86 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



kinsman, but the avenger of blood tbrixst Lis spear between tliem, and 

 plunged it into the old man's body. 



Having ascertained that Te Eangitamau was away at Taumutu, and not 

 knowing what course he might take, Moki gave orders that a watch should 

 be kept during the night round the camp to guard against surprise, but his 

 orders were disregarded. Te Eangitamau, whose suspicions were aroused by 

 observing a more than ordinary quantity of smoke arising from the neighbour- 

 hood of his father's pa, set off at once for the place, which he reached after 

 dark. Passing through the sleeping warriors he approached his father's 

 house, and looking in saw his wife Puna hikoia sitting by the fire. Stepping 

 in he touched her gently on the shoulder, and putting his finger to his lips 

 as a signal to keep silence, beckoned her to come outside. There he 

 questioned her about what had happened, and finding that she and his 

 children had been kindly treated, he told his wife to wake Moki after he was 

 gone, and to give him this message, " Your life was in my hands, but I gave 

 it back to you." Then taking off his dog-skin mat he placed it across Mold's 

 knees, and hurried away to his own stronghold on the hill close by. When 

 Puna hikoia thought her husband safe from pursuit, she woke Moki and gave 

 him the message. Moki felt the mat, and was convinced the woman sjDoke 

 the truth. He was greatly mortified at being caught sleeping, as it was 

 always injurious to a warrior's reputation to be discovered off his guard. 

 Issuing from the wliare he roused his sleeping followers with the words 

 which have since become proverbial, " Ngai tuwhaitara mata liori." 0, deaf- 

 eared Tuwhaitara ! The next day negociations were entered into with Te 

 Eangitamau and peace restored between him and his kinsmen. 

 West Coast Maoris. Discovery of Greenstone. 



It is not till the Ngai Tahu conquests reached Horowhenua that we hear 

 anything of Ngati Wairangi, the tribe occupying the west coast, who, like 

 Ngatimamoe and Ngai Tahu, were descendants of Tura, and crossed over 

 to this island almost the same time with them. Hitherto they had been shut 

 off from communication with the east coast by what were thought to be 

 impassable natural barriers, till a mad woman named Eaureka discovered a 

 way through them. Wandering from her home this woman went up the 

 bed of the Hokitika river, and then across what is known as Browny Pass, 

 and thence down to the east coast. There in the neighbourhood of 

 Horowhenua she came upon some men engaged in shaping a canoe, and 

 taking notice of their tools remarked how very blunt they were. The men 

 asked if she knew of any better. She replied by taking a little packet from 

 her bosom, which she carefully unfolded, and displayed a sharp fragment of 

 greenstone. This was the first the natives there had ever seen, and they 

 were so delighted with the discovery that they sent a party immediately 



