near the head of the Hurunui. In the middle of November they crossed the pass to Westland, where thick bush and flooded rivers made the going slow. After twelve days they reached the coast, and made the last stage on a flax raft. At the Taramakau pa, Tarapuhi, a brother of Tainui, welcomed the white men. Leonard Harper and Tarapuhi later journeyed down the coast to a point below the furthest south reached by Thomas Brunner, Ekehu and Epikiwati, and after a journey of three months Harper and Locke returned to Christchurch. Surveyors were next across the pass, but by the time of the gold rushes it was tramped by many miners, some of whom were badly equipped and poorly clad. Many were drowned in the Taramakau river which was treacherous when flooded. The Journal of the Polynesian Society of 1912 with Skinner's article Arahura Valley. (Photo: John Pascoe) ‘Maori Life on the Poutini Coast’ records that Harper Pass was a favourite Maori route. In 1941 I crossed the pass to see the landmarks for myself, and though this was the twenty-first divide pass I had visited I felt excited because of the atmosphere of tradition that covered the surrounding hills. There was nothing difficult about the expedition as the rivers were low, and we slept in a good hut each night, but I was grateful to have been over such an historic trail. Arthur's Pass was named after Sir Arthur Dobson who in 1864 made the first crossing. He gained his information about the route from the Maori Tarapuhi who had met Leonard Harper seven years earlier. It was asserted in the sixties by Cass, Chief Surveyor for Canterbury, that the Maoris knew nothing about Arthur's Pass to the Otira valley, but at least one of the Maoris interviewed about ‘Life on the Poutini Coast’ had used it in his younger days. This route is now well-known as the railway link from Canterbury to Westland, with the Otira tunnel over five miles long. It is popular both as a climbing centre and as a winter sports resort. The motor road over the pass is one with attractive scenery, and from it travellers may see the beauties of a Westland gorge without the necessity of cutting a track through bush, clinging to bluffs or swimming pools. South of Browning's Pass there is a narrow cleft from the Mathias valley called Canyon Gorge. This leads to the Mathias Pass beyond which the Hokitika river rises. Herries Beattie in his book Maori Lore of Lake, Alp and Fiord (1945) writes that the Mathias Pass was used by war parties, but Skinner's article noted that it was unknown. Of the two authorities, I support Skinner. I have been over the Mathias Pass, and the access on either side is so rough that only trampers or mountaineers would need to be bothered with it. Not far further to the south, lies the Whitcombe Pass from the Rakaia headwaters to the Whitcombe branch of the Hokitika. This is a much easier pass to find and to cross and is thought to have been traversed by early Maoris. Its pakeha history is that it was discovered by Samuel Butler, author of the satire ‘Erewhon’ which gives an excellent description of the features. This was in 1861. Two years later Jacob Lauper, a Swiss, and an engineer, Whitcombe, made the first complete crossing by white men. They had bad weather and made heavy work of the gorges. On reaching the coast they made a dangerous ford of the Taramakau river. Whitcombe was drowned, but Lauper survived to tell the story of their hardships. Today the wild life branch deer killers have a good foot track down the Whitcombe valley and it is sometimes followed by tramping parties after a holiday in the Rakaia. For Maoris it would have been a more difficult trip than Harper Pass, and is not quite as direct as Browning's Pass.