Preface.

Encouraged by the success which has attended the production of the booklet, entitled "Reminiscences of an Old Colonist," and in response to numerous requests, I have decided to publish a further short series of notes and comments that may prove interesting to the reader. The descriptions of Maori life, manners, and customs contained in these pages owe nothing to fiction; they are given exactly as they came under my own personal observation, and all the sketches given are true to life. Contact with European settlers has effected a marked and rapid change in the character and habits of the Maoris, who are now very unlike what they were when I first saw them. The main desire of the writer is to place on record a few more sketches of old Maori life in this district, before the remembrance of them has quite passed away, though I have by no means exhausted a most fascinating subject.