Chapter II
As has been shown the principal pas in Old Westland were those at the Arahura and Mawhera (Grey) Rivers. Of the latter, Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson, a pioneer surveyor of Westland, in “Reminiscences,” says: “There had been a good sized pa on the north side of the river where we were camped, but it had been destroyed and burnt by a war party from Kaikoura many years ago, and of the inhabitants many were killed. The greater number had escaped, however, but the pa had never since been occupied. So far as I could learn this was the last war party that had attacked the Mawhera Pa. The Kaikoura men destroyed all the canoes they could find, hoping to prevent the Coast men from following them. They took all the greenstone they could lay their hands on, retreated up the Grey River, and camped on the high ground near the junction of the Ahaura with the Mawhera, where I subsequently laid out the township of Ahaura. Thinking the Coast men would not be able to follow them quickly without canoes, they were unprepared and not expecting any attack.
