The Generous Arawa.

When we consider how skilfully the pakeha has possessed himself of most of the land of the Maori, recollections arise of a spirit of chieftainlike liberality that often astonished the commercially-minded purchaser. Here is one example of the generous old ways.

In the early ‘eighties, when Rotorua town was being established, the Government desired to purchase about 20,000 acres of bush land on the hills about Tarukenga and Mamaku. Judge F. D. Fenton, of the Native Land Department (after whom Fenton Street in Rotorua is named) offered the Arawa, on behalf of the Government, the price of ten shillings per acre. But the old chief Paora te Amohau said that ten shillings was too much. “We want to assist the Government,” he said; “we want to assist the parent who is going to protect us and bring prosperity to Rotorua.”

So a compromise was arranged by which, at Captain Gilbert Mair's suggestion, the sum of five shillings per acre should be paid for the land. And that was the price at which the valuable timber lands of the Mamaku hills and plateau were sold to the Crown. The Arawa thus made the State a present of £5,000 on that transaction alone. Probably no race of people but the Maori would have refused a purchaser's offer because they thought it was too much. As for Pukeroa pa, they would not consider selling it at all; they made a free gift of the famous hill to the Government for a recreation ground. Now it is the site of the Rotorua hospital buildings.