The Maori Pa is a native settlement three miles and a half from Rangiora, four and a half from Kaiapoi, and one and a half from Woodend. The old name of the place was St. Stephen's, Maori Pa, and the native name is Tuahiwi. The settlement is said to be the largest pa in the South Island, and has a population of about 150 Maoris. There is a native school, church, and also a post office; the land surrounding the settlement is the property of the natives, and is for the most part leased to Europeans.

The Post Office, Tuahiwi, was established in 1900, at the schoolhouse, Maori Pa. A daily mail is received and despatched, and the local schoolmaster, Mr. David Cossgrove, is postmaster.

The Native School, Tuahiwi. This school was established by the Church of England about 1872, and taken over by the Education Department ten years later. The building, which is of wood, contains two class rooms and two porches, and has accommodation for seventy-five children. There are fifty names on the roll, and the headmaster is assisted by an assistant mistress. The school residence has seven rooms.

Mr. David Cossgrove, Headmaster of Kaiapoi Native School, was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1852. He came with his parents to Port Chalmers by the ship “Alpine,” and was educated at Milton. In 1872 he commenced as a teacher under the Otago Board of Education, and held several appointments in the district. He was afterwards on the West Coast, and joined the Kaiapoi school in 1899. Mr. Cossgrove has been connected with volunteering since 1866. He now holds the rank of captain and quartermaster, and went to South Africa with the Sixth Contingent, and again with the Tenth as paymaster. He was also gazetted as captain and quartermaster in the New Zealand Militia on the 25th of April, 1901. In 1875 he was married to a daughter of the late Mr W. Robertson, of Sandfly Bay, Otago, and has four sons and four daughters.

Mr. D. Cossgrove.

St. Stephen's Anglican Church, Maori Pa, Kaiapoi Native Reserve. The Maori mission was established in 1859 under the charge of the Rev. J. W. Stack, who resided at St Stephen's, Kaiapoi, on a glebe of twenty acres, reserved by the Government for the Church endowment at the time of the allotment of the Kaiapoi reserve to the Maoris. Attached to the mission-house there was a boarding-school for native children. In 1865 Sir George Gray laid the foundation stone of St. Stephen's Church, which was formally opened by Bishop Harper a few months later. The original building, which has since been enlarged, was erected of timber cut by the natives in the local bush, which was named Church Bush, and the Maoris also took part in its erection. In 1870 the school and mission-house were burnt down, and, owing to want of funds, were never rebuilt. The Government objecting to build on church property, four acres of the glebe were transferred by Bishop Harper to the Government for school purposes; and Mr. Henry Reeves and Mrs Reeves were appointed teachers of the school then erected by the Education Department. In May, 1873, the Rev. G. P. Mutu was ordained deacon, and appointed assistant curate at the mission. He held the office, with a short interval, till April 1893. In 1884 the Rev. Mr. Stack resigned owing to ill-health, and from that date till 1894 the mission lacked the supervision of an English clergyman until the appointment of the Rev. R. A. Woodthorpe, M.A., in that year. Mr. Woodthorpe resigned his office in the beginning of 1898, and the Rev. Wynter Bblathwayt, of the Otago diocese, was appointed on the 16th of May, and is now (1902) in charge. The church has seating accommodation for about 200 persons, and services are held three times each Sunday. The services are choral. The choir consists of about fifty members, nearly all of whom are Maoris, who all wear surplices, and the female members have college caps. The Sunday school in connection with the church has at present a roll number of thirty children. There is also a sewing guild and a young men's and young women's class, which meet weekly. Messrs Hoani Hape, Taituha Hape, and H. C. Blathway are lay readers. The Rev. Wynter Blathwayt, chap lain to the Maoris in the Canterbury district, resides at St. Stephen's, Maori Pa.

McQuillan, Robert, Farmer, Maori Pa. Mr. McQuillan was born in County Armagh, Ireland, in 1844, and came with his parents to New Zealand in the ship “Queen of the Mersey,” in 1863. The family settled in North Canterbury, where young McQuillan was brought up to farming. Subsequently he started on his own account, and has been successfully engaged in agriculture for twenty-five years. Mr. McQuillan owns a small farm at Waikuku, and leases over 100 acres of Maori land at the pa. He has resided in the district ever since his arrival in New Zealand. In 1873 he married Miss Hamilton, also of Irish birth, and they have a surviving family of four sons and five daughters.

Rowe, George Bevington, Farmer, Maori Pa. Mr. Rowe was born at Cam Mill, Rangiora, in 1872, and has always been engaged in country pursuits. He has 100 acres of leasehold land, on which he conducts mixed farming. Mr. Rowe is a member of the North Canterbury Mounted Rifles; and as an Oddfellow, he is attached to the Royal Rangiora Lodge. He was married, in 1896, to a daughter of the late Mr. R. Sills, of Woodend, and has two sons.

Mr. Tau Whare.

Rowe, Michael, Farmer, Maori Pa. Mr. Rowe was born in 1837 in Shropshire, England, and was brought up as an iron moulder. He landed in Lyttelton by the ship “Mary Ann” in 1859, and after a short residence at Riccarton he removed to Woodend, and was subsequently farming at Moeraki Downs. He has lived at the Maori Pa since 1873. Mr. Rowe was married, in 1859, to a daughter of the late Mr. R. Roberts, of Birmingham, and has three sons and one daughter surviving.

Tau Whare, Piripi (Philip George), Settler, Tuahiwi. Mr. Whare was born in the Settlement of Arahura, in 1870, is a son of the late Teoti Tau Whare, and a descendant of a very early tribe of natives on the West Coast. In athletic affairs he is very prominent, and has ranked amongst the leading football players in the colony.