ABOUT THAT RIVER.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 16 August 1924, Page 13

ABOUT THAT RIVER.

HINGAHAPE OR MANAWAPOU ? (By Fifty-one.) I have delayed replying to your Whareroa correspondent’s last reference to the so-called Manawapou river, hoping that some Maori or European in the district having a knowledge of the subject under discussion (and I know of a few of both races) would corroborate my version, but seemingly they do not intend to enter the arena. Your correspondent’s suggestion that the river bears two distinct names is rather unfortunate for him, as I believe I am correct in asserting that there is not a river in Neiv Zealand which empties into the sea that the Maoris have given two names to. Take the Manawatu, for instance, which rises in Hawke’s Bay and empties itself into the sea at Foxton, Wellington province. How many fairsized rivers lose their identity in this w aterway ? I could name dozens. Then there are the Wanganui, Patea, \\ aikato, and others,' whose distance from source to sea is considerable. In the “Life of Kimbell Bent,” the author mentions that the soldier deserted from the “Manaw r aoou camp,” and afterwards crossed the “Tangahoe” and “Ingahape” streams; but, as showing how easy it is to fall into error in writing up historical events, it is made to appear that Bent crossed the Tangahoe first. To arrive at the spot where he was captured by the Maori, Bent must have first crossed the Ingahape (or Hingahape) and then the langahoe to reach the native pa he was taken to. The material point is, however, that there was a Manawapou camp on the old village site and a Ingahape river in 1865. I am not prepared to contradict vonr correspondent when he says that Bishop Selw'yn was ordered away from Ohangai by the Maoris in 1868, but had never heard of it. During Titokowarus war that year the Ohangai Maoris were not unfriendly towards the Europeans— at any rate they did not show it. The Bishop left New Zealand for the Old Country in October, 1868.

Re the location of Ohangai, your correspondent, so I am informed. * was right in the first place; Ohangai is on theHawera side of the Tangahoe Ihe river mentioned as the Otoia should have been the Otoki. I shall have no more to sav on this matter.