MR. E. T. WAKEFIELD'S TRIP INTO THE INTERIOR OF THE NORTHERN ISLAND.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 6, 16 April 1842, Page 24

MR. E. T. WAKEFIELD'S TRIP INTO THE INTERIOR OF THE NORTHERN ISLAND.

[Continued from our last.'] Among these latter, that of the old chieftain Heuheu is prominent. It is about forty feet long, fifteen broad, and of proportionate height : a narrow verandah ornaments the northern front, before which a square is reserved from the kuraera grounds which surround it on three sides. On the day that we went, by previous appointment, to pay our first visit to the old man, about 200 people had assembled in the little square, and Heuheu, who sat at one end of the verandah, attended by his principal wife, motioned us to a seat while he went through the necessary tangi with the Wanganui natives. A splendid feast followed. 200 kits of boiled potatoes and kumeras, five pigs skewered like birds and baked whole, eight or ten pots full of white-bait, and three calabashes of pigeons and tuis stewed in their own fat, were brought in by a long train of slaves, and piled up in the centre of the square. After this had been distributed among the visitors, he talked to met ajbout Wanganui, the Governor, and PonikLj and asked me to come and see him again before I left the neighbourhood. In the meanwhile he gave me five pigs for food, while I remained at Tokanu, and said he was ashamed of having no food to offer me such as white men liked. He expressed great gratitude for our reception of him and his war .party at Wanganui the year before, and begged me to look about the country and call it my own, anil the people my people. But he accompanied this with a warning not to try and buy the land, for he had determined never to sell either that or his sovereignty. The meeting concluded with a grand haka, or native dance, performed by about fifty men and women. From Terapa to Tokanu the shore is formed by a swamp, which reaches to the hills. Beyond Tokanu, about a mile, a settlement called Waieriki, or warm water, is situated on some patches of rich dry land, on the banks of the branching creeks which drain the swamp between the hot springs and the lake/ Beyond this a point runs out half a mile to the north, and at this point the three branches of the Tonga kiro, or Wa\kato, flows into the lake. About the mouths, and in the creeks and lagoons all along from Tokanu 'to the Waikato, dwell thousands of ducks of various sorts, which afford excellent sport. I spent many hours in exploring their various retreats among the rushes and flags, from which they did not rise till my little canoe came within half gun-shot. The principal and easternmost channel of the Waikato, running for some distance nearly parallel to the beach of the lake, which again retreats from the point to the south-east corner, forms a long low peninsula, the inner half of whose breadth consists of swamp, while the outer is a bank of loose sand, about one hundred yards broad. On this bank is built a very strong pah, called Waitanui. Across the eastern end of the bank a strong double fence fifteen feet high runs from the swamp to the lake, and a like fence protects the western point. In the pah are the finest native houses that I have yet seen. The ware puni, or sleeping houses, are most of them ten or twelve feet in height, and very spacious : the verandah or open space in front would easily accommodate ten sleepers, and the whole front is carved and painted with most elaborate designs. The kauta, or cooking houses, are proportionably large : in that part of the pah belonging especially to Heuheu there is a row of cooking houses forty feet long by fifteen broad, and ten feet high in the walls, which are constructed of enormous slabs, well fitted together; round windows, with sliding shutters, admit the light and let out the smoke.' The pah is 500 yards long and ICO broad, and is used as a pah of refuge by all the inhabitants of Taupo and Roto aira. Each division of the tribe has its own separate quarters. There was no one in the pah on the occasion of my visit, and the fences were ruinous in many places ; but they talked of renovating the fortification as soon as the harvest should be gathered in, to provide against apprehended invasion from Waikato. A beach of fine gravel lines the shore as far as the isthmus, where a stream called Wai o taka flows into the lakerthis is about three miles from, Waitanui Point. Another stream of considerable size flows down the middle of the isthmus, and finds its way into the lake on the southern side of the isthmus, close to its junction with the peninsula, stream a- called Wai Marino, or calm water. On its north bank is a considerable settlement. Both these streams rise from the western spurs of Kai Manawa. The only other principal settlements on the lake are at Wareroa, and at a place called Motutere, about half way along the eastern shore. The whole force of Waitanui, without allies, amounts to little more than 400 fighting men.' While at Tokanu I could not but observe the excellent conduct of the natives. This was as much owing to their friendly disposition as to the authority of their chiefs. I was never annoyed as one invariably is at more civilized or more christianized settlements. My wishes seemed a law to them ; and they were always making voluntary efforts to procure me any food or amusement which they thought would be agreeable. The only exceptions to this rule were invariably among the few missionary families, who seemed to take pride in being less courteous than the others, and more overreaching in their barter for the different little things, such- as shalots, craw-fish, and ducks' eggs, which they brought in exchange for pipes or tobacco. Close to my bouse was a warm spring, so shallow that you could lie down on the sandy bottom, with yo'br head out of water. In this bath all the natives assembled, morning and evening ; and indeed I never saw

a time, late or early, that there were not some in the water. I soon learned to join them, and used to remain there for hours, smoking and playing at draughts, at which game they are all extremely expert. To their frequent use- of these baths I attribute the cleanliness and good health of the natives of this part of the country j who are totally free from the cutaneous diseasesso universal among the coast tribes, and, generally a cleaner and handsomer race. While at Taupo I had several opportunities of noticing the only legal proceedings for damages ever gone into by the natives. Pakau,. the brother of the Wanganui chief E Kuru, complained at each settlement at which we stopped of his wife having been formerly stolen by a Taupo man, who was now dead. He^jn consequence claimed before the assembled population, utu, or compensation, from all the relations of the offender, and by this means collected large damages. No objection was ever raised to his claim, though some of the mulcted relations wept, as they parted with a favourite mus!tet or axe rather than bear the disgrace of refusing to make amends for their kinsman's misdeeds. Pakau carried back to Wanganui three' muskets, fifteen axes and tomahawks, three cartridge boxes, two kegs of powder, and a mat^as damages. After \ had been there about a fortnight, a chief and'his train arrived, from a place called Te Waiti, in' the district of Huriwera, near the East Cape, with pigs and mats. The report that there were plenty of, double-barreled guns to be got at Wanganui had induced him to bring his stock and goods nearly 300 miles, in order to procure what he could not get from the traders on the east codst. He had previously despatched a messenger ta me, begging me to bring some tupara for him if I came to Taupo, and we accordingly met by a eoxt t>f appointment. A very famous tattooer came with the party, and was kept in constant and profitable employment. Everybody, from the renowned warrior to the girl of twelve years old, crowded to be ornamented by the skilful chisel ; and shirts, mats, axes, and other articles accumulated in the tattooer' s kits. I saw Iwikau, the head fighting chief of the tribe under Heuheu, being tattooed on the cheek-bone, "'he instruments used were not of bone, as tLey used formerly to be ; but a graduated set of iron tools, fitted with handles like adzes, supplied their place. The man spoke to me with perfect nonchalance for a quarter of an hour, although the operator continued striking the little adzes into his flesh with a light wooden hammer the j whole time, and his face was covered with blood. The worst part of the pain seems to be that endured a day or two after the operation, when , every part of the wound gathers, and the face is , swollen considerably. The staining liquid, however, seems to possess some healing qualities, as I rarely saw a case in which the tattooing was not completely well in a week. I ascended Maunga Namu, the isolated mountain of which I have before spoken, on one occasion, and was much surprised to observe the extraordinary effect which some local attraction caused on the compass. Tauwera, the high mountain at the north end of the lake, bore from here 17° more easterly than it did from Pukawa, which is three or four miles to the 'west of Maunga Namu. Of course no sketch of the country, laid down entirely from , compass bearings, could lay any claim to correctness. I think this accounts for the inaccuracy in the map published by Mr. Bidwill, in which Coteropo (which, from his description, evidently means Terapa, is placed in the S.E. instead of the S.W. corner. A native, on being asked the name of a place or person, will almost invariably prefix the article " ko " to the name, and thus c * ko Terapa " might easily have been set down as " Coteropo." Mr. Bidwill's description of the hot springs in the mountain gully behind Coteropo exactly agrees with those at the back of Terapa in the S.W. corner of the lake; and there is no large collection of hot springs all round the lake, except at that place and on the flat near Tokanu.

On the 29th of December two gentlemen arrived in a canoe from the eastern shore of the lake, having walked from Matata in the Bay of Plenty in four days. They describe the road as being about ninety miles in length, and as passing over a perfectly level but barren country the whole way. In passing through a district called Tarawera, they crossed, in a canoe, a scalding lake, and afterwards ascended a hot river. Fifteen miles of their journey had been over a plain of sulphur and hot springs, no fresh water being procurable for the whole of that distance. Although I had sent messengers to Wanganui soon after discovering the illness of my companion, we heard no tidings of them; and I proceeded to get the invalid carried there by a device suggested by the new comers, who had often seen it practised on the east coast. [To be continued.']

We beg to inform our friend* rending at the Port, that copies of thin paper qan be /tad of Mr. Moore, and qfMr. White.

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