Austral English / A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia

by Edward Ellis Morris

1843. `An Ordinance for imposing a tax on Raupo Houses, Session II. No. xvii. of the former Legislative Council of New Zealand':

[From A. Domett's collection of Ordinances, 1850.]

"Section 2. . . . there shall be levied in respect of every building constructed wholly or in part of <i>raupo, nikau</i>, <i>toitoi, wiwi, kakaho</i>, straw or thatch of any description [ . . . L20]."

1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' c. i. p. 380:

"These [the walls], nine feet high and six inches thick, were composed of neatly packed bunches of raupo, or bulrushes, lined inside with the glazed reeds of the tohe-tohe, and outside with the wiwi or fine grass."

1860. R. Donaldson, `Bush Lays,' p. 5:

"Entangled in a foul morass,
A raupo swamp, one name we know."

1864. F. E. Maning (Pakeha Maori), `The War in the North,' p. 16:

"Before a war or any other important matter, the natives used to have recourse to divination by means of little miniature darts made of rushes or reeds, or often of the leaf of the cooper's flag (raupo)."

1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 308: