368 Transactions. 



taua he shouted out, " Let them come ; let them blow their fu ; my men 

 can blow fu also, and I will make more and greater -pu than theirs, and meet 

 them with their own weapons." So spake Nuku, and he straightway set 

 his men to work fashioning trumpets and making fu of flax-leaves. Then 

 when the taua appeared he ordered his two hundred men to take their posi- 

 tions on the high palisading surrounding the fa, and blow with all their 

 might. But when he saw them falling all around, struck down by invisible 

 means, with blood trickling from the wounded, he discovered that his fu 

 were not a match for the pu-atua of the invaders, so he called to those of 

 his men who remained to come down from their conspicuous positions and 

 take refuge within the pa. 



That night he placed one hundred of his men in hiding in one of the 

 trenches of the pa, and next morning, when Nga Puhi came up to renew 

 the attack, up jumped Nuku and his hundred men and quickly turned the 

 tables, killing many, and capturing seven men, also three guns, which he 

 named Pahikatea after the pa,* Waiohena after the creek where the capture 

 took place, and Pu-atua (devil's gun), the name given by him to the new 

 weapon. He also took some ammunition from the dead men, and kept the 

 captured slaves alive to show him how to use the guns. After a week, or 

 perhaps a fortnight, Nuku arranged with his captives to show him how to 

 load and fire ; but they, cute fellows as they were, drove the bullet home 

 first, with the charge of powder on top, and when Nuku found he could not 

 fire as they could the slaves declared the guns were tapu, and only made 

 for killing men. 



Nuku, only too anxious to try his new weapons, made war on the people 

 of Moawhango (Wairarapa), and here, as at the practice, the guns would 

 not go off, being loaded the wrong way. During the excitement of the 

 fight the seven Nga Puhi men escaped and got clean away, carrying the 

 guns with them, for Nuku, when he found his guns would not go off, quickly 

 discarded them and fought with his old Native weapons. 



It was after this that Nuku decided to take his people to Nukutaurua, 

 to be nearer European trade, for whalers had commenced operations in that 

 district, and, in exchange for maize, pigs, and flax, guns and ammunition 

 were obtainable. This was three years after the Whata-tangata battle was 

 fought in the north. 



As soon as Nuku left the district the Ngati Toa, Ngati Awa, and Ngati 

 Raukawa took possession of the Wairarapa lands, the Ngati Toa occupy- 

 ing round about where the town of Carterton now stands, the Ngati Awa 

 taking Featherston, and the Ngati Raukawa the district round Masterton. 

 When Nuku reached Napier he heard how these intruders had taken up 

 their residence on his land, so he called together the chiefs of his party to 

 talk the matter over. He himself was strongly of the opinion that they 

 should turn back and chastise those tribes, but Tahae-ata got up and sang 

 a song the subject of which was the folly of returning while the pu-atva 

 were still blazing. However, as Nuku had decided to go, some of the sub- 

 tribes of the .Ngati Kahu-ngunu agreed to accompany him. The Ngati 

 Tokoira, Ngati Kurakuru, Ngati Hinepare, and the Ngati Kore gave four 

 hundred men, who, with his own two hundred, made in all an army of six 

 hundred strong. They journeyed back without incident, and when they 

 reached Munga-raki (Mr. Buchanan's property) they rested under a great 



* This took place at Te Tarata. Pahikatea i.s about three miles north-east of 

 Papawai. 



