the beach, a ring of men drives him
down to the water, the people on board the cutter hauling at the rope
meanwhile. By this means he is easily got alongside of her, when once he
is off his legs and swimming. Then a sling is passed under his belly,
tackle is affixed, and, with a "Yeo, heave ho!" he is lifted on board
and deposited in the hold. Then the process begins afresh until all the
batch is shipped.

The cutter sails down the river and out through the Heads into the open
sea. She then coasts down and enters the Manukau Harbour, going up to
Onehunga to unload. Onehunga is only six miles from Auckland, of which
it is practically a part, being the port of the city on the west coast.
It is connected with Auckland by railway and macadamized carriage-road.

In Auckland market fat cattle sell at twenty to thirty shillings per
hundred lbs., sometimes even a little more. Our beasts usually fetch us
ten or twelve pounds apiece, after deducting freightage, and our
agent's charges for receiving and selling them. This year, our herd of
two hundred head yielded us three batches of four-year-old fat steers,
each batch containing about a dozen head.

When cattle breed wild in the bush they may be a source of considerable
annoyance and loss. This does not matter in remoter districts, such as
the recesses of the Hokianga forests. Wild cattle abound there, possibly
in hundreds; and the Maoris make a good thing by hunting them for their
hides. There are no settlers' cattle running in the bush there; but
where there are, wild cattle would make them as wild as themselves, and
would spoil a herd in no time. When they appear in a district,
cattle-farmers have to combine to hunt them down and extirpate them.

Once there were some wild cattle in the bush between Te Pahi and
Paparoa, on the opposite side of our river. The settlers of Paparoa were
hunting them down, and we were warned to look out, for fear the beasts
should take to the water. They did do so, and a whole mob of them tried
to swim over to our side.

Fortunately we were on the look-out. At once a party took to the boats,
while others watched along the shore. We were in a great funk about the
matter, for if the wild bulls got over to our side it might mean almost
ruin for us. So we charged gallantly at them in the water, and strove to
head them back to the other side, where the Paparoa men were waiting for
them.

Such guns as we had were brought out, but they were little