LAMENT OF WERAHIKO.

Waka Maori, Volume 10, Issue 25, 15 December 1874, Page 317

LAMENT OF WERAHIKO.

For his son Te Hota, who died on the 3rd of September last, at Whanganui. (Translation versified by George Wilson.) Vainly look I all around me, Vainly asking, where is Hota ? He has disappeared for ever. Who can see him, who discover The secret of his silent dwelling ? Conic back, Hota, that your presence, Once so lovely, sweet, and blooming, May refresh us, so that we maySee once more your clear, small features. Mother, sisters, crying, sighing, Wail their ne'er-returning Hota. He has gone, the winds have borne liirn Away, away to nothing, nothing. I've done wrong, and.evil followed, And the Atua's judgment falling On my heart-strings cut and broken. Hota, mongst your elder brothers You have gone for once, for ever. When beneath your angry sickness You lay restless, pained and torn, To the Native wonder-worker I then brought yon, hoped to save you From the last plunge down to Pacrau. * J3ut 'twas fruitless —hence my sorrow." Like the concentrated raylets Of the moon 011 the horizon When she sinks —like her the brightness Of my son departed from me. And though distance is between us

I am longing to be -with him. Love is rending me to pieces, Love for him ; he left me sighing, Left me "without hope to find one Who can e'er replace my Hota !

Since our last notice, in WaTca ~No. 22, sixteen other ships liave arrived in the Colony, including some from Melbourne, bringing a total of over 4,100 souls. The ship Udstone, from Melbourne to Calcutta, India, with 150 horses, went ashore in October last, and all the horses were suffocated, the hatches bein<> battened down. The following strange story has been communicated to the Indian papers : —" We left Colombo in the steamer ' Strathowen,' had rounded Galle, and were well in the Bay with our course laid for Madras, steaming over a calm and tranquil sea. About an hour before sunset on the 19th May, we saw on our starboard beam, and about two miles off, a small schooner lying becalmed; there was nothing in her appearance or position to excite remark, but as we came up with her I lazily examined her with my binocular, and then noticed between us, but nearer her, a long, low swelling, lying on the sea, which, from its colour and shape, I took to be a bank of seaweed. As I watched, the mass hitherto at rest on the quiet sea was set in motion. It struck the schooner, which visibly reeled, and then righted; immediately afterwards the masts swayed sideways, and with my glass I could clearly discern the enormous mass and the hull of the schooner coalescing— I can think of no other term." It turned out that, the vessel had been submerged by a gigantic cuttle fish or calmary, the animal which in a smaller form, attracts so much attention in the Brighton Aquarium, as the octopus. King Cakobau has arrived in Sydney as guest of the Governor, and was accorded an official landing. He is very anxious to visit Melbourne. The Governor has presented him with a yacht in the Queen's name. Captain Strachan, Governor of the West African settlements, assembled the chiefs at Cape Coast, and delivered to them a message from the Queen, expassing the determination of the British Government to abolish slavery. The chiefs assented, but stipulated for permission to retain their actual slaves, if kindly treated. (See Walca No. 10.) The population of the Colony of Victoria at the end of September was 803,000. Details of the famine in Asia-Minor are of a very harrowing kind. 15,000 persons have already fallen victims. Emaciated men, women and children are pouring into the adjoining cities begging bread.