Shearing at Maungapohatu is a rare event, preceded by a grand rounding up operation extending over many miles. One handpiece is used operated from a small petrol motor at top left-hand corner. odd slab whares, wild cattle and sheep roam at will in the unfenced clearings, and in the evenings the pigs and deer appear from the bush verges. Looming across the skyline at the top of the valley the massive Huia-rau range rises sheer from the shadowy ravines below, and it is interesting to note that Moa bones have been found here. With a series of grotesquely weathered pinnacles, the range comes to an adrupt ending at Maungapohatu mountain, 4,353 feet high, which stands as a sentinel and age-old guardian of the lands of the JOHN H. ALEXANDER Tuhoe. Legend has it that the presence of a stranger on the sacred peak is signalled by a veil of mist suddenly appearing on the towering lime-stone cliffs. Every hill-top tells of bloody battles fought in olden times, when the Urewera was full of people, and centuries of continuous warfare and countermarching in search of blood vengeance took place in the mountain hamlets and kaingas now unoccupied by man. The sole inhabitants of Maungapohatu Pa at the present time are old Hemi Toa and his wife, caretakers of the Great Rocky Mountain; although at times as many people assemble for various functions, coming up from Ruatoki or Ruatahuna. Each summer Hoani Temera, together with his family and relatives, come in with pack horses and for a few days the old pa sees some great activity while the bush sheep are being shorn. Recently over two hundred head of wild cattle were rounded up, the most savage beasts being lassooed and tied to the clearing's trees until they became more docile, and finally the whole herd was driven out over the 12 miles of the old war-trail to the holding pen on the Rotorua road. From there they were trucked to the coast at Wairoa. By reason of the high altitude and severe winters with snow often lying many feet thick around the kaingas, the wild bushmen of the Ureweras frequently went short of food. Cut off from the sea by hereditary enemies in possession of the coastal regions, their food supplies were hard to obtain. The only vegetable they grew regularly was a small blue potato called “papaka”, and for a kinaki or relish they produced a kind of pickle mixed with bush honey, the vegetable being first allowed to ferment. Native rats, dogs, eels and small varieties of fish were eagerly sought in ad-