Taipua Te Uira has run the Lake Taharoa for more than twenty years. (Barbara Baigent Photograph.) sea is a ready source of food—fish, such as shark, the fishing for which is done by the men only on moonlight nights—and schnapper—at any time while the tide is flowing—as fishing is done from the rocks or the shore, and not from boats. Diving for crayfish and sea-eggs is a special task for the men only, while picking cockles and other shellfish is the tedious task of the women who are sometimes joined by the young folk. Quite often during school holidays in the summer, families camp together on the beach, staying there for a week or two weeks as farm tasks will allow. At these times, the children excel themselves, in fishing, in swimming, in galloping their horses over the sand dunes, in exploring caves and in playing games, and for them it is a time of respite from the daily home chores that are allotted to them by their parents. The many streams running from the Lake flow into the sea not far from the camping ground, and on moonless night, the men, women and children, with improvised shaded kerosene lamps, take part in spearing for eels. What food supplies are yielded from the sea and the streams are cooked and eaten as a welcome change of diet by the campers, and that which cannot be eaten fresh is preserved—by salting and drying in the sun—for later use. When the holidays are over, the families return to their homes, and the children to school. The School Teacher and his wife, if they are Europeans, are thus the only Europeans in the settlement, and they often regard Taharoa as the “God forsaken place.” Nevertheless, they are accepted by the people and looked upon with respect. Both are welcomed, if they are so inclined, as members of the football and basketball teams, and also both are welcomed at all the communal gatherings. Then parents have a close interest in the school, and there is a school committee which organises the raising of funds by card evenings at the school, for the end of the year picnics for the school children, for sports or for concert visits to other schools such as Kawhia, and Kinohaku. Unfortunately, very few of the pupils move on to higher education, the attitudes of the parents being not to allow their children to leave them, and also that there is plenty of work to be done at home on the farms. Nevertheless, some do leave the district to work on European farms for wages, to work as labourers in the Railways Department, as carpenters with building firms, and at present two are at the University. More often than not, they return for Christmas with their families. The question arises, “Do these families ever venture out of their isolation?” They must, or how else could they have acquired the innovation of modern up-to-date housing; the shearing sheds, and the water pumps and piping for water from underground springs and wells to their meeting houses and private homes? They know when (Continued on page 61) A section of the Te Maika track used for a hundred years and worn down to more than the height of a mountain rider. (Barbora Baigent photograph)