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Chapter vii.
The Wairau.

While the acting Governor and Mr. Spain were striving to settle the burning question of Maori titles, Lord Stanley was issuing instructions to the new Governor, Captain Robert Fitzroy, R.N. Captain Fitzroy had not left England when the perversity of the company's agents precipitated the strife which Spain and Hobson had laboured to avert. The darling object of the company's agents was to provoke the Maori into contest with the Queen's authority. For this, Wicksteed at Taranaki, and Wakefield at Wellington, had applied for a summons or warrant. For this, knowing that the proud spirit of Rangihaeata would not submit to fetters or imprisonment, application had been made to Chief Justice Martin for a bench-warrant. Face to face, per fas aut nefas, the races must be brought, and in the struggle the company's defective titles might be made good. Spain's antiquated notions about justice must be frustrated, if need be, by violence.

It will be remembered that after Rauparaha and Rangihaeata besought Spain to cross with them from Porirua to settle the Wairau question, he promised to go thither after holding his Court at Wellington in June, 1843. They said to Spain, “Be quick, be quick.”They knew that in spite of their refusal at Nelson, in March, 1843,¹ to accept payment for their Wairau lands, or to sanction the survey of them, Captain Wakefield in the following month kept surveyors there; and they warned Clarke, the Protector, that they would prohibit the survey of the

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land.¹ They had told Captain Wakefield, and repeated to Clarke, that in order to obtain forcible possession he must first take their lives or make them slaves. Spain thought he had persuaded them not to interrupt the surveyors, but to await his arrival. But with the Maoris at Cloudy Bay, Spain had no communication.² In April they pulled up the surveyors' rangingrods and destroyed a saw-pit. The surveyors persevered, and on the 6th May, the Maoris destroyed some of their huts. They allowed Mr. Cotterell's to stand because he promised to leave it for them.

Mr. Tuckett, the principal surveyor at Nelson, went thence on the 27th May, to aid his three subordinates; but before his arrival Rauparaha and Rangihaeata had made their appearance. The chiefs arrived on the 1st June, and when Tuckett followed, on the 3rd, he found that they had destroyed Mr. Cotterell's hut, and had removed his effects without injuring them. Rauparaha declared that as the hut was built of materials taken from his land, he had a right to destroy it. He made his followers assist in carrying the surveyors' property to the boats. Cotterell, with a letter to Captain Wakefield, went to Nelson, and on the 12th June laid an information against Rauparaha and Rangihaeata for burning his hut. Mr. H. A. Thompson, the police magistrate, Protector of aborigines, and Government representative at Nelson, issued a warrant to apprehend the chiefs, on a charge of arson. Captain Wakefield, with equal unwisdom, wrote boastfully to his brother on the 13th: “The magistrates have granted a warrant, and Thompson, accompanied by myself, England, and a lot of constables are off immediately in the Government brig to execute it. We shall muster about sixty, so I think we shall overcome these travelling bullies.”

On the way to Cloudy Bay, Mr. Thompson met Mr. Tuckett, the surveyor, in a boat, with about ten men. Despairing of success in continuing his survey, Mr. Tuckett was returning to Nelson. He turned back with the armed party in the brig, which anchored in Cloudy Bay on the 15th June. On board the brig was Captain J. H. Wilson, E.I.C.S., who had taken

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his passage to Auckland before the vessel was diverted to Cloudy Bay, to carry the executors of the warrant. Captain Wilson told a Committee of the House of Commons (1844) that he differed from Captain Wakefield as to the probability that the chiefs would surrender. Wakefield told Wilson that Rangihaeata “was only a bully, that there was nothing in him;”and at various times argued so as to prove that in his opinion the chiefs would not resist. Wilson was equally confident that they would, and declined to land with the magistrate. The landing party numbered forty-nine in number. Thirty-five were armed. On the 16th they went in search of Rauparaha. Meeting a chief named Puaha (a nephew of Rauparaha), they persuaded him to accompany them. He warned them “not to be rough with Rauparaha and Rangihaeata.”Some of the armed men spoke insultingly to Puaha, and were rebuked by their leaders. Puaha succeeded in sliding away unperceived, and went himself to Rauparaha. Rauparaha had seen the brig, and imagined that Spain had arrived to hold his Court. Warned by Puaha¹ of the real nature of the expedition, he told his people to remain quiet until they saw him being dragged away, and then to rescue him.

On the 17th the magistrates found Rauparaha encamped by

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a stream in which was his canoe. Captain Wakefield crossed in the canoe with Thompson and others. It is strange, but true, that the usual salutations were exchanged. Mr. Thompson asked for Rauparaha, who rose and said, “Here am I; what do you want with me?”He held out his hand, but Thompson pushed it away. Tuckett and Cotterell accepted it, and shook hands also with other natives. Thompson, by his interpreter, told Rauparaha that he had brought a warrant to apprehend him and Rangihaeata for destroying the hut. He had not come (he said) about the land. Rauparaha answered that he had destroyed no European possessions. The hut was made from his own property; the materials were obtained from his land, and he had a right to do what he liked with his own. He would wait, till Spain arrived, about the land; but would not be manacled like a slave. “I will not go; I will stay where I am.”Thompson produced the warrant, calling it “the Queen's book.”Puaha interposed and urged both sides to be peaceful. Thompson pushed him aside and declared that he had brought an armed force and would use it. He asked for Rangihaeata, who angrily sprung up, saying, “I am on my own settlement. I do not go to England to interfere with you.”Rauparaha told Rangihaeata to leave him to settle the matter. Thompson again urged Rauparaha to submit, but received again the same cool answer. Thompson threatened to fire. Rauparaha told him not to “be so thoughtless.”Handcuffs were produced. Rauparaha put his hand under his garment and repeated his warnings. Thompson called on his men to fix bayonets and come forward to arrest the chiefs. Captain England advanced. Wakefield cried out, “Englishmen, forward.”A shot was fired from the European side;¹ a Maori fell. Te Ronga, the daughter of Rauparaha and wife of Rangihaeata, being close to her husband, was shot. Rauparaha's voice was heard in the confusion. “Hei koni te marama. Hei koni te ra. Haere mai te

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po.”—“Farewell the light. Farewell the day. Welcome the darkness of death.”Volleys were fired before the English had fairly crossed the stream. They were broken. Some fled. Wakefield and Thompson rallied them in vain. The Maoris pursued, and resistance being hopeless, a white handkerchief was waved in token of submission, Rauparaha called out “Enough,”but Rangihaeata shouted, “Give no quarter; they have killed your daughter, Te Ronga.”The young men slew all who could not escape by flight or concealment in the woods. It was said that Rangihaeata struck down Wakefield and the other gentlemen.

Mr. Whiteley, a Wesleyan missionary at Taranaki, wrote: “By Rangihaeata's own law he was required to do this, and it was a matter of honour that he should thus revel in revenge (for his wife's death), and cease not till he had made a full end. Rauparaha could not interfere, because he too was injured.”In his scorn of the Maori and his laws, Captain Wakefield had plunged with a light heart into an affray which aroused not only the passions but the superstition of the race. With Wakefield fell Thompson the magistrate; Mr. Richardson, the Crown Prosecutor at Nelson (also editor of a newspaper at Nelson); Cotterell the surveyor; an interpreter, and others. Nineteen bodies were found. Four Maoris were killed. Mr. Tuckett, the surveyor, was one who escaped. By means of a whale-boat he returned to the brig, crossed the Straits, and on the following day told the harrowing tale to a special meeting of magistrates at Wellington; not knowing the fate of those who had been captured. The excitement and indignation of the European community were intense. It was stunned, but not intimidated. The martial spirits wished to organize a band of volunteers and pursue Rauparaha to the death. Wiser men knew that if a national feud should then arise the whole of the Europeans could be swept from the earth in a few days. Just men knew that the cause of quarrel was unjust. The police magistrate, McDonough, was in the chair. Spain the Commissioner was present, with eleven other magistrates. It was determined that the police magistrate, Spain, Colonel Wakefield, Dr. Evans, Mr. Clifford, and others should proceed to the Wairau and endeavour to obtain the release of any

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prisoners. The massacre of the captives was then unknown. After delay from adverse winds the fatal spot was reached. Spain had stipulated with Colonel Wakefield that the survey should not be resumed until the question was settled. The horror of his brother's death perhaps made the resolute man submit to terms which he might otherwise have resisted. At Cloudy Bay Spain and his companions took down evidence as to the massacre from those who had escaped, and from a missionary, Mr. Ironside. At Wellington, meantime, McDonough published notices enjoining peacefulness on both sides. Rauparaha after the affray had buried the four Maori dead, crossed the Straits, and retired to Otaki. A Wesleyan missionary, Mr. Ironside, who met him on the 20th, asked if he might bury the Europeans. Rauparaha consented. The bodies, mangled by tomahawk, but not for cannibalism, were found, and the Wesleyan minister read over their graves the burial service of The Church of England. Under the head of Captain Wakefield Mr. Ironside found a piece of bread, placed there as an insult to the Pakeha chief. By Maori usage nothing common should be put near a chief's head, and bread was common. Mr. Ironside found and buried nineteen bodies.

The inquiry by the magistrates revealed the facts. On the 29th June, the magistrates met again at McDonough's house. Colonel Wakefield was not present. Dr. Evans related the tale of the Wairau fight and massacre; and on his motion, seconded by the Hon. J. Petre, it was resolved, “that Mr. Spain, the Commissioner of Land Claims, be requested to go in his capacity as one of the magistrates to communicate to the native chiefs and tribes in Cook's Straits their determination, which is not to make or to sanction any attempt to take vengeance for the death of the white men at Wairau, but to leave the whole matter to the decision of the Queen's Government, who will inquire into it and decide according to law.”

Dr. Evans was a prominent person in the New Zealand Company. He had been intended to act as their jurist, until it was discovered that without the aid of the Crown they could set up no jurisdiction. He had gone to Sydney to negotiate with Sir George Gipps about their lands; and he was now deputed by the magistrates to go to Auckland to represent the facts connected

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with “the late lamentable catastrophe at Wairau, Cloudy Bay.”From Nelson, Dr. Monro and Mr. Alfred Domett were sent thither on the same errand.

Acting Governor Shortland issued a proclamation (12th July), warning all claimants to land whose claims were disputed by natives, against “exercising acts of ownership thereon, or other wise prejudicing the question of title to the same, until the question of ownership shall have been heard and determined by one of Her Majesty's Commissioners.”He authorized also the issue, in the Native Government Gazette, of a narrative, deploring the conflict, declaring the subsequent slaughter very bad in the estimation of Europeans, and announcing that lands not sold by the natives would not be taken from them. He appointed Major Richmond of the 96th Regiment, chief magistrate of the southern districts, and sent a small body of the regiment from Auckland to Wellington. Shortland told Lord Stanley that the rash step taken by Thompson and his companions in going to apprehend Rauparaha, was in his opinion “not only illegal, but in the highest degree unjustifiable,”the question of ownership being unsettled, and about to be considered by the Commissioner. The effects of the catastrophe he “feared to calculate.”To coerce the natives was impossible without “an overpowering regular force.”The natives would universally resist infringement of their landed rights, and of the treaty regarding them, and they were superior in arms to undisciplined Englishmen. He concurred with all others in lauding Captain Wakefield. Nothing but ignorance of the land question and of the native character could have led him into the false step which Thompson and Richardson, usually excellent officers, had joined in taking. As to arresting Rauparaha it was out of the question. His countrymen would, to a man, side with him, believing that he had only defended his honour and his life. The indignant chieftain had carried off with him the handcuffs intended for himself, to show the natives the indignity prepared for them.

From Spain, and from Swainson, Shortland received opinions concurring with his own as to the ill-advised endeavour to arrest Rauparaha. Swainson not only declared that the natives could not lawfully be harassed, but that the proceedings of Mr.

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Thompson having been illegal, the European survivors had in strictness incurred the legal guilt of a capital offence. Spain reported that “independent of the depositions, which are very strong upon the point, all the information I have obtained goes to show that in the commencement the natives exhibited the greatest possible forbearance, and evinced the utmost repugnance to fight with the Europeans, requesting that the matter might be referred to me for decision.”

At a later date, after careful inquiry into the whole matter, Spain summed it up thus (23rd September, 1843): “Not long before the collision at the Wairau, Rauparaha and Rangihaeata went to Nelson, when Captain Wakefield, the company's resident agent, wished to make them a payment for the Wairau, but they positively refused to sell it, and told him that they would never part from it… The Wairau is situate seventy miles from Nelson (where the agreement in England permitted the company to select land), and the company had never informed me, nor I believe the Government, of its intention to take a block there. The survey was commenced only two months before the affray took place, the agent to the company being well aware that the natives had always disputed the sale of the district. I have given the whole subject my best and most attentive consideration, and I have arrived at the conclusion that the conduct of the company's agents, in forcing a survey of the Wairau, can only be regarded as an attempt to set British law at defiance and to obtain possession of a tract of land the title to which was disputed, and at the very time under the consideration of a Commissioner specially appointed to report upon it.”At a still later date Spain added that “no evidence of the purchase has been adduced by the company's agent;”that there was no proof “in any way that the district was ever alienated to the company by the parties from whom that body asserts, through its agent, that it has been purchased; and I entertain no apprehension that a candid and impartial perusal of the evidence will ever lead to any other conclusion.”

Such was the quarrel in which Colonel Wakefield measured swords with “the old savage”whose land he hoped to acquire, and to whose reign “to put an end.”In spite of Hobson and

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Shortland, and of Lord Stanley, the honour of England had been stained in a cause which would not bear the light of day. An honourable ally, a high-spirited race, were roughly estranged by a land-trafficker ready to “bite the holy cords atwain which were too intrinse to unloose.”An Iliad of woe was entailed upon the Maoris; and a sense of shame upon English soldiers who, while gallantly carrying their country's flag, felt that it ought never to have waved in such a quarrel. Lord Stanley had to determine without the help of Spain's later opinions. He had before him the various contemporary accounts of the occurrence. He had seen the fiery zeal with which the extreme section of the settlers demanded military reinforcements and savage revenge upon Rauparaha. Without entering on the unsettled claim to the land, he was compelled to decide that the expedition to arrest Rauparaha was manifestly unlawful, unjust, and unwise. No law forbade the chief to destroy the hut erected on the land. No responsibility could fall upon the natives who did but exercise the rights of self-defence, after urging with temper and strong reasons their objection to yield as prisoners of war. Even as to the revolting slaughter of the captives, there was the apology that the savage antagonists were “kindled by the violent death of a wife and daughter protecting her husband's person at the sacrifice of her own.”As to Swainson's repeated arguments that the Queen's sovereignty over the islands was disputable, they had been condemned by Lord Stanley before, and must “henceforward be silenced.”Implicit acquiescence in the doctrine laid down by Parliament was “an indispensable condition of tenure of any public office in the colony.”Fitzroy was to endeavour by “conciliation, sincerity, and firmness,”to repair the error committed at Cloudy Bay.

When Rauparaha left the scene of the massacre, he must have felt that whatever hatred had actuated the company's servants before, would be intensified by his slaughter of Captain Wake-field and his friends. He hastily crossed the stormy strait to rejoin the main body of his countrymen, and weary and wet with the spray which swept continually over himself and his few followers arrived at Waikanae. The cultured Hadfield has assured me that never did he see such marvellous effects of oratory and of action. The Ngatiawa and others, assembled to

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hear him, seemed unsympathizing, and the old man spoke or affected to speak with difficulty, coughing frequently as though from suffering or infirmity.

But his narrative enchained them; and when, holding up his hands as if manacled in view of all, he said : “Why should they seek to fetter me ? I am old and weak; I must soon pass away. What could they gain by enslaving me ?—by fastening irons on these poor old hands ? No; that is not what they seek. It is because through my person they hope to dishonour you. If they can enslave me they think they degrade the whole Maori race.”

The demeanour of his hearers changed. They seemed to thirst for war. One of Hadfield's Maori assistants ran to entreat him to interrupt the meeting by summoning the people to prayers; otherwise Rauparaha's eloquence would carry them away to wreak his will. There was already danger, and the advice was adopted. The bell which summoned to Divine Service silenced for that night the tocsin of war.

On the following morning Rauparaha addressed his own people, the Ngatitoa, at Otaki, and Hadfield could hardly believe his eyes. Not bowed down, nor shrinking from the cold; not appealing for pity or sympathy; but erect and imperious, nay, jubilant and confident, he called upon his countrymen to avenge the insult cast upon them. “Now is the time to strike. You see now what the glozing pretences of the Pakeha are worth; you know now what they mean in their hearts; you know now that you can expect nothing but tyranny and injustice at their hands. Come forward and sweep them from the land which they have striven to bedew with our blood.”

The Ngatitoa required little instigation, and would, with their allies, have marched direct upon Wellington but for the restraining influences of Hadfield and the authority of Te Rangitake. The biographer of Bishop Selwyn believed that, humanly speaking, Hadfield prevented the extension of war and massacre. Hadfield, better informed, attributed the result to his friend, Te Rangitake. Long years afterwards (1860) he stated at the bar of the New Zealand House of Representatives that Wiremu Kingi te Rangitake was mainly instrumental in preventing a combined attack upon Wellington. “He rejected

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the proposal of Rauparaha and Rangihaeata to join them in it, and exercised the whole of his influence to prevent any of his tribe from doing so.”During Hadfield's absence for a few days they renewed their persuasions, but Te Rangitake “again positively declined to take any part in such a proceeding.”

How the colonists returned evil for good the treatment which the chief received at the Waitara in 1859 will show. Their debt to him may be inferred from the following paragraph in a petition sent, after the Wairau massacre, to Parliament by the inhabitants of Wellington, in which (signed by the mayor and seven hundred persons) it was averred: “That it is in the power of the aborigines at any time to massacre the whole of the British population in Cook's Straits, and that Rauparaha has been known to declare that he will do it.”

Mr. Spain hastily sought Rauparaha when requested (29th June) by the magistrate to do so. It was feared that, apprehensive of retaliation, the Maoris would attack Wellington before succour could be obtained. Riding over bad roads, through tangled forests, Spain found Rauparaha at Waikanae. “Rauparaha,”he said, “is the most talented native I have seen in New Zealand. He is mild and gentlemanly in his manner and address; a most powerful speaker, and his argumentative faculties are of a first-rate order.”For better security all the Cloudy Bay Maoris had withdrawn with Rauparaha to the Northern Island.

The tribe assembled at a “korero,”to hear Spain, who spoke through an interpreter. The Maoris were wrong if they supposed that Englishmen would slay indiscriminately in retaliation. The Governor only could decide whether any of those engaged at the Wairau should be punished. Meantime there would be no aggression against the Maoris. The principal chief said: “Your words are very good, but who can tell what will be the words of the Governor?”Spain replied: “Have you not known me long, and have I ever deceived you?”This was accepted with favour by the tribe, and the chief agreed that the Europeans should not be molested by his people. Rauparaha had crept into the assembly and sat behind the chiefs. When they had concluded conference he rose and “made a most powerful speech.”He narrated all that occurred

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at Wairau, and “asked with energy, ‘Is this the justice the Queen of England promised to the Maoris? You are not satisfied with having taken all our land from us, but you send a Queen's ship, headed by a Queen's officer, to fire upon us and kill us.’”

Spain explained that a warrant to apprehend did not imply a foregone conclusion as to guilt. Had Rauparaha surrendered he might have given bail till the day of trial, and neither the Governor nor the Queen knew of the issue of the warrant. The slaughter of the captives had excited horror. For this Rauparaha was “very sorry,”and attributed it to Rangihaeata's passion at the death of his wife.

“After this he cross-examined me with as much acumen as if I had undergone that ordeal in Westminster Hall by any member of the English bar.”Was not the object to quiet them, to gain time, to assemble troops, and then attack them? Spain shaped his answers cautiously, aiming at peace. Rauparaha replied: “I hope you will at all events act as a gentleman.”Spain trusted he had always done so. “What special meaning was in Rauparaha's mind?”“Why, if the Governor should decide upon sending soldiers to take me and Rangihaeata, will you send and let us know when they arrive? because you need not take the trouble to send up here for us. If you will only send I will come down to Port Nicholson with a thousand Maoris and fight with the Pakehas. If they beat us they shall have New Zealand and we will be their slaves, but if we beat them they must stand clear.”

Spain proceeded to Otaki and there were more meetings. The chiefs then announced that if any attempt should be made to seize Rauparaha and Rangihaeata they would join them in fighting the English. Had the Maoris been wrong in the beginning they would not have interfered; but the white people had been unjust. The chiefs had received Rauparaha and Rangihaeata as friends, and would defend them to the last. Spain pledged himself on the part of the English that they would not attack the Maoris without further provocation, and returned to Wellington in peace.

Mr. E. J. Wakefield informs us that he received a message from Rauparaha asking whether there was to be peace or war, and inviting him to a korero at Otaki.

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After Spain's retirement, Mr. E. J. Wakefield passed through the district, and saw Rauparaha. It was natural that the nephew should refuse the hand which seemed to him red with the blood of his uncle. Rauparaha “acknowledged the propriety”of the refusal, and said, “It is good.”He proceeded to harangue Wakefield upon the Wairau affray, but when Wakefield rose in umbrage to depart, it was promised that the subject should not be mentioned. Other matters were debated. Then it was that Wakefield was struck with unbounded admiration of the imperious eloquence of Rauparaha when he rebuked E Ahu, and told the Ngatiraukawa that they might abandon him, but that he, Rauparaha, would fight the soldiers alone, while all the conscious Maoris seemed to swell with dignity as followers of such an “Ariki,”or chief. At a crisis in which no man knew whether the revengeful spirit of the Maori would incite them to rise as one man against the encroaching Pakeha, it was natural the spirit of Englishmen should prompt them to unite to protect their lives. They gathered together to be drilled to arms at Wellington.

Shortland having despatched a company of the 96th regiment from Auckland to Wellington, Major Richmond issued a Proclamation (after friendly conference with the head of the armed associations) intimating that such associations were unlawful and would be dispersed. The settlers were hurt at words in the Proclamation which implied that their previous assemblies had been unlawful, and Mr. R. D. Hanson, Crown Prosecutor, published a letter declaring, in justice to Major Richmond, that the expression was Hanson's and was used inadvertently.

At Auckland, Messrs. Monro and Domett had long conference and correspondence with Shortland, who had his Attorney-General at his side, and was fortified by recent despatches from England. Monro and Domett admitted that the first shot had been fired by the English, but said it was accidental. They contended that the claim of the company to land at Wairau had “not yet been proved to be invalid,”that the unfortunate magistrate, Thompson, thought he was executing his duty, and that he had in conversation with one of themselves declared that the former refusal of a warrant to apprehend Rangihaeata was injurious to the British prestige. They believed that had

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Rangihaeata “been dealt with in a decided manner,”the Wairau “calamity might never have occurred.”

The Nelson settlers “confidently expected”that the “enormity of the Wairau crime”would be avenged as soon as a sufficient force could be collected to “render the mandates of the law irresistible.”As the Chief Justice had refused to issue a warrant for Rangihaeata's apprehension, it must be admitted that in the excitement of the terrible time, the Nelson delegates were bold in their statements. An acting secretary expressed Shortland's deep sympathy for the irreparable loss sustained. An awful responsibility for the recent bloodshed had been incurred. On the degree of criminality and on whom it rested he would not express an opinion. It might become the subject of judicial inquiry. But the deplorable event had arisen from “surveyors, without the knowledge or concurrence of the local government, proceeding to take possession of and survey land in opposition to the original native owners who have uniformly denied the sale of it.”

To “prevent recurrence of such an evil, and that no reason may be given to the New Zealanders to doubt the good faith of Her Majesty's solemn assurance that their territorial rights as owners of the soil should be recognized and respected, his Excellency has caused a Proclamation to be issued (12 July, 1843), warning all persons claiming land in this colony in cases where the claim is denied or disputed by the original native owners, from exercising acts of ownership, or otherwise prejudicing the question of title to the same, until the question of ownership shall have been heard and determined by one of Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to investigate claims to land in this colony.… One of Her Majesty's Commissioners had appointed the end of June last to investigate claims to land in the valley of the Wairau, and but for the recent fatal collision, all claims in that district would, in all probability, at this moment have been disposed of. His Excellency would avail himself of the present occasion to remind the settlers of Nelson and the colonists generally of the principles upon which the British Government undertook the colonization of this country,—That the Queen in common with Her Majesty's predecessor disclaimed for herself and her subjects every pretension

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to seize upon the islands of New Zealand, that by the treaty of Waitangi Her Majesty has guaranteed to the chiefs and tribes of New Zealand the full, exclusive, and undisturbed possession of their lands, and that in the Royal Instructions under the sign-manual Her Majesty has distinctly established the general principle that the territorial rights of the natives as owners of the soil must be recognized and respected.”With regard to the complaint that the Maoris had “burnt down a house built by a servant of the New Zealand Company upon land which it claims to have purchased, and which claim has not yet been proved to be invalid,”his Excellency reminded his correspondents that as to all lands “the title of the claimants was subject to the investigation of a Commissioner to be appointed for that purpose;”that by the Lands Claims Ordinance lands “validly sold by natives were vested in Her Majesty as demesne lands of the Crown;”that by Lord John Russell's agreement the company was to be assigned, “subject to the investigation of a Commissioner,”certain blocks of land “under the sanction of the local government;”and that by the same agreement the company had foregone and disclaimed “all title or pretence of title to any lands purchased or acquired by them in New Zealand other than the lands so to be granted to them. His Excellency deems it proper now to inform you that the New Zealand Company has not selected any block of land in the valley of the Wairau, nor has the local government yet received any intimation that it is the intention of the company to select a block in that district.… It will scarcely be necessary for his Excellency to give the assurance you require, that the case shall not be prejudged, that impartial justice shall be done, and that the penalties of the law shall certainly overtake those whom its verdict shall pronounce to be guilty.”

For the company in England the pen of Somes often signed the productions of Gibbon Wakefield. For Shortland it was known that in this important crisis the clear head and honourable mind of William Swainson explained his duty. The Nelson delegates replied at great length. They extolled the national importance of the company. They urged that “to the natives the greater part of the land is in fact worth nothing.”The wisest men have agreed that “the rights of aborigines

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to land… are not entitled to great respect.… If common sense and justice declare these lands to be worthless to the native,”surely the advantages of colonization carried on with a due regard to their real (sic) interests “entitled the company to expect help from the Government in transferring lands to white settlers.”It was little “less than madness in dealing with grasping and avaricious natives to exhibit a morbid and ostentatious sensitiveness to native rights; a sentimental scrupulousness about depriving them of possessions the value of which to them is a fanciful chimæra, and has been instilled into them perhaps principally by this very exhibition.”

The Wakefield code of morals would seem to have corrupted the very senses of the company's settlers when two highly educated men could thus vie with Somes in proclaiming their own depravity. Their reasoning faculties seemed to have suffered. They denied that the Nelson magistrates had been rash either in the determination or in the mode adopted to enforce the law at the Wairau. “The men they took with them were sufficient in numbers and ought to have insured success.… This was precisely a case in which at least success would have been universally allowed to have justified the attempt, and what possible means did they neglect to insure it?… The very order to advance was rather a defensive than offensive step on their part,… and in taking this defensive step a gun was accidentally discharged, and followed immediately by a volley from the natives.… That the natives were guilty even according to the written letter of the law we are perfectly certain.… Nor let us be accused of prejudging the case.”Prejudgment was only wrong where doubt remained. At Wairau there was none. Law was uncertain. They had a higher standard in the human heart. They appealed “to the wide voice of human nature itself wherever not sunk into the lowest barbarism to confirm our verdict and pronounce that punishment should be inflicted on the guilty.… White man or New Zealander, British law or Maori custom, savagery or civilization, one must master the other, and that the triumph of the laws of civilization can be attained without some employment of force we cannot believe to be possible.”

Dr. Evans' efforts to represent the indignation of the Wellington

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settlers may be described in one phrase. When Clarke, the Protector, issued an address in Maori expressing the Governor's horror at the massacre of the captives at the Wairau, Dr. Evans retorted by expressing his “horror at the infatuation of the authors”of the papers emanating from the Government. After a time Shortland found occasion to publish Lord Stanley's memorable manifesto of the 1st February, 1843, in reply to those arguments of Somes which bore so strong a likeness to the representations made in New Zealand. Spain, in August, 1843, earnestly invited Colonel Wakefield to facilitate the removal of difficulties, and to “proced with arbitration, commencing from the precise position”Wakefield had been in when in May, 1843 (before the Wairau horrors), he receded from his promises on the plea that he expected letters from England. Spain expected an “assurance that the amount of compensation shall be paid when my final award is made.”Wakefield, whose brother's death at the Wairau made him an object of sympathy, announced his readiness to resume negotiations, but with begging pertinacity asked if Spain would recommend that, in consideration of his consent, a further proportionate quantity of land should be awarded to the company. In announcing his readiness to resume negotiations, Wakefield had the effrontery to tell Mr. G. Clarke: “I infer that you have waived your objection to a cession of the pahs and cultivated grounds with a view to inspire confidence in the minds of the settlers and re-establish a good understanding with the natives.”Spain knew the shifting sands in which his anchor was thrown while Wakefield's words were in question, and told him that he should still expect, as “indispensable to the resumption of negotiation,”Wakefield's “assurance that the amount of compensation shall be paid when my final award is made.”Wakefield replied that he had always understood that such liability existed, and that so far as he was concerned he was prepared to take the necessary steps to meet it. Spain answered that whatever Wakefield had understood he had to complain of previous non-fulfilment of the terms, and added with reference to Wakefield's letter to Clarke, that though Wakefield might use such arguments as he liked with Clarke as referee, “I cannot allow any condition to be imposed upon me through him inconsistent with

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the original terms of the arbitration.”But it was-not Wakefield's intention to be honourable even at this stage. He procured (24th August) the assent of a deputation of settlers to the new terms he sought to impose as to pahs and cultivations, and in order to extort complicity on the part of Spain, communicated that assent to him. Spain briefly told him that such terms interdicted the resumption of the negotiations. The false Wakefield complained¹ to his employers of “the pusillanimous and treacherous part taken by the local Government in the Wairau murders,… but the time is not far distant when the rising generation of Anglo-Saxons will neither want the nerve nor the skill to hold their ground against the savage, and take ample and just vengeance for the opposition we are now encountering.”It was ever Colonel Wakefield's habit when detected in any subtlety to make charges against the Government which detected him. He could no longer hope to impose either on Spain or on Shortland. When he strove to overbear the former by the expressed wishes of the colonists, on the 24th August he transmitted to Auckland their appeal to be saved from “impending ruin”by “an immediate and final settlement of the land claims.”

Shortland recited the steps taken by the Government to promote, and the shuffling by which Wakefield had evaded, the fulfilment of “an arrangement entered into at his own request and solemnly confirmed at a meeting with the native chiefs at Port Wellington.”He did more. He told Wakefield that the solemn assurances of Her Majesty to the Maoris would “never be departed from,”and to make it impossible even for the elusive Wakefield to profess ignorance of his meaning, he set forth in terms Lord Stanley's rebuke of the company on 1st February, 1843.² Although Shortland maintained the honour of England when the company's settlers, almost with one voice, urged him to befoul it, he was not slow to take such measures

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as were available for their protection in case of emergency. He appealed to Sir G. Gipps. Sir Everard Home, in H.M.S. ‘North Star,’ sailed to New Zealand with troops “to be brought back in the ‘North Star,’ and not landed in any part of New Zealand except their services be absolutely required for the protection of the lives of Her Majesty's subjects.”

It was satisfactory for Shortland to find that Mr. McDonough, the police magistrate, returned from an overland trip from Taranaki to Wellington, and found the Maoris hospitable and peaceful. He saw Rauparaha, who was content to be at rest. Mr. Clarke also visited Rauparaha, and received assurances from him and other chiefs that they would inculcate peace. When at Wellington in September, 1844, Sir Everard Home was entreated by the inhabitants to remain with them. They heard that the Maoris were gathering together at Porirua at the call of Rangihaeata, and that an attack on Wellington was contemplated. They had endeavoured to organize themselves into an armed force, but they had been forbidden to do so, and it was natural that they should now appeal to their countryman. At Nelson also the residents asked that the frigate might remain, or a portion of the military be landed for their protection. Their necessity did not arise from Maori troubles only. Their men employed on public works rose against them in August, and ill-treated the superintendent of works. Mr. Fox bitterly imputed his distress to the inability of the Government to control the working class, who were settlers holding land and working at stated times in creating those public works which enabled the company to claim extension of territory. Sir Everard Home saw no necessity to keep the man-of-war at Nelson to control the Maoris. On the contrary, under his ægis, Major Richmond hearing that the company had re-commenced the Wairau survey, sent for the surveyor, who when warned of his responsibility, promised to recall his men, and promptly did so. Wakefield, to whom Richmond wrote on the subject, said that the surveyor, working on contract, was acting on his own responsibility. It appeared that a boat belonging to the New Zealand Company had been taken by the natives after the Wairau massacre. Sir Everard informed Rauparaha that he had not come to attack the Maoris, as was falsely reported, and

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recommended that the Maoris should go to their homes. Receiving no answer, he went with Major Richmond, anchoring his ship under Mana, and sending Clarke, the Protector, on foot beforehand to induce Rauparaha and Rangihaeata to await him. They did not do so, but he saw proofs that no warlike muster was in progress, and proceeded to Kapiti. Landing there, he saw at the pah (where lived the much-respected missionary, Hadfield), Raupahara and another chief, with about fifty followers. Raupahara denied that he was instigating quarrels. He was allaying the irritation caused by the provocations of the Europeans. But what did the Pakeha intend? Why, he asked, had Sir E. Home come, if not to fight and destroy? Home replied that the Queen's ships went everywhere, that his object also was to preserve peace rather than make war, and that Rauparaha should not believe reports, but ascertain truth through Major Richmond, Mr. Clarke, or Mr. Hadfield.

When the conference was over, Rauparaha, on being asked to do so, wrote a note, desiring that the company's boat should be given “to the chief of the ship. Give it to the chief for nothing. These are the words of Te Rauparaha.”The boat was immediately given up. It appeared that when previously asked about it, Rauparaha said it would have been given up if the company had not recommenced the Wairau survey, which Richmond now told him had been discontinued. The Maoris cheerfully put the boat into Sir E. Home's hands, and it was taken by the man-of-war to Nelson, where it was given up to Mr. William Fox, whom Colonel Wakefield had appointed agent for the company at Nelson in succession to the unfortunate Captain Wakefield.

How well founded were Rauparaha's suspicions about the inhabitants was shown a few days afterwards (13th October), when Home was requested at Nelson to execute a warrant signed by four magistrates, Duppa, Dillon, Tytler, and Monro, for the apprehension of Rauparaha and Rangihaeata for murder at Wairau. He declined. They “mistook his functions”in imagining that he was “bound by law to enforce any act authorized by warrant from two magistrates.”He would “on no account do anything contrary to his judgment of what was right.”Reporting this interview to Governor Shortland, Home

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stated that in his opinion “none of the settlements he had visited had anything to fear from the natives so long as they are fairly dealt with.”Revenge rather than impartial justice appeared to be sought by those who had “supposed that he would have been honoured by the execution of the warrant”put before him. There were others at Nelson who took no such view, and showed no such distrust of the local Government. A force was wanted at Nelson “not to repel the attacks of the natives, but to restrain and keep in subjection the English labourers brought over by the New Zealand Company, who have, I believe, been in open rebellion against their employers more than once.”Sir Everard Home left the settlements in peace in October. The inhabitants at Wellington, headed by Mr. William Fitzherbert, applied to Shortland in November to relieve them from the disastrous position in which the land question was placed. Shortland rejoined that if Colonel Wakefield had not “declined to carry into effect (the compensation arrangement which) he had not only agreed to but himself proposed, “the settlers might long. since have been placed in peaceable possession of their lands.”Under existing circumstances Shortland fully concurred with Mr. Spain that it would be highly impolitic to enter again upon the arbitration, unless the “compensation money were forthcoming concurrently with the award,”and “that a second disappointment of the natives should on no account be risked.”Shortland would only place settlers in possession of land to which they could “prove themselves legally entitled;”but he would bring their memorial before Governor Fitzroy, on his arrival.

Captain Fitzroy reached New Zealand in November, 1843, and in January, 1844, betook himself to Wellington, in H.M.S. ‘North Star.’ He had endeavoured to obtain precise instructions from the Colonial Office as to land claims, the waiving of pre-emptive Crown rights, and the acceptance of a settler's estimate of his time and his expenses in building or improving, in order to determine the extent of his claims. The answers to two of his questions were vague. To the last the answer was in the negative. No such estimate could be allowed. In conclusion, no hope of obtaining more soldiers was held out, and as to controlling or interfering with the natives, Lord Stanley said:

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“It would be vain for me to attempt, at this distance, to encounter by anticipation the difficulties which will gradually disclose themselves to you.”Fitzroy's temperament made the disclosure by no means gradual. He gave offence at once to Shortland by commending ostentatiously the principles of a newspaper which had reviled Shortland during his vicarious rule. Shortland resigned his office as Secretary, and the Colonial Office soothed his feelings by appointing him Governor of the island of Nevis. He had not made himself popular, nor had he been successful in his difficult office at New Zealand. In April, 1843, a violent petition was sent from Auckland, praying that Shortland might not be appointed Governor. In November, 1843, many inhabitants at Wellington with equal vehemence and inaccuracy assailed him for denial of justice. A reference to the Chief Justice proved the untruth of one of their allegations.¹ Fitzroy arrived at Wellington on the 26th January, 1844, and reported to Lord Stanley that the place was quiet, and the land claims would be entered upon immediately. His appointment had given umbrage to the company's people. He received a deputation at which settlers pressed for vengeance against the natives; while on the other hand Maoris told him that the settlers showed evil dispositions towards them. Fitzroy was so unwise as to lecture Mr. E. Jerningham Wakefield in the reception-room where he held a levée. Lord Stanley's instructions had guarded him against making common cause with those who unlawfully went against Rauparaha at Wairau, but to rate violently one of their friends at a public levée for letters he had written, was an indiscretion against which not even the microscopic control of the Colonial Office could guard. Mr. E. J. Wakefield subsequently obtained an interview with the incautious Governor, and angry speeches resulted. The settlers felt that the gauntlet was thrown down. In his reply to a memorial Fitzroy said that the Maori chiefs could not be expected to “submit tamely to laws administered with such evident injustice as that which, to the disgrace of our nation, characterized the fatal proceedings at Wairau.… I feel it imperative on me to remind you that our countrymen were there the aggressors; that the principal magistrate was acting

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illegally.”Nevertheless he sought to allay ill-feeling and to compound differences about titles to land.

On the 29th January, he conferred with Colonel Wakefield at Major Richmond's house. Mr. Spain, Clarke the Protector, and Mr. Forsaith (Protector and Interpreter) were present. At Fitzroy's suggestion (that Colonel Wakefield should have a friend to consult) Dr. Evans was sent for. After long discussion of past correspondence, and reference to his inquiries in England before sailing to New Zealand, the Governor categorically asked whether Wakefield was “prepared to make a fair compensation to those natives who might be entitled to receive it, without including their pahs, their burying-places, and their grounds actually in cultivation.”Not without dissuasive remonstrances, Wakefield at length declared that he was so prepared, and would provide the funds without delay. There was an ominous discussion as to the meaning to be attached to the words “pah,”and “cultivation-grounds,”but the result of the conference was to compel the company to make a fresh promise to comply with its former promise. Mr. Spain triumphed. He was requested by Fitzroy to act as umpire on disputed matters between Colonel Wakefield and Clarke; and Fitzroy urged the latter to be as reasonable in his demands as “strict justice would allow.”Mr. Forsaith kept notes of the conference.

Lord Stanley's firmness in England had made Colonel Wakefield hopeless of success in slighting the just claims of Maoris; but though he yielded to Fitzroy's decision he wrote to London: “The very decided assurance Governor Fitzroy has given me that no grant of land shall be made to the company until the further payments be made under the award of the Commissioner leaves me no alternative but to pursue the negotiation for each district without delay. Serious doubts are entertained by many of our most intelligent settlers whether these further payments will have the effect of ensuring quiet occupation of the land, and I cannot but participate in such doubts after the repeated breaches of contract I have witnessed on the part of the natives.”Thus utterly incapable of “seeing himself as others saw him,”Wakefield reluctantly consented to do that which he had himself originally proposed with an under-thought that influence in England might enable him at a future time to qualify or destroy

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his liability. The Governor proceeded to Nelson, receiving and replying to a public address there. He invited the magistrates to a conference, and animadverted on the fact that some of them had been so imprudent as to ask Sir Everard Home to execute a warrant to bring the bodies of Rauparaha and Rangihaeata before them.

There were not many legions in New Zealand, but Fitzroy was master of such as were there, and the magistrates did not reply. Three of those who had signed the warrant resigned after their interview. Mr. Fox was present, and kept notes. He also was silent, but recorded his opinion gravely in writing, to the effect that the attempt to execute warrants upon Rauparaha and Rangihaeata was fully justified by Cotterell's information laid before the magistrate Thompson. Mr. Fox privately urged the claims of the New Zealand Company, and when Fitzroy suggested that if the Wairau claim were postponed the natives might amicably sell the land to the company, Fox said that they had bought it once. Fitzroy said that was to be decided by the Land Commissioners. Mr. Fox having migrated to Wellington to practise at the bar, had accepted office as agent when Colonel Wakefield desired to secure his services at Nelson. He was to play a leading part for many years in the colony. He pressed for a military force to coerce the European working class. Fitzroy would not send a detachment of troops, but thought he might send a ship of war to arrest ringleaders. He received a deputation of working men, and told them he would endeavour to find them employment, but would put them down if they should become disturbers. The deputation of settlers which had presented the public address sought for a private interview on the following day. Their spokesman, Mr. McDonald, upheld the conduct of the magistrates, and handed in his own resignation. It was not thus that a British sailor was to be daunted. Fitzroy roundly rebuked him and his abettors, who were “raising for themselves a character for rudeness.”At the “close of his harangue he rose while speaking, wished them good morning and retired.”The deputation thought it necessary to disclaim complicity with their spokesman, and presented a statement to that effect to Fitzroy as he was returning to his ship. He received them again on the following day, and discussed

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some local wants. A Maori deputation waited on him. He promised them even-handed justice; punishment if they offended; protection if they should be injured. Mr. Fox's narrative admitted that the Governor “declared very fairly his intention of maintaining even justice between the two races.”To the jaundiced eyes of Mr. E. J. Wakefield, it appeared that his conduct was intolerable, and made Nelson “overflow with the greatest indignation.”The Governor desired to see Rauparaha, and sailed in the ‘North Star’ to Kapiti. There he attended Divine Service on shore. The good missionary, Hadfield, officiated. Besides the Governor's narrative, with notes, a diary was kept by Mr. F. Dillon Bell, to whom a passage was given in H.M. ship. Mr. Bell had been assistant-secretary in London to the New Zealand Company, but had recently immigrated to Nelson, holding powers for absentee owners of land. Several hundred natives were present; and, before the service, Fitzroy heard many of them catechised. Rauparaha sat near, observing. The Governor took no notice of him, though Sir Everard Home, as an old acquaintance, shook hands with him.

On the following day, 12th February, 1844, Fitzroy landed to hold conference at Waikanae. Again hundreds of natives were assembled. Major Richmond and Clarke, the Protector, met the Governor on shore. Rauparaha sat near the Governor's chair. Rangihaeata, present at the old chief's request, was behind other natives who were seated in a semicircle around. Fitzroy told them his mind was dark when he encountered at Sydney the tidings of the Wairau affray. He had come to discover the truth. He had heard the European account, and wished to hear that of the Maori, that he might judge. When he first heard of the massacre he had thought of vengeance for the slaughtered English, but finding that they had behaved improperly he came calmly to judge the whole matter. Clarke, the interpreter, repeated his speech in the Maori tongue. No native rose to speak, and Fitzroy directed Clarke to invite Rauparaha to do so. The old man rose. He said the dispute was about the land. He denied that he had sold any land to Wakefield except at Blind Bay and Massacre Bay. He narrated his transactions in 1839; told how he had warned the surveyors at the Wairau, and had had a “korero”in Captain Wakefield's house at Nelson,

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at which Wakefield threatened violence, and Rauparaha and Rangihaeata had said they would not submit to it. Minutely he narrated every circumstance.

The rest of the tale the reader knows; the demand for his person, the refusal, the fight, and the massacre. Thompson the magistrate asked Rauparaha to save him. Rangihaeata said: “Your daughter!”Rauparaha said: “A little while ago I wanted to talk to you in a friendly manner, and you would not. Now you say, Save me: I will not save you.”It was their custom after battle to kill the chief men of the enemies. Fitzroy told the interpreter to tell the old man to sit down while he decided what to say. For half an hour the natives sat observant while Fitzroy wrote with a pencil and consulted the interpreter. Then the Governor rose and said: “Hearken, O chiefs and elder men, to my decision… In the first place the Pakehas were in the wrong; they had no right to build houses upon the land the sale of which you disputed, and on which Mr. Spain had not decided; they were wrong in trying to apprehend you who had committed no crime… As they were greatly to blame, and as they brought on and began the fight, and as you were hurried into crime by their misconduct, I will not avenge their deaths.”

He told them that the Maoris had committed a terrible crime in murdering men who, relying on their honour, had surrendered. They must live peaceably. He would do equal justice; and no land should be taken which they had not sold. Fitzroy then returned to the ‘North Star’ after announcing that Major Richmond was the superintendent of the southern districts, and impressing on the Maoris the necessity of resorting to him and to the missionaries for advice in all cases.

It is almost unnecessary to say that Mr. E. J. Wakefield railed at the Governor for his decision about the Wairau massacre. It was hard for a nephew to bear the loss of a gallant relative in so cruel a manner; but it was the verdict of a nephew, not of a judicial mind, which made Mr. Wakefield declare that the company's officers were “in the right”in the affray. Mr. E. J. Wakefield, indignant at the rebuke inflicted upon him at the Governor's levee, by which he thought “the pleasure of his friendly relations with the natives must necessarily be impaired,”

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at once left the colony, and in the following year published in London his ‘Adventures in New Zealand.’

The strange contrasts in New Zealand life were shown by the fact, recorded by the Governor, that as he was about to leave Wellington, “the Lord Bishop of New Zealand arrived from Stewart's Island and Bank's Peninsula in a small coaster of about twenty-five tons burthen, owned and commanded by a chief named Tuhawaiki, well known in New Zealand. With his lordship, his sole companions were a son of Rauparaha and five natives.”It was from Tuhawaiki that Rauparaha only succeeded in escaping by swimming in the sea to his fleet of canoes, on one of his bloodthirsty raids in the Middle Island. The Governor made several appointments, of magistrates and others, to administer justice and deal with public accounts. His own influence was called in to conclude a land negotiation. The Te Aro Maoris required larger compensation for past deficiencies than had been awarded. They hoped to induce the Governor to yield to their demands.

The Governor, at Mr. Spain's Court, in presence of Major Richmond, Clarke, Forsaith, and Colonel Wakefield, harangued the Maoris at some length on the Queen's justice and clemency, and the righteousness of Mr. Spain's award. The money was on the table. The Maoris, after two days' discussion, finding the Governor immoveable, accepted the money allotted to them. Colonel Wakefield's proposal that a defective purchase should not be annulled, but be made complete by subsequent compensation, thus served to eject the Te Aro Maoris from an important site in the future capital of New Zealand.

Captain Fitzroy was called upon to determine questions relating to a new settlement—a Scotch settlement—about to be made by the company. Colonel Wakefield required 200,000 acres for it in the Middle Island. The Crown had bought none there. The company had proved no claim elsewhere than at Nelson. To overcome the difficulty the Governor waived the Crown's right of pre-emption over 150,000 acres in the Middle Island; but, warned by the Wairau catastrophe, he appointed Mr. J. J. Symonds to superintend the transaction. Mr. Symonds had been a surveyor, and a sub-protector of aborigines, and had been recently made police magistrate at

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Wellington by the Governor. He spoke the Maori language, and received strict instructions to inform the natives that they were to be free to sell as pleased themselves. Mr. Spain was at the same time required by the Governor to superintend the selection of 150,000 acres by the company at Wairarapa, and of not more than 250,000 acres elsewhere, within the limits claimed by the company under Mr. Pennington's award; the Crown right of pre-emption being waived under certain conditions. Mr. Tuckett, who had escaped at the Wairau, was appointed by Colonel Wakefield to co-operate with Mr. Symonds in selecting lands at the site of Otago. Not even the Wairau disaster could teach Tuckett wisdom. He insisted on surveying land without the consent of the owners or of Mr. Symonds. The latter had armed himself with instructions in case of such an occurrence, and declined to sanction, even by his presence, such a procedure. He reported to Major Richmond his withdrawal from the negotiations. Colonel Wakefield was a wiser and a sadder man. He instructed Tuckett to conform to Symonds' requirements, but insinuated that he was not much to blame, inasmuch as partial preliminary surveys were permissible where the Maoris did not remonstrate.

Major Richmond overthrew the suggestion by reminding Colonel Wakefield that Symonds had received peremptory written instructions that no survey was to be allowed except upon alienated territory, and that in Colonel Wakefield's presence, Major Richmond had insisted verbally that “nothing must be done without the sanction of the Government officer.”Colonel Wakefield sent his brother, Mr. Daniel Wakefield, to propitiate Tuckett; but the obstinate surveyor was intractable, and Symonds again withdrew. Colonel Wakefield himself then went to Otago, and with his aid the insolent surveyor¹ was controlled. On the 31st July, 1844, Tuhawaiki, Taiaroa, and twenty-three other Ngaitahu chiefs signed a deed conveying land to the company, and making certain reserves “for themselves and their children.”The consideration was £2400. Symonds, Tuckett, and Clarke, junior, with another, signed on

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behalf of the European contracting authorities. There were some English settlers on the spot whose claims Mr. Symonds commended to the Government. He also adverted mournfully to the palpable fact that intercourse with “Europeans”(chiefly whalers), “and intemperance and epidemic diseases introduced by them were rapidly destroying the natives. I am the more confirmed in this opinion, not only from personal observation, but by the melancholy forebodings of the chiefs themselves.”

When Governor Fitzroy returned to Auckland, in March, 1844, troubles awaited him. The attempt to seize land by force at Wairau had raised suspicion in the Maori mind. There were mutterings. Honi Heke, a son-in-law of Hongi, had been heard to ask if “Rauparaha was to have all the honour of killing Pakehas?”A spark had nearly set the native passions on fire. Imprisonment was shrunk from by a “Rangatira”as a slavish insult intolerable to a gentleman. A native named Manaia was convicted (20th February, 1844) and sentenced to imprisonment for theft. Before he could be removed from the dock a chief, Kawau, and others started up, brandished their tomahawks, and dragged the culprit away in the sight of the bewildered functionaries. The sheriff assisted in endeavouring to close the doors, but the Maoris burst them open and escaped with their countryman.

Major Bunbury, Her Majesty's 80th Regiment, commanded at Auckland during Fitzroy's absence. The Executive Council met on the 21st of February to consider the propriety of executing a warrant to apprehend Kawau, which the police magistrate had issued. Mr. Clarke, senior, Chief Protector, wrote to Kawau that he had done a great wrong, and must bring back Manaia.

Kawau replied: “Friend Mr. Clarke. Salutations. Listen. I will not go to you. Would it not be better for you to come to me? Yes. Do come here. Come to me: that is all. I have finished. Listen to me. Because evil is increasing the love of many grows cold.”

Clarke knew that the last figurative sentence meant that the Maori was becoming suspicious of the Pakeha. He produced Kawau's letter before the Executive Council, and told Major Bunbury and his advisers that he was satisfied that the Ngati-whatua would never permit Kawau to be taken alive.

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Clarke retired. Bunbury asked if it was essential to vindicate the law. The Colonial Secretary, Sinclair, objected to the use of force in the Governor's absence, and thought the available force insufficient. The Attorney-General, Swainson, thought so flagrant an act ought not to be overlooked, whenever the Government might have sufficient force. The Colonial Treasurer, Shepherd, concurred with the Colonial Secretary. Major Bunbury “feared that the aristocratic feeling”might spread among the tribes, and induce them to aid Kawau. He thought he could arrest him, but he could not defend the scattered settlers from acts of vengeance. The use of force was reserved for the Governor's consideration. At Swainson's suggestion the Chief Protector was asked to urge the chiefs to use their influence and cause Manaia to be yielded to the law's demands.

The missionaries brought about a peaceful surrender of the culprit. Fitzroy returned. Kawau admitted that he had infringed English law, but urged that compensation in money satisfied that of New Zealand and of the Scriptures. Eventually the Governor and his Council met Kawau's views. A portion of Manaia's sentence was remitted, and a Native Exemption Ordinance was passed (July, 1844), by which natives restoring fourfold the value of a thing stolen might escape imprisonment. Natives were only to be arrested by two chiefs of their tribe, and in civil suits were not to be liable to imprisonment. Except in cases of rape or murder, a native charged was, on making a deposit, to remain at large till the day of trial. Mr. Swainson, the law-maker, thought that by such an adaptation to the feelings of the Maoris many offenders were allowed to be taken who would otherwise have set the law at defiance. The colonists “were not”(he said) “dissatisfied with the exceptional character of the law,”since their property or its value was restored to them. When the Ordinance met Lord Stanley's eye, he feared that the zeal, however laudable, for the welfare of the Maoris, which dictated it, had outrun discretion. The Governor (Grey) was directed to suggest amendments. In November, 1846, he reported that he “thought it better at once to repeal it.”His position enabled him to dispense with such anomalous help.

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The land question at Auckland, in 1844, differed from that at Wellington and Nelson, but presented its own difficulties. Under the treaty of Waitangi the Government only could buy land from the Maoris; but little had been bought. The natives were discontented with their inability to sell to others what the Government could not or would not buy. To obviate the difficulty Fitzroy, in March, 1844, by Proclamation, allowed settlers to buy from the natives on paying ten shillings an acre to the Government. Little land was sold on these terms; and the purchasers, while haggling with the natives, averred that the sum claimed by the Government injuriously clogged their transactions and reduced the price they could offer. It was noised abroad that Fitzroy's Proclamation violated the treaty of Waitangi, which guaranteed to the Maoris freedom of sale at such prices as they might think fit, subject to the pre-emptive right of the Crown. The new demand was represented as a juggle, and the chiefs determined by a display of force to impress their importance upon the Governor's mind.

The Waikato tribes gave a great feast at Remuera, close to Auckland, in May, 1844. The Governor described the scene. Accompanied by officers and escorted by Putini (son of Wetere, a Waikato chief second only in influence to Te Whero Whero), and other chiefs, he rode to Remuera. Natives of seventeen tribes were gathered there. The powerful Waikatos were 800 in number.

As Fitzroy appeared in sight a general shout of welcome arose, and the nearest tribes danced and brandished their weapons in unison. Dismounting, the Governor shook hands with the chiefs near him and saluted others generally. Ceremony enforced a pause, while it was doubtful what tribe he should first visit. “It was, however, quickly decided that Te Whero Whero and Wetere, as the givers of the feast, should be visited first, and that I should then go round the encampment, taking each tribe in local succession, without regard to relative influence or numbers.”Some chiefs were in European clothes; some had gay scarfs, while some wore only a large wrapping mat, a mantle, or a blanket.

After the circuit of the encampment a sham fight took place. The adverse bands occupied hills, a mile apart. “With

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muskets glittering in the sun, their tomahawks and clubs waving in the air, they stamped their wild war-dance, and then, alternately, rushed thundering down the slope. Halting as one man in front of their opponents, each party again defied the other in dance and shouts and yells. Then one body, the strangers, fled up the hill, halted, danced, rushed down again at their utmost speed and again halted, like soldiers at a review, at the word of their chief, within pistol-shot of the adverse party, who were crouched to receive them with spears, the front ranks kneeling, the mass behind, about forty deep, having muskets and other weapons in readiness. Each body consisted of about eight hundred men, in a compact mass, twenty in front and forty deep. Their movements absolutely simultaneous, like welldrilled soldiers. The lines along which these bodies ranged were crowded by natives, by English, by women of both nations, and by children, as if it had been a race-course. The sight was indeed remarkable. It was wonderful to see women and children gaily dressed wandering about unconcernedly among four thousand New Zealanders, most of whom were armed, and many utter strangers as well as heathens.”Some Christian natives took no part in the sham fight, but with their missionary teachers approached, unarmed, the spot where the warrior bands had halted. There they sat down and listened to the speeches of welcome and good feeling, which continued till near sunset. The orators walked “to and fro, among or in front of their party, sometimes running or jumping, seldom standing still.”Then came the division of the feast. One long shed was covered with blankets, of which the Waikatos presented more than one thousand to their visitors. Sharks of various sizes and potatoes were hung up and stored in settled divisions, and at a given “signal from Te Whero Whero one general attack commenced, and each party vied with the other in carrying off quickly to their encampment the portion of blankets, sharks, and potatoes which had been allotted to them by the liberal Waikato.… The great majority of the English who were present, not less than a thousand, including women and children, returned in small straggling parties at various times with as much confidence as if they had been returning from an English fair. I heard of no instance of

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misconduct or rudeness, neither was there any theft or even pilfering.”

On the following day, Sunday, many Christian natives attended Divine Service in Auckland, while the heathens looked on; but the majority of the Christians attended Divine Service conducted by missionaries at Remuera. On Monday the gift-potatoes were, at daylight, borne for sale to Auckland on the backs of the Maoris. At eleven o'clock Fitzroy formally received the chiefs at Government House. About two hundred attended. Te Whero Whero was at the Governor's right hand. After a short speech of salutation returned by two of the chiefs they waited for the Governor to address them. After a pause he suggested that the chiefs should discuss any matter in which he could advise or assist them. On a proposed sale of land, at Kawhia, to the Government, they handed in a letter. Fitzroy told them he did not contemplate purchasing at present, but their memorial would be preserved for reference. Then he made them a long speech of kindly compliment on their friendly gathering and their attention to missionary teaching. He urged them to cultivate the arts of peace, produced to them a piece of woollen cloth manufactured in New Zealand, and recommended them to encourage pastoral pursuits. He deprecated the unclothed condition in which “a very few”of the Maoris had exhibited themselves on Saturday. He did not wish to interfere with their customs, however. A sailor himself, he recognized the duty of fighting for his country, and honoured patriotism in them. He was, with the learned men now present, the Chief Justice and Attorney-General, endeavouring to prepare a law¹ to meet the peculiar condition of the Maoris as to compensation for offences in lieu of imprisonment, two or three chiefs being made responsible.

Wiremu Nera of Waingaroa then spoke. Admitting that the New Zealanders had been wicked before the missionaries taught them Christianity, they were now improved, and had sought the guardianship of the Queen. “We are now anxious that our lands should be secured to us so that a check may be put upon the English urging us to sell those lands that we cannot part with.”The English should take pains that the evil

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customs of the Maoris might be gradually cast aside. The proposed regulation as to non-imprisonment of the chiefs was very pleasing. Te Whero Whero then was called upon by Te Kanawa to speak. He changed the subject abruptly. The island Motiti, near Tauranga, was claimed by the Ngatiwakaue, who occupied it, and by the Matamata tribe, who were, under Pohepohe, four hundred strong at Remuera. Let them vacate it. “See, contrary to our old ways are we come, that it may be adjusted quietly; not by force of arms to dispossess the present inhabitants, but breaking through those customs we are come that, by the intervention of the Governor, the tribe of Ngatiwakaue (Arawa) may be persuaded to depart in a peaceable manner.”Kiripaka and Pohepohe spoke also. The island was sacred and dear to them. Te Kanawa urged the Governor to comply with the request. “Let the Governor look round the room; if Motiti be not quietly given up to these chiefs, eyes that are now looking at the Governor may never see him again. Blood will be shed and friendly visits prevented.”Wiremu Nera followed in the same strain. Fitzroy was anxious to please them, but could not decide on the statement of one side. He would send an officer to inquire, but he would only use peaceable means. Various chiefs spoke in praise of all they had heard from the Governor. Waka Nene, who had so effectually aided in inducing the Maoris to ratify the Waitangi treaty, was the last speaker. The Ngapuhi tribe, of which he was one of the chiefs, numbered 12,000. “How will the chiefs receive the instruction that has been given them to-day? Will they receive it rightly or wrongly? Many of them will receive it well. We are at present like children, and need to be borne with as children when they are receiving instruction. Let all remember what has been said to-day; it is very good, and let it be received as such.”

As the tribes dispersed homewards a freak of native custom produced a bad impression. Some Matamata (Ngatihaua) natives, in open day, committed depredations at Papakura, about twenty miles from Auckland. On return from a great feast, thus to pillage a friend in broad daylight was a recognized custom. Te Whero Whero was indignant, and sought an interview with the Governor. He felt disgraced, though none of his

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tribe were implicated. Rather than no reparation should be made his tribe would pay any compensation demanded by the Governor and even undergo imprisonment. Fitzroy disclaimed any desire for such a result. He would demand compensation of Pohepohe, discontinue land negotiations with him, and leave the Motiti Island dispute untouched, till restitution should be made. The assembled chiefs applauded this proposal. Te Whero Whero turned to a Matamata chief and said: “Tell them that like mean men they took advantage of the absence of their chiefs to behave like cowards, like dastards. If they wanted to fight why did not they attack men instead of two or three old women? They deserve to be considered as dogs and treated as such by their tribe. And tell the Matamata people that I and the other chiefs hold ourselves as hostages to the Governor for their misconduct, and that it is owing to his goodwill, and entirely as a matter of favour, that I am now at large instead of being in prison.”He told Fitzroy he would write to Pohepohe, and if reparation were not made the Waikato would be responsible. They had no produce but pigs, flax, and potatoes, but these should be given to any extent.

Fitzroy could not sanction this pledge. He doubted not that the Matamata tribe would do right. The Matamata chief then spoke. Had the Governor accepted Te Whero Where's proposal, he would have gone away with darkened heart. “The sun has again shone on us. I shall return rejoicing, and all in my power shall be done to obtain compensation for the English at Papakura. What the eye can see and the ear can hear of shall be restored.”Tarapipipi (William Thompson) was a Christian chief in his tribe, and he could not tell what steps he would take. He might perhaps wish to treat the culprits by English custom, and be opposed by those who have not become Christians. Nevertheless all would with one voice give reparation. Fitzroy complimented Te Whero Whero and the chiefs generally on the good order prevalent at Remuera. Te Whero Whero expressed his gratification. “It was true that it had been the former custom on such occasions to plunder on the way home, but with their present knowledge of English customs, the conduct of the Matamata people was disgraceful.”It was some time before

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restitution was made; but when the tribe reached Matamata, Tarapipipi (the son of Te Waharoa) ordered a red table-cloth, part of the stolen property, to be hoisted on a pole, declaring that it should remain there till all the property of the Europeans was deposited at its base. Most of it was soon brought in. For what was lost the chiefs determined to pay compensation in land or in pigs, and Mr. Edward Shortland, the Protector of aborigines, proposed the latter, leaving the quantity to the chiefs, who were disposed to act liberally. Tarapipipi, the future king-maker, wrote to Fitzroy when restoring the goods and making compensation: “Darker than the darkness of a gloomy night without stars is the gloominess of my heart on account of the conduct of these disreputable fellows… I cannot describe the load of shame I feel on account of this plunder. But you must not suppose that this behaviour is a novelty. No, it is of old; like my own dispositions for mischief formerly. It was so with me, not under the influence of Christianity, but when following our old customs. I inherited an evil disposition from my forefathers, descending downwards to my father, and from him to me; but when Christianity came I was taught to be kind, and to protect my fellow-creatures, which I continue to do to this day. Now I have collected the property plundered, which I send by the ‘Victoria.’ Three pigs are in payment for the assault committed on the European.”

In describing the Remuera gathering, to Lord Stanley, Fitzroy said that it was partly in return for a feast to the Waikatos in a former year, partly to show the rangatiratanga (or honourable position) of Te Whero Whero, and also as a demonstration planned with reference to its effect on the English. He doubtless aimed in his own despatch to produce an effect upon Lord Stanley. How could he govern by force a nation which could in a few days sweep every foreigner from its soil?

The enemies of the Maori and of the missionaries alleged that this display of physical force was not without its influence on Fitzroy's mind. But there was quite enough of the appearance of justice in the arguments against the ten-shillings-an-acre Proclamation to induce the Governor to revoke it, and substitute a nominal payment of one penny an acre as the recognition of the Queen's paramount right. This change, however, was not

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made until October, 1844. Nearly fifty times as much land was bought from the natives under the substituted Proclamation as had been bought under that which it superseded. Both were eventually disallowed by Lord Stanley. Meanwhile colonization was partially paralyzed. The New Zealand Company and their friends were exasperated at what they considered the success of the missionary party, and the impunity of the Maoris. Spain privately warned Fitzroy that designing men were instigating Rauparaha to mischief, and that a military force, not to harass or attack, but to exhibit capacity in case of need, ought to be at hand. The settlers at Auckland were as thoroughly convinced as Fitzroy that there was no European force in New Zealand able to cope with the Maori warriors assembled at the feast of Remuera. The company's friends meanwhile were sedulous in disparaging Fitzroy in order to effect his removal. They relied on their friends in Parliament. In the same month that the Remuera feast was held, Mr. Spain's Land Claims Court was to sit at Taranaki (or New Plymouth) to decide on the claims of the New Zealand Company to the enormous territory alleged to have been purchased by Colonel Wakefield's agent in 1840, and by himself on various occasions. Spain and Wakefield travelled in company to the scene. How the pretended purchase was made in 1840, by Dorset and Barrett, has been told already. That the signatures of children and others in an uncomprehended deed of sale could bar the rights of the Ngatiawa, who had voluntarily migrated under Te Rangitake, whose intention to return was publicly known; or bar the rights of manumitted slaves reverting by Maori law to their former rights, was so glaring an assumption that only in force could Wakefield and the Taranaki settlers trust to enable them to go in and possess the land. That Hobson paid a small sum of money to Te Whero Whero and to Te Kati for the interest of the Waikato tribes (whatever they might be) has been also told, together with Hobson's admission that the Waikato claim (from conquest) was not a primary one, because all occupants must first be satisfied.

It is much to be lamented that Spain did not perceive the justice, indeed the necessity, of recognizing the claims of absentee proprietors. Each Maori community held its land in

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common; and no occupant enjoying usufruct of his cultivated ground could alienate it from the tribe. Only tribal consent could break the bond which linked each member to the common property, which sustained the body politic, which was endeared to them as the land of their birth, and was made sacred by the burial-places of generations of those ancestors who in Maoria as in ancient Italy were worshipped or reverenced with religious devotion, and whose images were carved with care in the great house of the tribe. Although unversed in Maori usage, Spain might have respected the principles which, if he had real property in England, enabled him to return to it.

It was fortunate that under the Land Claims Ordinance it was not obligatory upon the Governor to confirm the award of a Commissioner. This wise precaution of Sir G. Gipps had been re-enacted by Hobson on the New Zealand law. Colonel Wakefield always averred that E Puni, by whose aid he secured land at Petone, recommended him to buy the land at Taranaki; but he did not procure Puni's signature to the deed which pretended to convey the land at that place to the company. The deed to which he procured signatures at Kapiti from Rauparaha, Hiko, and nine others, on the 25th October, 1839, affected to convey the land, but it was notorious that some of the signers never claimed any interest in Waitara or Taranaki lands. Some marks were added by proxy to the deed, and Wakefield did not venture to submit it formally to Spain. There was a second deed, signed on the 8th November, 1839, on board the ‘Tory,’ in “the most tumultuous scene”Wakefield had witnessed. This also Wakefield thought it prudent to abandon (with all its gifts of rivers, harbours, forests, and of Mount Egmont, and a direct line from Mokau on the west coast to Lat. 41° on the east) in favour of a third, executed as may be remembered at Taranaki, on the 15th February, 1840, under supervision of an incompetent interpreter, who professed to buy from about seventy men, women, and children at Ngamotu, numerous rivers, forests, harbours, and mountains for a few blankets, guns, powder, and goods, of which a pound of sealingwax was the last mentioned. Mr. Spain's report (12th June) adverted to the carelessness of the company in its alleged purchases—to the procurement of a few signatures, and the

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insertion in deeds of boundaries comprising millions of acres, upon the surface of which lived thousands of “resident natives who were the actual cultivators of the soil,”but whom Wakefield did not consult.

Mr. Spain affirmed that Vattel laid down the doctrine that actual occupiers and cultivators ought not to be dispossessed by immigrant colonizers, but did not recognize the jus postliminium which prevailed in the land; and in spite of the asseveration of their European advocate, and the evidence of native chiefs, he set the right at nought. Though earnest to elicit the truth, he may have failed to understand all the problems of the case. The laws and customs of the dusky owners were foreign; the language in which they gave evidence was rhetorical and oracular. Continually an answer was accepted in a different sense from that which the witness intended. Spain was “happy to find” the Taranaki purchase free from the objections which tainted the other transactions of the company. A restored chief was cross-questioned by Colonel Wakefield as to having been enslaved by the Waikato. With evident reluctance the opprobrious fact was admitted. Wakefield, ignorant or contemptuous of Maori law, said, “When you were taken prisoner did not you forfeit your right to land according to native custom?”—“No, I do not lose my right to land.” Spain interposed to extort from the witness an admission that he was aware that Captain Hobson had bought the captured lands from the Waikato chiefs. The chief denied that he had ever heard of such a purchase, and Spain discredited his answer; but Maori law would have taught him that as the Waikato chiefs could only sell their own interest in the land, the witness might truthfully declare that the Ngatiawa interest remained untouched by Hobson's transaction with Te Whero Whero Passing over the undoubted rights in common of the return Ngatiawa, and the cognate rights of their countrymen still at Waikanae, under Te Rangitake, whose animus revertendi was notorious, Spain unfortunately gave a verdict in favour of the New Zealand Land Company not for their whole claim, but for 60,000 acres. He conceived that the Ngatiawa returning after the alleged purchase by the company could have no rights to land, though if they had returned before Barrett's visit rights

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might have accrued to them. He distinctly affirmed in his report, not only with regard to those enslaved by the Waikato, but as to the conquering Ngatiawa chiefs at Cook's Straits, that he could not recognize title to land in two places. If a Ngatiawa chief had rights at Cook's Straits he could have none at Taranaki. Mr. Spain¹ says he “invariably discouraged”such claims as “unfair and unjust,”although it would be hard to find a good reason why a British subject may hold land in different counties in England and Scotland, and a Maori owner should be debarred from a share in plurality of holdings in New Zealand; and it would be still harder to discover a reasonable interpretation of the treaty of Waitangi which would accord with Mr. Spain's ruling in 1844. Moreover, the custom of the Maoris was enshrined in Hindostan. Among the Rajputs no length of time or absence could affect the claim to the hereditary land.² Mr. Spain complained afterwards that Clarke, the Protector, did not clearly bring forward his view of the right of postliminium, but at the same time (March, 1845), unhesitatingly declared that enslaved “aborigines”in New Zealand forfeited all rights to land when “taken in war.”When the chief, cross-questioned on the subject in 1844, asserted the right of postliminium, Spain thought the man told an untruth, and set aside his statement as worthless. Even as the case stood there was; nevertheless a condition unfulfilled. Barrett had, in 1840, contracted to supply twenty-five double-barrelled guns, and had not supplied them. Spain felt the impropriety of putting murderous weapons in the hands of an excited and pugnacious people, and took upon himself to award that instead of the promised fowling-pieces the company should pay £200, but lest the money should be devoted to the original intention he determined how it should be expended. It was not to be given to the contracting Maoris; but a Maori hospital was to be built upon the “native town reserves,”the result of which variance from Barrett's engagement would be “convenient”and “morally improving.”

Clarke, the son of the Protector of the aborigines, was Maori advocate in Spain's Court at Taranaki, and saw the

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terrible dangers which Spain's decision would cause. He wrote to his father in June, 1844.¹ He pointed out the inherent complications in the case itself. He declared that the Waikato title to the Waitara, on which Spain laid stress, had never been perfected by exercise of such acts of ownership as would have completed it. He averred that the postliminium claims of the enfranchised were unjustly set aside:—that the numerous Ngatiawa who had migrated to conquer at the South before the defeat at Pukerangiora could not be compromised by it; that the boundaries had never been understood by the residents with whom Barrett negotiated, and that if any Waikato claim could be established, all those engaged at Pukerangiora could demand a share in it. He averred at a later date that “to the utter astonishment of every one, not excepting Colonel Wakefield himself, a Crown grant was recommended for a block of 60,000 acres of land.”Writing to his father he pleaded at the time, that by immediate and public protest against Spain's decision, he would have acted indecently and injured “the cause of the natives.”When Spain rejected evidence, of the nature put forward, Clarke did not produce a second witness. “On the very day of the decision the natives were so annoyed that a party of about fifty actually set out to destroy the houses of the settlers on the road to Waitara; but I succeeded at last without giving publicity to the state of affairs (or alarming the settlers more than they had already become by the threats of the natives) in sending the most influential men after them and bringing them back again. I then told them that… they could gain nothing and would ruin their cause by resorting to violence, and that the only course they could pursue was to send a fair and candid and calm account of their griefs to the Governor, and some of them wrote letters in consequence which you have probably seen.… One false step now must plunge us sooner or later into ruin—perhaps bloodshed. The natives never will give up tamely what they consider to be their just rights. If the Government are determined to put the settlers in possession of lands which we cannot convince the

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natives or ourselves honestly that they have alienated, they must do it at the point of the bayonet; and if they once resort to violence it must end in the extermination, ultimately, of the natives throughout the length and breadth of the island, but only after a sacrifice of life too horrible to contemplate. Mr. Spain mentioned compensation to the natives, but they would neither accept of it, nor, if they would, could we satisfy the numerous claimants… I feel it my duty to put the Government in possession of my views at any risk of personal blame or misconstruction of motives. I feel that an awful and harassing responsibility rests upon me, but I do not know in what way to place the matter before the Government. Mr. Spain, the judge in the matter, has expressed an opinion, which, if carried out, will, I believe, fill the country with bloodshed, and I—an advocate in his Court… entertain views exactly opposite.… If you can advise me, as my father and my friend, as well as in your position at the head of my department, as to what steps I ought to pursue, and can convince me of their necessity, I shall be rejoiced to undergo blame or personal risk of any kind.”

The war of 1860 sprung from the Waitara land dispute. Many thousands of pages have been written to show that the natives were not then really aggrieved, and merely set up a fictitious claim to land in order to contest the supremacy of the Queen. It is all-important, therefore, to show the truth from early documents. Mr. Whiteley, a Wesleyan missionary who was at Kawhia, wrote to Clarke, the Protector, on the 1st July, 1844. He enclosed a letter from certain excited chiefs to the Governor. To Whiteley they had written thus: “Speak to the Governor that our land may be returned to us. If that cannot be, why then we shall call to the gates of hell to be set open, that the people who have long been dead may ascend up, and that the people of this world may descend thither.”As regarded the remigrants from Cook's Straits and the rights of the enfranchised, Whiteley argued that Spain's decision was unjust. Rights of those not compromised by negotiations between themselves and the company should “be held inviolate.… My object is simply peace, and to ensure peace we must do justice.”The elder Clarke expressed surprise that his son

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had not called more than one witness. The son maintained that he had “confuted the claims of the company by their own witnesses.”He sent also to the Governor a catalogue of cases to prove that the rights of the returning Ngatiawa were sanctioned by well-known Maori laws. It was Spain's custom to make ad interim reports, and his Waitara decision, with the warnings of Clarke, Whiteley, and other counsellors, was promptly considered by Captain Fitzroy. He did not discuss the principles of postliminium nor the doctrines quoted by Spain from Vattel; but he saw that there would be bloodshed if the injustice recommended by Spain should be consummated. Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitake wrote him an earnest letter. “This is the determination of our people. Waitara shall not be given up.… The Ngatiawas are constantly returning to their land—the land of their birth.… Friend Governor, do you not love your land—England—the land of your fathers—as we also love our land at Waitara?”(8th June, 1844). Military assistance at Taranaki was craved by an express messenger from the inhabitants. Spain reported that it was required to overawe the mounting confidence of the Maoris in themselves. The Governor sent a confidential person overland to state that he would be on the spot as soon as possible. He sailed thither in H.M.S. ‘Hazard.’ The Bishop, travelling overland from Auckland, reached Taranaki in eight days by way of Kawhia, from which place the Rev. J. Whiteley had hastened to the scene of danger. Inquiry was instituted without delay.

On the 3rd of August, Captain Fitzroy summoned a meeting to hear his decision. On points of law, “especially New Zealand law, considered with reference to national laws in general,”authorities might differ. Without disparaging others the Governor must nevertheless exercise the function of deciding. He would institute further inquiries immediately, and announced in the mean time that he would not adopt Mr. Spain's recommendation, and “would allow in all their integrity the claims of those of the Ngatiawa tribe who were not parties to the sale in 1840.”¹ The Bishop² and Mr. Whiteley had been

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influential in allaying excitement, and Mr. Donald McLean, Local Protector, was instructed how to act. The Maoris were prevailed upon by the Bishop, by Mr. Whiteley, and Mr. McLean to await the Governor's return. On the 8th August, Captain Fitzroy told Colonel Wakefield that it was not his intention to comply with Spain's recommendation, but to cause further investigation. “A large number of natives would be set aside by Mr. Spain (namely, those who were absent or in captivity at the time their lands were said to have been sold), whose claims I am bound to recognize and maintain.”In describing the meeting of the 3rd August, he told the Secretary of State: “With the proceedings at this meeting all parties appeared to be satisfied; and the minds of the natives were disabused of the impression that they might be dispossessed of their own lands.”On the 5th August the Gover