Burke Manuscript

Burke Manuscript: Page 230

Transcript

I remember in the middle fifties being in the old Church, Māori Bush at Woodend. It was a Sunday, I was amusing myself watching the gambols of a lot of pretty little mothers and little ones, chasing the flies and insects in and out of the Tea tree on the banks of the little stream, that ran through. All at once, I felt a sensation, the bushes moved and tossed, although there was not a breath of wind, then the tall white pines began to sway their graceful tops backwards and forwards, as if a furious wind was blowing. I realised it. An earthquake. My chums were asleep in a whare and I shook them up. The slab rafters were moving merrily. The shock was severe and probably the wet Swampy nature of the country, had something to do with it.

The Māoris about there, then were a merry people, but shrewd. It was amazing to see their quarrelling over one tree, on a boundary line. Of course trees were becoming valuable.