White. — On Belies of Cook's Last Voyage. 397 



a great rangatira. She lost her life about sixty or seventy 

 years ago when making her escape from Te Pourewa, or 

 Sporing's Island, the pa on which was attacked by Ngatiporou. 

 The canoe was making for Whangara, and was upset at sea, 

 the only survivor being her grandson, the late Te Kani-a- 

 Takirau. 



Cook says that the bay is called by the natives " Tolaga ;" 

 but this has not been identified with any Maori name now in 

 use in the neighbourhood. The bay takes its name from the 

 Eiver Uawa, which flows into it; and the name of Cook's cove 

 is Opoutama. The rocks off the entrance to the cove have 

 altered very little since Cook's time, for the description w^hich 

 he gives of them might have been written yesterday. " Close 

 to the north end of the island [Sporing's Island] , at the 

 entrance into the bay, are two high rocks : one is round, like 

 a corn-stack ; but the other is long and perforated in several 

 places, so that the openings appear like the arches of a bridge. 

 Within these rocks is the cove where we cut w'ood and filled 

 our water-casks." 



On Monday, the 30th October, Cook made sail again to- 

 the northward, and here we take our leave of him. 



Aet. LI. — On the Belies of Captain Cook's Last Voyage. 



By Taylor White. 



[Eeacl before the Haivke's Bay Philosophical Institute, 14th Oct., 1888.] 



About eighteen months back an account was given in the 

 Illustrated London Neivs or Graphic of the discovery of a 

 walled-in cupboard, containing a number of curiosities of 

 savage life, and said to be labelled as from New Zealand in 

 the handwriting of Sir Joseph Banks. These were afterw^ards- 

 purchased for an Australian museum— I think, that of South 

 Australia. The bulk of these were recurved fighting-clubs from 

 the Pacific Islands, and not from New Zealand. But, if I 

 remember aright, there were a few stone meres in the col- 

 lection ; and what specially took my attention was an oval 

 wooden bowd, described as used to catch human blood at the 

 cannibal feasts. 



About the year 1855 I found the exact counterpart of 

 this same bowl on the Canterbury Plains, about two miles 

 from what is now the Township of Oxford. It was face 

 downward in the short tussock-grass, and, as I view^ed it, 

 end-on, it had just the appearance of a cannon-ball half 

 imbedded in the soil. I was extremely astonished, and, on 



