AN OLD WHALINC STATION, WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 28, 11 July 1891, Page 141

AN OLD WHALINC STATION, WELLINGTON.

N passing from Wellington to Wanganui, just Xkj a® the traveller has proceeded some fifteen 6X3 miles, and is neaiing Porirua, an island lying vlsS 1 five miles oft' the mainland becomes visible, tts 0*» This is the island of Mana. In the precivilized ages of New Zealand this island was a great resort for the rough-and-ready whaling element which represented to the native mind of fifty years ago the conventional type of European. Mana, or Table, lying some dozen miles north-north-east off Cape Terawiti, had also its whaling station from an early date. The first white owner of the island was a Mr Bell, whose white widow, according to Wakefield, quite mad lived among the natives, and had acquired all their habits and ways of living. The island was called Table Island from being flat on the top, with high cliffs all round except on the side towards the main, where a snug amphitheatre contained the pa where Rangiheata usually lived and the

establishment of the European resident. Rangiheata, it will be recollected, was the chief who with Rauparaha in 1841 perpetrated the massacre of Wairau upon the surveying party of the New Zealand Company in which nineteen persons were killed and many wounded. Soon after the massacre of Wairau, in 1841, Rangihaeata erected the stronghold opposite Mana, which is represented in the accompanying plate. It was guarded by enormous wooden posts sunk very deep into the ground, and firmly lashed together by means of flax rop° and aka. The approach to it from seaward was guarded by a reef of rocks running a long way out into the straits. Above the pa was a wahi tapu. Beyond is seen the island of Mana, or Table Island, at the southern side of which is situated a small pa belonging to Rangihaeata, where stands bis celebrated carved house, called kai tangata, or ‘ eat man.’ The opposite shores of Cook Straits are distinctly visible, with the rugged and in many places snow-capped mountains of the Middle Island making the direction of Queen Charlotte Sound. In the foreground are canoes belonging to Rauparaha, with the flax growing upon the grassy bank adjoining the beach.