. The hoofmarks on the Kautuku hill were indistinct and occasionally they lost them altogether, but they soon picked them up again on the beach below. Unfortunately the tide was coming in and was gradually obliterating the tracks. On the turn-in at <name key="name-400764" type="place">East Cape</name> they picked up the trail again. When they got on the long Hautai beach the tide was well in and they lost all traces of the horse's track, but their faith did not waver for they believed that sooner or later they would strike the scent once more. At Horoera they again found the track but only for a short period. When they arrived at Kawakawa, after this thirty-mile walk, they found the mystic animal in the missionary's paddock. Their joy was lessened, however, by their feeling of hunger. They were taken in by friends who arranged for their return home the next morning.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d34" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">A Massacre and its Result</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Four loyalist Maoris of Wairoa went to Whataroa in 1868 on a mission of inspection. Every member of <pb xml:id="n169" n="153"/>the mission had been massacred. On the receipt of the news a force was despatched to Whataroa. It found the settlement entirely deserted, but it was able to recover the bodies of the murdered Maoris. For years no trace of <name type="person" key="name-101416">Te Waru</name> and his people could be found. They had just disappeared. Years later, it was ascertained that they had entered the fastness of the Tuhoe Country and had made their homes there.</p>
          <p>History gives only one side to the story of the Whataroa massacre: That it was a cold-blooded murder. I was pleased, therefore, when Manakore and a Wairoa man informed me that there was another side to the story: A woman, a relative of <name type="person" key="name-101416">Te Waru</name>'s, had been murdered by loyalist Maoris, and, in revenge, the members of the loyalist mission had been massacred.</p>
          <p>I had always been puzzled why <name type="person" key="name-101416">Te Waru</name> should have murdered people who must have been related to him. Only very late in life did I read the full story of the Whataroa incident and found that there was this other side to the story.</p>
          <p>The descendants of <name type="person" key="name-101416">Te Waru</name> now live at Waiotahu, near Kutarere, on land given them by a past Government. My party spent a night at Waiotahu where we were treated most hospitably, the old chieftainess, a daughter of <name type="person" key="name-101416">Te Waru</name>, waited on us.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d35" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">"Ko te Hera te Pakeha"</hi>
          </head>
          <p>The late <name key="name-100562" type="place">Poverty Bay</name> chief, <name type="person" key="name-208955">Wi Pere</name>, who represented the Eastern Maori electorate for several years, and who after his defeat in 1905 by <name type="person" key="name-208832">Sir Apirana Ngata</name>, was appointed to the Legislative Council, was outspoken, but he had sense enough to put his unparliamentarily remarks in Maori form when addressing the House.</p>
          <p>On one occasion he was well-worked up and, to conclude his fiery speech, he said, "Ko te hera te pakeha!" When the House adjourned, <name type="person" key="name-207604">Sir James Carroll</name> <pb xml:id="n170" n="154"/>reproved the old chief for his immoderate language and asked him why he did not use Maori swear terms. <name type="person" key="name-208955">Wi Pere</name> replied, "Do you think I would use my ancestors' swear words on pakeha? No whia, Jimmy!" Of course, the House interpreter rendered in his own words what <name type="person" key="name-208955">Wi Pere</name> had said.</p>
          <p>I remember listening to <name type="person" key="name-208955">Wi Pere</name> when he was speaking at a conference of the Young Maori Party held at Awapuni, near Gisborne, some years after the incident in the House. The subject under discussion was the diminishing area of land left in the hands of the Maori people, Wi complained that the Maori was becoming landless while the pakeha was gradually taking all the lands. He concluded by saying, "Well, never mind. Let the pakeha have all the lands. When my own last acre in the world is gone, I'll go to heaven where there is a little section reserved for me." Then Wi hesitated and went on, "But who knows, perhaps even in heaven, the ubiquitous pakeha will follow me and rob me of the little bit I may have there."</p>
          <p>The elderly pakeha members of the Young Maori Party didn't appreciate <name type="person" key="name-208955">Wi Pere</name>'s oratory but the young Maoris roared with laughter.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d36" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">"The Trotter"</hi>
          </head>
          <p>I suppose there never was a more humble and less intrusive man in the whole of the <name key="name-207089" type="organisation">Ngati-Porou</name> tribe than old Tawiri; for this reason I want to give him a paragraph in this book, in order to immortalise him.</p>
          <p>Over sixty years ago I knew Tawiri as a mysterious character. His face was freckled and reddish in colour and there was in it a most peculiar expression. I had never heard him speak and even if he had spoken, I believe he would have been at a loss to know what to say; he looked so very strange and peculiar.</p>
          <p>There was, however, one thing in his favour: he was a fast walker; in fact, he could be called a trotter. It <pb xml:id="n171" n="155"/>was said that he could trot all day. He once went to Opotiki to bring home the bones of a relative who had died there. These he put in a sack which he carried on his back all the way to Waiapu, a distance of over a hundred miles. I suppose, as it was his habit to do, he trotted all the way except when he was resting. It is almost incredible and unthinkable that a Maori could carry human bones on his back during the night, Tawiri did it and simply because of this he always seemed to me to live in a spooky atmosphere. It was also known that Tawiri carried on his back a fifty-pound bag of flour all the way from Gisborne to Waiapu, a distance of about a hundred miles, and it is said that he trotted all the way.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d37" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Two Short Maori Yarns</hi>
          </head>
          <p>I think I have written down all the stray reminiscences I can recall and what I am adding here are two amusing short yarns which I have always enjoyed, though I cannot vouch for their authenticity. The first is current among the Maoris and for the second my authority is no less a person than the late <name key="name-207248" type="person">Mr. Justice Alpers</name>. The versatile judge must have liked the Maoris for we read that he spent several months among them in the Waikato.</p>
        </div>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d38" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">Big Building at Auckland</hi>
          </head>
          <p>A Maori was seen gazing in wonder at a sky-scraper in <name key="name-120382" type="place">New York</name>. A white man came up to him and said, "Big building, eh? If you got lost in that building, it would take you two weeks to find your way out."</p>
          <p>The Maori did not seem at all astonished and replied quietly, "Oh, that's nothing. We have a big building called Mount Eden (the gaol) in Auckland. You know, my old man has been there for two years and he is not out yet."</p>
        </div>
        <pb xml:id="n172" n="156"/>
        <div xml:id="t1-body-d8-d39" type="section">
          <head>
            <hi rend="sc">An Automatic Cheque</hi>
          </head>
          <p>Hoani coveted Farmer Smith's fine hack and wanted to own it. When one day he met the farmer and offered £20 for the horse the farmer agreed and Hoani wrote out a cheque for the amount and the farmer gave him a receipt. Some time afterwards, Hoani happened to visit the post office and the postmaster handed him a telegram. As the Maori could not read English, he asked the postmaster to read the telegram out to him. It read, "Cheque lost. Please stop payment." Hoani understood it well enough. He hesitated but said nothing. His friend, the posmaster, asked him for his reply for the telegram was prepaid. He looked at the ceiling and quite seriously said, "Tell him, don't worry, cheque stop himself."—<hi rend="i">Cheerful Yesterdays.</hi></p>
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          <pb xml:id="n174"/>
          <pb xml:id="n175"/>
          <pb xml:id="n176"/>
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