Te Matikara Motu The Lost Finger Harry Dansey Riwai Te Hiwinui Tawhiri. This is the first of a series of stories told at various times to Harry Dansey. In each case the teller of the tale was asked specifically whether or not he had any objection to the ultimate publication of his recollections and any reservations made have been scrupulously observed. Mr Riwai Te Hiwinui Tawhiri, who tells this story of how he lost a finger in his boyhood, is now 89 years old. He lives at Auckland. He was brought up in the Ruatoria district, being of Ngati Porou ancestry. He lived at Whareponga. Tuparoa and other places in the area before going to Te Aute, which he joined in the same year as Sir Peter Buck, who was his best friend at school. Most of his life he has been a school teacher and is well known for his work in that capacity on the East Coast and in the Bay of Plenty. He was also prominent in sport, especially tennis, in other years. I tētahi rā, ka pā mai te mina ki ngā kai o te ngahere—kererū, kākā, kōkō, poaka. Ka pā mai tēnei mina i te haerenga kētanga o taku tipuna, o Hāmuera, (ko Hāmuera taku tipuna whāngai) ki te tiki kai i te toa i Mataahu, e tata ana ki Whareponga. Ngā kai o reira he pēke huka, he pēke parāoa me ērā atu kai a te Pākehā. One day there came a longing for the foods of the bush, pigeon, kaka, tui, pork. This desire arose when my grandfather Hamuera (Hamuera was really a stepgrandfather) had gone to fetch provisions from the store at Mataahu, near Whareponga. The foods were a bag of sugar, a bag of flour and other Pakeha food.