The Final Tragedy of War.

Peace, civilisation and prosperity came to Waikato under the benevolent rule of the missionaries and the chiefs. Ashwell's Taupiri school establishment was the centre of religion and secular learning on the mid-Waikato. The plough was at work on the rich soil of the station. Mr. Ashwell had an excellent assistant, a young chief named Heta Tarawhiti, of Taupiri. He became an ordained minister, and in his old age we used to see him in Auckland, a remarkable figure, a fine old man with a tattooed face which contrasted curiously with his clerical garb. Everywhere there was peace and progress, until the curse of war with the pakeha—first the Taranaki war of 1860 and then the Waikato war in 1863—violently disturbed the good work and blasted all the missionaries' hopes.

In 1874, Mr. Ashwell wrote some of his recollections of missionary adventure and labour, and these were published in a small pamphlet, printed for private circulation. I am indebted to Mr. Horace Fildes, of Wellington, for the use of the information contained in this now rare publication; Mr. Fildes also kindly contributed some personal data from his notes. The picture of the old mission station on the Waikato River at Taupiri is from a water colour drawing by a Government intelligence officer of the early Sixties, Lieut. H. S. Bates (afterwards Colonel) of the 65th Regiment. He made several canoe voyages up the Waikato River before the war.