1842 - Terry, Charles. New Zealand: its Advantages and Prospects as a British Colony - Part I. History of the Colony of New Zealand - Chapter I

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PART I.

HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF NEW ZEALAND,
FROM ITS DEPENDENCY ON THE CROWN OF GREAT BRITAIN
to 1842.

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HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF NEW ZEALAND

CHAPTER I.

To the authentic geographical information given by Captain Cook, on his first and subsequent voyages to New Zealand, 1769-1774, of the coasts and harbours of the North and Middle Islands of New Zealand, very little addition has hitherto been made.

Exclusive of the project of Dr. Franklin, whose attention and philanthropic feelings were excited by the accounts of Cook, New Zealand for the succeeding half century was considered as the abode

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EARLY PERIODS OF THE COLONY.

of savages and cannibals, and without the pale of civilization.

The coasts were occasionally visited by whalers, by which some communication was held with the Aborigines, and from which many disastrous and fatal consequences ensued, tending to increase the unfavourable impression of the ferocious and sanguinary character of the natives.

In the year 1815 the Rev. Mr. Marsden commenced his endeavours to establish some few persons on the Peninsula at the northern part of the North Island, with a view to improve the social condition of the native inhabitants, and so to prepare them for receiving the truths of Christianity.

The Bay of Islands was the station and residence of the Missionaries, and in fact the only harbour for a long period frequented by vessels. The visits of early travellers extended no farther than from the Bay of Islands, ---to the northward, along the coast as far as Wangaroa, twenty-five miles from the Bay,--- and inland, across to Hokianga, forty miles distant on the Western Coast.

Captain Cruise and Mr. Marsden appear to have sailed round the North Cape, along the Western Coast, as far as Hokianga, and down the Eastern Coast, to the southward of the Bay of Islands, but it is very doubtful whether they ever reached the River Thames.

The large Gulf of Houraki, which, on entering from the northward, has for its two heads Point Rodney and the Great Barrier Island, and from the

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EARLY PERIODS OF THE COLONY.

eastward the latter and Cape Colville, was called by Cook the Thames; but the entrance to the river itself, at the south-eastern extremity of the gulf, is shut in by numerous islands.

The river which Mr. Marsden entered must have been, by the account of the Rev. J. Butler who accompanied him, the Tamaki or Mogia, whence he returned across the country from the western extremity of the Waitemata to Kaipara, and down the Wairoa back to the Bay of Islands. Therefore the North Island, south of the isthmus formed by the narrow neck of land between the Waitemata and Manakao, on the Western Coast, was quite unknown, as well as the Middle and South Islands.

The volume published in 1830, entitled "The New Zealanders," by the Society for Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, compiled from the Reports of the Missionaries, and from the few journals, narratives, and accounts of New Zealand then extant, embodied all that was known up to that period: but as therein observed---"all these accounts taken together, add little or nothing to our previous knowledge, even of the Northern Island of New Zealand." (New Zealanders, p. 83).

During this long period, the Islands being under no ostensible government or authority, were universally considered by vessels of all nations neutral ground and free ports; but as the settlement at the Bay of Islands increased in numbers, and the visits of the whalers, both English and foreign, became more frequent, in addition to runaway sailors and con-

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BRITISH RESIDENT.

victs from New South Wales escaping to the coasts, ---lawless acts and outrages of Europeans became so numerous, that the settlers applied to the Government at Sydney for protection of their persons and property, by the appointment of some constituted authority over them, and in consequence, in 1833, Mr. Busby was sent there as British Resident, but with very limited and impotent functions.

In 1834, Captain Lambert of H. M. S. Alligator, presented the native chiefs at the Bay of Islands, with a National Flag, by order of Sir R. Bourke. In 1837 the British settlers, consisting of Missionaries, Merchants, &c. petitioned His late Majesty William IVth, praying the protection of the British Government, stating, "that unless His Majesty's fostering care was extended towards them, they only can anticipate that themselves and also the Aborigines will be liable, in an increased degree, to murders, robberies, and every kind of evil."

In December, 1838, the Under Secretary for the Colonies thus writes to the Foreign Office :---

"lam directed by Lord Glenelg to request that you will bring under the consideration of Viscount Palmerston the expediency of appointing an officer, vested with the character and powers of British Consul at New Zealand.

"The islands of New Zealand have long been resorted to by British subjects, both as possessing peculiar advantages for refitting whale ships on the South Seas, and on account of the supplies which they afford of timber, flax, and other articles of

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BRITISH CONSUL.

value. They have also, from their proximity to the penal settlements of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, furnished an asylum to fugitive convicts, who, associated with men left on these islands at different times by the whalers and other vessels, have formed a society much requiring the check of some competent authority.

"In consequence of representations from the local authorities of New South Wales, it was thought advisable, in the year 1832, to appoint a person in the character of British Resident at New Zealand. The object in making this appointment was twofold, to repress acts of fraud and aggression practised by British subjects against the natives, and by acquiring a beneficial influence over the various chiefs, to protect the lives and properties of British subjects engaged in fair trade with the natives. The officer so appointed was placed on the civil establishment of New South Wales, and wholly under the direction of the governor of that colony.

"It has happened, however, that the authority of the Resident has, from various causes, proved for the most part inoperative; at the same time the chiefs severally have evinced a strong disposition to place themselves under British protection. In the year 1835 a declaration was adopted and subscribed by the chiefs of the northern parts of New Zealand, when their country was threatened with aggression by the Baron de Thierry, in which declaration they set forth the independence of their country, and declared the union of their respective tribes into one

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BRITISH CONSUL.

state under the designation of the Tribes of New Zealand. They also came to a resolution to send a copy of their declaration to His late Majesty, to thank him for his acknowledgment of their national flag; and to entreat that, in return for the friendship and protection which they had shewn, and were still prepared to shew, to such British subjects as had settled in their country, or resorted to it for the purposes of trade, his Majesty would continue to be the parent of their infant state, and its protector from all attempts on its independence.

"But the existing arrangement having failed to answer the purposes contemplated in its adoption, Lord Glenelg is of opinion that those purposes will be more effectually attained by the appointment of a British Consul to reside at New Zealand."

To this communication Mr. Backhouse, Under Foreign Secretary, replied :---"That Viscount Palmerston concurred in the opinion of Lord Glenelg, and would take the necessary measures for including the salary and expenses of the Consul in the consular estimate."

The serious attention of the Home Government had likewise been excited towards New Zealand by the formation of the New Zealand Association, which, subsequently, on account of conditions that the Government had attached to a Royal Charter proposed to be granted to the Association, merged into the New Zealand Company in 1839. The proceedings of this Company had attracted universal attention, and excited great interest throughout

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BRITISH CONSUL.

England during the spring of the year 1889, from the novel and, enlarged views regarding emigration and colonization, and from the energetic measures proposed to carry them into immediate execution. Directed by a body of noblemen, gentlemen, and merchants of the highest character, and supported in their operations by great capital, they commenced their plans independent of the Government, on a very extensive scale, which are now so well known, as to render superfluous any recapitulation in these pages.

The Marquis of Normanby succeeded Lord Glenelg as Secretary of State for the Colonies, and in June 1839 Mr. Stephen writes to Mr. Spearman: ---"I am directed by the Marquis of Normanby to request that you will lay before the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, the enclosed copies of a correspondence (p.6) which has passed between this department and the Foreign Office relating to the establishment of some competent British authority within the islands of New Zealand.

"The letter which was addressed by Lord Glenelg's direction to Mr. Backhouse on the 12th of December last, will inform their Lordships of the general state of society in those islands, and since that date, circumstances have transpired which have further tended to force upon her Majesty's Government the adoption of measures for providing for the government of the Queen's subjects resident in or resorting to New Zealand.

"With that view it is proposed that certain parts

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BRITISH CONSUL.

of the islands of New Zealand should be added to the Colony of New South Wales, as a dependency of that government; and Captain Hobson, R. N. who has been selected to proceed as British Consul, will also be appointed Lieutenant-Governor."

The reason and object of these measures on the part of her Majesty's Government are explained in the Marquis of Normanby's instructions to Captain Hobson, who had previously visited New Zealand, when in command of the Rattlesnake sloop-of-war, in 1837.

"The acquaintance which your service in her Majesty's Navy has enabled you to obtain with the state of society in New Zealand, relieves me from the necessity of entering on any explanation on that subject. It is sufficient that I should generally notice the fact that a considerable body of her Majesty's subjects have already established their residence and effected settlements there, and that many persons in this kingdom have formed themselves into a society, having for its object the acquisition of land, and the removal of emigrants to those Islands.

"Her Majesty's Government have watched these proceedings with attention and solicitude. We have not been insensible to the importance of New Zealand to the interests of Great Britain in Australia, nor unaware of the great natural resources by which that country is distinguished, or that its geograr phical position must in seasons, either of peace or of war, enable it, in the hands of civilized men, to

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BRITISH CONSUL.

exercise a paramount influence in that quarter of the globe. There is probably no part of the earth in which colonization would be effected with greater or surer prospects of national advantage.

"On the other hand, the ministers of the Crown have been restrained by still higher motives from engaging in such an enterprise. They have deferred to the advice of the Committee appointed by the House of Commons in the year 1836, to inquire into the state of the Aborigines, residing in the vicinity of our Colonial Settlements; and have concurred with that Committee, in thinking that the increase of national wealth and power, promised by the acquisition of New Zealand, would be a most inadequate compensation for the injury which must be inflicted on this kingdom itself, by embarking in a measure essentially unjust, and but too certainly fraught with calamity to a numerous and inoffensive people, whose title to the soil and to the sovereignty of New Zealand is indisputable, and has been solemnly recognized by the British Government. We retain those opinions in unimpaired force, and though circumstances entirely beyond our controul, have at length compelled us to alter our course, I do not scruple to avow that we depart from it with great reluctance.

"The necessity for the interposition of Government has however become too evident to admit of any further inaction. The reports which have reached this office within the last few months establish the facts, that about the commencement of the year

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BRITISH CONSUL.

1838, a body of not less than two thousand British subjects, had become permanent inhabitants of New Zealand; that amongst them, were many persons of bad or doubtful character---convicts who had fled from our penal settlements, or seamen who had deserted their ships; and that these people, unrestrained by any law, and amenable to no tribunals, were alternately the authors and victims of every species of crime and outrage. It further appears that extensive cessions of land have been obtained from the natives, and that several hundred persons have recently sailed from this country to occupy and cultivate those lands. The spirit of adventure having been thus effectually roused, it can no longer be doubted that an extensive settlement of British subjects will be rapidly established in New Zealand, and that unless protected, and restrained by necessary laws and institutions, they will repeat unchecked, in that quarter of the globe, the same process of war and spoliation, under which uncivilized tribes have almost invariably disappeared, as often as they have been brought into the immediate vicinity of emigrants from the nations of Christendom.

"To mitigate, and, if possible, to avert these disasters, and to rescue the emigrants themselves from the evils of a lawless state of society, it has been resolved to adopt the most effective measures for establishing amongst them a settled form of civil government. To accomplish this design, is the principal object of your mission."

In August, 1839, Captain William Hobson, R.N.,

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LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR.

was despatched from England in the Druid frigate, Captain Lord Churchill, as Lieutenant-Governor, to take possession of the Islands of New Zealand, in the name of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, and to obtain the cession from the native chiefs of the sovereignty of such parts as had previously declared themselves independent in the three Islands. The Colony was to be a dependency on New South Wales, and Captain Hobson to act under the authority and directions of the Governor and Council at Sydney.

The history of New Zealand, therefore, as a British Colony may be considered as commencing with the year 1840.

The Lieutenant-Governor sailed from Sydney on the 19th January 1840, in H. M. frigate Herald, Captain Nias, and arrived in the Bay of Islands on the 29th January. On the following day, in the presence of the British residents at Kororarika, were read and published two Commissions---one under the Great Seal, extending the limits of the Colony of New South Wales, so as to comprehend the Islands of New Zealand--- and the other under the Royal Signet and Sign Manual, appointing Captain William Hobson, Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony of New Zealand. Two Proclamations were at the same time promulgated---the first announcing that her Majesty's authority had been asserted over British subjects in New Zealand---the second, acquainting the public that her Majesty does not deem it expedient to ac-

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ARRIVAL OF LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR

knowledge as valid any titles to land in New Zealand, which are not derived from, or confirmed by, a grant from the Crown. (See A. and B. Appendix.)

For many years previous to this period, individuals had, as they located, purchased land of the natives, but in the year 1838, and subsequently, the anticipation that the British Government was about to countenance emigration to New Zealand, and to establish some authority and order, induced many persons in the neighbouring Colonies to make very large purchases of land from the natives. This circumstance and the additional fact of the New Zealand Company having sent out an expedition early in 1839, to make large purchases of land, for the purposes of the Company, influenced Her Majesty's Government to issue the latter proclamation, prohibiting for the future---subsequent to the date (14th January) of the proclamation, by Sir George Gipps in Sydney---all purchases of land in New Zealand, excepting from her Majesty's Government.

At the early part of the year, five large ships arrived at Port Nicholson with emigrants, under the auspices of the New Zealand Company, who were about forming a settlement there, and the number of persons located very soon exceeded one thousand.

On the 3rd February, the British inhabitants of the Bay of Islands addressed the Lieut.-Governor, expressing their loyalty to the British Crown, and

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AT BAY OF ISLANDS.

pledging themselves to aid His Excellency with their best exertions to establish order, law, and security for life and property in the Colony.

The serious and important, as well as difficult task of the Lieut.-Governor, to obtain from the native chiefs, their cession of the sovereignty of the Islands, commenced on the 5th February, 1840, when a conference was held between His Excellency and the chiefs of the confederation, as well as the high chiefs, who had not yet signed the declaration of independence.

This event may be considered as the first step towards British sovereignty in New Zealand, and it cannot be better described than in Captain Hobson's own words, in his despatch to Sir George Gipps.

"I have the honour to acquaint your Excellency, that immediately on my arrival here, I circulated notices, printed in the native language, that on this day I would hold a meeting of the chiefs of the confederation, and of the high chiefs who had not yet signed the declaration of independence, for the purpose of explaining to them the commands I had received from Her Majesty the Queen, and of laying before them the copy of a treaty which I had to propose for their consideration.

"Accordingly, a vast number of chiefs,, with a multitude of followers, crowded in from every quarter, and at 12 o'clock this day they assembled under spacious tents, decorated with flags which had been previously erected at Waitangi by Captain Nias of H. M. S. Herald. Preparatory to the meeting, I had

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ARRIVAL OF LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR

appointed a levee to be held at Mr. Busby's house at 11 o'clock, to which I invited all the principal European inhabitants, the members of the Church of England and Catholic Missions, and all the officers of H. M.S. Herald, and was highly gratified to find that nearly every one, either here or in the neighbourhood, favoured me with their attendance.

"Soon after 12, I proceeded to the tent, supported by Captain Nias and his officers, Mr. Busby the late resident, the members of the Church Missionary Society, the French Bishop, the officers of the Government, and all the principal European inhabitants in procession, and took my seat on a raised platform, surrounded by the gentlemen in the same order as they accompanied me. In the centre of the area, within the tents, the chiefs seated themselves on the ground, leaving a space around them for Europeans. The whole spectacle produced an imposing effect. The business of the meeting commenced by my announcing to the chiefs the objects of my mission, and the reason that had induced Her Majesty to appoint me. I explained, and I assured them in the most fervent manner, that they might implicitly rely on the good faith of Her Majesty's Government in the transaction.

"I then read the treaty, and in doing so I dwelt on each article, and offered a few remarks explanatory of such passages as they might be supposed not to understand.

" Mr.H Williams, of the Church Missionary Society, did me the favour to interpret, and repeated

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AT BAY OF ISLANDS.

in the native tongue, sentence by sentence, all I said.

"When I had finished reading the treaty, I invited the chiefs to ask explanations on any point they did not comprehend, and to make any observations or remarks on it they pleased. Twenty or thirty chiefs addressed the meeting, five or six of whom opposed me with great violence, and at one period with such effect and so cleverly, that I began to apprehend an unfavourable impression would be produced. At this crisis the Hokianga chiefs under Neni and Patawoni made their appearance, and nothing could have been more seasonable.

"It was evident, from the nature of the opposition, that some underhand influence had been at work. The chiefs Revewah and Jakahra, who are followers of the Catholic Bishop, were the principal opposers, and the arguments were such as convinced me they had been prompted.

"Revewah, while addressing me, turned to the chiefs and said---"Send the men away; do not sign the paper; if you do, you will be reduced to the condition of slaves; and be obliged to break stones for the roads. Your lands will be taken from you, and your dignity as chiefs will be destroyed."

"At the first pause Neni came forward, and spoke with a degree of natural eloquence that surprised all the Europeans, and evidently turned aside the temporary feeling which had been created. He first addressed himself to his own countrymen, desiring them to reflect on their own condition, to recollect

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TREATY WITH THE NATIVES

how much the character of New Zealanders had been exalted by their intercourse with Europeans, and how impossible it was for them to govern themselves without frequent wars and bloodshed, and he concluded his harangue by strenuously advising them to receive us and to place confidence in our promises. He then turned to me and said---"You must be our father! You must not allow us to become slaves! You must preserve our customs and never suffer our lands to be wrested from us!"

"One or two other chiefs, who were favourable, followed him in the same strain, and one reproached a noisy fellow named Kitigi, of the adverse party, with having spoken rudely to me. Kitigi, stung by the remark, sprung forward and shook me violently by the hand, and I received the salute apparently with equal ardour. This occasioned among the natives a general expression of applause, and a loud cheer from the Europeans, in which the natives joined, and thus the meeting closed, further consideration of the question being adjourned to Friday, at 11 o'clock, leaving one clear day to reflect on my proposal."

On Friday, the 7th of February, being perfectly satisfied, the chiefs were impatient to sign the treaty, that they might return to their homes. Without any further discussion the treaty was then signed by forty-six head chiefs in the presence of at least five hundred of inferior degree.

This treaty (Appendix C.) comprised only three articles. The first ceded to Her Majesty all the rights of sovereignty the chiefs possessed. The

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AT HOKIANGA.

second guaranteed on the part of the Queen to the chiefs, their tribes and families, full, exclusive and undisturbed possession of their lands, estates, forests, fisheries, and other properties, which they might wish to possess, so long as they desired to retain them, but the chiefs yielded and granted to Her Majesty exclusive right of pre-emption to purchase all lands the natives might be disposed at any time to alienate. In consideration of which Her Majesty, by the third article, imparted to the natives all the rights and privileges of British subjects.

The acquiescence and acknowledgment of the various powerful chiefs and tribes of the Bay of Islands to the Treaty, although most important, yet ceded the sovereignty to the Queen only over their territories, and it was necessary to obtain similar concessions from all the chiefs, more particularly in the Northern island. At Hokianga, the Lieut.-Governor met, on the 12th February, 1840, between 400 and 500 chiefs of different degrees, with their tribes, amounting to nearly 6000 natives. The same reluctance and opposition were manifested as at the Bay of Islands. The great chiefs, who are chiefly orators, are as fond of displaying their powers, as their tribes are of hearing them, and they all were energetically opposed to signing the treaty. To this opposition they had been instigated by the influence of the Roman Catholic Bishop and his priests, and likewise by the misrepresentations of the low European characters, who had been for some time resident among the natives.

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TREATY WITH THE NATIVES AT HOKIANGA.

The motives of these two parties were widely different, but their united efforts to prejudice the minds of the natives and to excite their fears, by alleging the cession of the sovereignty would be followed by taking possession of all their land, had naturally great weight with the natives, to whom the distinction between---"cession of sovereignty," ---and actual possession of the land, could be but imperfectly, if at all, understood.

The conduct of the natives on this occasion, as well as on all others, of discussion of this most important act, affecting as it does their vital interests as a people, is most powerful evidence of their mental powers and qualifications, and of how much might be accomplished with them under proper instruction and judicious management.

It is a practice of the natives to have lengthened discussions among themselves---sometimes for a whole day---on any subject affecting the tribe individually or collectively---and it is to their patience in hearing every one before decision, that may be attributed the success of Captain Hobson in overcoming the opposition, by impressing on the natives "that if they listened to the counsel of such a worthless class, as the Europeans living among them, who consult no interest but their own, and who would sacrifice the native rights at any time, for their own purposes,---they would very soon be stripped of all their land:---Her Majesty had sent him to New Zealand, to protect the natives from such people, and he asked from them the authority to do so."

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SPEECH OF A NATIVE CHIEF, AT KAITAIA.

This had the desired effect on the leading chiefs, the treaty was signed, and followed by the usual ceremonies of friendship---native war dance---firing of muskets, and feasting of the whole tribes.

In the districts northward of the Bay of Islands, the tribes were visited by the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Shortland, and assembled at Kaitaia, where the debate was conducted in the usual manner, and some of the chiefs stated, that they had been informed that the Queen would make them all slaves, and take away their lands, and they also said they had been asked to join the Hokianga and Ngaponi tribes in a plot, to cut off the white people: but that they would not do so. The assent and signature of sixty principal chiefs, was given after an address from the principal chief of Kaitaia, Nopera, which, for intelligence and as a specimen of native oratory, is worthy of attentive perusal. It is a translation, from notes taken at the time, by the Rev. R. Taylor.

"Hear, all of you, Pakehas (English), and Maoris. This is my speech.--- My desire is that we should be all of one heart. Speak your words openly; speak as you mean to act; do not say one thing and mean another. I am at your head. I wish you all to have the governor. We are saved by this. Let every one say yes, as I do. We have now somebody to look up to. Some say it will be the Pakehas who will offend, I say no; it will be the Maoris. My grandfather brought the Pakehas to this very spot, and the chiefs agreed with what

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SPEECH OF A NATIVE CHIEF.

my grandfather did. He went on board the ship, and got trade. He spread it through the land. Let us act right as my ancestors did. The Pakehas went to the Bay of Islands and were murdered. Let us do them no harm. What has the governor done wrong. The shadow of the land goes to Queen Victoria, but the substance remains with us. We will go to the governor, and get a payment for our land as before. If the Ngaponi commit evil they will suffer. We have always been friendly with the Pakehas. We never went in ships to England or Port Jackson, to buy arms to kill our countrymen. If you want to be cut off, go and fight the governor. Do not, like the chiefs at Hokianga, wish to kill the governor. Live peaceably with the Pakehas. We have now a helmsman. One said, 'let me steer,' and another said, 'let me steer,' and we never went straight. Be jealous; look well into your own hearts and commit no evil. The natives did wrong at the Bay and suffered. What man of sense would believe that the governor would take our goods, and only give us half of it? If you have any thing else to say, say it; but if not, finish; and all of you say, yes---say, yes."

In consequence of the illness of the Lieutenant-Governor, Major Bunbury, 80th regiment, was dispatched in H. M. S. Herald, Captain Nias, to the eastern and southern coasts of the North island, to the Middle and South island, to obtain the acquiescence of the various tribes to the treaty of Waitangi. He visited Coromandel Harbour at the mouth of the

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TREATY ON THE EAST COAST.

Thames, where one of the principal chiefs remarked, "that he saw no necessity for placing himself under the dominion of any Prince or Queen, who might govern the white men as they pleased, as he was desirous of continuing to govern his own tribe."

At Tauranga, in the Bay of Plenty, on the eastern coast of the North island, a most populous district, little or no opposition was offered by the natives, to their adherence to the treaty, except by one of the principal chiefs, who, when asked for his signature, said, "Now let us talk a little. Who was the first stranger who visited our shores?" On being---told Cook, he remarked, "And who was Cook's King; was his name not Georgi?" On being answered "Yes;"--- "And who then," continued he, "is this Queen?" This was all explained to him, and that the Queen's great object was to put an end to wars among them, when he observed: "If your nation is so fond of peace, why have you introduced into this country fire-arms and gunpowder?" After many other equally pertinent remarks on various points, he and his fellow chiefs signed the treaty.

Major Bunbury proclaimed the Queen's authority over the Southern or Stewart's Island, on the 5th June, 1840, and it is a singular circumstance that Captain Stewart, who had discovered the island in 1809, and after whom it is named, was on board Her M. S. Herald, at the time, he having accompanied the expedition from Mercury Bay as pilot. From Stewart's Island H. M. S. Herald proceeded

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TREATY WITH THE NATIVES

to Robuka, or Long Island, in Foveaux's Straits, where the tribe of the warrior chief Tooiaki, or Bloody Jack, reside. This chief has become the head of his tribe and other chiefs by his talents in war, which is frequently the case, as with Rauparaha at Kapiti, and Warepori at Port Nicholson. He now disowns his English appellation, and has only his native name of Tooiaki. This chief went on board the Herald frigate in the full dress staff uniform of a British aid-de-camp, with gold-laced trowsers, cocked-hat, and plume, in which he looked extremely well, and his behaviour at Captain Nias' table, where he took tea, shewed that the examples he had seen had not been lost upon him; he was also accompanied by a native orderly sergeant, dressed in corresponding costume. The chief spoke a little English, and appeared to be aware of the nature of the treaty, but which it was thought necessary to have read and explained to him by Mr. Hesketh, resident on the island, and he signed it without hesitation. He said he had at his village twenty men dressed and in training as British soldiers, and was very anxious that Captain Nias should permit them to come on board the following morning, and see the marines go through the manual and platoon exercise, which he kindly acceded to. On the chief taking leave, Major Bunbury told him he should return his visit on the morrow, which he did, accompanied by Lieutenant Hewett, Royal Marines, Captain Stewart, whom the chief knew well, and Mr. Williams the interpreter.

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ON THE MIDDLE ISLAND.

They were received by the chief in the same scarlet uniform he had worn the day before, and by the sergeant who then accompanied him, at the head of six soldiers dressed in British uniform, but without hats or shoes. Tooiaki took them to his cottage, a weather-boarded hut, and offered them rum, of which he seemed to have a good supply, but Mr. Hesketh stated, to the credit of the natives, that although they do not absolutely refrain from spirituous liquors, they very seldom are intoxicated. He introduced his son to them, a fine boy about seven years of age, of whom Tooiaki was very fond. The boy was dressed very becomingly, and had six toes on each foot, which his father exhibited with much satisfaction. The chief, his son, two other chiefs, the sergeant, and six soldiers, with many natives, returned with the party to the frigate. The soldiers of the chief and natives having arranged themselves on deck, the marines went through their manual and platoon exercise as had been promised, and afterwards Captain Nias permitted a few sailors to go through the sword exercise, which pleased and interested them much, particularly the attack and defence, the chief frequently calling to his followers, to pay attention and see how it was performed.

At Cloudy Bay,---where the Herald met with five American, one French, and one Bremen whaling-vessels, after having visited Otako, in which harbour were two American and two French whaling vessels ---the head chief Nohorua, brother of Rauparaha of Kapiti, with other chief's, his relatives, refused to

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TREATY WITH THE NATIVES

sign the treaty, under the impression that if they did so, their lands would be taken from them: but they behaved very civilly, and promised to go on board the following morning.

On the following morning some of the chiefs from other coves adjoining that which had been visited the preceding evening went on board; these did not hesitate to sign the treaty when it was explained to them: a young chief of the name of Mawipu was particularly intelligent: he spoke a little English, and said he had been at Hobart Town, and on board Her Majesty's ship Conway. When told, after he had read the treaty, of the difficulty experienced at the neighbouring cove, he said: "that tribe was not singular, and that most of the natives imagined that they were asked to sign, in order that the Queen might afterwards take their lands from them." Both Mr. Williams and Captain Stewart, well conversant with the native language, were surprised at the very clear manner in which he. explained to another chief, the nature of the second article of the treaty, which relates to the land and property of the natives, and he offered and went on shore to explain it to the others. The old chief, named Nohorua, then, on condition that his signature was witnessed by his English son-in-law, agreed to sign, in order, as he said, should his grand-children lose their land, their father might share the blame.

A number of other chiefs went on board, and all expressed a wish to sign, except three brothers, nephews of Nohorua; the wife of one of these was very

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ON THE MIDDLE ISLAND.

anxious to sign, saying that she was a daughter of the celebrated chief Pehi, who was killed at Akaroa; she appeared very angry when she was not permitted.

To shew how much these people have been harassed about their lands, and how-jealous they are in preserving this species of property, they all objected to receive presents after signing, lest by some quibble it might be construed into a payment for its surrender, until they were repeatedly assured to the contrary.

The declaration of sovereignty over Tavai Poenammoo, or Middle Island, was made on the 17th of June, 1840, in Cloudy Bay, by Major Bunbury, 80th regiment. The marines from H. M. S. Herald, Captain Nias, were landed, the yards were manned, and the union jack hoisted at the Pa on shore, under a salute of twenty-one guns.

The whole of the three islands had been previously declared, by proclamation of his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, to be under the sovereignty of Her Majesty, on the 21st of May, 1840,