The inanga is—no bull—ft brown whitebait found in the dark-coloured waters of lake* and swampy creeks. These, I believe. form the principal food of shags, divers and other nsh-eating birds found on fresh water. The ducks, also, may eat them, but do not dive quickly enough to secure many. The Maoris wanted their ammunition at this time for larger game, and for years they had been saving it for the'foreseen, i" not intended, war. Birds of all kinds were, therefore, far more plentiful than now, and tamer. Still keeping the sand ridges close on our left we walked slowly on, so slowly, indeed, that I would gladly have in creased the pace, and began to form rather a mean idea of my companion's power* as a pedestrian. I did not know what was before mc. He did. We wound along through low fern, in and out, round any tall bunches of flax or toitoi, euch as grew on flats which lay at a lower level than most of the tract thereabouts, having* from an occasional rise, a view of the gently rising country which swept away inland, fertile plains, lying for miles to the right, and ending in the forest beyond. All is now in high cultivation, a metalled road inland, a railway, probably not far from where we then walked through a country as fresh and virgin as when it left its Maker's hands. How wonderful the changei how soon accomplished, the indomitable white man's victory, crowned with peace. We left, where Wairoa afterwards stood to our right rear, and still onward, on. ward, slowly, through the night and its light wreathing mists, neared the valley of the Tihoi, at a place called Wenuakura. 1 strike out the "h" in words where it seeine to mc the letter has no more busi ness than it has in Wanganui. The missionaries in the old days broke ground in the North, and there I believe the " h is really more sounded than it is here- They formed their opinions and made the Maori language, as far as putting th e sounds they heard into letters, acd the letters into words, from what they heard there, and there only. Then they said this is correct, all else is wrong. But there were men who knew as much as they, and these men said, in the South it is wrong. 