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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 14, Issue 1 (April 1, 1939)

[section]

I never pass Kapiti Island on the northward journey from Wellington without thinking of the wonderful swim of Te Rau-o-te-Rangi, the great-niece of Te Rauparaha.

“One night,” says Percy Smith, “Te Rau-o-te-Rangi's slave dreamed that the Waikato would succeed in killing her mistress; so the latter remained on her guard with the intention of leaving the island at the first opportunity.”

Vague rumours that a Waikato warparty was coming, caused Te Rau-o-te-Rangi to feel even less secure, and one day towards sunset, as the evening calm was enveloping Kapiti she descried some canoes approaching, and her worst fears were realized. Most of the tribe were on the mainland and could have no warning of the impending disaster as the canoes were approaching from the west with the intention of following the old Maori custom of attacking at dawn.

Te Rau-o-te-Rangi knew that they must be warned, but to take a canoe would be to invite detection and death. With the help of her slave, therefore, she decided to construct a tiny raft of dry raupo for her little daughter, Ripeka, and swim with it to the mainland.

As the first stars began to glimmer in the dimming sky she went down to the shore with her daughter and the slave. Here the two women solemnly said all the proper karakias (incantations) against sharks, sea-monsters or taniwhas that might be encountered. Then with Ripeka bound to her back this brave Maori woman set out to swim the strait.

At last, after a heroic swim of what Percy Smith considers at least six miles in the open sea, she landed at Te Uruhi, a short distance south of the Waikanae River, where a white man named Jenkins had his home. Here Te Rau-o-te-Rangi rested, after warning her relatives, until her husband, who was also a white man, returned from Cloudy Bay.

Hinemoa's swim across Lake Rotorua pales into insignificance beside this feat, and it seems a pity that more has not been made of Te Rau-o-te-Rangi's well-authenticated effort.

Incidentally, Te Rau-o-te-Rangi has another claim to fame as being one of the three women to sign the Treaty of Waitangi.

—“Jenny Ranald.”

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Few, excepting the older generation, who view with admiration the imposing structure of Wellington's railway terminal can cast their minds back to the time when the city vied with many of the larger continental centres in that it possessed three railway stations—Thorndon, Lambton and Te Aro.

Living in retirement at Miramar, Wellington, is Mr. John Hanning, who was S.M. at Te Aro 35 years ago. In Mr. Hanning's day Te Aro was a busy centre. Apart from its passenger traffic, it handled the bulk of the city's produce, which came through Te Aro consigned to the Courtenay Place markets. The station also exercised the present functions of the City Council's milk depot to the extent of receiving the city's supply prior to distribution, and it was an everyday sight to see one end of the platform covered with milkcans.

The station has been closed for many years, but on the site where it once stood, the foundations and portion on the platform can be seen.

Incidentally, Mr. Hanning's period of years in retirement must go close to creating a record in the railway service. While S.M. at Petone in 1921 he retired after 40 years' service, being now in his 18th year of retirement.

—T.F.R.

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