A Fruitful Isle.

When food was scarce on the mainland, the tribes always had Mokoia to fall back on for potatoes, kumara and maize.

What a fruitful place it was when first I set foot on the Paepaerau beach! There were cultivations all over the levels and up along the lower slopes; and up yonder were the cherry-groves, richly laden. One summer I was at Rotorua, old Te Raiha brought over canoe-load after canoe-load of kits of cherries, for the township fruit shops and the hotels and boarding houses.