This was a frugal way of getting rid of them, as it saved rations, burial fees and all other expenses. True it may seem to you good people who live at home under the lee of the law and the police that our conduct was cruel and bloodthirsty in the extreme, but you must remember that every one of those one hundred and thirty Hau Haus who were disposed of in this summary manner had borne a hand in the massacre of women and children, and that in a way too awful to write about; moreover we were fighting without gloves; and that it was war to the knife. By the end of the second day the last of Rapata’s men had returned, and the last prisoner had gone over the precipice; but the arch-devil, Te Kooti, and some of his principal satellites, having escaped, were still at large. I will now relate a short yarn which illustrates a phase of Maori customs, and how the astute Rapata got to windward of a Maori law. One of the prisoners brought in was a man named Renata, who was a Ngatiporou Hau Hau of high birth, being not only closely related to Rapata himself but also connected to the highest chiefs of the tribe. Now this man Renata had been one of the original convicts sent to the Chatham Islands, but owing to his high connections he had, after a short detention there, been released and allowed to return home. He however showed but little gratitude for this indulgence, as he immediately joined Te Kooti on his landing. When his capture was reported to Rapata that gallant chief was somewhat nonplussed. Spare him he would not, and yet to order his immediate death might arouse the anger and draw the revenge of the great tribal chiefs against himself. Anyhow Renata had to be killed, so Rapata sent word to his men that he did not want to see the prisoner. This was his death warrant, as no sooner had the captors received the message than they placed Renata with a batch of men who were philosophically waiting the volley and the long drop. Renata, however, was a rangatera, and would not submit to being put to death in such an offhand fashion, so that when he was formed up in the line of the unfortunates at the top of the precipice, and the firing party were capping their guns, he rushed at his captors, knocked down one, broke through the rest and fled into some scrub, but his plucky attempt was a failure, as he was followed by two men, who ran him down and shot him.