488 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



tangiwai is found, to which reference will be made hereafter. 

 North of this lies the West Coast, so famous twenty-five years 

 since for its enormous yield of gold, and still occupied by a 

 population of twenty-five thousand energetic people devoted to 

 mining pursuits. It may be entered in several different ways, 

 thus : (1.) By sea from north or south. No doubt at times 

 the coast was visited by sea. Mr. Wohlers mentions this, 

 though he apparently refers to Piopiotahi, not to Arahura. 

 But the coast is fearfully exposed and the sea excessively 

 i-ough, and boating even with powerful crews must have been 

 highly dangerous. (2.) By land vid Lake Wanaka, the Haast 

 Pass, and the Awarua or Haast Eiver, and thence up the 

 coast by land or sea. This route, or one by a neighbouring 

 pass to the coast a little to the south, was described to Dr. 

 Shortland by the Maori Huruhuru in 1842. It was the meet- 

 ing-point of old Maori roads up the Waitaki and the Moly- 

 neux (Matau) and others. There was an old Maori settlement 

 at Jackson's Bay, where this track reaches the shore ; and 

 until destroyed or dispersed by Eauparaha's West Coast party 

 there were Maori settlements at Hawea and Wanaka. From 

 Jackson's Bay the road uj) the coast to Arahura must have 

 been difficult and dangerous, as there are some twenty rivers 

 to cross. (3.) By the seashore from Cape Farewell in the ex- 

 treme north. The possibihty of walking by the shore from 

 Cape Farewell to Arahura was demonstrated by Brunner and 

 Heaphy in 1846. They found it excessively laborious, and 

 passed over bluffs and headlands by means of rude ladders 

 constructed years before by Eauparaha's raiders, who had 

 come down this way. Even as late as that date they found 

 old Maoris living near Cape Farewell who told them of the 

 feuds which had prevailed in their young days, the character 

 of which showed that the occupants of the greenstone country 

 never had had friendly neighbours in the district to the north 

 of their own. They were consequently utterly isolated until 

 the passes from the East Coast became known. (4.) By the 

 passes from Canterbury. North of the Haast Pass the next 

 met is Whitcombe's Pass, one hundred miles north, connecting 

 the south branch of the Hokitika Eiver with the Eakaia. Next 

 is Browning's Pass, connecting the Kokotahi, or north branch 

 of the Hokitika, with the Eakaia. Then comes Arthur's Pass, 

 the most convenient of all, crossed by the coach-road, but 

 probably unknown to the Maoris, connecting an affluent of 

 the Taramakau with one of the Waimakariri. Next is Harper's 

 Saddle, on the borders of the Provinces of Canterbury and 

 Nelson, connecting the Taramakau with the Hui'unui, which 

 was still used thirty years ago by the Maoris, wlio rafted 

 themselves down the river on rnoldhi (rafts made of Phorinium 

 stems). (5.) By the passes from Nelson. These lead into the 



