74 ; Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
But even when the kiwi, or bottom piece, has reached the sea beach or 
creek in safety, but a small portion of the work has been completed. This 
piece has to be redubbed and further hollowed; this operation, too, is 
repeated as the timber seasons after the canoe has been in use. Then trees 
have to be fallen for the rauawa, or top streak, not much smaller than the 
one first mentioned. These top streaks in the Toki-a-tapiri are each about 
seventy feet long, and eighteen or twenty inches deep amidships. These 
have to be dubbed down to their proper thickness and shape, to be dragged 
out, and fitted to the hull; holes (puerere) require boring through both, so 
as to lash them along together—a simple enough business with a brace and 
bit, but a very different matter when kiripaka or quartz was used, though 
the natives had learned to construct a drill armed with this pointed stone ; 
the tete, or figure-head, and rapa, or stern-piece, have to come, and you 
have only to look at these to form some notion of the time, taste, and skill 
requisite for their manafacture; a very slight mistake, an unskilful blow, 
and the thing is ruined; another seasoned log must be got, and the work 
be recommenced. It is not everywhere that this carving can be executed. 
The Arawa and Wakatohea, Bay of Plenty tribes, were long celebrated for 
their knowledge of designing and carving the ornamental parts of canoes, 
and their services were obtained by hire, or the requisite carvings (of course 
I am speaking now of modern days) were procured in exchange for guns, 
blankets, horses, or European goods. In earlier times raids were made, 
and men carried as slaves to carve for their masters. Only a small portion 
of the tracery must be cut out at a time, lest exposure to the sun should 
cause a crack, A fully ornamented stern-post was months or years even 
before it received its finishing touch, though the pattern had been sketched 
from the first. These portions of the craft have to be carefully fitted and 
bored for seizing on; the taumanu, or thwarts—frequently of manukau 
wood—must be cut, worked out, and lashed to the niao, or gunwale. On 
the proper fitting of these, which took the place of our deck-bearers, much 
of the strength of the canoe depends, and the women spent days in 
preparing the muka, or flax for these lashings (kaha). 
Then along each side of our canoe has to be fitted a batten, called taka, 
covering the joint of the hiwi and rauawa, and the kaha has again to be 
carried over this so as to secure this streak firmly to the side. These pieces, 
too, were of great length, some 80 or 40 feet, so as to have only one joint 
or splice on each side. 
Our canoe is now pretty well built, but yet again requires many fittings 
—Ahe kaiwae, stages or platforms, usualy made of small manuka sticks, 
upon which the kaihoe, or paddlers, either sat or knelt, a kind of grated 
‘deck, running the length of the craft, with openings here and there to 
