196 
OHINEMUTU 
CHAP. 
long. “ Take great care of him for he looks very 
precious,” were Miss Gill’s parting words to me. 
It was a glorious day, the sky that intense blue 
which has no equal, and under the bright sun and the 
wonderfully clear air the colouring of mountain, sea, 
and forest was almost too vivid in its intensity. We 
halted half-way to change horses and have lunch at a 
little wayside inn, and the sun was just setting when 
the first whiff of the sulphurous air reminded us that 
our journey was at an end for that day. The little 
village of Ohinemutu was unusually active as we passed 
through, for native elections were going on, and the 
Maori women were resplendent in all the colours of the 
rainbow, with the inevitable pipe in their mouths. At 
the hotel all the old faces had gone, and at the table I 
saw a long row of strange people. There was a little, 
long-haired, carelessly -dressed, spectacled professor, 
with his kindly, homely little wife, a contrast to “her 
ladyship ” opposite, who eyed us through her glasses as 
if we were minute specimens, and quarrelled with her 
food until we were driven to wonder why she ever left 
the comforts of her own home, if she could not bear 
the ordinary trials of travelling. Her husband, a tall, 
military-looking Scotsman, bore all her complaints 
with the resignation of long habit. Next them sat an 
Irishman with a tread-on-the-tail-of-me-coat-if-you-dare 
expression that warned off intrusion and friendliness 
too ; then a dear old Scots couple, who were full of 
tales about the early days of their settlement and the 
gradual growth of the colony. The tall English gentle- 
man next I knew was a splendid specimen of the 
old-time squatter, one of those who have helped to 
make Australia what it is, and my heart warmed at 
the sight of him and his wife. Opposite these were 
two pretty American girls and their maiden aunt. 
