416 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



links in the chain of evidence from which others may draw 

 their own conclusions. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES XXXIV. AND XXXY. 



Plate XXXIV. — IMap of the Waikato River basin. 

 Plate XXXV.— Section of Walker's Gully. 



Art. LV. — A Local Tradition of Bankaioa, a Legend of 



Maungatahi. 



Communicated by T. Pine. 



[Read before the Haivke's Bay Pliilosophical Institute, 13th August, 1SS8.] 



Long years ago — how many it is not for me to say, nor does it 

 matter — but not far from here, down the Maungatahi Valley, 

 there lived two chiefs, whose pas were situated on the oppo- 

 site sides of the Maungatahi Creek. Alas ! how the hand of 

 time and the white man's grass-seed alters things ! When I 

 first saw the valley I speak of, fern and tutu flourished on the 

 hill-sides, and flax and toitoi in the valley; but this is all 

 altered, and now more than half of its old beauty has fled : the 

 " pakeha grass " grows everywhere, and all the swamps and 

 flats are drained — improved they call it : well, I must say the 

 same, but one cannot fail to regret the old days of seventeen 

 years ago. The white mantle is descending on us all, and the 

 most of us will soon be as bare " where the wool used to 

 grow " as the old hill-pas are now, devoid of their old clothing 

 of tutu and fern. 



You will all ask what has this to do with the story ; but 

 you must not be too impa^tient : old memories crowd in upon 

 us, and one can but feel sorry. " We are here to-day, to-mor- 

 row away : " lest, however, we go before to-morrow, let us 

 hurry along and finish. 



At the time of which I have written there was a great gather- 

 ing of the different hapus, and it was decided to hold the meeting 

 at Nga Tore Atua and Patangata, which, by the way, are 

 fortified pas on two sugar-loaf hills, rising on opposite sides 

 of the creek, and about three-quarters of a mile apart. Now, 

 a dispute arose between the two pas as to who should supply 

 the food to the people assembled. One chief considered it his 

 sole right on the score of birth. Sec; the other chief advanced 

 arguments so strong that the people took sides, and there was 

 more likelihood of a free Kilkenny fight than of a peace- 

 ful gathering. Ail the " kaumatuas " (old men) were called 



