490 Transactions . — Miscellaneous. 



to them either by way of the North Island or by a line of 

 communication leading to Nelson and Queen Charlotte Sound, 

 passing through the hands of some intermediate tribe. The 

 Ngaitahu traditions are very precise as to the time when and 

 place where they first heard of it. 



Ngaitahu Conquest of the West Coast. 



The West Coast, including the valleys of the Taramakau 

 and Arahura, had for ages been in the possession of Ngatiwai- 

 rangi, who were its original occupants. According to Mr. 

 Alexander Mackay they sprang from the Ngatihau or Wanga- 

 nui Tribe. Mr. Stack considers that they came from the east 

 coast of the North Island, and were of common descent with the 

 Ngatmiamoe and Ngaitahu. They were settled on that coast 

 before Ngaitahu invaded the East Coast. The latter, or a 

 remnant of them, whose chiefs are the Hon. H. K. Taiaroa, 

 M.L.C., and Topi, of Euapuke, were busy conquering the 

 Ngatimamoe in the northern part of this Island and had got as 

 far as Horowhenua when they first became acquainted with 

 greenstone. 



It is said that a woman named Eau Eeka, sometimes called 

 a mad woman, with a small travelHng party,, found the way 

 up the Hokitika Eiver over Browning's Pass across the moun- 

 tains theretofore considered impassable, and thence to the East 

 Coast. Arrived at Horowhenua, in the Geraldine district, she 

 saw some men engaged in making a canoe, to whom she re- 

 marked how blunt their tools were. They asked her if she 

 knew any better. She replied by taking a little packet from 

 her bosom from which she unfolded a sharp adze of the kind 

 of greenstone called inanga. This was the first they had ever 

 seen, and they were so delighted with the discovery that they 

 sent out three Ngaitahu to accompany the visitors to the coast 

 and fetch some. On their return they stated that it was found 

 at Arahura ; after which it came into general use for tools and 

 weapons, those of inferior material being, according to Mr. 

 Stack's informants, discarded. 



This led m time to a skirmish between Ngaitahu and Nga- 

 tiwairangi, in which blood was shed. Te Eangitamau led an 

 expedition up the Eakaia and across the ranges to avenge this. 

 Uekanuka, a great chief of the western tribe, was killed, and 

 the expedition returned. A second expedition fared disas- 

 trously, being defeated at Mahinapua. A third expedition was 

 followed by others, which effected the conquest, and, pursuing 

 the fragments of this tribe, continued the w^ar up to recent 

 times— perhaps the first quarter of this century — when Ngati- 

 wairangi were finally destroyed as a tribe in the battle of 

 Paparoa, and their survivors incorporated with Ngaitahu. 

 The branch of the latter tribe which settled there took the 



