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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 5 (September 1, 1933)

Their First Pakeha

Their First Pakeha.

Rough travelling, rough living it was, that greatest of all pioneer land-buying expeditions. Canoe capsizes and narrow escapes in the icy rivers were all in the day's work. When Mackay and Mackley reached the Mahitahi settlement, nearly two hundred miles south of Hokitika, they were a source of great curiosity to two or three very old Maori women who had not up to that time (1860) seen any white men. The strange coats of the Pakeha were described by the ancient wahines as “whare o te tinana” (“houses for the body”), their waistcoats “pakitua” (a kind of small mat), and their trousers “whare kuwha” (“houses for the thighs”). As for Mackay's footgear he was a thorough Maori; he had no boots, but wore flax sandals (paraerae), as his predecessor, Brunner, had been compelled to do in his explorings.

The Maoris at the various far-scattered villages having been assembled, the payment for the Coast was made at the Mawhera. The Ngai-Tahu people, from whom the great purchase was made, numbered a hundred and ten. So passed to the State a vast territory which in a few years was to produce enormous treasure in gold, and attract tens of thousands of eager diggers from all parts of the world.