This basket-like pot would have been used to catch eel in rivers and streams. It would have been laid on its side with the narrow entrance – called the akura - facing downstream. Inside would have been a small pot called a puu toke filled with worms or even a bird. This was the bait. Eels would smell the bait and swim upstream to find it. Once in the hiinaki, it couldn’t swim out because the wide end of the hiinaki curves back into the basket.   Eels were a valued food source. Rahui Papa (Ngaati Koroki Kahukura) talks of te hopu tuna – eeling at Lake Te Koo Utu in Cambridge.   The eel could be cooked over a fire or hung out to dry to preserve them for months.

The printing press, made in the USA by Kelsey & Co. was found in a gully in Te Miro near Cambridge in 1958.  It is thought to have been used to print leaflets at the Kauhanganui (Kiingitanga parliament).  King Taawhiao established the Kauhanganui in 1890.  A newspaper called “Te Paki o Matariki” was also published a Te Kauhanganui from 1891 to 1902.  Very few copies of the papers now remain.

Maungakawa, looking down over the Te Waikato Sanatorium and shelters. Price, William Archer, 1866-1948 :Collection of post card negatives. Ref: 1/2-000142-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22395109