1893. THE INDUSTRIES OF RHE MAORTS. 113 
taken in hand. With the left hand the enemy’s hair was grasped, 
and with the right the meve was plunged into the side of the head 
where the bones are weakest. It is recorded that Te Wherowhero, 
the father of the chief who afterwards became the Maori king, and is 
still so called, killed 250 prisoners of war at a sitting, smashing the 
head of each at a single blow. His son still has the meve. The 
weapons were held in high veneration, and were frequently buried 
with the chief. The mere, as well as other objects, were often held 
as symbolical of ownership of land. The title deeds of the famous 
Heretaunga Block, now worth three-quarters of a million, was a 
small pounamu pendant, now worn by a gentleman on his watch chain. 
In 1856, when the final negotiations were made which secured to 
England the northern part of the South Island—a district very highly 
prized by the Maoris as the scene of many hard-fought battles— 
Ropoama-te-One, after alluding to those wars, struck into the ground, 
at the feet of the Commissioner, Sir D. McLean, a greenstone axe, 
saying, ‘‘ Now that we have for ever launched this land into the sea, 
we hereby make over to you, as lasting evidence of its surrender, 
this adze, named Paiwhenua, which we have always highly prized 
from having regained it in battle after it was used by our enemies to 
kill two of our most celebrated chiefs, Te Pehi and Pokaitara. 
Money vanishes and disappears, but this greenstone will endure as 
durable a witness of our act as the land itself which we have now, 
under the shining sun of this day, transferred to you for ever.” 
A large mass of detailed observations is recorded by the authors 
of the papers; sufficient has been said, however, to show the very 
interesting character and high value of their communications. 
James W. Davis. 
