CHAP. XXVIII.] NATIVE CHURCH. 411 



up a little in the morning, and we started for Tapiri. 

 The road was in a sad state, as the water had in 

 many places become stagnant, owing to the almost 

 complete flatness of the land and the absence of all 

 drainage, and also in some places to the nature of 

 the soil, which was clayey. Here again I had occa- 

 sion to observe how injuriously the frequent fires of 

 the natives had acted upon the quality of the land. 

 Travelling nearly westward, we reached a forest of 

 pines, chiefly kahikatea-trees and totara. There 

 were cultivated grounds in the forest in places 

 where the trees had lately been burnt ; and many 

 large but unfinished canoes, hewn out of huge stems 

 of totara, proved the neighbourhood of a well- 

 peopled native settlement. We were soon observed 

 by some of the inhabitants, who, with a hearty wel- 

 come, accompanied us to their village, Tapiri. This 

 forms the habitation of the Christian part of the 

 tribe ; the heathens live about a quarter of a mile 

 farther off in a substantial antique pa called Mata- 

 mata. In Tapiri the natives showed us with pride 

 a fine church, which was eighty feet by forty, and 

 which they had just finished. It was a most sub- 

 stantial building, and they had constructed it en- 

 tirely by themselves. Internally it was supported 

 by two well-finished columns : the lining was fern- 

 stalks placed close together and intertwined with 

 stripes of split wood. 



In Mata-mata I saw the tomb of the principal 

 chief, who died two years ago ; it was a very exqui- 



