94 TUTIRA 



Waiatara's turn had now arrived for showing something of that 

 rangatira dignity which is the peculiar property of the old-time leading 

 chiefs. "Takirau," he exclaimed, "I have been your greatest friend for 

 a very long time, assisting you in your troubles, and providing you with 

 huahua preserved birds at every season. Now that you have made 

 this treacherous attack upon me, my final word to you is ' haere,' 

 depart ; our friendship is broken for ever." 



As an evidence that the friendship was indeed not broken in vain, 

 it may be added that when certain titles were being investigated this 

 incident was related, and Takirau's descendants were disallowed any 

 share in these ancestral lands. 



From Kokopuru, about which so much has been said, the track 

 proceeded nearly due west along the edge of a high ridge between 

 the " White Pine Bush " and one of the gorges of the Waikari. This 

 ridge was terminated by another gorge, on the far side of which lay 

 heavy forest lands. The track then turned sharply north, and continued 

 in a northerly direction through forest to Te-Heru-o-Tureia. Re- 

 emerging into the open on the heights of that block, it pursued its course 

 along the very rim of the main range above the western precipice, 

 eventually reaching the bluff Patu-wahine, and thence proceeding out of 

 our history to the wilds of the Urewera country. 



We can now return to the lands Tarewa-o-te-whenua, where the 

 trail had forked ; the western track we have traced ; the northern struck 

 the crossing of the gorge of the Matahorua, the stream that divides 

 Tutira from Putorino. Here at one time dwelt Titi-a-Punga. Like 

 Rob Roy, he followed " the good old rule, the simple plan, that he 

 shall take who has the power, and he shall keep who can." Here, 

 also, was situated his village, and if indeed they existed, except in 

 the pious imaginings of an informant anxious to exaggerate the glories 

 of the past his plantations. At the best these can have been but of 

 trifling extent and importance. 



Probably, indeed, the residence of Titi-a-Punga on Tutira was only 

 temporary ; his permanent eyrie seems to have been established on 

 rocky juts of the Maungaharuru range. There, encamped above the 

 pass leading from Hawke's Bay into the Taupo country, he watched 

 for travellers. At any rate, whatever may have been his antecedents, 

 and wherever he may have come from, whilst on Tutira he com- 

 pleted a whare -puni or meeting-house ; the building had yet to be 



