Chap. VII. FIRST SQUATTING. 197 
lay about anywhere between high-water mark and the 
houses. Thus ploughs, hundreds of bricks, millstones, 
tent-poles, saucepans, crockery, iron, pot-hooks, and 
triangles, casks of all sizes and bales of all sorts, were 
distributed about the sand-hummocks. The greatest 
good-humour prevailed among the owners of these 
multifarious articles ; the very novelty and excitement 
of their employment appeared to give them high spirits 
and courage. They pitched their tents and piled up 
their goods in rude order, while the natives, equally 
pleased and excited, sung Maori songs to them from the 
tops of the ware or huts where they sat tying the 
rafters and thatch together with flaxen bands. As I 
passed along, I was greeted by many an old acquaint- 
ance among these, who would jump down from his 
work with a shout of joy, and inquire anxiously 
whether " TiraweJce" had forgotten him. Then would 
come a merry congratulation at my having returned 
safe from the pakarn or " broken" ship, and generally, 
to conclude, a proud sign towards the house erecting 
for his pakeha, and another cheer as he scrambled up 
again to his work. Thus I advanced through a run- 
ning fire of kind greetings. At the back of the hut 
occupied by Coghlan, whither a flag-staff and New 
Zealand flag invited the sailors, a rough and new- 
made track struck off" to the settlement on the river- 
bank, across a miry swamp. After about a quarter of 
a mile of this, I reached the junction of a small creek 
with the Hutt; and soon found myself at the beginning 
of a little village of tents and huts, among the low, 
scrubby coppice wood which covered this part of the 
valley. A rough path had been cleared by the survey- 
ing men along the bank ; and on either side of this the 
colonists had been allowed to squat on allotted portions 
until the survey of the town should be completed. 
