Page:Tales-of-Banks-Peninsula Jacobson 2ed 1893 cropped.pdf/266

dred Natives once lived there. The sea must have encroached a good deal on the land here, for the waves reach where some of the whâres formerly stood; but a peculiar grass, sown and cared for by Mr. V. Masefield, has checked the encroachment of the sea. The earthworks surrounding the pa are still easily traced. They enclose a space fully two acres in extent, and this is again sub-divided. An immense amount of work must have been done, and the side of the hill on the south shows traces of having been cultivated from base to summit. Heaps of the bones of fish, dogs, seals and other animals testify to the enormous feasts once held here, and when the Messrs. Masefield first went there, the poles on which fish were stretched to dry were still standing. At every step sharpening stones, pieces of greenstone, stones ground into implements, and other curiosities can be found in the sand. A great cedar log was washed ashore here, and is inscribed with many initials from visitors. The stern of the Crest was dashed on these sands, and parts of the vessels wrecked at Timaru. The limb of the ngaio tree on which the Maori hung himself is a part of the boat used for shipping, and the piece of the Crest is a part of the dairy.

A few Maoris were living here to within twenty years ago. Some ten years before this the Natives then residing there purchased a boat of a man named Howland, living in Okain’s. The boat was principally putty and paint, and proved a terrible bargain to the unfortunate purchasers. One day all the resident Maoris, with the exception of three women, went out in this boat to fish on the bank, which is some two or three miles out to sea. They caught a great number of huge hapuka, and these flapping about in the boat, soon opened a number of leaks, and she sunk, and not a soul was saved. The unfortunate women, whose husbands were aboard, saw