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group of blooming daughters, who are the ornament of the Otawhao 
Mission station. The fleeting hours of the pleasant day I spent at 
Otawhao, slipped away amid interesting conversations about the 
country and the people, and promenades through the environs of 
the place. In the old Pah I found among the rubbish of the huts 
Missionary school at Otawhao. 
one of those grotesque figures carved in wood , which in olden times 
had graced the dwellings of the Maoris. It was 5 feet high and 
still in a tolerable state of preservation. I did not hesitate to appro- 
priate it ajid to take it home with me to Europe as a specimen 
of Maori sculpture. Notwithstanding the greatest possible caution 
on my part, however, it was rumoured among the natives that I 
had packed up one of their ancestors; the figure was demanded 
back from me on the plea that it was intended to grace the resi- 
dence of the Maori king Potatau. Nevertheless it now stands safe 
and sound in the Novara-Museum at Vienna; whence Potatau II is 
quite welcome to reclaim it. 
May 20. — Mr. Morgan very kindly lent us horses and ordered 
one of his natives along to guide us a far as Kirikiriroa. The road, 
a convenient horse -path, after passing the Mangahoe and Manga- 
piko , lies across an undulating hilly country , through a charming 
pond -landscape with picturesque groves of Kahikatea pines. We 
