"KO TE TIKA, KO TE PONO, KO TE AROHA." VOL. 12.]PO NEKE, TUREI, TIHEMA 19, 1876. [No. 23. HE KUPU WHAKAATU KI NGA HOA TUHI MAI. Ko HOHEPA TAMAMUTU raua ko ERUETI te PAURA, o Orua- nui, Taupo, e ki ana ko tetahi rangatira o Ngatirangiita, o Taupo, i haere atu ki Hauraki i a Mei kua taha ake nei kia kite i tera iwi, ko Kaurikamu Takahia tona ingoa. I a ia e noho ana i reira ka ngangare raua ko tetahi tangata o Ngati- maru, he purei kaari te take; ka korero kino tetahi ki te- tahi, ka kohukohu, kanga tonu iho; ko te tangata o Ngati- maru i pouri ki ana moni ka ngaro, katahi ka ki kia hate- pea e ia a Kaurikamu ki te toki. Te kau nga ra e noho ana taua tangata, me te pouri tonu me te mauahara tonu i roto i tona ngakau, katahi ia ka tiki i te patara waipiro ka hoatu tetahi karaihe ki a Kaurikamu. Ka rere atu toua iwi ki tetahi karaihe ma ratou, kihai i makere. Ka kai a Kaurikamu i 1 aua karaihe ka mate tonu iho. Ka hoki ake tona manawa ora ka haere ia i runga i tona hoiho, he mea kia hoki ia ki te kainga. No te taenga ki Tauranga ka mate ano, a no te 30 o Hepetema ka hemo rawa ia ki taua kainga. Ko ona whanaunga e whakaaro aua i rongoatia taua waipiro i kainga ra e ia, a he nui ta ratou whakahe ki te mahi a Ngatimaru. Ko PEHIMANA TARUPEKA, o Matatera, Whanganui, kua tuhi mai i tetahi reta tino whakahe rawa ki te whakaaro a nga tangata i tuhituhi reta mai ki te Waka Maori i mua ai he ki mai kia mutu te hanga e haere nei nga hunga tangi ki nga kainga o nga whanaunga o te tangata mate tangi ai. Koia enei ana kupu, ara, " He porangi nga tangata na ratou enei korero ; i rite ki te kohatu, ki etahi atu mea ranei penei ano me te kohatu ; kaore he tangi, kaore he aha. Ko to kau, me nga kuri katoa atu, me nga manu, e tangi ana ano ki a ratou tamariki, ko te tangata rawa kaua ia e tangi ? Ko enei tangata e tuhi- tuhi nei he porangi, he kore kai ranei, he rawa kore ranei." Kihai i tika nga kupu a Pehimana mo aua tangata e korero rei ia. Kaore hoki ratou e whakahe ana ki te ata tangi pai marire ki te tangata mate, engari e whakahe tika rawa ana ratou ki te mahi maumau taonga, ara te mahi rukeruke noa a nga iwi ki nga hunga tangata ke e haere tonu nei. ki nga tangihanga, e hara hoki i te tangi ki te tupapaku engari he tangi ki te kai rua ratou. Na taua mahi whiuwhiu kai, taonga ke atu hoki, i he ai i tino rawakore ai nga whanaunga a te tangata mate i etahi takiwa, a haere ana ki te tahere manu, ki te keri aruhe hoki, me nga take rakau me nga weri o ro ngahere hei oranga mo ratou rae a ratou tamariki i roto i nga marama maha noa atu o muri iho o te paunga o nga kai i te tangihanga. Ehara i te tohu no te aroha te waha hamama ki te tangi, me te pioioi kau o te tinana me nga ringa; ko te whiu nui hoki i te kai ehara ano i te tohu aroha ki te tangata mate, engari he whaka- kake noa na te iwi nana te tupapaku, he whakahi kia kua ai ratou he iwi nui te taonga. Ka hari ano matou ma whaka- rerea taua mahi tangi e nga Maori. Kaore hoki he mea rite ki tena te whakarawakore i nga Maori ; ko tetahi tino take hoki tena e hoko nei nga Maori i a ratou whenua km riro mai he moni hei whakarite i nga nama me nga taumahatanga i eke ki runga ki a ratou i taua mahi tuku taonga ma te tangihanga. NOTICES AND ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. HOHEPA TAMAMUTU and ERUETI te PAURA., of Oruanui, Taupo, inform us that, during the month of May last, Kauri- kamu Takahia, a chief of Ngatiterangiita, of Taupo, went to Hauraki on a visit to the Ngatimaru tribe. During his stay there a quarrel arose between him and a member of that tribe over a game of cards, during which strong language was used on both sides, and sundry oaths indulged in ; the Ngatimaru man, being excited by his losses, threatening to wound Kaurikamu with an axe. About ten days after the quarrel, the Ngatimaru man, still brooding over the matter and cherishing a feeling of revenge in his heart, procured a bottle of grog and gave Kauri- kamu a glass of it. He refused to give any of it to his own people, although solicited by them to do so. Kaurikamu on drinking the grog immediately became seriously ill. He re- covered, however, sufficiently to enable him to commence his homeward journey on horseback, but on arriving at Tauranga he was again taken ill, and died there on. the 30th of September last. His relations believe that the grog which he drank was drugged, and complain bitterly of the conduct of the Ngatimaru people. PEHIMANA TARUPEKA, of Matatera, Whanganui, writes in terms strongly condemnatory of the views of Natives who have written letters to the Waka Maori advocating the abolition of the ancient Maori custom of wailing parties visiting the friends of deceased persons to cry for the dead. He says, " People who write thus have lost their senses ; they are like stones, or any other hard inanimate substances ; they have no heart and. no feeling. The very brute beasts, and the birds of the air, mourn for their young,and should not man. do so? These writers must have lost their senses, or perhaps they are a poverty- stricken lot" (i.e., they have no food to give to wailing parties visiting them). The strictures of Pehimana Tarupeka are in no way applicable to the writers of whom he speaks. They do not condemn a proper and genuine expression of grief for the dead, but they very properly censure the extravagance and wasteful prodigality which commonly prevail among the tribes in enter- taining parties, comparatively strangers, who attend on such occasions to cry, not for the dead but for food—an extravagance and prodigality which often impoverish the relatives of the deceased to such a degree that they are reduced to the necessity of snaring birds and collecting fern-root and wild herbs and roots of the forest for the subsistence of themselves and their children for months afterwards. Wild howlings and extrava- gant gesticulations are not evidences of genuine sorrow ; and a profuse and ostentatious liberality in the supply of food to wailing parties is rather an evidence of vanity and vain-glory than sorrow for the departed. We should be glad to see this senseless custom abolished, than which nothing has more im- poverished the Natives, leading them to dispose of lands and other property to obtain the means of extricating themselves from debt and difficulty incurred by its observance.