in New Zealand. 
217 
they used the tough forked branches of the Tanekaha ( Phyl - 
locladus trichomanoideSy ) and Kahikatoa ( Leptospermum 
scoparium,) for hooks for this fish; which hooks are still 
used in many places. For bait, they preferred the flesh of 
the Tarakihi (a fish which migrates towards these coasts in 
large shoals in the summer), when in season, using at other 
times that of the crayfish. During my stay at this place, one 
of the heaviest hail showers fell that 1 ever witnessed. The 
hail were large and rhomboidal; the one-half (laterally) of 
each stone was composed of clear, and the other half of 
clouded, ice. The oldest natives spoke of only remembering 
one such shower. 
Leaving Te Kawakawa, and travelling by the sea-side, 1 
passed by several of the Taro ( Caladium esculentum , Vent.) 
plantations of those natives. These plantations were in nice 
condition, and looked very neat; the plants being planted in 
quincunx order, and the ground strewed with white sand, 
with which the large pendulous dark-green and shield-shaped 
leaves of the young plants beautifully contrasted. Small 
screens, formed of the young branches of Leptospermum sco- 
parium, to shelter the young plants from the violence of the 
northerly and easterly winds, intersected the ground in every 
direction. Of the Taro plant the natives possess two kinds 
(species?). Taro maori and Taro hoia; neither of which 
being indigenous, the former is supposed to have been intro¬ 
duced with the present race of natives, whilst the latter, as 
they themselves state, is quite of modem introduction. 
On these shores, the clayey rocks had been so acted upon 
by the sea, as to be worn quite flat; in many places stretching 
out into a continuous horizontal layer of rock, of nearly a 
mile in length. On them grew a peculiar kind of large pro¬ 
cumbent Algce , which, boiled, is commonly used as an article 
of food by the natives of these parts; they call it Parengo. 
The Pohutukawa ( Metrosideros tomentosa,) here forms a 
thick and evergreen rampart between the sea-beach and the 
VOL. XI. NO. VIII. t 
