d—6B

to have spent some time on the land, but to have also had a semi-permanent home at Te Horo. Here about 1834 he was concerned in a typical Rauparaha afiair which is sometimes referred to as the " Ohariu Massacre." 48. When the Ngati Raukawa under Whatanui arrived and were given the land from Otaki northwards to the Manawatu, it caused them (geographically) to come between Rauparaha at Kapiti and his most hated enemies, the Muaupoko and Rangitane, in the valley of the Manawatu and at Horowhenua Lake. In actual effect, also, Whatanui came between the rivals, because he took Muaupoko and Rangitane under his protection, promising them that in future " nothing but the rain from heaven would fall upon them." This did not. suit Rauparaha, who could not see, in anything less than the utter extermination of Muaupoko, an adequate revenge for the loss of his children. He could do, and did, nothing openly against Muaupoko, as Whatanui was his friend and ally, yet with characteristic genius for trickery and deceit he encompassed their destruction. Events leading up to the massacre followed a course based upon a strict observance of ceremonial. Firstly, Te Whetu (a Ngati Koata chief of note) returned a prisoner to Mahuri, a Rangitane chief living in company with a Raukawa chief on the banks of the Manawatu River. In return Te Whetu was presented by Mahuri with an eeling-place that he fancied. Next Te Puoho expressed a desire to have a similar eeling-station, and was given one by Mahuri. Te Puoho's people thereupon collected a huge present of food for Mahuri's people, so much above the value apparently of the eeling-station that Mahuri had to make a similar present of food to Te Puoho. Te Puoho then prepared for a feast at Ohariu (the point of departure for the South Island), at which it was announced a new kind of food would be introduced (possibly melons, pumpkins, or vegetable marrows), and Mahuri and all the people of the district were invited to attend. When .Mahuri reached Otaki on his way to the feast, he was warned by Whatanui and other Ngati Raukawa chiefs of the danger of venturing into such a hostile country as that beyond Waikanae. Mahuri's reply was that "It is the boast of Puoho that he will not have his forehead smeared with blood," meaning that he was above treachery, and that he would be safe under the protection of Te Puoho. When Mahuri and his people arrived at Ohariu they were killed by Rauparaha's Tribe. The friends of the victims did Te Puoho the honour of saying that he felt so disgraced by the action of Te Rauparaha that " he ran away to the South Island, where he was killed by the Ngaitahu." It may likely have been that neither Te Whetu nor Te Puoho did more than unwittingly supply Rauparaha with the opportunity he so much desired. 48a. About 1835 a division of the captured territory was made among the tribes and hapus comprising the allied force. Always a source of heartburning and strife, the problem presented was more than ever complicated by the influx into the sphere of influence of Rauparaha of numbers of refugees from the Ngati Awa Tribe, which had been driven out of Taranaki by the Waikato people. Some of these refugees would represent the few survivors of Pukerangiora, while others would be people from adjoining pas who had fled to avoid destruction. AH were desperate, and in their desperation committed acts which seriously disturbed the relationship between the various units of the allied forces. Eventually, after some internecine fighting, peace was restored by a section of Ngati Tama (the Heke-uaua, which seems to have come down about 1832 and which had an engagement with Whanganui and Taupo at Pukenamu on the way) settling at Wellington and a section of Ngati Awa going to the Queen Charlotte and Pelorus Sound districts. 49. In the apportionment of territory Ngati Toa were given the land at the Wairau and Cloudy Bay ; some of the Ngati Toa and Ngati Awa were given the Pelorus district; Rangitoto and some coast-line adjoining was given or retained by Ngati Koata —Ngati Haumia and Ngati Tumania—these being closely related people. The country to the western side of Blind Bay, including Massacre Bay, was given to Ngati Tama and Ngati Rarua. 50. About February, 1836, according to a Ngai Tahu account, Rauparaha, with a small party, set out for the South Island with the object of snaring or securing paradise ducks at Kapara-te-Hau, near Lake Grassmere. His arrival was expected by the Ngai Tahu people, who laid a plan for the capture of their enemy. This plan would have wholly succeeded, but for the action of a craven Ngai Tahu who purposely left sign on the beach to warn the enemy and avert an action. As it was, Rauparaha escaped death by the narrowest of margins by diving among the kelp to avoid his pursuers, while the majority of his people were killed. One canoe, which had not grounded when the sign was discovered and a trap suspected, took Rauparaha aboard, and escaped by throwing overboard those who could not lend speed to the craft. On his way back to Kapiti, Rauparaha met Te Puoho, who, with a canoe full of ropes, was on his return to the South Island. Te Puoho told Rauparaha that he was on his way to make captives of Ngai Tahu, whereupon Rauparaha attempted to dissuade Te Puoho from, the venture, giving as a reason that he had recently gone against Ngaitahu himself and that all he had got was " a belly-full of salt water." Te Puoho then said that that was because Rauparaha had gone about the job in the wrong manner, adding " I am going to the tail of the fish and will scale it upwards—the proper way—not like you who commence at the head." 51. It is realized that this Ngaitahu version adds yet another to the number of reasons, advanced for Puoho's daring raid, but it is as feasible as any. At this hearing the raid was asserted by Mr. Stowell to be an act of desperation committed by a " whakamomori " person —a person suffering from such an acute state of depression or sense of having been wronged that he might be expected to vent his feelings by a desperate act against any one, friend or not, that crossed his path, acting like a mad dog is said to act. 52. The Court cannot agree with Mr. Stowell. The raid was undertaken by a war party, not by a single person, and was carried out over a lengthy period in a manner that indicates the presence as leader of an able and accomplished general in full possession of his faculties, not the least of which was the exercise of patience. 53. It was 1836, therefore, when Te Puoho, with a mixed force mostly of Ngati Tama and Ngati Awa (there was even a Muaupoko warrior in the party named Ngawhakawa, saved by Puoho from the

8