62 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Nga toro i rangi in the canoe Arawa, and his taumata near Taiipo is still 

 pointed out. But at a very early date lie or his immediate descendants 

 must have left that locality, and travelled south. Separated by the stormy 

 straits of Eaukawa from their countrymen, Waitaha were long left in the 

 enjoyment of peace and plenty, and as a consequence rapidly increased, till 

 as the natives say " they covered the land like ants." The size of the pas, 

 and the extent of the kitchen middens along the coast attributed to them, 

 afford conclusive evidence as to their numbers. At Mairangi and Kapuka- 

 riki (Gust) the remains of a walled pa extending for about three miles along 

 the downs, existed till the settlement of Europeans in that locality. Wiremu 

 te Uki, Henare Pereita and others, who frequented the place to gather the 

 stems of the cabbage-palm, — which grew luxuriantly there in " soil enriched 

 by the fat of man " — for making kauru, a favourite article of food — assert 

 that twenty years ago, the broad outer ditch of the pa could be seen, and 

 that from the bottom of it to the top of the bank was about seven feet, and 

 that at regular intervals along the wall there were openings showing plainly 

 where the gates had been. They recollected old men saying that these gates 

 were known to have had names which were now forgotten. Te Wai 

 manongia and his son Tauhanga ahu are said to have ruled these pas at the 

 time that they were destroyed by Ngatimamoe. 



Some time before the Ngatimamoe invasion, about the year 1550 as near 

 as we can guess, there lived on the banks of the Eakaia a chief named Tute- 

 waimate, regarding whom a story worth recording has reached us. Moko, 

 a robber chieftain, had fixed his stronghold on the Waipara, the choice of 

 the spot being determined by the existence of a cave in close proximity to 

 the highway, along which a regular trade was carried on up and down the 

 coast ; the preserved mutton-birds, dried fish, and kauru from the south 

 being exchanged for preserved forest-birds, mats, etc., from the north. 

 Moko was in the habit of robbing and murdering any small parties of 

 carriers who might venture too near to him, and he might have continued 

 to do so without molestation, as the carriers were for the most part slaves, 

 whose death was not worth avenging, had he not been so unfortunate as to 

 kill a near relation of the great Tutewaimate. This chief, already smarting 

 under previous losses of property, was exasperated beyond all endurance by 

 the murder of his kinsman, and summoned his tribe to destroy Moko and 

 his band. The people responded in such numbers to his call, that when 

 they started on their march, the dust they raised resembled the smoke of a 

 great fire on the plains, and their spears darkened the sky. Leaving the 

 bulk of his forces at Kapukariki, Tutewaimate pushed on early one 

 morning v,'ith a few chosen warriors to Moko's stronghold. He found the 

 place quite unprepared for an attack, all the men except Moko being away. 



