'The Spirit Land.

'Long before the introduction of Christianity into New Zealand, the Maories had ideas of a Spirit Land more or less defined. They believed that all, young and old, chief and slave, took their journey thither after death. Many legends exist in connection with the Spirit Land, abounding in beauty, pathos or sentiment. Let me give you one of them.

'In a village on the sea-coast, a young Maori Chief of high rank, fell in love with a Maori maiden of great beauty, but of low degree. She returned his love, and many were the love passages and secret meetings between them, but, as in other communities, the course of true love did not smoothly run, for the youth's father, the great Chief of the district, forbade their union, and determined it should not take place. This opposition, as usual, only made them love each other the more, but in vain, for the grim old Chief was inflexible. The young Chief was inconsolable, refused to eat, and died of grief. Heart-broken, the maiden destroyed herself, saying as she threw herself from a cliff into the sea, page 130'"O Parengarenga I come, I come to thee," and the ocean waves carried her to meet her lover in the Spirit Land.

'The old Chief hearing of her dying words, declared the union should never be. And rushing to the edge of the cliff Taiaha (battle-axe) in hand,

' " I go," said he, "I go to break asunder the chains with which the daughter of a slave seeks to bind the son of warriors," and plunging from the cliff into the waves, he was seen no more.'

'What a touching story,' said the President.

'Touching, do you call it,' said the Station Manager, 'when you next tell that story Mr. Interpreter, I think you might call it, "The Story of Three Fools."'

'Dick,' laughed the Major, 'I'm ashamed of you, you'll be in love yourself one of these days, and then you'll know better.'