TRIP OF THE LUNA.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 118, 3 January 1874, Page 2

TRIP OF THE LUNA.

A correspondent writing from Tauranga says : —Since leaving your port the visits paid by the Hon. the Native Minister all along the coast seem to have been attended with the very best results. The Luna arrived here on Sunday the 14th December.

On Wednesday the 17th Mr. M'Lean left. Tauranga for llotorua by the road constructed through the forest by Oropi, a work of great importance to the district, as it enables travellers to reach easily in one day Ohenemutu on the shores of llotorua, and saves the long round formerly entailed by having to go first to Maketu, seventeen miles south of Tau. ranga.

Tne read itself is a sign of the times passing for eighteen miles through a dense bush traversed but a few years ago by a Maori track or two and closed against Europeans, except; to missionaries, who long ago acquired by payment of a hundred blankets the privilege of taking this line, the shortest between Tauranga and the Lakes. Disputed territory as part of it was, it required a good deal of tact to obtain the consent of the claiming tribes to the work, but once the consent obtained, the natives themselves labored zealously towards its' completion. The engineering difficulties were great, as the country is broken and the forest very thick ; and at one spot, the Mangarewa ravine, a chasm about SJJ feet in depth, the bare rock forming the precipitous sides, had to be blasted heavily before the roadway could be obtained. Altogether, the road is a most creditable piece of work. At Awahou close to the Lake, Mr. M'Lean was met by the Ngatirangiwewehi hapu of the Arawa, and by some of the Ngatipikiao, who welcomed him eagerly, and expressed their satisfaction at the opening of the road. As they said themselves, this new way put them into direct communication with the Europeans, whereas by the old track round by Maketu no strangers ever come to them. The next morning Mr. M'Lean reached Ohiriemutu which had put on its gala attire, and was led to the largo carved house but recently erected; ami named Tamati Kapua,' where .the chiefs assembled in front, made speech after speech of welcome, and then advanced to shake hands with the visitors.

This Tamati Kapua. is named after a celebrated ancestor of the Arawa, who is represented as having been beyond the stature of ordinary mortals, and to have made his progress usually on stilts some 60 feet long; in his honor has been Erected the present whare Manuhiri which is a very good specimen of native work. It is sixty feet long by thirty feet wide, twenty feet high to the'ridge pole, the eaves being eight feet from the ground. Bound about it, disposed like those at Whakato, are carved slabs, each supposed to represent a deceased ancestor. In the place of honor, and painted up to any extent is Tamati Kapua himself, mounted on stilts, the latter rather disproportionate to their traditional size ; right and left of him are other notables, one being Tutanekai, Hinemoa’s lover, his flute, wherewith he charmed the Maori hero, hanging down from his mouth. The other carved slabs, some thirty in number, are unpainted, but each has a name.

On the following morning, more meetings took place chiefly on the subject of roads, and Mr. M'Lean went on to Wairoa, on the Tarawera Lake, where Tuhourangi hapu turned out in great style with songs of welcome and war-dances. There were also interviews with different chiefs, and here as elsewhere, applications for roads were prominently brought forward; in fact, the desire for the opening up of the interior by road works seems to be now the leading feature among the Arawa; and this, coupled *nth their readiness to enter into negotiations with the Government, for the sale or lease of their lands, is a thoroughly good test of their disposition. The tour of the Native Minister seems to have had a good effect upon them; as they had been anxious for some time past that they might be officially visited, as well as other tribes, and have the opportunity of giving expression to their loyajty, which was manifested in one of their request, namely to obtain a bust of Her Majesty. The Native Minister left Wairoa on Monday, getting to Tauranga (a distance of fifty miles) the same evening, and on r BVB “ n S f, . ie steamed out of Tauranga intending to call on her way down e± Maketu, Ohiwa, Hicks Bay, Kawa Ka.wa, and TVaiapu.'