A Hint from Kopu.

Another Donald Maclean story, told me by an old settler of the Wairoa, Hawke's Bay. After the purchase of the Wairoa block of land, Maclean told one of the leading chiefs of the sellers that he intended to make him a present of a horse. “In those days,” said the narrator of the story, “a Maori would give a kingdom for a horse.” But in doing so he forgot his friend Kopu, the principal man at Te Kapu, where the town of Wairoa now stands. When he was leaving the meeting he enquired where Kopu was, and he was told that he was not well, and was in his tent.

Maclean went to the tent, and as he was entering it Kopu caught him by the leg. Next moment he released his hold, saying in apparent surprise: “Oh, Makarini, I thought it was the leg of my horse!” The hint had the desired effect. “Makarini,” on his return to Napier, sent Kopu a horse, and all was well in Te Kapu kainga.