508 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



hole scooped out, at most Gin. deep. This may have been 

 made, as the Bishop of Waiapu suggests, by the boys of the 

 " Endeavour," at a loose end for something to do. It is 

 about 12 yards up a steep hillside. On the rocks around 

 many names have been cut, amongst others the name " Cook." 

 Not one of the other names can be recognised as that of any 

 one else on board the "Endeavour." The name of Cook is 

 cut pretty deep. It is hardly probable that the ship's boys 

 would cut the name of their captain in this bold way ; but 

 whoever cut the name of Cook cut the date just underneath it, 

 " 1778." Now, it is certain that Cook's only visit took place 

 in 1769, and the mistake of the date settles the question 

 about the cutting of the name, which may, indeed, be some 

 fifty years old, but hardly more. The other names are still 

 more modern. 



Whilst we were looking at the "well" a Maori shouted 

 to us, and, when his words were interpreted, we understood 

 that higher up the hillside there was something else con- 

 nected by Maori tradition with the visit of Cook. Perhaps 

 15 yards higher up the hillside we found an oak cask wholly 

 embedded in the ground to act as a catchment, and filled by a 

 spring, the overflow from it passing down to the " well." On 

 my return to Gisborne I was amazed to find that the dis- 

 covery of this cask had been telephoned to the evening paper. 

 On my return to Sydney and to Melbourne I was amazed to 

 find that telegrams had appeared in papers of both of those 

 cities ; and now papers are reaching me from England scoffing 

 at the discovery, which I never published at all, as I was 

 sceptical from the first. In one story the cask had become a 

 flask. One paper, very ignorant as to the surroundings, sug- 

 gested that the cask had been put there in order that it might 

 be found ! After my return to Melbourne I received informa- 

 tion from one of the party to the effect that the best-informed 

 Maori in Tolaga declared that the cask had been put there by 

 Te Kooti about a hundred years after the visit of the barque 

 " Endeavour." The connection with the story of the massacre 

 of 1868 makes the cask historically interesting, but not so 

 ancient nor so interesting as a veritable Cook relic. Friends 

 seemed to think that I had unearthed the cask and would 

 bring it home with me. Had it been genuine that would 

 have been wicked ; as I thoroughly mistrusted the find it 

 would have been silly. 



The " Hole in the Wall" is a natural arch, a picture of 

 which, drawn by Sydney Parkinson, appeared in Hawkes- 

 worth's book, and was much admired. Banks described it 

 "asa most noble arch or cavern through the face of a rock 

 leading directly to the sea." As the bishop points out, the 

 measurements of Mr. Banks are not those of to-day. Such 



