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Note Of Acknowledgment.

Unlike the doll-maker in "La Poupee," I am unable to claim this book as "My work—all my work!" At every turn I have had to make demands upon old settlers for information on first one point and then another, and most cheerfully have they responded to my importunities. In this respect I am deeply indebted to Mrs. Snelson, Mrs. Halcombe, Bishop Hadfield, the Revs. J. Duncan and T. G. Hammond, Dr. Rockstrow, the late Mr. W. T. L. Travers, Messrs. R. N. Keeling, D. McEwen, E. S. Thynne, John Kebbell, F. Robinson, J. T. Stewart, George Nye, James Linton, J. O. Batchelar, S. Abrahams, J. Rush, and Mr. T. W. K. Foster, of Feilding, and to these ladies and gentlemen I now gratefully acknowledge my obligation.

I am equally indebted to the old chief Kerei te Panau, his wife Ereni te Awe Awe, and Mr. and Mrs. Henry, of the Awapuni pa, for much of the information upon which I have based the Maori chapters, and to Captain Preece, N.Z.C., and Mr. Moffatt, for kindly interpreting for me. In this connection I have also to acknowledge frequent references made to Mr. Travers' "Life and Times of Te Rauparaha " when writing the story of the Second Conquest, and to Mr. Wakefield's "Adventure in New Zealand" for some of the material in the succeeding chapter.

The illustrations I owe mainly to the kindness of Mrs. Henry, Dr. Rockstrow, Mr. J. T. Stewart, Mr. Pegler, Pirani Bros., and to Messrs. Sandilands, Hook, and Wackrill, of Feilding.

Possibly some Maori scholars may take exception to my method of spelling the name of the tribewhich in the first chapter I have called Ngatiara, preferring to see it spelt as Ngaitara, but I have adopted the former because it is the style most generally used here, and I understand that Ngati and Ngait are synonymous terms.