river, the current tossing him about in all directions, and as he was carrying a very heavy swag he had but little chance of helping himself.
Fortunately Mackay had chosen a place further down the river to make his effort to cross, and seeing the danger that Rochfort was in, he grasped, when in mid-stream, a large rock with one hand and with the other was able to get a firm hold of his companion as he was being carried past. With the utmost difficulty and at great personal risk he managed to hold Rochfort’s head above water until the rest of the party came to his assistance.
In official records this incident, like many others of a similar nature, is not commented upon. Such happenings were all in the day’s work. Mackay, in a spirit of brotherhood almost beyond human understanding, was as a matter of course prepared to lay down his life for his friend, and he was no exception to the rule. The pioneers of Westland, in common with the pioneers of the whole of the Dominion, put service before personal safety, be the cost of that service what it may . . . . even life itself.
Proceeding, the parties kept together until they reached the Otira Stream, where Rochfort commenced his surveying operations, traversing the Taramakau to the Pakihi Plain, thence to
