The Romance of the Rohepotae.

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Volume IV, 1 April 1901, Page 519

The Romance of the Rohepotae.

By James Cowan

THE KING COUNTRY-PAST AND PRESENT.

fIX hundred years ago a long outrigger canoe sailed slowly up the lonely forest-bordered waters of Kawhia Harbour, the light sea breeze barely filling the triangular tctpa sails, and the paddles of her brown-skinned crew flashing in the summer sun as they rose and dipped again in the sheltered tide-way. Her keel grated on the white sandy beach, half-naked figures leaped gladly out. with shouts of pleasure and relief, and gathering their tropical bark-cloth garments around them, they rested at last on the long-looked-for shores of the promised land, the Aotearoa, to reach which they had traversed two thousand miles of blue ocean and

skirted hundreds of miles of unpromisinglookinir or hostile-peopled coastline. The canoe was the Tninui, with a party of immigrants from the far-off Polynesian Islands, and her crew of Hnwaiiki warriors and women were the peoplo who were to populate the unknown regions of the Upper Witikato, the Wai pa, the Tai-Hauanru, and all that great area of forest, plain, hill and swamp which extends from the valley of the Waikato south away to the waters (if the Mokau and the Ongarue — the present-day Rohepotac. The Tahmi's people! most probably found scattered bauds of aborigines already inhabiting their new-found country ; we

know that in other parts of the North Island the Hawaiikian Maoris discovered tangatawhenua (people of ""the land) already in

canoe by which any fellow could travel. He stayed behind in Hawaiiki after the emigrants' historic canoes had sailed for the new land to the south-west ; but feeling a desire to join them (the Tainui people had abducted his wife) he signified as much to his gods. The considerate atuas immedi ately sent him a great fish, called Pane-iraira (Speckled Head), which bore him on its back to Aotearoa, and landed him safely at Kawhia (says the tribal tradition) before the Tainui canoe arrived. Imagine Captain Hoturoa's astonishment on landing to annex the new colony to find Raka there before him. " Fancy meeting you !"

But, Raka-taura's son, Hape-ki-tuarangi, out-did even bis father, for he was carried here from Hawaiiki in a whirlwind, called Te Apurangi, keeping watch in middle air over his illustrious parent, the mighty rider of taniwhas.

These tales apparently had their origin in

possession when they arrived here. But most of the memories of these ancient Polynesian aborigines have passed away ; one of the remindei\s of the fact that they did exist is perhaps contained in the lingering bolief of the Maoris in the patupaiarehe, the shy wood-elves, the fairy people whose haunts are the cloudy ridges of Pirongia and other lofty mountain tops.

Hoturoa was the chief and the navigator of the Tainui, and from him most of the leading chiefs of the Waikato, Hauraki, and " King " Country trace their descent. But to a contemporary of Hoturoa some of the Rohepotae leading families also attribute their origin. This ancestor, the great Raka-taura, whose name is surrounded with a semi-divine halo, is one of the ancestors of the Ngatimaniapoto and Ngatimatakore chiefs. A lineal descendant of Raka has recited to me his wliakapapa or genealogical tree, showing that that celebrated tupuna landed on these shores from Hawaiiki twenty-four generations ago.

According to the versions of some of his descendants Raka was no ordinary seatourist ; he despised the mere common

the desire to invest the doings of celebrated ancestors with something supernatural, the ultimate aim being the " chief

end " of all Maoris, the possession of the land.

The new people soon set out to explore the strange mysterious land they had taken po.ssession of, so different from the palmclothed isles of the tropical seas. They wandered up the valleys, crossed the ranges, and looked with wondering eyes on the wide plains of the Waikato and the Waipa, covered with forest and fern, through which wound the silver thread of many a river. They gave names to the features of the country ; they built their rude dwellings, planted their few seed-kumara with great care and ceremony, and foraged for the foods of Aotearoa. It was a virgin land they prospected. Deep, dark forests then, as now, covered much of the country ; wild birds swarmed in countless numbers; the voice of man could scarce be heard ou the forest outskirts at dawn of day for the chiming of the bell-bird and tui, the screaming of the kaka, and the " ku-ku " of the pigeon. So, as the pioneers became acquainted with the resources of this " Fish of Maui," they set their cunningly-devised snares for the forest-birds ; they speared them with long barbed spears ; they made rat-pits for the hiore Maori; built eel-weirs and manufactured long flax seines for the sea- fish. They setup their tuahu or sacred places, and at due seasons the hereditary priests repeated the already - ancient incantations to 10, Tv, Uenuku, Rongo, Pani and other gods of the Maori. They discarded their too airy tapa garments for the more substantial clothing of flax and toi. In such fashion they lived ; they multiplied, and in due time thickly peopled the more fertile portions of the coast and hinterland, and chased out the few earlier inhabitants, the tangata-whenua.

Even in the thick forest one still comes across traces of the old-time people. Great trees grow out of the jjff-trenches, and the surveyor and bushmau still occasionally find a hollowed-out waka, or bird-trough, which was set up in dry portions of the bush and filled with water, while above it were placed flax snares and nooses, in which

the thirsty wild pigeons might be caught when they flew down to drink.

Strange and interesting is the racehistory of these Tainui immigrants ami thoir descendants. The record of their occupation of this territory, afterwards known as the " King Country," as disclosed in the Land Courts, is a narrative of place-naming, land-claiming, house-building, and of tiorco feuds and vendettas, warlike expeditions, ruthless murders and cannibal feasts.

The descendants of Hoturoa and Uakataura often quarrelled amongst themselves, and when they wore not engaged in alternately murdering and conciliating each other, they were busy repelling the attacks of outside tribes.

The Ngatimaniapoto tribe, in later times, became the dominant tribe of the land. This clan takes its name from the great Maniapoto, founder of the tribe, who lived fourteen generations ago. His father was Rereahu, whose name is revered as that of a sacred Ariki or tribal head. Rereahu's grandfather was Turougo, whose remains were interred at liangiatoa, near the Rangitoto Ranges. It is said that the mouldered bones of that ancient can still be seen there, at the foot of a karaka tree.

Then in course of time arose other tribes, besides the parent tribe Tiiinui, of Kawhia, the Ngatiraukawa, Ngatitoa, Ngatimahuta, Ngafcirnatakore, Ngatihikairo, and the many tribes known under the common heading of Waikato. The Waikato proper lost their ancestral lands as the result of the war of 1863-64, so that Ngatinaauiapoto are now the people chiefly interested in the Rohepotae*.

The Rohepotae district may be defined as all that stretch of land extending from

Note. — This term means an external boundaryline. " Rohe " is a boundary, and " potae " a head-covering. The name was applied to the King Country in modern times, as a comprehensive term for the vast, roughly-circular tract of country under the mana of the Kingite party. Wahanui was one of those to originate the name early in the " eighties," and at his instigation a survey was made of the Rohepotae boundaries.

the old aukati frontier line at the Puniu River (a tributary of the Waipa), near Alexandra and Kihikihi townships, l-ight away south to the borders of Taranaki, the

Upper Whanganui River, and the shores of Lake Taupo. The western boundary is the sea-coast and the eastern the Waikato

River. The area of the Rohepotae, within the provincial district of Auckland, is about two million acres, but in addition there is an immense extent of forest-clad, comparatively unknown country in the Northern portion of the Taranaki province, which is also within the boundaries of the Ngatimaniapoto and Upper Whanganui tribes, the hereditary owners. Of this two million acres, there are several hundreds of thousands of acres which may be classed as good agricultural and excellent pastoral land, lying in the open fern valleys of the Waipa and its tributaries, and the Mokau. Away westward of the railway line is a vast sti'etch of limestone, sandstone and papa (calcareous rock) land, totalling perhaps considerably over half-a-million acres, intending from Otorohanga and Te Kuiti right over the wooded hills towards the cliffs which look down on the Tasman Sea. This is all good pastoral land. Much o.f it is densely wooded at present, and there is a great deal of rough, broken country, but ah'eady the tall trees are falling before the ringing axe of the bushman-settler, and the far-spreading baze of smoke from the bushfires tell of the " burning-off " which precedes the grassing and stocking of these sections, hard- won from the heart of the forest land.

As might be expected in such a wide region, there is much poor country, aud much too broken to be of any use ; but there is no doubt that a great deal of Auckland's and the North Island's prosperity in the future will be due to the available good lands of the Rohepotae.

The primitive Maori invested much of this district with the halo of romance and wild tradition. His imagination created taniwhas and fairies; spirits of malignant power lurked in the ancient trees and in the deep dark pools of the rivers. Away up on the misty mountain-peaks there were wild men of the woods. Certain ranges and crests were vnaunga hikonga uira (lightning mountains) of fateful omen. " Should lightning flash upon those mountains," say the old Maoris, "it is a sign, an evil omen,

towards the tribes to whom they belong!" Rangitoto (in the King Country), Pirongia, Wharepuhunga, Karewa Island, and several other mountains are such hills of omen. Rangitoto is the lightning mouutain of the Ngatimatakore tribe. When lightning flashes in a peculiar way above that range a chief of the tribe will die.

was a fight, particulars of which have not come down to this generation, which is a pity, as it would have been doeply interesting to know just how mountains manage to

Many a singular story clusters round the chief features of the landscape in the Rohepotae. The prominent hills especially figure in the strange folk-lore of the tribesmen. A remarkable hill in this broad valley of the Waipa is the volcanic cone of Kakepuku, whose fern-clad spurs rise gently from the plain until they culminate in a crateral summit some fourteen hundred feet high. Kakepuku looks a perfect volcano, with its hollow, scooped-out basin-like top. These hills will carry grass to the very summits, and the patches of native bush left in the hollows and gullies give a most picturesque, park-like aspect to the landscape. Kakepuku is all rich volcanic soil. Away up on the mountain, in the warm sheltered hollows between the ferny ridges, the Maoris grow early potatoes to perfection. But the story. A few miles from Kakepuku stands Kawa, a peculiarlyshaped hill of volcanic origin. A Maori tradition of these tribes solemnly narrates that in the dim long ago these mountains were sentient beings. Kawa was a lady mountain; Kakepuku was a male. And in those days there stood near Kakepuku and Kawa another hill called Karewa (now known as Grannet Island, outside Kawhia Harbour), also a male.

Kakepuku, in the quaint legends of the natives, is said to have come originally from the South, searching, like Japhet, for his father. He was strolling in a mountainous sort of way up the Waipa Valley, when he spied Kawa, the daughter of Mounts Pirongia and Taupiri, and fell in love with her. So he remained there, by the side of the Kawa Hill. The jjtwo " gentlemen " mountains made fierce love to Miss Kawa, and of course Kakepuku and Karewa got jealous of each other, and quarrelled. The result

" scrap " with ono another. The end of the Titanic struggle was that Karewa was badly beaten by his big rival, and had to " trek." He took up his rocky traps in the

night and marched westward, striding into the deep ocean, and at daylight he let down his mooringn and stayed where the dawning found him. And there sits the lone isle of Karewa to this day, while back in the rich wide valley of the Waipa Mount Kakepuku keeps a majestic watch over Kawa, his gently- rounded, fern-clad spouse.

My notes of Rohepotae history go to show that war was almost the chief occupation of the native people up to modern times. Tales are preserved of most barbarous deeds as well as acts of heroic courage. The warriors of the Tainui stock were famed throughout the Island. One of these toas, whose prowess is still talked of by the tribesmen of the Rohepotae, was named Raparapa. He was one of the followers of the great warrior Te Rauparaha. Raparapa was described to me as " a brave man, a very brave man, valiant and strong in battle " {he toa, he tino toa wliakaharahara. tino maia, kaha i roto i te whawhai.") His exploits in the forefront of the war parties were remarkable. He would catch a warrior of the enemy, carry him on his back to his (Raparapa's) own army, and kill him there. He would dash into the midst of his foes, seize a man, and bound away with him. This famous toa met a soldier's death, as might have been expected. He was killed by the chief Te Awaitaia in the battle of Te Kakara, near Otorohanga.

Another celebrated warrior was Peehi, chief of the Mangatoatoa fortress. He led an army of man-eating braves through the North Island, by way of Hawke's Bay, through to Taranaki and back to Kawhia and Waikato, killing and destroying whei'ever they went. It was Peehi's boast that he was only once touched with a weapon in all his fights, and that time only in the arm. This was with a spear, by a Ngati-raukawa chief named Puapua. But Peehi seized the spear, broke it out of his arm, and with the broken part he killed Puapua. So that the Ngatiraukawa foeman was slain with his own spear.

Ngati-unu were the tribe who once owned the land stretching from the eastern side of

Kakepulcu to the Puniu River. Then a tribe named Makino migrated here from the Bay of Plenty and Rotorua (their l-uined pas are still to be seen around the shores of Lakes Rotoiti and Rotoehu). When they reached the rich "lands of the Wai pa they attacked Ngati-unu and defeated them with great slaughter, and killed Motai, the chief of the tangata nona te whenua, the people of the land. The survivors fled to Pirongia and its vicinity, and found a refuge in the deep forests and lonely ravines of the mountain-land. The Makino feasted on the bodies of the slain. But their turn was to come. The warriors of the Ngatimaniapoto mustered to revenge the slaughter of their friends, and defeated Makino, whose remnants left the district in a hurry, and struck for home at their best speed. So Ngati-unu were saved.

The territory of the Ngatimaniapoto and allied tribes became generally known as the "King" Country after the Waikato war, when the conquered Waikato valley was confiscated by the Government, and King Tawhiaoand his dispirited followers retreated across the Waipa and the Puniu. Then it was that the Puniu stream became the aukati, the border line beyond which no European could pass on pain of death. For more than fifteen yeai's after the confiscation the Maoris maintained their isolation within the aukati.

In 1865, after the war, a chain of blockhouses was constructed along the white side of the frontier. A typical blockhouse was that of Orakau, erected at the site of the historic pa, and garrisoned by a sergeant and twenty-five men of the colonial forces for some years. Across the border sat Tawhiao and his men. Their headquarters were at Tokangamutu (near the present Kuiti settlement).

" Give us back Waikato !" was the stubborn appeal of the Kingite leaders, the stern tattooed chieftains, Wahanui, Tamati Ngapora, Te Tuhi, Whitiora te Kumete, Te Ngakau, and others of Tawhiao's council. But Waikato was covered with the fenced holdings and farmhouses of the white man,

and a line of garrisons guarded the curving frontier from Alexandra to Cambridge. The exiled Waikatos must have bitterly realised the futility of further resistance when they looked across the Puniu and the Waipa, and saw the white man spreading over the land. They brooded over their misfortunes, and what they considered their unjust treatment, and they made the King Country frontier a Rohe-tapu, a sacred boundary. " The land for the Maoris," was the cry ; " you palcelias with your booted feet on that side of the aukati, and we Maoris in our bare feet on this side." As late as 1879 serious trouble was again feared. This whs a period of unrest in the King Country and in Taranaki. Vague rumours came of intended fighting, and indeed there was grave danger of a rising in Taranaki, where redoubts were garrisoned by the Armed Constabulary. On the Waikato frontier, too, a considerable number of the Armed

■Constabulary force were stationed up to this time, chiefly at the Alexandra and Kihikihi redoubts and at Cambridge. Vol. TT.— No. 7.-36.

The King Country was then to a largo extent tapn to the white man. European settlers occasionally went across the Puniu and up country on business; but surveyors,

gold prospectors and Government men generally were looked on with unfriendly eyes.

In the oarly seventies two murders of Europeans occurred just within the " King " Country borders. Todd, the surveyor, was shot by Nukuwhenua on the slopos of Mount Pivongia, across the Waipa, and Timothy Sullivan was shot by Purukutu at Pukekura, beyond Cambridge. They had crossed the aukati, and they died.

In those days Kawhia and Te Kuiti were two of the great centres of Tawhiao and his Kingites. Te Kooti and other " wanted " men sought, refuge with the Kingites ; the Hauhau religion was universal, and many were the schemes propounded by the wilder spirits for making war on the pakeha again and re-conquering Waikato.

But about 1879 tlie first steps were taken

in the bi'eaking-down of the Kingites' isolation. Coolness had arisen between Ngatjmaniapoto, owners of the soil, and the expatriated Waikatos. The former began to fear that Waikato intended to become permanent residents and owners of their land inside the aukati. So Tawhiao and his Kingites migrated to Hikurangi and Te Kopua; and it was at Hikurangi, on the picturesque forest-clad shoulder of giant Pirongia, that Sir George Grey met Tawhiao in 1879.

A little later on there was a memorable meeting at Te Kopua. Afterwards the King and his adherents moved to Whatiwhatihoe, just across the auhati river-line from the township of Alexandra. Here a large settlement was formed, and the Kingites had the advantage, always keenly appreciated by them, of closer proximity to the pakeha storekeepers.

In 1879 Rewi and the Kingites were agreeable to the railway running through their territory, but they still stuck to the idea of a Maori kingdom, and insisted that from the Puniu to the Whanganui River the land should be held in absolute sovereignty by the Maoris. Little by little, however, the reserve of the natives gave way. Premiers and Native Ministers and Native Agents met and conferred with the Kingite leaders time after time.

At last one day in 1881 King Tawhiao and his raeu laid eighty guns down at Major Mair's feet at Alexandra. The news was flashed far and wide ; the Kingite resistance was over for good ; Tawhiao had acknowledged the superior mana of the New Zealand Government. The subsequent peaceful march of the King and his six hundred armed followers through the frontier settlements ; firing their guns, dancing wild war-dances, and feasting mightily ; and the visit of the King to Auckland, and then to England in 1884 are matters of interesting

memory

From that time up to the present the " breaking-in " of the Rohepotae has gone on, very slowly it is true. The Main Trunk Railway led the way. The iron road now

penetrates some fifty miles through the heart of the Rohepotae, and on its course have sprung up the pakehct villages of Otorohanga and Te Kuiti, and the busy, if ephemeral, townships of Poro-o-Tarao r Maramataha and Kawakawa, at the head of the railway worfes on the Main Trunk.

An important event in the modern history of the Rohe-potae was the memorable Native Laud Court, held at Otorohanga in the winter of 1886, by Major W. G. Mair. The extent of land, comprising the heart of the Rohepotae, dealt with by the Court totalled the enormous area of 1,636,000 acres, the largest and most important block ever brought before the Court in New Zealand. The enquiry into the titles of the land lasted three months, and the Rohepotae was parcelled out amongst four thousand persons of the Ngatimaniapoto, Ngatiraukawa, Ngatihikairo, Ngatituwharetoa and other tribes. The area under investigation went right down to the headwaters of the Whanganui River. Another important judgment was that given by Major Gudgeon in 1892 at Kihikihi, in the Wharepuhunga block of 133,720 acres, at the back of Kihikihi, in which about a thousand native owners were interested.

A conspicuous figure at these Land Court sittings was the celebrated chief Wahanui,

a giant among men. Wahanui was a remarkably big man, in a nation of big men. He stood over six feet iv height, and in his prime weighed tvyenty-four stone. His legs especially were of enormous size. Wahanui often had great difficulty when " shopping " at th,e Kihikihi and Alexandra stores in getting ,shirts*&nd trousers big enough to envelop his frame ; but at home in his kainqa he discarded the uncomfortable trousers of the paheha, and appeared in a blanket or a sheet. In the last few years of his life, however, the famous chief's great form was much attenuated through illness. Wahanui came of the blue blood of Ngatimaniapoto, and for many years after the war he was a leading light in the Kingite councils. Reihana, as he was then known, took part in the fighting in the war time^

At the Haerini engagement, near Rangiaohia, in 1864, he is said to have shot two soldiers, and himself received a bullet wound in the calf of the leg. When he stood forth to speak all was deepest silence in the Court or the village marae. His kingly head, covered with thick, silvery hair, imperious mouth and white moustache, circled by the blue-lined marks of tattoo on cheeks and chin, his majestic deportment, measured gestures, and sonorous flow o* eloquence compelled admiration alike from pakeha and Maori. He was a most intelligent man, and had received an education at the Three Kings Wesleyan College, Auckand. However, when the war broke out Reihaua Huatare, afterwards Wahanui, shook the dust of the white man's roads off his feet and became a

determined antipakeha advocate, a patriotic Maori of the Maoris, and for many years, until he was conciliated by the Government, his influence with the Kingites prevented the march of settlement, and the opening up of the Rohepotae. He was for a long time King Tawhiao's principal adviser. Wahanui, who died a couple of years ago, was the head of the Ngati-Urunumia hapu.

At Manga-o-Rongo, a little settlement about fifteen miles across tho border from Kihikihi, an event of moment occurred in 1883. This was the pardoning of Te Kooti } the noted rebel leader, by Mr John Bryce. Te Kooti shook hands with the representative of the Government, and said : " In 1874 I ceased strife, and I never returned to it. I will not tread again the- paths of war." Then in a burst of scriptural eloquence, coming strangely from the old rebel, Te Kooti said : " Mercy and truth

have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other; truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven." It was shortly after this historical meeting that a proclamation extending an amnesty to To Kooti, Wo tore te Rerenga and other political offenders was

issued

Te Kooti's chief settlement in his later days was Otovva, v pretty well-kept little village ou the banks of tins Wai pa, not. far from Otorohanga. Here the ex-guerilla chief lived a peaceful life, and ineulated in his followers the virtues of industry and religious observances. All hands were

required to work regularly in the cultivations, and daily prayers in To Kooti's llinga-tu (" Upstrotchod Hands ") ritual wore compulsory. The wild musical litany of the Tariao and the Ringa-tu and Hauhau hymns to the Matua pai inarire (" Father, good and gracious ") had a beauty of their own when chanted by many earnest voices.

Some settlement is now observable in the Rohepotae — the " King Country " no longer — as one travels up from Kihikihi crosscountry. But the great bulk of the land is still an unbroken waste. Standing on the trenched and fern-clad summit of one of the "Three Sisters" hills (Tokauui), a few miles across the Puniu, there is stretched

out before one's eyes an interesting scene, the bonier-line, where for a score of years civilisation was stayed by tin* wall of barbaric obstruction. From here the best part of the beautiful Waipa valley may be seen. Below our feet is a rolling, undulating tract of fern land diversified by swamps, and relieved here and there by the stray cultivations which mark the pre-runners of settlement. Looking north-east to the settled lands of the Europeans, divided from these boundless wilds by the winding Pimiu stream, we see the neat homesteads and fenced fields of the pakelia, the farming districts of Te Awamutu, Kihikihi and Orakau. On the distant slopes of the Orakau farms the eye lingers with more than usual interest, for there the Ngati-

who had generally two or three wives to uphold the dignity of his name and dispense hospitality.

Looking westward from our elevated position, we see the distant blue hill cones of Te Kawa and Kakepuku. Nearer is Puketarata, on whose rich slopes European settlers have already taken up their holdings. Away to the south and east are miles upon miles of fenceless breezy open country, great fern stretches where pigs and rabbits and wild horses and cattle roam, and deep swamps where the long-legged puke/co stalks through the bright green raupo sedge. Maori tracks wind in and out through this waste volcanic loam country, dipping down through the tall rank fern and tupaJcihi, and skirting the edges of swamps and the banks of little creeks whose

rnaniapoto, the Ngatiraukawa, and the wild warriors of Tuhoe made their heroic stand against the Imperial troops, " sustained," as a venerable

survivor of the native garrison relates, " by the recital of the brave deeds of our ancestors, whose motto was ' Me mate te tangata me mate mo te whenua ' (' The death of the warrior is to die for the

land')."

Turning southwards, on yonder slope there stood, when I last passed that way, the Icainga of Arakotare, where the people of Ngatirnatakore lived a quiet uneventful life, and cultivated industriously under their patriarchal old warrior-chief Hauauru (the " West Wind ") who was one of the most closely- tattooed natives I have seen. At Ai'akotare the passing traveller, whether Maori or pakeha, was always sure of acordial welcome and an invitation to come in to kai. Hauauru was

a fine old-fashioned Maori,

waters fiud their way into the Puniu and the Waipa.

Far beyoud rise the misty blue- wooded rauges of Rangitoto, Wharepuhunga and other rugged ridges, where the wild pigs root, and the forest birds flatter and sing. All over this counti'y, now silent, one comes upon the ruins of deserted native settle-

merits, and upon almost every hill-top the fern-covered terraces and deep - trenched ditches tell thnt here once stood a fortified village, a pa of the olden time. Silent and lone is much of this wide land ; yet in a few years it will be turned to profit, and contribute to the progress and prosperity of the Island.

A famous old pa in this district is Totorewa, which stands near the bank of the Waipa, not far from Otorohanga. It is a steep, rocky stronghold, and its precipitous sides and high walls and deep ditches, now covered with p j dense native vegetation, made it a formidable redoubt to the old Maoris, before the days of the musket. It was one of the principal Ngatimaniapoto pas where they took refuge when attacked by outside tribes. It was very difficult of access for such a small fort ; there was only one side from which it could be scaled. Totorewa has a chequered history, and has been the scene of some savage slaughters. It was thrice taken by the enemy, the Ngapuhi raiders from the North, in the early years of this century, and retaken by the Ngatimaniapoto. The ancient pa is now a sacred tribal burial place. Amongst the departed chieftains whose bones repose there is the ancient Matakore.

The traveller who wishes to gain a hasty but comprehensive glimpse of the King Country can do so by taking the

train through to Pom-o-Tnrao tunnel. Crossing t. ho old unkati fiver-lino near Te Awarnutu, lie will pass between Kakepuku and Kawa hills, and make a short stay at the thriving settlement of Otorohanga with its stores and accommodation-houses. Continuing the journey, he will be shown, shortly before reaching To Kuiti, the little Icainrja of Te Kumi, where in 1883 Mr. Hursthouse and another surveyor were roughly handled and chained up in a whare for two days by Mahuki and his band of fanatics. At Te Kuiti the chief sight of interest, the large carved meeting-house, " Tokanga-nui-a-Noho," built years ago for Te Kooti, can be s^en from the train. A little beyond Te Kniti the limestone belt ifi crossed. The scene at the Waiteti viaduct is a striking and picturesque one. A

precipitous bush-crowned limestone bluff rises from the creek-bed to the height of the viaduct, and everywhere around the limestone foundation crops up on the hill sides and by the banks of the clear streams, sometimes in the most peculiar shapes. This limestone country abounds in caves and in subterranean watercourses. A creek takes a sudden dive under a ridge and disappears, springing out into the light of day perhaps a mile or more away. The limestone region is most promising-looking land all through, and it will make the best of pastornl country.

1 Twenty miles beyond Te Kuili the Poro-o-Tarao tunnel is reached. Some yesirs ago, when the

contractors were at work at the tunnel, Po-rp-o-Tarao was a lively btash township, with its stores, accommoda-tion-houses, workmen's camps, and lime - burn - ing and brick - mak-

Pegler

ing works. After the tunnel had been pierced through the range, the place was deserted for some years, and t ho stray traveller wondered what induced the Government to carry out such ■ a costly work in the midst of the wilderness while the railway line was yet scores of miles away. The l'ail way- trains, ; however, now run through the underground way to the Ohinemoa Station, on the southern side ; but' when the writer first travelled that way there was no convenient route to the "promised land" beyond except by i*iding through the fifty-three chain tunnel on horseback, and a damp, dark uncauny ride

it was

Once through the long tunnel the open valley of the Ongarae, a tributary of the Whanganui, comes in view, and we are in the pumice lands of the Upper Whanganui basin. Here are the rock-hewers' white tents and roughly - built houses, the trail-breakers, the small army of navvies who are toiling on the great Trunk line, building the permanent way for the railway trains of the future, which will run between Wellington and Auckland. When that comes to pass, and the navvies lay down their picks and shovels, and the platelayers finish their labours, and depart for other scenes and rail-routes new, a flyiug trip through the once unknown and mysterious 'King Country' will be

a very trifl-

ing matter,

The mineral wealth of the King Country is at present practically unkno w n. The only thing' we

all c su r e

about is

coal, of

which there

are large seams being worked on the banks of the Mokau. Away further South, in the basin of the Upper Whanganui, there are coal measures of apparently vast extent. Tramping down the little Paparata Creek, shortly before reaching its confluence with the Tangarakau, an important tributary of the Whanganui, we came one day on a coal-field in the middle of the great forest. A ledge of coal cropped up in the bed of the swift creek and formed a Hfctle waterfall about six feet high. Our party knocked off some lumps of the mineral, and at the camping-ground we found it to be a good brown coal.

The glamour of gold has led man y

prospectors to the King Country, but the long-hoped for Waihi or Waitekauri in th ; gullies of the Rangitoto or the Tuhua Ranges has not yet been located. Quartz specimens have been found in the creek beds leading down from these ranges, and also the Hauhangaroa, away down in the West Taupo Mountains, but nothing of any value has been discovered. In the "eighties," before the Rohepotae was opened, a number of prospecting parties crossed the Puniu, and made for the Rangitoto Ranges and other gold-promising localities. : Some were turned back by the natives; others eluded the vigilance of Ngatimaniapoto, and spent some weeks scouring the damp bush gullies aud gorges of the Rangitoto, but found not the El Dorado. The lover of Nature will find all varieties of scenic beauty within the bounds of the Rohepotae. There are lofty forest-clothed mountains, clear, rushing rivers, roaring waterfalls, wonderful limestone stalactite caves, deep canons, walled in by precipitous bush-topped cliffs, a wild coast lashed by the ocean breakers, calm harbour and river reaches, and sparkling brooks tinkling down through green groves of the drooping tree-fern. I knew of no more beautiful bush and mountain scenery than that on tho slopes of Mount Pirongia Cool crystal creeks wind their courses down over rocky beds from the dark recesses of the high fairy-mountain, their waters almost hidden from the traveller's view by the dense green growth of the primeval forest. Rata, rrmu, tawa, miro and all the leafy children of Tane-Mahuta climb from the ferny foot-hills of Pirongia to its cloudy summit, and bend over the pure cold streams which dash down every mountain gully. Now and then between the trees on some sharp ridge you catch a view of the plains below, the wide basins of the Waipa and Waikato, with their townships, farms, willow-shaded rivers, and little shining lakes set in a green margin of raupo swamp. Westwards is the blue lolling oceau. Then away South there are other rugged chains of mountains, the

Rangitoto, Tulma, Hnrakia and Titiraupenga, almost unknown except to tho wandering bush-surveyor or tho birdhuuting Maori. Kawhia Harbour is a place whoso natural attractions are becoming bettor known every year, and when Kawhia is a brisk shipping port and the outlet for the rich district behind it, tho scenery of that tine sheet of salt water and its bush-fringed estuaries will be much talked of. Before the Waikato war Kawhia was a

bnsy place. When in the early days the Bnrnpeana came to trade at Kawhia, the great chief Te Wherowhero, afterwards known as King Potatau, and his people of -Waikato went . there to barter flax for .muskets, powder and bullets.

Later on came the missionaries, and as Christianity became popular, the people gathered round the churches. Then the natives of Tainui, Ngatimahutn, and Ngatihikiiim < p f ffw large quantities of wheat and potatoes, put up flour-mills, owned their own schooners, and exported their produce

to Onehunga and elsewhere, until the Waikato war broke out, and Kawhia's golden age was gone. But it will come again, whan the waste back country is turned to use, and when from the new-made clearings at Te Rau-a-Moa away southwards and westwards the bush is cleared from the hills and valleys, making room for flocks of sheep and herds of fat en t tie.

The white settler has already gained a good foothold in the old - time Takitca Hauhait (district of Hauhaus). During the past year upwards of 40,000 acres of pastoral land have been opened for selection in the Kawhia County, and most of this area has been taken up, and this coming year intending settlers will have plenty to choose from, for it is stated that about 100,000 acres of " King " Country lauds, mostly between the railway line and the West Coast, will be thrown open to selectors by the Crown Lands Department. The new

Native Lands Administration Act, too, should give a considerable impetus to the bringing into use of the Rohepotae country, for the Ngatimaniapoto and their kindred fully realise now that the old anti-European era has gone for ever, and they are anxious to take advantage of the Act. South-west of Poro-o-Tarao there are the i'ich grazing lands of the Ohura Valley, which will probably be found equal to the best of the Taranaki dairying country. Away towards the West Coast from Te Kuiti, settlement in the limestone country is progressing fast, and the pioueer graziers of the Awakino and Puketiti are finding that their faith in the goodness of the land is not misplaced. For truly it is " a good laud, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills

. a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it."