Chapter 6: Patukirikiri

beach they managed to defeat and kill their enemy. From this incident, they selected their present tribal name which means 'killing with, or killing upon the stones' of the beach.

There is no doubt that their identity is fairly well established in Hauraki. The fact that they have retained an assertion is somewhat mystifying because of the paucity of their numbers, not only in the past but down to the present day. This is due in part to the intertribal fusion which could, on analysis, reveal a greater degree of association by descent. A tribal census returned in 1870 gives a figure of 35 members out of a sum total of over 2,000 for the whole of Hauraki which, like the 18 of Ngati Hako in the same census, is a woeful record of survival for that time.

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