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

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CHAPTER IV.

January 13th. --Mr. Grace's report is not encouraging. He had started for the old mission station at Pukawa after our departure for Waihaha; but in the villages which he passed on the way his reception was so different to what he had been accustomed-- sullen silence and lowering looks taking the place of outstretched hands and cries of welcome, that his suspicions were aroused, and further confirmed by an old man, once a teacher in his school, who warned him that his life would be in great danger in Pukawa. He then reluctantly decided to return.

Late last night, some time after he had pitched his camp, a messenger arrived from Pukawa, bearing a request that he would return to his house and congregation, but adding that he was not to bring his boy with him.

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This proposal savoured strongly of treachery, and was declined accordingly.

We were by the same authority peremptorily forbidden from approaching Pukawa, or from making our way at all along the eastern or Kingite side of the lake.

The house and property at the mission station are a heavy loss to Mr. Grace, for he goes to a fresh appointment in the north; and the home which he had made after ten years' labour in a savage land is gone for ever. He leaves to-morrow for Tauranga, and proposes to visit another scene of his former labours, on the east coast, before proceeding to his new post. 1

He gave us a glowing picture of what the Taupo Maories were five years ago, whilst under missionary rule; of their docility and industry; how they cultivated large tracts of land, sending great quantities of grain for sale at the distant settlements; and then, having gathered in their own crops, travelled away to help at the white man's harvest; --of the well-attended schools, and daily and weekly services; how universal was the ceremony of marriage, how rigidly adhered to; how all these good things, and many more, were and flourished in the days when he had the power of sending an offender against morality to

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rusticate (quite literally) for a month or two in the bush.

Yet it did occur to us that possibly the very power of exercising this sort of authority had indirectly tended to weaken his influence, and lessen his hold on the affections of his people; that the severity with which habits of at least such doubtful wrongfulness, as, for instance, that of smoking tobacco-- the one solitary luxury of this simple people--were repressed, produced in the native mind a feeling of impatience of a rule which in other respects had conferred on them great and lasting benefits, and was almost always in the hands of earnest and disinterested men.

This spirit of intolerance in trifling matters--of governing the people too much in the minutiae of life, seems to have been the bane of all successful missions, and is even now slowly but surely working towards the same end in more than one of the South Sea Islands. 2

We were to have started to-day for Pukawa and Tokanu; but after Mr. Grace's reception and the prohibition addressed to ourselves, it would now be mere folly; so we wait the return of Hohepa with provisions from Napier, and of our avant-couriers who have gone to smooth the way before us by the Waikato route; or of Te Heu-heu himself, to try the effect of the Governor's letter.

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17th. --Crossed the river and walked to the Waipahihi, described by Hochstetter as "a warm-water river, which, rising in the extinct volcanic cone of Tauhara, falls in a vapour-crowned cascade into Taupo." Now, however, we found only a little brook of hot shallow water which a child might jump over, pouring over a ledge about six or seven feet high.

This brook, which has evidently frequently changed its course, retains its heat till it reaches the lake, and possesses remarkable connective powers, rapidly converting the sand and shingle into a hard and smooth conglomerate. There is a hot swamp and many more hot springs in the vicinity, and on a rocky promontory jutting out into the lake, there is a small geyser, with an orifice scarcely two inches in diameter; but it did not happen to be playing while we were present, though we tried to irritate it into action by stopping up its mouth.

A considerable portion of this shore of the lake is composed solely of long smooth sheets of lava, which, after issuing from Tauhara, have apparently reached the water in a fluid state. On the way back we examined a group of huge blocks of pumice-stone of a different grain to any in the neighbourhood or elsewhere, and remarkable from their shape and position, having apparently been forced upward through the smooth tea-tree plain by some subterranean upheaval; in shape, they bring to mind the Runic stones of Orkney.

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19th. --Reports have reached us that hostile war parties from the Uriwera and two other tribes are now on the Napier road, travelling in this direction from the southward and eastward to join the Kingites on the Waikato, and great fears are expressed lest Hohepa and the two natives who accompanied him to Napier to get provisions for us, should have fallen into their hands, as they ought to have been back a week ago. In the meanwhile our own provisions have become exhausted, and we have been living for some time on potatoes and tea without sugar or milk, together with a very little musty ship's-biscuit, which latter, however, will only last a few days longer; rather a monotonous diet for breakfast, dinner, and supper; but we soon get accustomed to swallow our meals in a mechanical sort of manner, and enjoyed the luxury of the smoke which followed all the more keenly, for luckily we never were short of tobacco. There are no eels, generally so plentiful in New Zealand, to be found in this neighbourhood; but occasionally a successful day with the nets, at a settlement on the western side of the lake, rewards us with a dish of tiny fish. There are two sorts in the lake, both very good eating if you can only get enough of them; for the larger kind, the "kokopu," rarely attain the length of five inches, and the smaller, named "Inanga," much resemble whitebait m appearance and flavour.

The Maories are very cleanly and careful in pre-

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paring food, and their mode of cooking is excellent. They first dig a hole two or three feet deep, in which a blazing wood fire is lighted, and heaps of stones thrown on the flames. Before the wood is burnt up, the stones are all red hot. The embers are then swept out, leaving the hot stones at the bottom of the hole, where they are covered with wet mats, on which the food to be cooked is placed between layers of fresh fern leaves, and more mats or fern placed over all. A quantity of water is then poured on the fern, and earth or clay quickly shovelled over, so as to cover everything completely, the slightest escape of steam being immediately stopped by plastering with clay. By this process potatoes are cooked in about an hour.

To-day we had resolved to recruit our larder by a grand duck-hunt, and started on foot, with horses to carry our blankets, &c., for Roto-Kawa (bitter lake), a small sheet of water about 12 miles from here, at the back of Mount Tauhara.

Besides the natives of our settlement, we were accompanied by Rewiti, the chief whom we met at Punu, and in whose "mana," or right of preserve, the lake and the ducks are held.

The lake is very strictly preserved, the ducks being only allowed to be killed twice or thrice a-year, at stated times; and a very heavy bag is expected for to-morrow, when the battue is to come off. This evening, for fear of disturbing the ducks, we bivouac

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about half a mile from the lake in the midst of the tea-tree scrub, and a very jolly little camp too, as we lie on sweet-smelling beds of tea-tree blossom, gathered round a bright blazing fire of the dry wood which lies all around in profusion, the fitful glare playing round the stems of the "Manuka" till it looks like a forest of heather in Giant-land. All hands, Pakeha and Maori, smoking, chaffing, singing, or talking, till a wild young native rushing about with a firebrand for a pipe-light, nearly put out one of Brenchley's eyes with the end of it. Fortunately, the injury is not permanent, and we are soon all snoring under the moonlight. Rewiti very indignant at finding fresh tracks--where tracks should not be-- leading towards the lake.

20th. --On approaching the preserve early this morning it became clear that poachers had forestalled us, and spoilt the battue. In one clearing in the bush, where they had plucked the stolen birds, not an inch of the ground could be seen, for though the feathers had mostly blown away, the down had become matted with the grass, and covered a large extent of ground to the depth of many inches. Imprecations loud and deep were heard on all sides against a neighbouring tribe of Kingites accused of being the authors of the mischief.

This is the lake to which the ducks, such as those that were caught for our dinner at the Te Huka

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waterfall last Sunday week, resort annually and molt their wing feathers. No guns are allowed to be used within sound of the lake, to avoid unnecessarily disturbing more than what are killed. One party in a canoe drove ashore all the ducks whose loss of feathers prevented them from taking wing, and they formed about five-sixths of the flock. They landed, however, only to find half-a-dozen men, armed with sticks, and dogs in leash, ready to hunt them down among the bushes.

But the birds had been scared from their usual haunts by the raid of the freebooters, and in the course of half an hour, only ten having been bagged, the battue was discontinued for fear of permanently depopulating the lake. A miserable failure, for the poachers must evidently have killed several hundreds, Rewiti vowing every sort of vengeance against the said poachers--when he can catch them.

The ducks were soon cooked in a "hangi" or native oven, and still more speedily devoured for breakfast by the whole company of hungry "vegetarians;" after which we returned to our old quarters at Lake Taupo, Brenchley and I, with Poihipi and Moe, taking a new route, while Mair and the rest of the natives returned by the old one. Our line was about five miles longer, but we were rewarded with some exquisite scenery on the Waikato--the prettiest part of the river that we have yet seen; a succession of waterfalls and foaming rapids "cannoning"

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between lofty cliffs, partly formed of bare grey rocky steeps and rugged boulders, partly clotted with pendent verdure. In some places the river, or part of it, flows completely underground for short distances, vanishing mysteriously under the rocks; in others, the whirlpools from the rapids have formed beautiful little circular bays, in one of which we saw the fragments of a canoe, ceaselessly gyrating, as they have done by day and night ever since the canoe of which they once formed part was dashed to pieces months ago in the rapids above, and its inmates drowned or torn to shreds against the rocks.

The lake we have just left is ugly enough in point of scenery, its shores being flat, and either barren or covered with stunted manuka, its waters of an opaque dull-green hue, and sour to the taste (whence its name, Roto-"Kawa"); but its other natural peculiarities repay the traveller for the want of landscape beauties, for, besides the eccentric habits of its myriads of winged inhabitants, the shores offer an interesting study, being covered in most places with either sulphur or crystallized alum, the latter incrusting great quantities of the drift-wood and pebbles, while most of the phenomena to be found in the country, resulting from the effect of subterranean heat on minerals and on water, find some representation on the shores of the lake.

We ascended the right bank of the river for two or three miles, till, finding that Moe had for some

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reason lagged behind and out of sight, we tethered our horses where they could get a feed off the poor native grass, and crawled up to the brink of the cliff, where we lay, enjoying the glorious view, until it should seem good unto Moe to make his appearance.

With such a panorama spread before us, little did we grudge delay, for nowhere could the pleasures of idleness in excelsis be more luxuriously enjoyed. The day was warm and bright, and the clear summer air rendered every part of the landscape brilliant and distinct; the broad rolling plain vanishing into the horizon; the heaving woodlands and distant mountains; the winding stream with its hissing, foaming rapids leaping over the rocky ledges; and farther yet, the Te Huka Falls, the roar of whose waters made itself heard in the distance like thunder amongst the hills; while directly beneath us the whole body of the river flowed deep in its cliff-bound bed calmly, intensely, gloriously blue. We had not lain here long before another object more interesting to men in our situation than even the most beautiful scenery diverted our attention from the landscape; it was Moe, followed by his dog, and dragging after him some dark and ponderous body: a few minutes made it clear that they had killed a wild hog, and thoughts of the savoury stew made our mouths water: so hurrah for that porker fat! Hurrah for the broil so rare!

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We crossed the river in a canoe far below the falls, and reached home by nightfall.

22nd. --Brenchley, Mair, and I, with Poihipi and a wiry young native named Hori, this day made the ascent of Mount Tauhara; we being at all events the first white men who have ever done so.

We started early, rode as far as we could, and then left our horses tethered by a spring in the mountain side. It appeared to Brenchley and myself, when we were examining the mountain a few days before from Hiruharama (Jerusalem), that it could be scaled most easily by following a wavy ridge which leads up the south-eastern side of the mountain, but Poihipi decided on ascending by a spur on the flank which faces the Waikato.

Tauhara is an extinct volcano, and the northern and southern walls of its now silent crater have fallen in. The lower part of the mountain as well as the whole of the interior of the crater are thickly wooded, and the difficulty of the ascent consisted not so much in the steepness of the rocks as in the network of supplejack and other creepers, which, interlacing the trees in all directions, required the frequent use of the tomahawk or bowie-knife.

The natives expected to find water somewhere up the mountain, but in this we were disappointed, and found nothing wherewith to moisten our parched throats till we returned to the spring where we had

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left our steeds. We reached the summit about 2 P. M., and of course enjoyed a magnificent view, embracing a large portion of the course of the Waikato, diminishing in the distance to a mere thread of silver and blue; the whole of Lake Taupo and the Kaimanawha ranges; the broad Kaingaroa plain, stretching away eastward to the sea, and looking terribly barren and thirsty, though in fact watered by many rivers; the hills which surround Rotorua and the rest of the hot lake district; and the comparatively fertile province of Napier, with its rich and mellow-tinted woods.

After having rested awhile, and taken a bird's-eye-view sketch of the surrounding country, together with the compass-bearings of most of the principal mountains of the northern island, we returned in our own footsteps; our downward path being facilitated by the use we had made of our knives in the morning, and reached the foot of the mountain by nightfall.

We made the result of our day's work known to the surrounding country by setting fire to the fern and bush near the top of the mountain, which burnt brilliantly for three days and nights, and on returning to our whare further celebrated the occasion by devouring a pot of beef which we had reserved till now--the solitary remnant of the provisions we had brought with us.

A comet which has been visible for several nights

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past is the object of no little speculation amongst our Maori friends. From this part of the country it appears to hang directly over Taranaki, the hotbed of Kingism and rebellion, and its presence is interpreted by the Maories in very different modes, according to their own proclivities. Thus while the Kingites triumphantly point to the protecting finger of God indicating the new Zion of His chosen people, the Queenites retort that it is the avenging sword of the angel Gabriel hanging over the devoted heads of the misguided men who have presumed to use His name in blasphemy of the Christian religion.

Meanwhile the suggestion which we ventured to hazard to the effect that the self-same comet, seen from Taranaki, would appear to be far away over the sea, is treated as downright heresy.

To-night the comet seemed on setting to fall into the very centre of Tongariro's historic crater--most celebrated in Maori traditions--the burial-place of many a generation of Taupo chiefs.

It was a pretty as well as a curious sight, and we joined the little group of Maories who stood without the whares watching the comet's trail of light slowly sinking into the clouds of smoke that curled out of the sombre crater, and asking each other with bated breath what meaning should be attached to these new signs in the heavens. It was no use asking the Pakehas, for it is well known that white men are pitifully ignorant of the meaning of omens.

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25th. --Three weeks have we now spent by the shores of Taupo, and there is nothing to indicate that three months will find us any opportunities for pursuing our journey, and getting back to Auckland, less risky than those before us at present. We have already considerably exceeded the limit of time within which I individually had promised, if possible, to return to my duty afloat; and reports now reach us almost daily of hostilities already commenced on the plain of the Waikato, and of the blue-jackets having landed--reports whose accuracy we have no means of testing, but still sufficiently probable to form additional motives for me to make a move from here at all hazards. Te Heu-heu has returned to Pukawa, but in a spirit of even greater hostility than before; he is said to be actively engaged in making converts to the new fanaticism, and raising recruits for the Maori king, and moreover flatly refuses to have anything to do with us. Under these circumstances, to visit him, or attempt to pass under his "mana" through the hostile country which lies between Taupo and our military posts on the route to Auckland, via the Waikato--the old mail-track, or to forward to him the Governor's letter, would be only to expose both its writer and ourselves to useless insult. Now this man, Te Heu-heu, is the one in whom, of all the hostile chiefs, His Excellency placed the greatest confidence, and it is clear that all hopes of returning openly by the direct route are now at an end. There

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are two other routes: the one by which we came, returning to Tauranga, where we should have to wait an indefinite time for a passage to Auckland by sea; that is, supposing that we could now retrace our footsteps, which is doubtful, seeing that two Kingites have recently arrived at Rotorua, which lies on the road to Tauranga, announcing themselves as the avant-couriers of William Thompson, who they say is quickly following with from 400 to 600 men, to clear the way for the Ngatiporos to join the tribes opposed to us on the Waikato; and this the loyal Arawas are determined to resist. Should there be any truth in this story we should probably find the road to Tauranga closed, for other men say that any Pakehas found on their territory will be made the first sacrifice to their new "karakia," and that any Queenite Maories found with them will meet with the same fate.

Lastly, there is the road to Napier, a seaport on the south-eastern coast of the island; whence we could return by sea to Auckland,

But Poihipi will not hear of our going by this route, as nearly the whole of the four days' journey would lie through settlements inhabited by men who are determined Kingites, though not yet supposed to have had their heads turned by the Pai Marire fanaticism; and it is on this road that there is too much reason to fear that the three men have come to grief who went to Napier to get provisions for us; for

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though they ought to have been with us again a fortnight ago, they have not been heard of since their departure.

Moreover, Poihipi has learnt that war parties from three hostile tribes, the Ngatiporos, Ngatikahungunus, and Uriweras on their way to join the Wailatos, are already slowly travelling along this road.

Under these circumstances I decided to endeavour to cut through the hostile country, and reach one of our outposts in the plain of the Waikato--a distance of about 80 or 90 miles--by riding hard by night and lying close in the bush by day. But for this a guide will of course be necessary, and herein lay the first difficulty.

My two companions, being masters of their own time and movements, have no object in incurring any special risk for the sake of returning, and therefore remain here till some tidings are received of Hohepa and his two companions, showing that the Napier road is practicable, or till some better opportunity presents itself.

I have hitherto utterly failed in my endeavours to persuade any of the natives of this place to act as guide, though I commenced with upset offers of 10l., a large sum for. a Maori, and which they knew would have been increased had any of them been willing to strike a bargain with me; but they said that not a man of them would go for a hundred. My good friend Poihipi tries to dissuade me from going,

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saying that the Governor confided the safe conduct of the whole party to his charge; but the force of his arguments is somewhat weakened by his utter inability to understand what possible difference a month or two could make to me---the value of time is one of the last things that a savage race can learn.

Rode over alone to Oruanui to-day to see if I could there find a native game to go through with me. There is no time to lose, for day by day the increasing spread of the Hau-hau doctrines renders all prospects of travelling through the territory or among its votaries more and more hopeless.

We had heard that a party of these fanatics were already on their way hither, but it was not known how far off they might be; however, I saw nothing of them, though I kept a precious sharp look-out ahead all the way.

At Oruanui, Dr. Hooper and a Pakeha-Maori named Frank, who lives near him, accompanied me to the pah to endeavour to get a guide. Frank is a first cousin by marriage of Rewi, the principal fighting chief of the Maories.

Perenara, lately our host at Waihaha, had just arrived from Te Papa with the latest news of the great meeting of Kingites.

His account confirmed what we had already heard, viz. that the Kingites to a man are bent on war, and at present purpose making a simultaneous attack on as many of our posts on the Waikato as possible.

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It appears that Rewi counselled the immediate execution of this plan, but the King, Potatau II. (Matutaera), or rather those whose puppet he is, decided on waiting for a few weeks or a month, till all the Kingites shall have joined the new faith. And for this purpose large bands of propagandists have been dispatched in various directions. One of these bands of fanatics is now on its way hither to convert the tribes on the east coast; and the question as to the expediency or possibility of preventing them from passing through the loyal districts is the subject of no little anxiety to the inhabitants of this pah.

The canoes at the crossing of the Waikato above our posts have been destroyed; and it is reported that the Prophet, whoever that mystical personage may be (not Te Ua), has given orders that all Pakehas and Queenite Maories are to be killed "at sight." And the Pai Marire worshipping-pole has been raised in every pah and kainga lying between this and the British lines--rather a dark look-out ahead! Here, as at Tapuae-haruru, I found the natives very unwilling to trust themselves anywhere within reach of the professors of this new and sanguinary creed, which seems to have thoroughly "funked" even those who have no belief in it. After two or three hours of fruitless negotiations I returned to Frank's whare, weary and dispirited at my failure, and the prospect of being detained an

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indefinite time, which, judging from the rapidity with which the fanaticism is even now closing around us, might result in our having to remain cooped up at one of these friendly pahs till the war itself was over.

26th. --Late last evening Frank's wife came in from the pah with the good news that she had succeeded in procuring a guide for me, a good-looking, well-dressed young fellow, named Hemipo, with the great advantage of possessing by far the best horses in the country-side. He is himself a stanch Queenite, and trustworthy, though the son of an influential Kingite chief--old Ngaperi, the same that we chanced to meet after leaving Punu on our way to Oruanui and Taupo. Hemipo provides me with a capital horse, and we soon came to terms about payment.

All details having been arranged at an intolerably long korero at the pah, I returned to Dr. Hooper's whare, where I soon was sleeping soundly on a heap of fern, after the usual meal of potatoes, salt, and tea. About ten o'clock, whilst at supper, we were startled by a succession of piercing screams, evidently the voice of some woman in the pah. It turned out to be Takiara, a Maori clairvoyante, who, when these fits seize her, runs away into the forest, as she did last night, and there details to those who follow her the events which she fancies or pretends to see going on at the seat of war, and other distant

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parts of the country. When not under the influence of this nonsense she is not an unpleasing-looking woman, but dreadfully "strong-minded," and leads her husband a life of it with a vengeance.

Until recently she was chef de cuisine and quartermaster-general on our private staff, till one day she roused all the dormant jealousy of her female helpmates by reporting us to have said that she alone knew how to cook and dish up in true Pakeha fashion.

The Maories as a race are not addicted to "Billingsgate," and a slighting gesture, or such trifling words as these, have frequently caused a fierce war between two powerful tribes, and will always produce a deeper and more lasting effect than would result from a torrent of abuse amongst the lower classes of other nations.

The case in point was the only one in which it has happened to me to witness any really angry quarrel amongst the natives, during the whole time we have been with them. As it was, the wordy war waged fiercely between the weaker vessels, till a few words from Mr. Grace, who happened to be present (it was the day after he had followed us to Taupo), stilled the tempest of their wrath; but the fair Takiara had to leave the settlement on finding that her companions had detected the false note she had played on her own trumpet.

Returned to Tapuae-haruru in company with

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Hemipo this morning to pack what few traps I have with me, which, together with my watch and journal, Brenchley takes charge of till we meet again in Auckland.

Poihipi, who is very jealous at my having secured a guide from his rival Hohepa's place, expatiates on the dangers of the direct route which I have chosen, and now talks of sending Brenchley on to Napier after all, with some of his own tribe. But I hardly believe that he will do this, some excuse being found for delay at the last moment; and if Brenchley should get into a scrape, Poihipi has not a horse which could carry him out of it, or stand the fatigue of a forced march, such as would be necessary should the natives on the road to Napier prove as hostile as they are reported to be.

We--Hemipo and I--leave in a few hours for Oruanui, and push on the next morning for Auckland. We purpose passing rapidly, but openly through the first hostile settlement--Tataroa--where no danger is anticipated, the men being all away at the seat of war, and the place only inhabited by a few old women and children; we then cross the Waikato at a place called Waimahana (warm waters), the residence of some Kingite relations of Hemipo's; but thenceforward till we reach one of our own outposts, we shall have to make the best of our way by night, hiding by day in the thickest part of the bush, or in some well-sheltered gully.

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Hemipo takes charge of the only provisions that we carry with us--a bag of unleavened biscuits, baked to-night by Frank, who has luckily discovered a native possessing a long-hoarded store of a few pounds of flour. As to meat, there is none to be had for love or money, and potatoes would be too bulky and heavy in proportion to their nutritive qualities to be borne by horses who must be ready at a moment's notice to gallop for their riders' lives; neither should we dare to light a fire on our journey, whether for cooking food or making tea. And besides the consideration of its unavoidable necessity, a bread-and-water diet for three or four days is but the shade of a hardship, even had not the monotonous fare of potatoes and sugarless tea on which we have been living for the last few weeks accustomed us to regard our meals merely as part of the necessary routine of the day, like sleeping and dressing, or at most as giving a greater zest for the enjoyment of the luxury of the pipe which followed.

We both ride as light as possible, I, for instance, having nothing but my blanket, brace of revolvers, a long bowie, and a waterproof sheet. Our route, after crossing the Waikato the first time (we must do so twice), will depend a good deal on what Hemipo learns from his relatives at Waimahana: we shall either push on for the crossing near Mangore, avoiding Waiotu and Whakamaru (very hostile settlements) by a circuit, swim the Waikato at the tails of our

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horses on the third night, make a dash through Aratitaha at full gallop under cover of the darkness, and reach our redoubt at Kihi-kihi in the morning; or cutting into the longer but less frequented Tokoroa road, after crossing the river the first time at Waimahana, avoid all settlements by riding through the bush or fern land, which is there comparatively level and open, and, if all goes well, swim the Waikato below Maungatautari at daybreak on the third morning; we should then be within a short distance of our redoubt at Cambridge, as it is now called, where we should find ourselves within twenty-four hours of Auckland, if we have the luck to catch a steamer; if not, it is only a matter of two or three days' riding. But at Maungatautari the river is broad and the stream runs fast, with countless thirsty whirlpools; and many a fine fellow, in attempting to cross it, has found a grave beneath its waters.

27th. --Left Oruanui this morning with Hemipo, amidst many expressions of good-will and hopes for our safety from our late hosts and the natives in the pah; and the fresh morning breeze seemed full of life and hope, as we cantered over the swelling plains and woodlands. I had been somewhat concerned to learn, just before leaving, that my guide has a failing common amongst even the best of Maori warriors--a childish fear of darkness and solitude-- a misfortune that might easily prove very mischiev-

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ous in an expedition like the present. Though few in numbers, the Maories are an eminently sociable and gregarious race. They are never found living alone; they could not stand the isolation which constitutes the life of thousands of white squatters, shepherds, and trappers; their superstitious fears, barely scotched--not killed--by the teaching of the missionaries, would people each overhanging rock or lonely cave with some fresh horror to be feared, some malignant spirit of evil.

Until we left the settlement I had been assured that my guide could neither speak nor understand a single word of English, and all our communications previous to starting were carried on through Hooper or Frank; but as soon as we found ourselves alone in the bush he plucked up courage, and showed that he had picked up a certain number of English words and even sentences, which, together with a few words of Maori which I had learnt during our journey, enabled us to understand each other on most necessary subjects. The process of exchanging ideas on things in general was however too laborious to tempt us into much conversation, and the stillness of surrounding nature impressed me to a greater degree than it ever had before.

The woods we traversed were not nearly so grand or gloomy as in many other parts which we had visited, but there is a silence peculiar to the New Zealand forest which must be felt to be understood.

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I cannot call to mind any tropical forests which excel those of New Zealand in beauty, for here there is magnificent timber, without the jungle of undergrowth which obstructs the view in more torrid climes.

Brilliant parasites and creepers hang from the uppermost boughs of the loftiest trees, straight as cathedral bell-ropes, or, winding from stem to stem with fantastic curves, interlace distant trees, in the very extravagance of their luxuriant beauty. The lofty Totara, and the Rimu with its delicate and gently weeping foliage, and the shade-loving tree fern, the most graceful of all forest trees. Wild flowers are few and rare, but the ferns are more numerous and varied than in any other country.

It is the absence of all living things which renders the silence and solitude of the woods so oppressive. Occasionally a pair of Kaka parrots may be seen wheeling high above the hill tops with harsh discordant cries, or the melancholy note of the great New Zealand pigeon comes booming through the woods; but except at early morning the traveller may often wander for hours, I had almost said for days together, through the gloom of these woods where the sun's rays can scarcely penetrate, and the breeze passing over the tree-tops through the uppermost whispering boughs may be seen and heard, but cannot be felt. Not a sparrow--not a mouse to be

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seen; it seems the silence of death, or more properly the stillness of the yet unborn; the gigantic Moa and one or two other extinct species of birds which, even in historic times had their home in Kew Zealand, used to shun the gloomy shades of the forest and cleave to the flat marshy lands.