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the Mission station Te Papa we were still separated by a narrow 
branch of the sea Wo had first to signal our arrival by means 
of a kindled fire, calling a boat over from the other side to take 
us across. Our signal was responded to; the boat came, and on 
the opposite shore our worthy countryman, the Bev. Mr. Yoelkner 
came to meet us with open arms. 1 
May 10. — Mr. Yoelkner and his amiable wife had been expect- 
ing us for some days, and pressed by our kind host and hostess, we 
remained two days at Tauranga, during which we experienced the 
greatest kindness and hospitality. To Papa (i. e. the plain), the 
residence of the Archdeacon Brown, who during our visit was absent, 
is a Mission station of the Anglican High-Church, situated upon an 
extremely fertile peninsula on the southeastern branch of the Tau- 
ranga Harbour; the buildings are concealed bet ween beautiful fruit- 
trees and locust-trees. Mr. Voelkncr conducted a school for boys and 
girls, which lie had founded five years ago, raising it in very short 
time to a most flourishing condition. The school-children had col- 
lected for me , at his request , a great number of pretty sea-shells. 
Among them Argonauta tuberculosa , Solemya australis, Bulla Zelandica 
and Trochus tigris. The schooner Maiperi bound for Auckland, being 
then at anchor in the harbour, and happening to be just ready to 
set sail , I had an excellent opportunity to forward my collections 
at once. 
The Tauranga Harbour is the only harbour on the East-coast 
between Mercury Bay and Port Nicholson, which is accessible to 
larger vessels, and offers shelter against every wind. The en- 
trance is a narrow , serpentine channel , but perfectly safe , the 
isolated, truncated cone of the Maunganui on the East-side, which 
rises to a height of 860 feet above the level of the sea, serving as 
an excellent land-mark. The form of the mountain resembles very 
much a volcano, but a closer examination shows, that the hill is 
a remnant part of the volcanic table-land, consisting of horizontal 
1 Mr. Y r oelkner is the unfortunate German missionary, who, during the native 
wars in 1865, became in a most horrible way a victim to the brutality of a blood- 
thirsty horde of fanatical Maoris, 
