456 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



The Migration from Wairoa to Heretaonga. 



Wairoa was formerly the home of the Maoris now occupying the inland 

 portion of Hawke's Bay about Te Aute and Poukawa. 



The reason for their leaving Wairoa was this : — A chief named Iwi- 

 Katere, living at a pa near Turiroa Wairoa, had a pet tui (parson-bird, 

 Prosthemadera nova-zealandice), which had been taught to repeat the proper 

 prayers and incantations used while planting kumaras, taro, etc., and thus 

 was very valuable as an economizer of labour. Tamatera, a chief of the 

 adjoining pa, borrowed the bird of Iwi-Katere. After having detained it for 

 a length of time, Iwi-Katere sent for his pet, but Tamatera would not give 

 it up, so Iwi-Katere went and fetched it away. When night came on 

 Tamatera went by stealth and took the bird. The tui kept repeating to its 

 master the following words : — " I am gone, I am gone, on the handle of a 

 paddle ; I am tired of fighting. Oh, Sir, I am gone ! " It was waste of 

 words on the bird's part, for its master did not understand the meaning.. 

 So Tamatera took it safe away. On the following day Iwi-Katere attacked 

 the thieves, but was repulsed, so he obtained the assistance of Eakaipaka 

 from the Mahia, who had been driven away from Turanga, and attacked 

 and killed Tamatera, Taupara, and many others ; but many were destroyed 

 on both sides. After this Ngarengare and the survivors, including his 

 granddaughter Hine-te-moa, moved to Heretaonga and settled in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Poukawa and Te Aute, driving away the original owners from 

 that district, viz., Tane-nui-a-rangi and others. A great battle took place 

 near Tahoraite, in the Seventy-mile Bush, and from the length of time 

 the people who had been killed took in cooking in the hangi or umu, the 

 place was called Umutaoroa, — that is the site of the present village of 

 Danevirk. These events happened in the days of Eakaipaka, a contempo- 

 rary of Kahukuranui and Bakai-te-hikuroa, viz., in the second and third 

 generation after the arrival of the canoe " Takitimu." 



