A Happy Ending.

At Kihikihi, Rochfort met and talked with Wahanui and Rewi Maniapoto, in the house which the Government had built for Rewi two years before in token of the making of peace. It was close to the site of Rewi's olden home, in the days before the Waikato War and the confiscation of the land.

The chiefs informed him that Mr. Bryce was coming in a week's time, and that all would be settled satisfactorily then. Rochfort accordingly waited for the Native Minister, and in the meantime Wahanui sent messages for all the chiefs who had stopped him in the Rohepotae to come out for a korero. Presently they were all assembled there, including Ngatai, the principal in the shooting of the man Moffatt. The meeting was amicable and altogether satisfactory, and under the protective mana of the head chiefs Rochfort returned to his survey task. The last words of Rewi to him were:

“Tell Mr. Bryce to hasten on the railway; I am an old man now, and I should like to ride in the train before I die.”