THREE KINGS COLLEGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18771, 26 July 1924, Page 1 (Supplement)

THREE KINGS COLLEGE.

SIXTY YEARS AGO.

BY HARE HONCI. (Concluded.)

One evening my aunt, Emeri, took me upstairs to the girls' quarters. Just as ours, the one large room was half the length and the total width of the building. The long rows of single beds were similarly arranged at suitable intervals and with passage ways. When we entered all was quiet. Some of the girls were disrobing, and a few had already ducked themselves in for the night.

As soon as we were noticed the cry was raised: "Oh! here's a boy!" This cry was taken up by fifty voices; pandemonium was on. I was torn from mv aunt, caressed, kissed, squeezed and hugged. I was tossed from one to another, backward and forward, from side to side, the whole length of the room. When my aunt rescued me, I think that I had passed through the hands of every girl there. It was a panting, gasping and utterly dishevelled boy that was borne off in triumph by auntie. When we reached the door, I glanced timidly around. A tumultuous pillowfight was in full swing. Every girl in the room appeared to be taking a frantic part in it. Certainly, my introduction had disturbed their previous serenity. For that brief interval I had - been the one boy of their minds and hearts. When we got to the foot of the stairs, my aunt said to mo: "Do. not mention this, unless you are asked by the master or one of his assistants." I was not asked and never spoke of it. The Black Hole. Reverting to the high platform in the college, in the centre of that there was a trnp-door opening. This covered the "black hole," the one blot in that otherwise well-ctfnducted and well-appointed institution. Beneath this trap-door, and throughout the length of the building, there was thick, profound darkness. Now, when it is realised that perhaps the youth of no race under the sun is more afraid of darkness than is the Maori, whi;t here follows will be readily understood. During my terms I saw—we all saw—a youth punished by being lowered into that darkness and the trapdoor closed over him. I can still easily recall his blood-curdling shrieks as he was being lowered. But the moment the trap was let down, there was silence, the silence of the grave. He was too terrified to make a sound, to move, even to breathe. He was left there a very short time; perhaps two or three minutes. Then the trap was moved and he was raised. Heavens! the ghastly pallor of his face, his poor blinking and glazed eyes, and his suppressed moans. His nerves were shattered, perhaps for life. We were all upset, could not work, so were dismissed. The Oaves. When I first saw the three Three Kings caves, the central and largest was packed to its rim with human bones, Maori bones. These bones were surmounted by numbers of skulls. That they were bones of important persons is certain from the fact that they, had been -exhumed, after the flesh had perished from- them, and they had been carefully placed in the cave as a safe depository. That cave ought to have regarded as strictly tapu (sacred), together with its contents. But, and suddanly, bones totally disappeared. It was reported that unauthorised pakehas had carted them off and sold them for conversion into bonedust manure. That report caused a wave of depression to affect the scholars. How could, and why did, the pakeha commit such sacrilege? About a year after that five of us decided to explore the caves. Tradition recorded them to be winding and difficult, also that the larger one—in its days of activity—-had been intimately asso-' dated with the volcano of what is now Mount Albert. That, said tradition, was, in the days when IVTatua-o-Pere, whose ancient rim is the girdle, M tatua," was one huge volcanic crater. It was also related that at that eruptive time one of these cave tunnels, or chambers, ran partly under, if not right across, the bed of the Waitemata Harbour.

With these fragments of ancient lore in our minds, we armed ourselves with candles and a stout ball of heavy twine. Arrived at the caves, we decided to try first the largest one. We fastened one end of the twine securely to a loose, big rock, and three of us started in. The going near the entrance was easy enough. We lit a candle, and presently came to where the chamber had so narrowed down that we were obliged to creep on hands and knees. Then we got to where the chamber was quite roomy. We began to perspire with the warmth of it, rand partly with fear —unexpressed. We went on, and, through another narrow passage, reached another roomy chamber. We began to discuss and to surmise how far wa wei'e in. It is a fact that during this talk all looked nervously toward pur way out.

We were now scared, thoroughly sicared, and wo wished- that we were safely out in the open and the daylight. But none would say so. There was a point of honour involved. We had given out our intention to explore, and had reached nothing as yet to bar our progress effectually. ' To return at this early ■stage would be to court laughter. These thoughts perhaps increased rather than diminished the flow of perspiration from our youthful foreheads. At last, in sheer desperation, it was decided that the place was too hot for further progress then. It was . suggested that we might choose a more suitable occasion, and dress specially ' for another attempt. So we beat a . retreat. We did literally "beat," for each manoeuvred to get first to the narrow passage way. Not one sought the honour of being the last. When we got to the mouth and emerged, the first greeting of our outer mates cheered us. It was: "Well, you chaps are brave to stay in there so long!" So our fears at being laughed at proved groundless. One of us said: "Pooh! It was nothing at all;; but the heat forced us back." But I never heard of our party, or of any other party of as, doing cave-exploration after that. Where Now Are ? Our assembly at the Three Kings came from near and far, from the east, west, north and south. So perhaps it is not strange that when we dispersed we saw little of each other again. With the Hon. £. Mitchelson, then Native Minister, I afterwards interviewed one. i'This was Te Wahanui, a high chief of tho, 'NgatiManiapoto tribe. The late Henare Kaihau, M.P., was another. Evuera, native assessor, wa3 another. Men of mark these, who had. profited by their studies at the Three Kings. But these are now gone; and I know of none living who was a school-mate of mine. They have all disappeared, as hath the moa; "Kua ngaro; i te ngaro a te moa."