ONAWE.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume XX, Issue 1520, 6 February 1891, Page 2

ONAWE.

Mr. P. O'Callaghan is getting on well with his seh me for the great Maori festival on St. Patrick's day. His property of Onawe is certainly a storied locality, and no doubt it will be with a feeling of awe and reverence in connection with the past that the remnants of the Ngai Tabu will gather on that spot where the great Raupahara shattered the power of their mighty Hapu. They will gather, it is said, from Raupaki, Taumutu, Kaiapoi, vVairewa, Onuku and Tikao to meet the pakeha, and it is stated the Haka will be danced amidst those great earthworks that testify to the power and industry of their mighty progenitors What more moving sight can be imagined than this gathering of the remnants of that fierce race whose greatest war bore the horrid title of " Eat Relation." In the Christmas number of the Sydney Town and Country Journal, the principal tale this year is a story of this same Onawe. No doubt it was founded on our own " Stories of Banks Peninsula," but it has served to tell many a thousand Sydney readers the story of the place of which we speak.

There will bo no lack of good things. A grand bullock will be roasted whole : one has given bread, another beer, and so on and so on, till such a collection has been .promised as will be sure to meet the wants even of the great crowd that are sure to assemble. Seldom, in the history of Canterbury, has there been a more interesting occasion, and the people of Akaroa will owe a debt of gratitude to Mr O'Callaghan if, by his spirited action on this occasion, he has turned the attention of our Christchurch friends to the manifold attractions of our beautiful Peninsula.