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Rh man had earned two hundred and fifty dollars in six weeks. From the fields, after scraping, in which many women join, the gum is taken to gum depots for sale. At these depots some of the gum is graded, as also to some extent on the fields; but the greater part of it is graded in Auckland, the chief gum-buying and exporting port of New Zealand.

Beyond the gum-fields, away north to New Zealand's land's end, is Te Reinga, "a low point jutting out into the sea, with a sandy beach below." At one time a pohutukawa tree stood there, and down one of its roots, say Maoris, spirits descended into the earth to Reinga's portals. Some Maoris, I learned by inquiry among them, still believe spirits enter the future world at this point.

The passage of spirits to Te Reinga is beautifully told in Judge Maning's translation of the Maori poem, "The Spirit Land." The lines describing the spirits' flight are as follows:—

"To the far North, with many a bend, along the rugged shore

That sad road leads, o'er rocks and weeds, whence none returneth more.

The weak, the strong, all pass along—the coward and the brave—

From that dread track none turneth back, none can escape the grave.

Passing now are the ghosts of the dead;

The winds are hushed, the rude waves hide their head;

And the fount flows silently,

And the breeze forgets to sigh,