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34 unhonoured and unsung. But the rivers, as will be shown, claimed many victims, so many that drowning became known as the “national death.” Well and truly did Con O’Regan describe the dangers and the dauntless men who pioneered Old Westland as:

The Maoris unlike the early pioneers seldom attempted to ford a river alone, hence they suffered far less severely. They always travelled in parties, their method being to get a strong light pole long enough for all to get a good hold of, the heaviest and strongest men taking the upstream end, with more heavy men on the other extremity, the women and children being in between. They then all entered the water together, keeping end on to the current, and all heaving upstream, to keep the leader, who broke the force of the water, on his feet; in this manner very rapid rivers could be crossed in comparative safety.

Westland, too, was utterly devoid of natural harbours of any sort, there being a tremendous difference between it and the East Coast of the South Island. The latter, washed as it is by the