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38 whole countryside from the snowline almost to the sea was covered with heavy forest, and Maori tracks were few and far between.

Brunner and Heaphy, who were the first known white men to set foot within the Mawhera Pa (an isolated Maori settlement situated near the site of the town of Greymouth), were hospitably received by the natives, and after resting, proceeded south to the Taramakau River.

[Authorities differ with regard to the spelling of the word Taramakau. In The Times Atlas the name of this river is spelt Teremakau. Mr. Justice Chapman spelt it Taramakau. S. P. Smith, “History and Traditions of the Taranaki Coast,” p. 166, says: “Teremakau, not Taramakau.” Elsdon Best, “Pounamu or Greenstone,” Dominion Museum Bulletin, 4, pp. 156-196, says: “Taramakau, not Teremakau, as usually spelt.” Westland authorities, too, consider there are no “e’s” in Taramakau, an old-time draughtsman once remarking to the writer, that if there was any doubt about the spelling of the word, it was much stronger looking, and more in keeping with the characteristics of the river in question when spelt in the manner adopted throughout this work.]

Here dwelt the native greenstone-workers, skilled in the manufacture of those wonderful weapons and ornaments peculiar to the Maori race, and so laboriously fashioned from the