﻿Anniversary Address. 7 



No Eurojjeans have as yet settled in tlie inland districts of this portion of 

 the North Island, but the " Queen's son " was as safe among the Arawas in 

 their own country as he would be among the Gordons in Aberdeenshire. 

 We were, however, attended by a guard of honour, consisting of an escort of 

 the clansmen in arms for the Queen. The Duke of Edinburgh and his officers 

 were much interested by the many striking scenes and incidents of life in a 

 Maori camp, especially by the war-songs chanted by the Arawas around the 

 watchfires which they kindled each night in front of our tents. On the 

 other hand, the native warriors were delighted by His Royal Highness's 

 power of enduring fatigue — by his good horsemanship and swimming — by 

 the skill and vigour with which he paddled his canoe across their lakes — and, 

 above all, perhaps, by his constantly wearing the kilt, which is the favourite 

 garb of the Maori as well as of the Scotch Highlanders. 



On the 14th December we rode a distance of forty miles, from Maketu 

 to Ohinemutu, the principal inland settlement of the Arawas. It is situated 

 at the north-western extremity of the beautiful lake of Rotorua, and has in 

 front the lofty islet of Mokoia, famous for the legend of Hine Moa, the Hero, 

 and of her lover, the Leander of the Maoris.^ The road from Maketu to 

 Ohinemutu, winding along the shores of Rotoiti and Rotoi'ua, presents a 

 succession of lovely prospects. It was spontaneously commenced by the 

 Arawas, the chiefs and clansmen labouring together, for the use of the Duke 

 of Edinburgh when his visit was first expected in 1868. 



Ohinemutu still exhibits most of the features and scenes of a Maori pa 

 and kainga of the olden time. The dwellings of the chiefs are surrounded 

 with stockades, while many of them are adorned with grotesque wood- 

 carvings, and are cixrious specimens of native architecture. The boiling 

 springs — sure signs of the volcanic fires smouldering below — seethe, biibble, 

 and steam on every side ; — among the houses, where they form excellent 

 natural cooking places ; — and in the tepid waters of the neighbouring lake, in 

 which the natives swim, each morning and evening, as in a vast natural bath. 

 On Sunday, the 18th December, a missionary clergyman, the Rev. S. Spencer, 

 who had accompanied our party from Maketu, read the service of the 

 Church of England, in the open air, on the shore of Lake Rotorua. It was a 

 calm, clear, and sunny day, and the scene was highly picturesque and 

 suggestive; with the little knot of Englishmen surrounding the "son of the 

 Qtieen," and the large congregation of Maoris repeating the responses and 

 chanting the hymns in their own sonorous language ; amid some of the finest 

 prospects of lake and mountain, and near some of the most wonderful natural 

 phenomena in the world ; in the very heart, moreover, of the native districts 



* See the "Story of Hine Moa, the Maiden of Rotorua," in Sir George Grey'a 

 Polynesian Mythology, pages 2.35-245. 



