all the houses in the old pa. It was a very great fire. The flames rose up high; the people cried when they saw them, but I did not. I was very happy to burn all the bad ways. I told them not to make little houses in their old way, but like English, with two rooms and a chimney, and only one family to live in one house. Then I built my house. I made four rooms, two down stairs and two up stairs. It was made English way. All the English liked my house, but I do not like to talk about it lest it should seem proud. Then all the people made their houses English way. It was the first time a Maori town had been built English way.

I thought, 'What church is finished, What shall I do?'

"Then I began to think again. shall I do? The town is finished, the the houses of the people are finished. I thought, 'I will go and buy a cow.' We had no cows then. It took a great deal of money to buy a cow at that time. I sold some land to the English, and my friends lent me some money the English had given them for making the road. Then I went to Wellington to buy a cow. When my people saw my cow they laughed. They said I was proud, taking the English ways. I said, 'Never mind, you will see.' By and by the cow had a calf. Then I thought very much. I said, 'What shall I do? I do not know how to make milk or butter, but I will try.' So I got some flax and made a strong rope, and I caught hold of the cow, and tied it round her horns, and tied her very tight to a tree. My people feared the cow very much; they all ran away. I milked the cow; I milked her every day, for there was no one else who could do it there. Then I thought,' How shall I make butter?' There were no English to teach me, and I did not know how. I thought very much. I had read in a newspaper that one way to make butter was to tie the milk up in calico, and put it in the ground; but I feared to do that lest it should get dirty. Then I thought of a bottle. I found one, and I put the milk into it; I shook, shook very long, till I was tired. Then I gave it to my wife. She shook, then she grew tired, then I shook again, a long time. The afternoon came, and the sun began to go down, but the butter did not come.

Then I was very sorry. I thought, This cannot be the right way, it is so long. But then, at last, the butter came, and we all laughed and were very happy. Then Ruta (Ruth, his wife) put it in water, and made it all right. "Then I went to Wellington and sold my pigs for 51. With the money I bought plates, knives, cups, saucers, sugar, and tea. My servant helped to pack up the things, and we brought them to Otaki. Then I made a feast: I got a large pot, very large, with no top; I put the tea, and sugar, and milk in it, all together. I had only a few cups and saucers, so I put a cup to two men, and a saucer to two men. Then I got plenty of food. I had a little mill; we ground some flour, and made bread. We had no oven then, but baked it in the ashes. We got, too, pork, and fowls, and geese. After all was ready, when prayers in the church were finished in the evening, I spoke to the chiefs, and the friends who had said I was proud-about twenty of them, or more. I told them to come to my house to a meeting, for I had a new talk to tell them. I did not tell them about the feast. I went to the door of my house to see the people come in those who had blankets on I stopped, those who had coats and trousers I let come in. Then the men in blankets were very sorry. They said, 'We are poor, we have no coats.' I said, 'I will not let people come to my house in blankets; but if you will tell me you will throw away your blankets and wear English clothes, then I will let you come this time.' They said they would do so; so I let them come in, and they promised they would go to Wellington and sell pigs to buy coats and trousers. I was not angry with them when I did not let them come in. I loved them, only I wished them to be like English. When the people saw the feast, they all said, 'Oh!' and they held up their hands. I am sorry I cannot make a picture of my people when they first saw it, as they stood all surprised, with their mouths and their eyes wide open. Then they ate and drank, and were very happy. They could not cut with the knives; they took the food in their hands, and dipped their cups in the great pot, and drank them all off at one time. And they did not spread the butter on the bread;

they scraped it up in large lumps, and eat it; and they said, Ah! English food is very good. You are clever; we will follow you.' I said, 'Now you have finished the food for the body, I will tell you the other food for the heart, that I wanted you to come here for. God has taught me this way, that we should all come together in it. I am glad you have come English way in making your town, your houses, and thrown away your bad ways. First of all, as we said when our minister baptized us, we threw away the bad works, and believed in God; then we threw away our bad houses, which before had been dark, like our hearts had been. Now I want you to go on, to throw away the bad food and bad customs. Have plates, knives, and forks. Go on, go on. Now, my dear friends, how do you like English food? I see how fast your hands have carried it to your mouth, and I think you like it very much. All held up their hands and said, 'Yes, yes; your words are true.' I said, Very well; all right. Now, I want to talk one word more to you. We have finished the house of God, we have finished the houses for our bodies, and now it is right that we should take care of the food for our bodies. I should like you to make a water-mill to grind our corn —not a little mill for the hand, but a large one, fit to be the brother to the town.' They said, 'Ah! we cannot do that where is the money?" I said, 'You will sell flax, and corn, and pigs, to the English, and get money: with some, buy clothes and things for yourselves, and give some to the mill. Go, too, and work on the English road, and their farms, and earn money for the mill. All held up their hands and shouted, and said, 'Very true.' We did so; Ruta made butter, and I worked in my farm and sold my corn, and we gave 307.; Martyn and his family 1007.; and all gave some. In two years and a half we had collected 300%. Then soon we got another, for which we paid 2007., and also one at Porirua for 150l. I worked with my hands at the ground to get some money. Then all the people went the right way. Then I thought again, and my heart said it would be a good way to have a baker, a butcher, and a store for clothes, in our town. After a time, that too was done. Then I

said to my father, 'Now you have come on shore again, let us go on with the large church, the largest in. New Zealand, which you began before, larger than the one at Waikanae.' My father said, 'O yes!' and he spoke to the people, that they should cut wood. I had then given up the power to my father, and when he went wrong I showed him the right way. Then we all went into the bush to cut wood,-the totara wood for the church. The totara is the strongest wood in New Zealand, and very beautiful too. When we had cut the wood, then we began to build: we were two years and a half in building it. The next object which Tamahana thought of, was a college, in which the most promising of the natives might be trained as catechists and schoolmasters, so that the people might be well instructed, and Christianity take root among them. It was the hope of accomplishing this, which brought him to England."

DEATH FROM THE BITE OF A COBRA DI CAPELLA.

WE insert a portion of the evidence given at a coroner's inquest, explaining the manner in which an unhappy man, in consequence of intoxication, allowed himself to be destroyed by the bite of the most venomous serpent known, kept at the London Zoological Gardens. The collection which is kept there of almost all the rare animals known in the whole world, is one of the wonders, and most instructive sights in London; and may be preserved without any danger to the keepers, if they can only obey their instructions, and avoid imprudence. But when a man gives up his senses to the influence of intoxicating drink, he gives up that natural power which God has given him over the brute creation by his possession of reason. He is then unable to keep himself in the position of superiority to them which he otherwise occupies, and becomes liable to commit such acts of hardihood and folly as may cause his death. Knowing the nature of the snake called Cobra di Capella, and aware of its being the most venomous of all the serpent race, we can only marvel at the insane rashness of the man who could, when he fully knew it, place the animal in

his bosom, and hold it up before his face until it flew at it, and inflicted a mortal wound. But the state a person reduces himself to by intoxication, makes no kind of folly impossible or unlikely; and this poor man is only a new instance of the various forms of death to which that wretched passion and weakness can lead its victims. We begin with this question of the coroner about Gurling's habits, because the answer shows that he was one of those who only "break out at times," and many think there is little guilt or danger in such occasional indulgence.

"The Coroner-Was he a sober man?

"Witness (his wife)-Yes. He used to break out at times, but not while he was at his work. He went to it at six in the morning and returned at six in the evening. When he was intoxicated she had kept him at home in the morning until he was fit to go. He had never been suspended from his work, and had been in his situation. for a year.

"Edward Stewart, one of the attendants, said that he helped Gurling in the mornings, and had been with him. on the evening preceding his death; he was also present when the fatal accident took place, and was going out of the room, a little after eight o'clock, when the deceased, who was in an excited state, walked inside of the railing which fenced off the compartments in which the serpents are confined, and, lifting up the glass front, took out a Morocco snake by the middle. Another man entered the room at the time, and witness, turning round to Gurling, said, 'For God's sake put it back again!' He laughed at witness. He then laid the snake round the shoulder of witness, who stooped down, and said, 'It will bite me in a minute;' after which he put it back. Witness then walked down the room, going on with his work, when the deceased, who was close beside him inside the railing, exclaimed, 'Now for the cobra!' Witness called out, What are you about?' but he had the cobra out before he could prevent him, and put it under his waistIt coiled round his waist and came out behind. When taking hold of it, about a foot from the head with one hand, and with the other lower down, he held it up

coat.