Ngā Rauropi Whakaoranga

p.21 Taranaki territory always celebrated for the immense quantities of native flax...which in former times covered the surface, and also for possessing the finest varieties of that plant.

Taranaki famed all over New Zealand for the quality of the flax mats made there and for the obtaining of which more than one warlike expedition has been made in old times by northern tribes.

p.4 Reference to tainui grove at Mokau. "..originally confined to a few small clumps between Mokau and Mohaka-tino and also at Kawhia... It is suggested that the original spot on which the shrub was found growing was at Kawhia, and that when the canoe came on to Mokau some of the branches were placed in it for whariki. In after times it came to be believed that the shrub was brought from Hawaiki. Grows readily from cuttings".

p.123 Ati-Awa people (New Plymouth) had a custom connected with belief in source of fish being in Hawaiki. The first fish caught, called ika-whakatahi, had a piece of green flax threaded through its nose and then it was returned to water, its function was to draw other fish from Hawaiki.

p.177 reference to kūmara of Tonga - a place near Turangi, celebrated for the excellence of the kūmara formerly grown there in great profusion because of mana of god Rongo. Stone representation now [?] in Nelson Museum.

History of West Coast, North Island, pre 1840.