1870 - Meade, H. A Ride through the Disturbed Districts of New Zealand. [Chapters I-VI. - CHAPTER II.

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CHAPTER II.

December 26th. -- A bright morning, with a sun whose searching rays lit up the depths of the forest, as the whole party for Taupo, now consisting of thirty horsemen, besides a few men and women on foot and some pack-horses, started in Indian file along the narrow path which at present represents the Queen's highway to the interior.

About three in the afternoon we reached the remains of a small shed, named Williams' House, from the Bishop having slept there many years ago. Here, finding some grass, we halted to feed and water our horses, and allow the rest of the party to overtake us, Wharetini and Moe alone being with us; but an hour or more having passed with-

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out any signs of our rearguard or commissariat, we saddled, and pushed on again for Rotorua.

Hitherto our route led along the crests of lofty ridges, showing on either side as far as the eye can reach a perfect network of rocky gorges and deep ravines.

We now entered the woods, and the road became more difficult--steep hills slippery from recent rains, with tangled roots crossing high above the path; so the horses got many a fall, though they were led most of the way. At one time my nag entangled his legs in the bight of a tough supplejack, which hung from the overshadowing trees, and so thrown sideways off the path, he lighted on his back on a bush just below; but managed to kick his way down to the ground again unhurt.

The first lake we came to was Rotoiti ("Little Lake"), which, however, is nearly as big as Rotorua ("Second Lake"), of an irregular shape, and far prettier than the other. We crossed at a narrow place in a canoe, swimming our horses after us.

On a far hill-side on the opposite shore we sighted a steam-jet; one little link in the vast chain of volcanic action which stretches from Tongariro to White Island, a distance of some 150 miles. A queer little white cloud, bursting out of the ground at short intervals, like the firing of a minute-gun.

At the opposite end of the lake is a hostile pah, with the rebel flag flying.

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After leaving this lake, from which the natives say the Maketu river takes its source, we crossed a high, fern-covered ridge, and before dark reached the Mouria pah, built on the stream which connects the two lakes of Rotorua and Rotoiti.

The principal strength of this pah lies in the water with which its slight stockade is nearly surrounded.

As we rode across the ford we heard the cry to "put on food," and the natives came running out of their whares, pressing us to pass the night at their pah, or at least to stop and eat; but the day was far spent, and we pushed on to Ngae, a settlement on the shores of Rotorua, where we purposed passing the night. Here we put up at a small house built in European style, though originally constructed for a Maori chief, and at present the residence of the gentleman who combines the functions of magistrate and doctor for this part of the country, but who is now absent. Close by the house we found a neat little waterfall tumbling over a low cliff straight into the lake, from a stream which once turned a mill, now deserted and fast going to ruin and decay; so also the mission-house and the pleasant gardens and orchards which surround it are gradually getting smothered in creepers and weeds--a melancholy business altogether.

We had been over twelve hours on the road, but the rest of the party never arrived at all that night.

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having camped at the place where we crossed Lake Rotoiti.

The Mouria pah was the only place where we passed any dwellings or cultivations during the day's journey, but we met a small party of mounted natives, who brought news that an apostle of the new "Pai Marire," or "Te Hau," fanaticism, had arrived at Taupo with five followers, and had already produced a great effect among the dwellers by the Great Lake.

At present very little is known about the new creed, no white man having as yet witnessed their ceremonies or learnt their tenets.

They are called "Pai Marire," from the words which they subscribe to their signatures and use in greeting or parting from their co-religionists. The words literally mean "good! be appeased;" but the real tendency of the belief is to unite the Kingites of all sects in one common bond of fanatical hostility to the Pakehas. "Te Hau" means only "the hau (faith)." 1

The approaches to this "kainga," or settlement, are defended by a double chain of rifle-pits, roofed over almost flush with the level of the ground, each roof being pierced with small loop-holes.

A lamb having been killed for our supper, we were soon rolled up in our blankets, and fast asleep, on a heap of fresh-cut fern, in spite of the eloquence

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of a native assessor, who was endeavouring to extract from Mair a categorical answer as to how far his (the native's) little gallantries with the fair sex might endanger his situation under Government.

21th. --Next morning the rest of our party joined us, after we had enjoyed a long bathe in the lake, with a glorious "douche" under the waterfall. At midday we embarked in canoes and paddled across the lake to Mokoia, a little island, thickly inhabited and carefully cultivated, the sloping sides having been cut into terraces and built up to sustain the soil. It is best known as the scene of one of the most celebrated Maori legends -- that of Hinemoa, the ancestress of the present inhabitants of the island, and of the town of Ohinemutu on the mainland--a chief's daughter of the greatest beauty and the bluest blood in all New Zealand, who, finding her family (the powers that were, on the mainland) opposed to the marriage she longed for, answered the midnight trumpet of her island lover by swimming across the lake, supporting herself when tired by a string of gourds round her neck, and concealed herself in the warm bath, till her lover found her hiding beneath the rocks, and throwing her garments on her as she "rose from the waters beautiful as the wild white hawk, and stepped on the ledge of the bath graceful as the shy white crane," took her home as his wife, and lived happily ever after, &c., &c., &c., &c.

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The outer edge of the hot bath is separated from the lake by a wall of rocks artificially heightened, and the exact spot where the fair bride is said to have concealed herself is partitioned off, and "tapu."

On the other side of the island we found Poihipi with canoes big enough to embark us all with our saddles and baggage, and made sail for Ohinemutu, a settlement on the southern shore of the lake, built in the very midst of the hot springs, which surround what is considered by one who has seen also those of Iceland, the largest geysers in the world, and an infinite number of hot springs; so that, except during a strong southerly breeze, the inhabitants live in a perpetual cloud of steam.

The Maories aver, however, that this atmosphere is by no means unhealthy for human beings, though it drives away all mosquitoes, sandflies, and vermin; whilst the warm and highly-mineral baths, which are close at hand, in every direction, are a sovereign remedy for cutaneous and many other diseases. And, in fact, some of the natives of our party who had left Maketu, suffering from Psora, were cured by a single day's bathing.

This settlement has always been famed throughout Maori land for the beauty of the women, from the days of Hinemoa down to the present time; and during our stay we saw a few young girls with complexions like southern gipsies, just fair enough to let the warm colour show through the clear olive skin,

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and large dark lustrous eyes, with great and ever-changing expression, rosy lips, as yet undefiled by the blue tattoo, and beautiful snow-white, regular teeth. But even the best-looking Maori girls rarely keep their beauty long--they have hardly reached womanhood or maternity, ere the once firm bust has lost its shapeliness, and the clear white of the eye becomes dimmed and tarnished.

Many are leaving off now the old barbarous unkempt shock head of hair, and comb their abundant locks in the more cleanly and becoming mode of the Pakehas. They have generally small and well-shaped hands and feet.

The custom of tattooing is now falling out of fashion amongst the rising generation of both sexes, and it is to be hoped that before many years have passed, the nickname of "Blue-lips" will no longer be applicable to the native girls of New Zealand. Where the tattooing is confined to the slender lyre-shaped line on the fair one's chin, the effect is really not unpleasing; but the tattooed lip is an abomination.

The whole village is built on a thin crust of rock and soil, roofing over one vast boiler. Hot springs hiss and seethe in every direction; some spouting upwards and boiling with the greatest fury, others merely at an agreeable warmth. From every crack and crevice spurt forth jets of steam or hot air, and the open bay of the lake itself is studded far and near

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with boiling springs and bubbling steam-jets. So thin is the crust on which these men have built their little town and lived for generations, that in most places after merely thrusting a walking-stick into the ground beneath our feet, steam instantly followed its withdrawal.

Nature is here the public cook. Food is boiled by being hung in a flaxen basket in one of the countless boiling pools; nature also finding salt. Stewing and baking are performed by simply scraping a shallow hole in the earth, wherein to place the pot, and covering it up again, to keep the steam in; or by burying the food between layers of fern and earth in one of the hot-air passages. The great intermittent and annual geyser, "Waikite," bursts out of the midst of a narrow arm of the bay, which nearly divides the town.

In an open space in the middle of the settlement, stone flags have been laid down, which receive and retain the heat of the ground in which they are sunk. This is the favourite lounge; and here at any hour of the day, but especially when the shades of evening-are closing round, - all the rank and fashion of Ohinemutu may be seen wrapped in their blankets, luxuriously reclining on the warm stones.

Here the inhabitants met this evening, to hear what news the travellers had brought, and to have their usual "korero," or debate, on passing events.

From wars and rumours of wars, the discussion

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soon turned to the new fanaticism, which was ridiculed by all the speakers; yet some spoke as men who feared the object of their scorn, as though they had some lingering misgiving lest after all there might possibly be some truth in all these wonderful tales.

We hear that two emissaries from the headquarters of the new faith arrived here this morning, and are now actually in the settlement; but they keep quiet and out of our way, not showing even at the "korero" to-night, and bide their time till our departure; probably understanding how small would be their chance when pitted against the influence and stubborn loyalty of men like Poihipi and his companions.

Before turning in for the night we went down to bathe in the warm lake, piloted by a native with a light; for it is no easy matter to get about here in the dark, from the immense number of deep, boiling pools, and places where the apparently firm crust will not bear a man's weight.

It is very lucky that there is no liquor to be had in the place: fancy, after a jovial night, having to find one's way home, without a single false step, on pain of being boiled to rags!

Indeed, not long ago three unhappy people actually fell into one of these boiling caldrons, and were cooked in a trice. Stray horses frequently meet with the same horrible fate. 2

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28th. --On exploring some of the adjacent shores of the lake we found many more hot springs of different sorts, with sulphur in great quantity and purity. Whilst walking on what seemed to be hard, dry, firm ground, the treacherous crust gave way and let me into a hot-water spring, luckily only knee-deep and not hot enough to take the skin off.

We have been very fortunate in the date of our arrival, for the great geyser commenced playing this very morning for the first time this season.

It continues to increase in strength and frequency, till it culminates in February, and then gradually dies away again before the winter. At present the eruption occurs with great regularity every twelve minutes, and lasts about twenty-five seconds.

A vast volume of boiling water, surrounded by glittering jets of spray and curling wreaths of steam, rises in one grand bouquet to the height of 40 or 50 feet, an altitude which it retains for some seconds, and then slowly subsides into the bay whence it rose, where it dies away in a surf of seething foam, leaving huge banks of steam rolling slowly up the dark hill-side. An exceedingly grand sight!

Bathed again this evening, but this time at the fashionable hour of eight.

Young and old of both sexes meet in the lake every evening, almost the whole population taking to the water, which is of an agreeable temperature, like that of an ordinary warm bath, all over the bay,

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except where the water boils. The whole lake seemed alive, for the rising steam prevented any more than the portion containing the bathers being visible, and the scene was a curious one.

From every side were heard Maori songs and shouts from the players at some native game; and joyous peals of laughter came ringing along the surface of the water from beyond those misty veils.

Apart from these revellers, there were a few groups of staid old men, squatting up to their chins in water and smoking their pipes in conclave solemn. Poihipi, with his jolly face, fat corporation, and lighted pipe, looming through the steam, looked the very picture of enjoyment.

We had not been in long, before one of the chiefs called on the girls to come and "haka" to the strangers, and in a few minutes a number of the prettiest young girls in the settlement were seated in a circle in very shallow water, looking like mermaids, with the moonlight streaming over their well-shaped busts and raven locks.

They sang us a wild song, and beat their breasts to the changing time with varied and graceful gestures.

Others soon collected round us; the fear of the Pakehas, which most of the girls had shown at first, had by this time passed away, and the choruses of the songs which followed were joined in by scores of voices.

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But ever and again even these voices were hushed and stilled, while, with a weird and rushing sound, the great geyser burst from the still waters, rising white and silvery in the moonbeams which shone from the dark outlines of the distant hills, and dashing its feathery sprays high against the starry sky.

The scene was the very incarnation of poetry of living and inanimate nature. We remained in the water for about two hours, which we found quite long enough, though the Maories stopped much longer; for though very relaxing to us, it is just the sort of thing to suit their temperament.

Mair and I swam across the bay; but the ladies who piloted us across lived on the far side, and did not return; so, being unable to find our way back clear of the boiling springs which abound at the bottom of some parts of the lake, we hailed for our clothes and returned by land.

29th. --In our saddles again this morning, and started for Motutawa, an island in Lake Roto-Kakahi. We went a little out of our way to examine the hot fountains and basins of Whakarewarewa.

Some of these fountains play in prettily-incrusted basins; others rise out of curiously-raised circular funnels, five or six feet in height and diameter, and formed of various kinds of stalagmite.

These fountains, the largest of which throws the water from. 8 to 12 feet high, are all grouped to-

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gether on a little hill, and the curious effect is increased by the brilliantly-varied colours of the water in the pools and basins.

The chemical colouring of the waters, produced by the decomposition of the subterranean rocks through which they have passed, causes the contents of some of these basins to assume a beautiful emerald green, while within a few yards are others of a brilliant turquoise tint, or cobalt blue, or pink, but all perfectly clear and transparent.

After leaving Lake Rotorua, the character of the country we passed through to-day was dismal in the extreme, the path winding along barren valleys and through vast crater-like basins of pumice-stone, sparcely covered with scattered tufts of a poor kind of buffalo grass.

In one of these terraced basins we found two little whares, one of which was surmounted by a cross.

These were the church and dwelling of Father Boibeaux, a French Roman Catholic missionary, who has been out here about five years.

We gladly stopped for an hour or two, and partook of the good father's hospitality.

It would be difficult to conceive a life of greater devotion and self-denial than his. Wifeless, childless, with no companionship save that of his little congregation of natives, most of whom live at great distances from their priest, --no hope of ever again seeing his native land, or returning to the society of educated

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men, his life is passed in his Master's work, in a place where even the barest necessities of life are procured with the greatest difficulty. He spoke with affection of his native friends, and hopefully of the ultimate progress of civilization and Christianity amongst them; though he confessed that, under the combined influence of the war and the new fanaticism, he, as well as the Protestant missionaries, have almost entirely lost the influence enjoyed in years gone by.

We reached Roto-Kakahi before sunset, a very pretty little lake, completely shut in by precipitous but verdure-clad, mountains, with the bright little island of Motutawa set like a jewel in the midst of the dark-blue waters.

Having dismounted and left our horses at Kaiteriria, a "kainga," or village, on the shore of the lake, where we were much pressed to stay, we procured canoes and passed over to Motutawa, the shouts of welcome from the thickly-peopled island arising long before we reached its shores.

After supper blazing bonfires were lighted in the open air, and by their fitful light the young people of both sexes danced and sang till long past midnight,

30th. --Landed from the island and walked through the Wairoa pass to Lake Tarawera, where a canoe awaited us on our way to Lake Rotomahana (or hot lake). This pass takes its name from a mill-stream which runs through it, and joins the two lakes of

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Tarawera and Roto-Kakahi. Midway we stopped to lunch at the house of a native magistrate, named Kepa; 3 a good sample of the civilization which a thorough Maori will attain.

We found him living in a clean and orderly weatherboard house, with flooring, door, and windows, which, together with his furniture, had all been constructed by himself. Our host himself, an intelligent-looking fellow, was very decently dressed; and there was an air of comfort and neatness about the place which forced us to confess that it was more like the residence of a civilized man than was the dwelling of any white man or Maori that we had seen since leaving Colonel H------'s hospitable house at Tauranga.

Near at hand is a native water-mill in full work. Some little energy must have been required to establish this branch of industry in the heart of a wilderness so difficult of access.

Our host provided, to wash down our lunch, some very palatable honey-beer home made.

The natives expressed some fear lest wandering parties of Kingites might cross us about Rotomahana, and wished us to take our revolvers, which for various reasons we declined to do, and left them at the whare. After leaving the Wairoa we embarked on the western

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extremity of Lake Tarawera, and made sail to a fair wind for Rotomahana, whose seething floods pour into the former lake in a river of hot water.

Tarawera is perhaps the most extensive as well as the most beautiful of the lower lakes. The shores are much indented, and covered with trees, whose luxuriously overhanging foliage droops to the water. At the easternmost end, from the midst of a chain of densely-wooded hills, rises a very remarkable and lofty mountain, whose summit is shaped like a truncated sugar-loaf, with symmetrical sides and upper edge--a huge, bare mass of rock 2000 feet high. After passing through some narrow straits we traversed Te-Ariki, a part of the lake which is warmed by the current from Rotomahana, and landed on the southern shore, near the mouth of the hot river.

Here we left the canoe, for this being the close season for ducks, the passage up the stream is stopped by a fence, erected to prevent the thousands of wild fowl which breed in the warm lake from being disturbed by canoes.

This lake is one of the very smallest, but the most remarkable of the chain, from the immense number and variety of the geological phenomena which surround it.

We made a detour on foot, and crossed the hot river at a place where it was just fordable, by stretching ourselves full-length on the shoulders of the natives--three to each of us.

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As I write, squatted on the crowded floor of a whare, with my saddle for a table and a twisted rag stuck into pork-fat for a candle, one of the natives, peering over my shoulder, discovers me representing in a vignette the elegant and dignified mode in which we crossed the river, and presses me to record the interesting fact that he (of the utterly unpronounceable name) was the proud man who marched first, in charge of my head and shoulders.

Having crossed the hot river we pushed through the fern and tea tree scrub to the edge of the little lake, skirted it for a short distance, and soon found ourselves at the foot of the great "ngawha," or hot spring, Te Tarata--a natural wonder, which surpasses everything of the kind that has yet been discovered in this or any other part of the world.

To convey an idea of its beauty on paper is impossible; Hochstetter, the historian of the Austrian exploring expedition, got out of the difficulty simply by saying that it baffles description--and he is right.

The Te Tarata flows from a furiously-boiling pool which fills a deep crater opening on the side of one of the mountains surrounding the lake. The sides of the crater are lofty and perpendicular, and its dark and frowning walls afford a striking contrast to the huge, towering column of glistening white steam ever rushing upwards from its mouth.

The size of the crater at the level where the violence of the central action forces the boiling waves

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over the lower margin of the pool, is probably about 60 feet by 80. The water is of an intense and brilliant blue, the reflexion of which slightly tinges part of the column of steam; but the action of the vapour in escaping keeps the middle of the pool perpetually raised in a cluster of foaming hillocks, several feet above the general level.

From the mouth of the crater the wide-spreading waters fall in thousands of cascades, from terrace to terrace of crystallized basins. The water from each successive pool escapes in little curving jets to fill more numerous and broader pools below, or falls in a curtain of glittering drops from the fringes of crystals and glassy stalactites which form the margins of all the basins and terraces, and finally flows into Rotomahana over a smooth, hard flooring of a semi-transparent white glazed surface, which paves the shores of the lake for a considerable distance.

The water in the several basins is of the same deep blue as at the source, but the crystal margins, as well as the delicate crystallized tracery (reminding one of lace in high relief) which covers the whole of the broad flights of steps and curving terraces, are as white as driven snow, save in a few places, where, as if for the sake of contrast, a delicate pink hue is introduced. Anything so fairy-like I should never have dreamt of seeing in nature.

In shape most of the terraces somewhat resemble the curved battlements of ancient castles, though not

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so lofty, and the margins of the pools which they contain are disposed in almost symmetrical curves, each of whose extremities rests on the swell of those adjoining.

The traveller may here select a swimming-hath of any temperature he may prefer, from a mild tepid one in the basins nearest the lake to a heat several degrees above 4 boiling point at the crater. The depth of these pools varies from 8 or 9 inches to as many feet; but in all of them the chemical blue colouring of the water is strong enough to bring out a vivid contrast between the graceful patterns of the ridges which rise a fleur d'eau and the snow-white overhanging fringes. We could detect no smell arising from the cascade, but its taste brought to mind the "sky-blue" milk-and-water of school days.

The natives assured us that occasionally the Te Tarata discharges the whole of the water from the crater in one tremendous explosion, which must indeed be a magnificent sight, but rather dangerous to anyone in the neighbourhood.

There is another "ngawha" of a somewhat similar kind, but inferior size and beauty, on the opposite side of the lake, which we unfortunately had not time to explore.

We could make out, however, that instead of the almost spotless white hue of the Te Tarata, its steps and terraces are all variegated with rose colour and a

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bright salmon tint, with a deep-orange terrace or basin at intervals.

Skirting along the eastern shore of the lake, every minute brought us to some fresh wonder, differing entirely from the last: here, a group of little mud volcanoes in full and rather comical action; there, a furious, boiling pool, clear as crystal, with periodical geyser eruptions; or again, a miniature lake of cold water of a brilliant green, surrounded by miniature cliffs of pumice-stone and silica.

Now a basin of boiling mud of a dull white, then a pink one, and then again a black.

Here a little geyser; there a solfatara, with sulphureous fumes issuing from a yawning orifice incrusted with crystals of sulphur; or occasionally a fumarole, from whose crater escaped a few fitful wreaths of smoke; while from a thousand cracks and crevices in the many-hued and decomposing rocks jets of steam hiss forth.

There are about twenty-five large "ngawha," as the natives term the hot springs of the Te Tarata kind, scattered round the lake, and many hundred smaller ones.

The second in point of size on the eastern shore is to be found about half-way up the hill, but almost hidden in the bush, with a pool about 40 feet in diameter. We found the water in the centre rising to a height which varied from 8 to 10 feet, and driving the boiling waves over the rocky margin

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with a suddenness and fury which rendered both caution and agility necessary in approaching it.

At the time of Hochstetter's visit this "ngawha" threw its waters to the height of nearly 30 feet.

The mud volcanoes, of which there are a great number, might serve for miniature models of Mount Etna or Vesuvius, with boiling mud in lieu of lava. They are mostly of a sugar-loaf shape, rising from a flat surface covered with a very thin, smooth crust of naturally-baked earthenware; some so small that, standing at the base, we could peep down the crater, wherein the mud or boiling fuller's-earth was being either violently thrown or "flopped" about in a manner which suggested the notion of its containing some living and sportive animal, or ejected altogether after having been boiled into an almost impalpable paste.

The red porcelain pavement extends to the cold lake mentioned above, whose shores and surface are so covered with floating and stranded pumice-stone that it is difficult to distinguish the outline of terra firma, till the floating pumice has actually given way beneath one's feet and let one into the lake beneath. Some of the earthenware is thinner and more brittle than a teacup.

There are two of these geysers about 100 yards apart, whose eruptions take place alternately, one beginning to play the moment the other ceases, and continuing in full action for about ten minutes, when

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its neighbour's watch begins again. Into one of these, named the Whacanapa, some years ago there fell two little children, who were boiled alive; and the spot has been "tapu" ever since.

Every part of the valley not occupied by the lake and rushes is covered with a hard half-crystallized crust, as white as snow, and strewn with various objects similarly incrusted, so as to resemble a lake over whose frozen surface had swept a snow-storm. The brittleness of this crust and of the caking of baked clay makes it necessary to step very gingerly, and in some parts to place layers of brushwood to walk upon. Some of the waters have the power of fossilizing wood and similar substances. We found a good-sized fossil tree prostrate in the valley. Others merely cover the objects over which they flow with a hard white crust. So rapidly does this incrustation proceed, that, not very long ago a duck was found completely imbedded in a half-crystallized crust, which had preserved the flesh perfectly sweet.

Crystallized leaves and other objects of beautiful and fantastic shapes lay scattered about in profusion, and we felt that the day had been far too short when the lengthening shadows warned us to return: we could gladly have spent a week or more in exploring the many and ever-varied phenomena which almost every step disclosed.

Our return route to the canoe led us again across the Te Tarata, just below the crater, when we were

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greeted with a sight which defies description, but will never be effaced from our memories.

The sun was just setting behind the sombre western hills. Above us were clouds, orange, golden, and purple, of unusually warm and brilliant tints, even for an Australasian sky; before us, acres and acres of water-terraces, such as might belong to some giant's palace in Fairyland; every ray of the sinking sun caught and broken into a thousand prismatic hues by the countless crystals that hung like lustres round the margins of the successive basins, or mingling in the blue waters within them with the gorgeous reflexions of the glowing clouds above.

Lower still, foil to this glorious picture, lay the dark waters of the calm lake, buried in the deep shade which the mountains cast eastward, and motionless save where the still surface was ruffled by the teeming flocks of wild fowl. Beyond the lake, towering dark and sharp against the warm western sky, rose the grim mountain "Te Rangi Pakaru," with its great crater vomiting dense clouds of sulphureous vapour.

The feelings which this spectacle brought forth may perhaps be imagined, but the sight itself was one which no pen could well describe--no brush portray. The veriest clod or most blase and cynical of scenery-hunters must have been touched by such a sight.

During our return the clouds thickened, and a

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few flashes of lightning were seen over a pass between two distant hills. Lightning is much less common in New Zealand than in most countries, and the natives attach great importance to its appearance, as a good or evil omen. We were accordingly told that the flashes between those hills foreboded dire disaster and defeat to the tribe of Arawa; and no amount of argument or of ridicule which we could throw on their fears had any effect in allaying them.

Before re-embarking for the western end of Tarawera, we stopped for supper at a pretty little village on the shore of the lake, completely hemmed in by lofty cliffs. But neither the scalding tea and smoking potatoes, nor the cheerful light of the blazing fires, could drive the confounded lightning out of their heads; and, instead of the uproarious mirth of the previous evening, they ate their suppers in solemn silence, seated in a motionless circle round the fire.

We had a beautiful night, calm and starry, though moonless, and the lake was like glass. We were on the water again by nine, and long before midnight even half-way across Tarawera.

As a touching piece of music that has struck some hidden chord will ring in the ear long after the sound itself has ceased, so the impression of that sunset scene remained pleasingly present to our minds, while the Maories plied their paddles in the dark smooth waters to the time of their wild and uncouth songs.

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No more lightning having been seen for a couple of hours, the natives recovered their spirits, and one learned linguist even volunteered to sing an English song, in which the others were to join as best they could. But their alphabet is a deal shorter than their creed; and they had hardly got through the first verse somewhat after this fashion,

when a flash of lightning in the ominous quarter stopped their chirruping as suddenly as the report of a gamekeeper's gun amongst a flock of jackdaws, and they relapsed into untuneful laziness for the remainder of the voyage. It was three in the morning before we got back.

31st. --Shifted our quarters this morning to the mainland, after a bath in the lake at which the whole available population assisted (as spectators), the ladies replying to Mair's remonstrances on the impropriety of their conduct, that a white skin was so rare a sight as to render the temptation of a peep quite irresistible.

Not at all sorry to give our friends at Motutawa a wider berth, for they were rather a dirty lot. Our new abode is named Ephesus, a large clean whare on the shore of the lake, roomy and carefully finished. It was built for the late native magistrate, who was killed last June while fighting on our side.

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Mair and Poihipi went to a "korero" at the Wairoa (Kepa's place, where we lunched yesterday), where Poihipi was to propound some patent plan of his own for "bringing in" the Kingites; but the day being very wet, Brenchley and I preferred remaining behind to "put the house in order." There was nothing but the bare walls, though they were prettily ornamented, being lined with kakaho stalks and flaxen sinnet, worked into various designs; but with a couple of tomahawks, some planks, and raw flax lashings, we rigged up a shelf, bedstead, table, and benches, besides effecting sundry other reforms, such as doubling the size of the windows, laying down fresh couches of fern, &c., which made the place look like a palace compared to the little whares we have slept in since leaving Tauranga.

Soon after proceedings had commenced at the Wairoa, a small body of armed horsemen, with a red flag flying, was seen winding down the side of a neighbouring hill.

The cry was immediately raised that the Ngatiporos were coming, so every man shouted to his neighbour to bring out his gun, and nearly every neighbour replied with equal truth and modesty that he had no gun. "Never fear," cried a vigorous old lady, "you have four or five guns among you; bring them out, and shoot a few. That will be better than a bloodless defeat."

Fired to martial ardour by this patriotic speech,

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the worthy Kepa ran indoors, and speedily reappeared, armed with his gun, and in full fighting costume, having put on his belt and cartridge case, and divested himself of his inexpressibles.

Meanwhile Mair, who did not believe that the new-comers were a war party, was devoting his attention to a basket of fruit; and the natives, who have always a keen sense of the ludicrous, became unwilling to lay their fears open to the ridicule of the Pakeha (foreigner or white man), who was so coolly munching his cherries, so one of their number volunteered to go forward as a herald, to meet the strangers, and learn their mission. He started, and when within earshot, hailed them: "Are you for the Queen, or for the King?" They replied, "For the Queen," and the flag having turned out to be the red ensign, the herald returned with the good news that the strangers, instead of being the vanguard of the invading Ngatiporos, were a party of loyal natives who belonged to the hostile tribe of Ngatirangiwehiwehi, but had slipped through their lines to join the Arawas, of whom their tribe was originally an offshoot.

As soon as this was known, the greeting with which they were received became one of the most remarkable that Mair had ever witnessed in New Zealand.

They brought news of very warlike intentions on the part of the Kingites; but it is difficult to

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sift the truth from the exaggerations of a native's story.

Poihipi and the other Maories were very anxious for us to spend the night at the island, on account of the proximity of Ngatiporos, but the change of quarters would have been so much for the worse, that, seeing we were obstinate, they departed, affably observing that if the Kingites should come, our throats would certainly be cut before morning.

Mair and the natives who had gone to the "korero" did not return till midnight, but meanwhile Brenchley and I had beguiled the time, after our exertions in the general furniture line of business, by holding open levee to all the belles of Motutawa, who paddled themselves across in their light canoes to sing and "haka" to us.

January 1st, 1865, Sunday. --Many Roman Catholics have gone to attend mass in Father Boibeaux's little "raupo" church, though the journey there and back makes it a whole day's work.

Visited again to-day by many maidens musically inclined, but we are beginning to view these entertainments in the light of crafty contrivances for the extraction from the too susceptible "Pakeha" of tobacco, wherewith the fair serenaders may satisfy the cravings of their Maori sweethearts.

While we were at supper this evening, in marched two natives in full fighting costume, i. e. as little as

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possible, armed with muskets, and having each on his belt two cartridge cases cram-full of ammunition. They entered silently, and halted with ordered arms in front of us.

Our visitors were obviously on the war path, but by this time our education was too far advanced for us to commit such a solecism as to ask what they were after, so we continued our meal in silence, till our visitors informed us that they had been sent over from the island to keep guard over us during the night, as "the Maories' hearts were dark lest evil should befall us." But having great doubts as to the value of the protection offered, in the actual event of an improbable danger, we dismissed our guards with many thanks, and thought we had seen the last of our friends from the island; but this was not quite the case, for among the troops of girls who had flocked over during the previous two days to satisfy their own curiosity and amuse us with dance and song, one had been a specially frequent visitor, and had been much joked at by her companions on a supposed fancy for one of the travellers.

Not half a bad specimen of a wild young savage girl was she; of middle height, with well-shaped hands and feet, lithe limbs and rounded arms (one of them not much improved by the initials of her name tattooed on the swell of it), strong, abundant, glossy black hair rising and falling in all directions at once, and sometimes almost hiding the wild black eyes;

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nose a little too broad, but suiting well the ever-laughing face, and a pair of full red lips, showing as glorious a set of teeth as ever bit a potato--a comparison not poetical perhaps, but appropriate, for it is to their simple diet that savage races owe the wholesome beauty of their masticators.

She tried hard to soften the heart of the burly chief to let her follow the fortunes of the travellers, of his Pakehas-- "she was young, she was strong, she could cook, she could wash, she would carry, or do anything, if they would only let her come." But the chief was inexorable. They were going to a land which knew her not, to tribes where she had neither kith nor kin; and, moreover, the rest of the natives of our party, whose voracious appetites had already made great progress with the Government provisions drawn at Maketu, looked with small favour on the prospect of an addition to their number. (We did not hear of this till a day or two after we had left the place.)

Late that evening a canoe gently grounded on the strand a short distance from the house where the white men were staying; the native having watched his opportunity through the unglazed casement, beckoned out one of the party sitting "crooning" over their pipes, and, with some little trouble, explained to him that his presence was wished for over the water; but the course of true love never did or will run smooth, and the unaccustomed ear of the

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white man mistook in the reply of the native the name "Karolina" for that of the damsel described above, which it much resembled.

Now Karolina was a worthy, but by no means attractive old female, who had charge of the dwelling of the deceased assessor.

So the Pakeha taking it but as a joke, or at most scheme for the extraction of tobacco, told the messenger that his friend was a "kuia" (a not very complimentary term for an old woman), and returned to the house. He had not been there long before the real name of the sender of the message flashed across him, and sent him swiftly to the shore in the hope that he might, at least, be in time to send a more courteous answer. But he was too late; for an instant he saw the canoe shooting out from the dark shadows of the steep and fern-clad shore, silently cross the bright path of the moon on the still waters of the lake; but again the vigorous arms of the Maori had sped him across the narrow stream of light, and plunged into the distant darkness; so be paddled him back to the watching girl in her island home without the wished-for passenger.