King Dick.

"In speaking of this man it must be remarked that the Natives paid a reverence to cripples, Dick, when I knew him in '53, was, I should say, 30 years old. His spine was injured when he was young, and it bent up almost level with his head. Dick was a chief of the first blood, and was held in much respect by the Natives. At that time a whaleboat was a big property, and Dick owned one, These boats were always painted in gaudy colours, and they vied with each other for the nose. This was any colour from the bow thwart to the stem head at keel. The pakeha always knew whose boat it was coming in by the colour. I'm giving you this because some residents in Pigeon Bay think to this day there is a mystery [unclear: in] Dick's disappearance and where he was buried. Well, I can assure those interested that he never was buried. Some whites had a notion his body was deposited in some of the caves about Pigeon Bay, and they have searched for it, but I could have told them it would be without result. When Dick died there was no tangi, only a peculiar mourning ceremony. The Maoris did not go through the ordinary 'tangi' in this case because he was not to be buried, neither was his body to be placed for the flesh to decay, so that the bones could be cleaned and then interred according to old custom. Dick's burial was an extraordinary one. The Natives came from Kaiapoi and elsewhere—in fact all collected that could be called together in those days for the occasion. The old burying ground was on the rise where Hay's woolshed now stands, and some of them wished to inter him there, but an old fellow (a chief) tapued Dick's remains, so that the Natives were corneredpage 243and did not know what to do with them. After a long korero it was decided to sink poor Dick at Pigeon Bay Heads, and this was done after sundown. Another trouble cropped up so as to who should go out after sundown, as the Natives were disinclined to move out after that hour. This was got over_by some Maoris who had lately arrived from Otago. These men had been whaling, and they took the body and sank it outside the Heads. This was the end of King Dick, or, as we called him, Humpy."

Mr. Jamas Hay informed us that King Dick left £50 in the bank—a large sum in those days.