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trouble, if you do that. Or if you branch off in any other direction I shall cause you trouble. All the affection that the Maoris wish to show to you in this matter is this line of railway only. After this is done, and I see how we get on together, then I may alter my mind. If I see that the result of this is good, and your affection to me is great, then I shall have no objection. That is all I have to say. Taonui said: I wish to say a word or two with regard to the management or carrying-out of this railway. If, sir, you were Mr. Ballance, who is the Minister for the Natives, I should have something to say with regard to the work or carrying-out of this railway; but, as Mr. Ballance is not here, I shall reserve what I have to say until I see him. I have something to say about it to him—about the matter —with regard to what is below the surface, and with regard to what is on the other side. I shall have something to say with regard to the position of the stations. As Mr. Ballance is not here I shall not do so to-day, but when he comes here I shall go into these matters with him. Mr. Stout: That ends the ceremony. Now, in compliance with the request made by Wahanui and Eewi that this section should be called Turongo, it will be called Turongo. Eewi then introduced his little daughter and only child to Mr. Stout. A photograph was taken of the group, and the assemblage dispersed. It may be stated that " Turongo" is the Maori way of saying the English words "too long," and is applied in consequence of the length of the proposed line. Turongo is also the name of an ancestor of Ngatimaniapoto. Wahanui's reason, it was explained, for giving this name was that, the two races being now joined, they might now be regarded as descendants of Turongo. The excursionists from Auckland left Te Awamutu on their return journey at half-past 6 p.m., and arrived in town at half-past 12 a.m. During Mr. Stout's address to the Europeans I stood beside Eewi and Wahanui and made a running translation to them of what was being said. They seemed very pleased with Mr. Stout's remarks regarding the Maori people, and when he referred to the battle-ground at Orakau (only four miles away), and compared Eewi's attitude towards Europeans then, and now, the old man was visibly affected. And, indeed, the contrast was very marked. Then he was a fighting general, in sole charge of some two hundred and fifty brave but badly-armed Natives, who, without water and with very little food, were enclosed in a pa surrounded by some six hundred British soldiers, armed with the most approved weapons of the day, and yet, when called upon to surrender after three days' hard fighting, during which time they successfully resisted all attempts to take their pa by assault, Eewi jumped on the parapet and defied his enemies, shouting out that they would fight on "for ever, for ever, and for ever." To-day he stood before them as a friend of the European Government and the European people, and, dressed in simple European costume of black-velvet coat, tweed trousers, and tall black hat, and with his little daughter by his side, he looked, instead of the fierce warrior of twenty-one years ago, a fine specimen of a man who, in his old age, had exchanged ferocity for tenderness, and a previous hatred to Europeans into friendship and brotherly companionship towards them. Wahanui, huge of stature and genial of countenance, acted his part with dignity and composure, especially when it is considered that he was an entire stranger to European ceremonies of this sort; and I believe that both he and Eewi fully realized the meaning of the Premier's words when he said that on that day was given " a pledge that will continue of peaceable relations between Europeans and Maoris." Since the ceremony took place a number of Natives have gone to work on the section set apart for their labour, and I am sure I am justified in saying that they, as well as Europeans, desire that the work may be carried on to completion with as little delay as possible. It is worthy of remark that nearly the whole of the earth comprising the three sods that were dug by Wahanui and wheeled away by Mr. Stout was collected and taken away by some of the visitors from Auckland and Waikato, presumably as a memento of the occasion. I have, &c, G. T. Wilkinson, Government Native Agent, Waikato, Thames, and Auckland.

Authority : Geobge Didsbuby, Government Printer, Wellington.—lBBs.