1. Kaiapoi.

Contiguous to the township of Kaiapoi, and about 12 miles to the north of Christchurch, lies an extensive Native reserve, embracing 2,000 acres of rich agricultural land, and 640 acres of valuable forest. Long anterior to the colonization of this Province there existed almost within the precincts of this reserve a Maori pah, or fortification, known as Kaiapoi. About the year 1835, the notorious Te Rauparaha invaded this stronghold, subdued it, and reduced it to ashes. A few of the inmates fled to the neighbouring mountains, but the greater part were carried by him into captivity. On the return of the fugitives they located themselves near to their old habitation, and on the liberation of the captives some years subsequently they too repaired to this spot. Kaiapoi pah has never been rebuilt, but that name was attached to the new village, and is not infrequently applied to the more modern one of Rua Taniwha, in the immediate vicinity of the town.

Kaiapoi—considering alike its population and general prosperity—is unquestionably the most important of the Native settlements in this Province.

Its principal village, Rua Taniwha, commences on the outskirts of the town of Kaiapoi, and extends about a mile along the eastern bank of the Korotuaheka stream. Many of the houses are of European construction, and have a neat appearance. It is pleasing, also, to observe that instead of being huddled together, as is too frequently the case, they stand apart, each having an allotment of ground for industrial purposes—varying in extent from one to three acres—enclosed with a substantial "post and rail" fence, and fronted by a main street. The present church is a small Maori edifice, but an endowment of two acres of land, as a site for a new one, has already been made. The cultivations are exclusively wheat and occupy about twelve acres. About a mile beyond, and situated on the margin page 127of the forest, is the more primitive village of Kaiapoi proper. It contains now but few houses, and these are of an inferior class to the former. The cultivations, however, are in good order, and comprise about sixteen acres, in the proportion of fourteen of wheat to two of potatoes.

Twenty acres of good land, in the neighbourhood of this village, have been conveyed by the Natives to the Commissioners of Native reserves, as an endowment for a school; and they are now engaged in sawing timber for the erection of the necessary buildings.

Aggregate population, 125.