44 Transactions. 



alliance were of great service to the latter, and permitted a ready means of 

 communication between him and his Ngatiraukawa allies during the prosecu- 

 tion of his designs in the South. 



It is almost impossible to determine the date of the biii:h of Te Kau- 

 paraha, but from the best information I have been able to obtain as to 

 his probable age at the time of the Treaty of Waitangi, I am disposed 

 to fix it at about the year 1770. He was born at Kawhia, where, except 

 during occasional visits to other parts of the Island, and especially to 

 his kindred at Maungatautari, he resided until he obtained the complete 

 leadership of his tribe. He had two brothers and two sisters, all older than 

 himself, but his brothers never assumed positions of importance amongst their 

 people, and neither of them ever exhibited the particular qualities which have 

 made Te Rauparaha so famous in the history of " Old ]S"ew Zealand." 

 Te Kauparaha is said to have been a good, pretty, and playful child, possessing, 

 amongst other qualities, that of obedience in a high degree. It is recorded of 

 him, that on one occasion when directed by an old slave of his father's, named 

 Poutini, to fetch water in a calabash, an order which, considering his rank, he 

 would have been quite justified in disregarding, he at once obeyed and fetched 

 it. But, like other youths, he now and then got into scrapes, and, to use the 

 naif language of his son, "he did many good and many foolish actions." As 

 he advanced in years, his mind developed rapidly, and he soon exhibited an 

 extraordinary degree of wisdom, though his parents scarcely gave him credit 

 for qualities quite apparent to strangers j and, as it seems, were rather 

 inclined to snub him in favour of his elder brothers. But this condition of 

 things did not long continue, and the following incident brought his peculiar 

 talents prominently before his people, and enabled him at once to assume a 

 position of great authority amongst them, leading, ultioiately, to the absolute 

 chieftainship of the tribe. It was a custom amongst the Maori chiefs, before 

 the introduction of Christianity, to assign a wife to each of their male 

 children, even before the latter had attained the age of puberty. In the 

 case of Te Bauparaha, a girl named Marore had been given to him as the 

 wife of his boyhood, of whom, as he grew up, he became very fond, and 

 in whose cause he obtained his first experience as a warrior — his "baptism 

 of fire." It appears that his parents had invited a large number of the 

 tribe to a feast, and when the food — the fish, the eels, and the kumera — had 

 been placed upon the platform, Te Bauparaha saw that the portion allotted 

 to Marore had no relish. This made him very sad, and after some con- 

 sideration he asked his father's permission to lead a war party into the 

 country of the Waikatos, in order that some people might be killed as a relish 

 for the food apportioned to Marore. In those days his wish was, no doubt, 

 considered strictly reasonable and proper — strictly tika in fact — and his father 



