Page:Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury 1915.pdf/13

 has done this morning?” On my father replying in the negative, she said, “Well, he has swallowed two sovereigns.” My father, turning to the invalid, said, “What did you do that for?” His response was:—“Well, Mr. Hay, I would have liked to have given them to my nurse, for she has been good to me, but if I had done that the other Maoris would have quarrelled and taken them from her. Now no one can touch them, and there will be no trouble after I die.” He passed away that night, and was buried on the beach about a mile from the West Head of the Bay.

Many of the natives who died during this epidemic were buried on the beach just above high water mark.

Looking back at this period it appears to me that, between children and adults, almost half of the Pigeon Bay Maoris were carried away. From this time onwards the sur­vivors were quiet and peacefully disposed, a marked change in their demeanour, which, previous to the epidemic, was often boastful and threatening.

This aggressive attitude was more manifest in 1843-4, at which time they gave my father a good deal of trouble by their claims,