Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/293
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Notes.
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by a local personage in memory of four hundred thousand horses killed and wounded during the South African war, from 1899 to 1902, “in a cause of which they knew nothing.”—Daily Paper.
The Mountain Spirit (p. 96).—Aorangi (cloud-piercer) is the Maori name of Mount Cook, in the Southern Alps, the highest peak in New Zealand.—Kea: a native bird of the parrot family.
Onawe (p. 97).—Onawe is a small peninsula in Akaroa harbour, which was fortitied by the Maoris of Canterbury for their last stand against the terrible North Island chief, Te Rauparaha, early in the last century. The fortress, which appeared almost impregnable, was captured by a stratagem, and a fearful slaughter took place. Onawe had previously been held sacred as the home of the spirit (or atua) of the wind, who took his flight from the place, and prophesied the downfall of the Southern Maoris, in revenge for the sacrilegious discharge of a musket near his immemorial abode.—Pakeha: white man, stranger.—Haka: war-dance.—Rangitiras: chieftains.—Tenakoe: a word of greeting.
The Four Queens (p. 102).—Eden: Mount Eden, one of the chief suburbs of Auckland.
The River Avon (p. 104).— The Avon is the river on which Christchurch stands. It was really named after a Scottish stream by the Deans brothers, who settled near its banks about ten years before the arrival of the main body of Canterbury colonists.
The City from the Hills (p. 108).—Christchurch, which is also referred to in the following poem.
Te Raupo (p. 114).—The raupo, or New Zealand bulrush.—Kakino: treacherous.
To the Makomako (p. 120).—See note to “A Leave-taking.”
Ti-treee and the Kukupa (p. 122).—Kukupa: wood-pigeon.
The Coming of Te Rauparaha (p. 121).—Te Rauparaha, sometimes not unfitly called the Maori Napoleon, was the chief of the Ngatitoa tribe, in the southern part of the North Island. Arming his followers with muskets, he seized and