The task of translation was necessarily a difficult one, it being essential that there should be a complete avoidance of all expressions of the English for which there was no equivalent in Maori, and yet permitting no alterations which would destroy the original spirit and tenor of the treaty. Upon its completion the work was revised by Mr. Busby, who suggested the elimination of the word _huihuinga_ used by the translators, and the substitution of _whakaminenga_ to more adequately express the idea of the Maori Confederation of Chiefs. With this exception the translation was adopted, and the excellence of its rendering may be judged from the fact that though it has been many times tried by the most accomplished of Maori scholars, the translation has never been shaken, and stands to-day a perfect native reflex of the European mind, conveying in all probability a clearer view to the Maori of what the treaty meant than the English version has done to the average _Pakeha_. The scene chosen for the conference with the chiefs was the lawn in front of Mr. Busby's house,[53] which stands upon a gently sloping promontory directly opposite the old town of Kororareka. A large and commodious building, with its French casements, cedar doors, and old-fashioned fittings, it looks out across the Bay from the seclusion of its plantation of imported trees. Down between the house and the sea beach there runs a grassy slope, at the termination of which rises a grove of the beautiful _Pohutukawa_, which had just shed their blaze of Christmas bloom when Captain Hobson arrived. To the right flow the tidal waters of the Waitangi River, whose falls four miles beyond its mouth have given their name to the district.[54] Upon the flat which fringes the river bank, the Maoris camped amongst the cabbage palms, and the smoke of their fires might have been seen curling upwards until it was lost in the mists of the morning air. Still farther to the right, and across the river, under the forest-clad hill, nestled the little Mission station of Paihia, where Mr. Colenso was industriously producing copies of the New Testament from his primitive printing-press. Away to the left, in Oihi Bay, stands the cross marking the spot where the first Christian sermon was preached to the Maoris by Samuel Marsden, on Christmas Day of 1814, and between these two points where they had first received the spoken and the written Word, the natives were now asked to decide a question that very largely involved their political salvation.