Barstow.—On the Maori Canoe. 73 
The next step was to consult the Tohunga as to the day for commencing 
the falling; the state of the moon must be considered ; an inauspicious day 
for beginning would surely cause the canoe to capsize—the taua or war- 
party using it to be defeated, or, if not to be a waka-taua, no fish would be 
caught therefrom. 
When stone-axes and fire were the only means of falling the tree, the 
task of bringing down a totara four or five feet through must have been 
tedious ; the first iron hatchets used were those procured from Captain 
Cook, and those obtained at Manawaora a century ago, when Marion’s crew 
were ashore and slaughtered, whilst getting out a spar; probably it was not 
till thirty years later that iron-axes became sufficiently abundant to super- 
sede those of stone entirely. Some care was needed that the tree in falling 
should not be broken nor shaken ; an accident of this kind is by no means 
uncommon, and many fine spars are now lost in this way. The destruction 
of a specially large tree, after the labour of falling had been incurred, must 
indeed have been a calamity. 
Though when an outlying tree of sufficient scantling could be found, it 
was preferred to one forest-grown, as our shipwrights considered hedge- 
grown better than plantation oak; yet, in most instances, the totara or 
kauri tree stood in a forest miles from the sea-shore, and so far from 
anahingas or cultivations that relays of women were needed to carry up 
provisions for the workpeople; a road for hauling out by would also require 
preparing ; secrecy, too, was often needed, for a hostile tribe would be only 
too glad either to attack the pa weakened by the absence of many of its 
men, or to surround and cut off the party while engaged at work. 
At last, however, incessant labour has fallen the tree, cross-cut the log, 
and dubbed down the outside to somewhat near its destined shape, and fire 
and adze have partially hollowed out the riu, or hold, dry rewarewa wood 
being used for the charring ; the amount of excavating done at this stage 
depending upon the distance to which the canoe has to be hauled and the 
danger of its splitting on its journey. In peaceable times there is a great 
feast, and all the friendly neighbouring pas contribute hands to haul out, 
by dint of akas, or vines, over rollers or skids, the still weighty mass. The 
workmen pull together over the steeps to the songs of the women. 
It is not always fated to reach the water. At the foot of Wairere Hill, 
in Whangaroa Harbour, there lay, some years ago, the two sides of a mighty 
canoe which had been fashioned on the elevated plateau above the bay. 
Whilst a party of some thirty slaves were engaged in lowering it down the 
steep hill-side, a vine broke, the canoe rushed headlong to the bottom, and 
split from end to end; a ery of despair from the awe-stricken slaves brought 
their rangatiras to the spot, and instant death was the punishment m 
out to the unlueky slaves for their neglect or misfortune, = 
