of other good
land to be had. No need for us to covet this, fertile as it is; no need
to make a commonplace farm out of that picturesque old battle-ground.
May it long remain just as it is now--a lovely natural monument to
ancient Maori valour, a quiet undisturbed resting-place for the warrior
dead, the patriot chivalry of the Ngatewhatua!"

Such is our show-place and its tale.

CHAPTER X.

OUR NATIVE NEIGHBOURS.

A great friend of ours, and a near neighbour, is Tama-te-Whiti, the old
Maori. He is not _the_ chief of the Ngatewhatua, but as he comes of the
royal stock he is _a_ chief. He belongs to the caste styled tana, or
chieftains, a degree above that of rangatira, or simple
gentlemen-warriors. In the old feudal times--for the ancient Maori
system may be so designated--Tama would have held a delegated authority
over some portion of the tribe, just as a Norman baron did in the elder
world.

Now the tribe is very small, having been almost exterminated by the
Ngapuhi fifty years ago. Three or four families form the section over
which Tama presides. But civilization and European colonization have
abolished the old order of things, so that even a head chief's authority
is now more nominal than real.

In his youth Tama was a warrior, having taken part in the battle which
ended with the affair at Marahemo, as described in the previous chapter.
A fugitive from his own district, his hopes of one day becoming a lordly
ruler over some large kainga of his own being shattered by defeat, he
fell in with Samuel Marsden, and by that Apostle of New Zealand was
converted to Christianity.

So now, in his old age, Tama is a worthy exponent of the new
dispensation. Born to warfare, he is now an ordained deacon of the
Anglican Church; instead of cannibalism, he has taken to thrifty
farming; instead of fighting, he preaches among his countrymen; instead
of leading a ferocious taua, he finds himself the venerated pastor of a
little community of earnest Christians.

Tama's place is some seven or eight miles away, down the Arapaoa. He has
a very comfortable little kainga, a fenced-in enclosure, wherein are
raupo whares built in the best styles of Maori architecture, with little
verandahs in front of them, and curiously carved doors and fronts.

Here reside Tama and his wife, and one or two others; while just across
the river is a larger kainga, where live the remainder of Tama's flock.
Round about his whares is a plentiful