1859 - Thomson, A. S. The Story of New Zealand [Vol.I] - Part I. The Country and its Native Inhabitants - CHAPTER V. DIVISIONS AMONG THE PEOPLE.--PROPERTY.--LAWS.

[Image of page 88]

CHAP. V.

DIVISIONS AMONG THE PEOPLE.----PROPERTY.--LAWS.

THE New Zealanders are divided into nations and tribes, a patriarchal mode of classification which was brought by the first settlers from Polynesia. The chiefs of the canoes from Hawaiki were the first rulers, but as the settlers multiplied, new districts were successively occupied, and these offshoots grew into distinct nations. Thus it happened during the course of years that some New Zealand nations, like the illustrious families in Europe, or the clans in Scotland, grew powerful, while others decayed, and a few ceased to exist.

It is worthy of remark, that among the New Zealand nations there were wars, alliances, and disputes, similar to what occurred among the great European commonwealths.

Eighteen historical nations of New Zealanders occupy the country. At the north part of the North Island live the Rarewa nation, which numbers 2300 souls, having Kaitaia for its principal settlement. About the commencement of the present century the Rarewa conquered and enslaved a considerable nation called the Auipouri holding possessions in their immediate neighbourhood.

[Image of page 89]

Bordering on the Rarewa country live the Ngapuhi nation, now numbering 5400 souls. From the years 1810 to 1840, this powerful nation carried on extensive foreign and civil wars, during the former of which they were almost always victorious, because the Ngapuhi was the first nation in New Zealand which obtained firearms, and that mental development which savages invariably acquire from intercourse with civilised men.

Occupying the largest river in the country, possessing some of the finest districts for cultivation, numbering 9800 souls, and intimately connected with each other are the powerful Waikato and Ngatimaniopoto nations.

Enclosed between the Ngapuhi and Waikato nations, and mingled with the English settlers around Auckland, live the Ngatiwhatua, a brave, honest, and once powerful race, now reduced by constant forays from their hostile neighbours to 800 persons.

On the islands, and in the beautiful bays and rivers in the Houraki Gulf, and along the banks of that stream Cook dignified by the name of the River Thames, live the blood-connected Ngatipaoa and Ngatimaru nations. Together their numbers amount to 5000 souls. From the easy water communication these nations have with Auckland, they live on luxuries derived from the sale of fish and garden produce.

Along a portion of the sea coast of that fertile district Cook justly called the Bay of Plenty, on the banks of the Waitara river, near Taranaki, and on both sides of Cook's Strait, live the bold and adventurous Ngatiawa nation. Reckoning these widely scattered people as one, although they arrived in different canoes from Hawaiki, their numbers amount to 4000 souls. As an indication of the migratory spirit which actuates this

[Image of page 90]

race, it may be mentioned that in 1838 a portion of them paid an English trader to convey them from Port Nicholson to the Chatham Islands, the inhabitants of which group they conquered and enslaved.

At Maketu on the coast of the Bay of Plenty, and around the borders of the Rotorua, Tara Wera, and other lakes of that interesting geological district, live the Ngatiwhakaue nation, a people numbering 3200, and distinguished for having good noses and Jewish features. This nation, separated by forests, mountains, and rivers from the haunts of the Anglo-Saxon settlers, have lagged behind their countrymen in civilisation, although 200 adventurous spirits from among them have migrated to the neighbourhood of Auckland for the purpose of fishing and digging kauri gum. Among the Ngatiwhakaue still linger some of the ancient customs of the New Zealanders.

At Opotiki and Oheva, in the Bay of Plenty, live the Whakatowhea nation, an industrious people numbering 2600 souls, and possessing twenty vessels, each upwards of twenty tons' burden, in which they convey their produce to the Auckland market.

Around that cape which stretches far to the east, and is dreaded by local mariners, live the Ngatiporu nation, numbering 4000 souls, and celebrated for weaving kaitaka mats, the finest native manufacture in the country.

Connected with the above by blood, and occupying the east coast from Poverty Bay to Cape Palliser, live 4000 souls known as the Ngatikahungunu nation, formerly famous, like their neighbours the Ngatiporu, for weaving mats, but now known as extensive wool cultivators and flock-owners.

Around the margin of that inland sea called Lake

[Image of page 91]

Taupo are congregated 2000 souls of various origin, known by the general name of the Ngatituwharetoa. Among this nation the women still weave coarse mats, which are exchanged with the sea-coast natives for dried fish.

Westward from that elegant-shaped mountain which Cook named Egmont live 1500 souls, known over the land as the Taranaki nation, a name synonymous with slavery and cowardice, because from among them Ngapuhi and Waikato warriors captured slaves to hew wood and draw water.

Between Cape Egmont, and near unto where the Wanganui river falls into the sea, live the Ngatiruanui, a nation celebrated as worm-eaters, and numbering 2000 souls. This nation has not yet forgotten how their people were slaughtered by Commander Lambert in H.M.S. "Alligator" in 1834, and keep, as mementoes of their treatment, some of the shot thrown at them. They are the powerful practical supporters of the anti-landselling league.

Both banks of the Wanganui river, from its source at the base of Tongariro to its exit at the sea, are occupied by the Ngatihau nation, a people numbering 3000 souls, called by the Anglo-Saxon settlers the Wanganui tribes.

Between the Wanganui river and the island of Kapiti live the Ngatiraukaua, and different portions of several other nations. The whole population of the district has been estimated at 2500.

In the sheltered coves and sounds on both sides of Cook's Strait live the Ngatitoa nation; an intelligent and turbulent race, not numbering more than 1000 souls, but intimately connected with other nations by ancestry and marriage.

[Image of page 92]

Several tribes belonging to this nation migrated about 1820 from Kawhia and Maungatautari to Cook's Strait. The Ngatitoa, like the tribes scattered along the sea coast, are distinguished for an energy unknown to those living monotonous inland lives, and conflicts with a boisterous sea have strongly developed their physical and moral powers.

On the east coast of the Middle Island, from Cape Campbell to the neighbourhood of Otago, are scattered 1500 persons known by the names Ngaitahu and Rangitane. These nations, driven away from Cook's Strait by Rauparaha, sprang from the Ngatikahungunu, and migrated from the North to the Middle Island two centuries ago, in the hope of obtaining possession of the district in which the invaluable greenstone is found.

In several sheltered sounds of the iron-bound west coast of the Middle Island, and around the borders of the unexplored lakes in the interior, live a few scattered New Zealanders, rarely seen unless by whalers or sealers, who, like gipsies, wander about from place to place. These are the remnants of the Maori, whom the Rangitane nation almost extirpated on their arrival in the Middle Island, and are denominated the Ngatimamoe. This almost extinct nation was a colony from Wanganui.

These eighteen great nations are again subdivided into many tribes, and an idea of the extent to which this is carried may be drawn from the following return, showing the number of tribes among 3704 people of the Ngatikahungunu nation. 1

[Image of page 93]

Name of Sub-division, or Hapu.
1. Ngatirangirangi.
2. Ngatimoe.
3. Ngatiraiuri.
4. Ngatikurumokiki.
5. Ngatitu.
6. Ngatimawete.
7. Ngatihekawera.
8. Ngatimatepu.
9. Ngatihinepare.
10. Ngatihineura.
11. Ngatiparau.
12. Ngatihori.
13. Ngatirangikoraanake.
14. Ngatimatehaere.
15. Ngatipoporo.
16. Te Paneiri.
17. Ngaitekura.
18. Ngaitewatiuapiti.
19. Ngaitemawakawa.
20. Ngatingaweke.
21. Ngatikurukuru.
22. Ngatipahoro.
23. Ngatikahukuranui.
24. Ngatihamiti.
25. Ngatipohoi.
26. Ngaititu.
27. Ngatirongomaiaua.
28. Ngatituranga.
29. Ngatimahu.
30. Ngaiteao.
31. Ngatihinewaka.
32. Hamua.
33. Ngatimaru.
34. Te Matemahue.
35. Te Kirikowatu.
36. Ngatiruatapu.
37. Ngaitahu.
38. Te Parupuwa.
39. Ngatikaingaahi.
40. Te Matehau.
41. Ngatiwakarere.
42. Ngatikainoke.
43. Ngatiaomataura.
44. Ngatitutaiaroa.
45. Ngatimutwahi.

This census table shows there were forty-five subdivisions among 3704 persons, or on an average 82 persons in each tribe. Mr. Colenso states that he was unable to ascertain all the subdivisions among them, but he thinks there must have been at least fifty more than he has given.

Taking this valuable census as a specimen of the whole of the New Zealand nations, it is obvious a tribe was composed of several families, and a nation of a collection of tribes.

Each tribe acknowledged one man as its head, who with the tribe acknowledged the chief of the nation as their lawful lord.

That the New Zealand tribes were at first families is obvious from the prefix Ngati, which is applied to most of them, signifying offspring. Ngati therefore corresponds with the Irish 0 and the Scotch Mac.

[Image of page 94]

Every nation contained six classes of persons: --

The Ariki, or priest and chief, corresponding to the king.

The Tana, or next in succession, corresponding to the royal family.

The Rangatira, or chieftains, corresponding to the nobility.

The Tutua, or middle classes.

The Ware, or lower classes.

The Taurakareka, or slaves.

These six ranks are not well defined, and are rarely distinguished unless by those who have carefully inquired into the subject. The name of king is placed opposite the term Ariki, but perhaps pope would be more applicable, as the Ariki possessed both spiritual and temporal power. The individuals composing these ranks rarely changed from one to another, although there was a movement among the first five; but this movement was generally downwards, rarely upwards.

The terms selected as translations of the different names of classes among the New Zealanders must not convey the idea that the king and royal family were distinguished and hedged round with regal splendour, for such was not the case. It is true slaves were easily distinguished, not from dress but from being noisy and talkative; while chiefs were known from possessing dignity of manners, and that noble feeling of self-respect which renders dishonour worse than death.

Chiefs were the eldest sons of the eldest branches of families, the direct descendants from the ancient leaders of the emigrants from Hawaiki. Primogeniture was therefore the law which conferred upon men the rank of chiefs, and chiefs alone possessed surnames: other

[Image of page 95]

men had names given to them at childhood, which they retained through life. But chiefs had usually three names: the first, given to them by their mothers, were pet terms; the next were bestowed on them by the priests, and were assumed at manhood; while the last were taken at their fathers' death, and were family names.

In default of male issue the chieftainship of the nation went into the female branch. Occasionally the eldest son of a chief was incapacitated to succeed to the purple, from deficiency of ability or from having been a slave. Talented men in war or oratory, belonging to the third or Rangatira class, might obtain influence greater than the legal chiefs, which acquired power might be transmitted to their children; still the hereditary chief was not dethroned, for in anything connected with land he was the man of most influence. The office of chief and priest were often united. Chiefs by birth were recognised as holding office by divine right: they had civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and spiritual and temporal powers, but they could not declare peace or war, or do anything affecting the whole people, without the sanction of the majority of the clan.

The opinions of chiefs were held in more estimation than those of others, simply because they were believed to give utterance to the thoughts of deified men. No dazzling pageantry hedged them round, but their persons were sacred; they were, however, more feared than respected, for, indeed, there is no word in the language which expresses respect. Many of them believed themselves inspired; thus Te Heu Heu, the great Taupo chief and priest, shortly before he was swallowed up by

[Image of page 96]

a landslip, said to a European missionary: "Think not that I am a man, that my origin is of the earth. I come from the heavens; my ancestors are all there; they are gods, and I shall return to them."

Intimately connected with the office of chief are the rights of landed property, and Naboth was not more attached to his vineyard, the inheritance of his fathers, than the New Zealanders are to their lands. It is necessary to go back to the early settlers to explain how titles to landed property are regulated. On the arrival of the emigrants from Hawaiki in New Zealand each chief took possession of a district, which became his property and the property of all his followers. No outside boundary line was made, nor were there boundary marks defining each man's property. The chief had the first right to the whole district, then his eldest son, and then the second son; but all free persons, male and female, constituting the nation were proprietors of the soil. As the people increased the number of landed proprietors also increased, and the exact relationship each bore to the chief was forgotten. Notwithstanding this ignorance, all knew they had a legal right to the land, and no part of it could be given away without their sanction. The chiefs share of the land was admitted to be the largest, because he was nearest in descent to the chief who first took possession of it. Land descended to males in preference to females, in virtue of the law of primogeniture. Conquest and occupation gave titles to land. The right of fishing in rivers and in the sea belonged to the adjoining landed proprietors. Land lying between nations occupied by neither is the property of both, and boundary lines are always ill defined.

[Image of page 97]

Amongst the families of each tribe there are also laws regarding landed property. Thus the cultivation of a portion of forest land renders it the property of those who cleared it, and this right descended from generation to generation. But this individual claim did not give the individual the right to dispose of it to Europeans. It was, however, illegal for one family to plant in another's clearing without permission; and an interesting dispute on this very point lately occurred at Tara Wera. Five generations ago two sisters had given to them, as a marriage portion, a piece of land, and the eldest sister's husband cultivated the whole clearing for several years. When potatoes were introduced into New Zealand the youngest sister's husband planted them in the ground, which spot of land her descendants had ever since cultivated. In 1852 the eldest sister's descendants wished to resume the land, but the youngest sister's progeny denied they had any right to it. War parties were collected, and the question in dispute would have led to a conflict had not Mr. T. Smith, the resident magistrate at Rotorua, settled it amicably, by dividing the land equally between the descendants of the two sisters.

Land was given by one tribe to another for cultivation, but land was never given away for ever. The English settlers consider the New Zealanders more as transient guests on the land than permanent proprietors, in consequence of the little change they have made on the earth's surface by cultivation; for, like ancient Germans, they rarely take two crops in succession out of the same spot.

Although landed property was universally recognised, the individualisation of movable property was unknown.

[Image of page 98]

Rolling stones gather no moss, consequently this custom proved a barrier to the acquisition of movable property. Conservatism, that principle of social progress, did not exist. Heaping up riches, unless to squander, was disgraceful; and warriors, in place of bequeathing their valuables to their children, had them placed along with their bones in sepulchres.

From the community of property among the New Zealanders no man could become rich, and no man poor. Schemers and speculators never reduced families to starvation, and in the whole country no unhappy individual ever died from starvation. Every one enjoyed a rude competence of the goods of the land, and a dread of the hard fare of the workhouse never crossed the minds of men.

The independence and social happiness of the people were chiefly caused by cultivating their own lands; consequently each independent tribe governed itself, and this was done in accordance with public opinion and the laws of the Tapu. The former was expressed at the assemblies of the people, the latter were well known and promulgated by the priests.

As all persons, male and female, possessed a right to express their opinions at the assemblies of the people gathered together for the administration of justice, it may be inferred favouritism was unknown. There were, however, certain well-defined principles acted upon on these occasions, which could not be avoided; thus, an injury done to one member of a tribe by an individual belonging to another tribe was resented as an injury to the whole tribe, while insults or injuries inflicted by members of the same tribe were only visited upon the actual offenders. The great principle of justice upon

[Image of page 99]

which the New Zealanders acted was an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and the object of all their punishments was to obtain compensation for injuries, not to prevent crimes. The recognised modes of obtaining redress between different tribes were unjust, innocent persons being made sufferers for others' faults. There were no public roads; foot-paths existed between villages, but none of these were made or kept in repair, they were merely foot-prints unintentionally made by travellers.

The New Zealanders were, therefore, democratic in respect to civil independence, but aristocratic in regard to birth. There is no word in the Asiatic language signifying "republic," but there are two words expressive of that meaning in the New Zealand tongue. Although the clannish divisions among them resembled the feudal system in Europe, there was no analogy between their respective governments, the former being a republic, the latter a despotism. The New Zealand mode of government bound the people strongly together, and friends were known in the hour of need. When strife prevailed among nations, connexions even to the most remote degree of propinquity were regarded, while honour and a means of future security kept benefits and injuries in remembrance.

As men must be compelled or persuaded to obey, the influence of oratory among the New Zealanders affords the best evidence of their republican government and universal freedom. The most effective harangues were made up of recitations from ancient poetry, and there was a regular mode of doing this. Orators at first selected quotations dimly shadowing forth their opinions. Such figurative language excited the curiosity and

[Image of page 100]

ingenuity of the assembly to detect their intentions. Quotation after quotation made their meaning more clear, and when the speakers were influential men, and held opinions in unison with the majority of the people, each quotation as it developed their meaning was received with murmurs of applause. To prevent mistakes, orators, before they concluded, almost invariably made their wishes known in some quotation not to be misunderstood. Then the whole assembly applauded the orators for their poetic knowledge, and their oratorical art in making manifest under beautiful metaphors their real opinions.

During the above orations, the speakers walked between two points distant seven or eight paces, brandishing spears, meris, or tomahawks; one sentence was uttered in advancing, and silence observed in returning to the starting-point. The arguments used would have had little influence on an assembly of Englishmen, as everything was referred to some standard of right and wrong peculiar to themselves.

New Zealand orations, like epic poems, had certain fixed rules of construction. Speeches were prefaced by songs and poetic quotations, after which the first part of the oration was delivered in prose, then the speakers broke off into another series of poetic extracts, and then came the conclusion of the harangue.

It has been already mentioned that the New Zealanders, in addition to the laws of the people, were ruled by the laws of the Tapu. This code, placed far above human laws, formed their Commandments, and may be described as a code which derived its authority from superstition, fear, political motives, and common sense; but its origin is forgotten. The primary meaning

[Image of page 101]

of the Maori word tapu is "sacred;" tabut is a Malay word, and is rendered "the Ark of the Covenant of God;" taboot is a Hindoo word signifying "a bier," "a coffin," or "the Ark of the Covenant;" ta is the Sanscrit word "to mark," and pu, to "purify." 2 Such a collection of words proves beyond a doubt that the system of the Tapu has sprung from a source too remote to be traced with certainty; but the Hebrew laws, the Brahminical institutes of Menu, and the Tapu among the New Zealanders possess features of resemblance indicating a common origin. The system is at present confined to the true Polynesian race in the South Seas; but they are not the inventors of the code. The Mahomedan laws and other agencies have completely obliterated every trace, save the word from among the modern Malays, and Christianity is fast doing the same among the New Zealanders.

According to the laws of the New Zealand Tapu, certain persons and things were always sacred. These were,--the bodies of chiefs and priests, and everything connected with these dignitaries, who had likewise the power of imposing the Tapu on others; human flesh; dead bodies, and everything which touched the dead; persons engaged in planting sweet potatoes; food and seed-houses; sick persons; the first sweet potatoes dug up, and the first fish caught in the season; slaves attending on sacred persons; the sticks upon which priests kept memorial records of their ancestors; war parties; persons weaving nets; fishing expeditions; the wood of old houses; and food which has touched anything tapu.

Various other things and persons were temporarily

[Image of page 102]

tapued for certain objects; such as trees likely to make good canoes, rivers, roads, particular tracts of country, fishing grounds, places where mutton birds lay their eggs, and sands abounding in edible shells; in short it was in the power of the chiefs and priests to tapu anything. As a general rule, whatever related to chiefs and priests was sacred, whatever related to food and cooking was unclean.

There was no ceremony on the imposition of the tapu. Chiefs or priests simply denominated whatever they wanted to be sacred as their head or back-bone. Places always sacred were well known; those made so for a certain time were marked by a ridiculous wooden image of a man daubed over with red earth, or by tying to the tapued object a bunch of human hair or a piece of an old mat.

The imposition of the tapu affected persons and things thus. Neither chiefs nor priests were required to labour in the field, and whatever they touched became sacred. As it was unlawful for tapued persons to touch food with their fingers, chiefs were fed by slaves, and persons tapued who were not possessed of slaves had to eat their food like dogs. It was therefore a severe punishment for a poor man to become tapu. The blood of a chief spilt by accident rendered the ground or object upon which it fell sacred. It was unlawful to sail or fish on tapued rivers, or to cultivate or pass over tapued districts. Tapued persons entering houses made them sacred and unfit for use. Priests and chiefs were consequently excluded from holding social intercourse with the people. Food which was tapued, such as the first fish caught and the first sweet potatoes dug up, was set apart for the gods, and not eaten by men. The

[Image of page 103]

length of time a spot remained sacred, upon which a dead body had rested, depended on the rank of the deceased. Two years was no unusual period. Should a tapued person touch a basket of potatoes they were thrown away. Persons became tapu by touching sacred things, and until the tapu was removed out of them they were excluded from society. This prohibition of itself made men careful of touching sacred things.

Violators of the tapu were punished by the gods and also by men. The former sent sickness and death; the latter inflicted death, loss of property, and expulsion from society. It was a dread of the gods, more than of men, which upheld the tapu. Human eyes might be deceived, but the eyes of the gods could never be deceived. Chiefs and priests who violated their part, or allowed others to do so, were punished by the gods. Should one tribe desecrate another's sacred places, war ensued. Europeans occasionally lost their lives upon violating sacred places during the early days of their intercourse with these islands. Marion de Fresne's unhappy fate in New Zealand, and Cook's melancholy end at the Sandwich Islands, were produced by intruding on sacred places.

Persons who could impose the tapu possessed the power of removing it. The ceremonies on each occasion differed in different tribes. Among some, prayers were said and food cooked, part of which was set apart for the gods; among others, the tapued person eat food from children's hands, in which case the children were sacred for twenty-four hours; and amongst others, priests stood over tapued persons with branches of korokio trees in their hands, upon which they spat and touched the shoulders of the tapued with them, saying:--

[Image of page 104]

"0 fearful and dreaded tapu, get you hence!
"Now thou art being put down and taken out of the way.
"Go to the streams and wade through them.
"These are the waters which the sun is to cross so that he may be free."

The priests and tapued persons after this ceremony returned to the place where food was cooking; and, taking leaves or bits of mat out of the ovens, they cast them over the roofs of houses and then leapt twice after the articles. Then the leaves or bits of mat were put back into the ovens from which they had been taken, and by this strange process the tapu was occasionally cast out of men.

Cooking food was invariably requisite for the proper eradication of the tapu. All prayers connected with its removal show that its imposition was an evil and its departure a blessing. For example: "The tapu is here; the tapu is being removed to a distant place, that tapu which held thee. Take away the dread, take away the power, take away the greatness, take away the fear; the tapu is being borne away, and the tapued person is free."

The system of Tapu has been universally described as a degrading superstition, by civilised men who contrast savages with themselves. But it is unjust to test the customs of the New Zealanders by the standard of the present day in England, although they who examine the code closely find several of the laws which the tapu enforced flourishing in England under different names. If a New Zealander were to write a history of England for the use of his countrymen, he would relate that, at certain seasons of the year, the fish in the rivers and

[Image of page 105]

the birds in the air were tapued; that land is held so sacred that persons walking over it are punished; that among Roman Catholic tribes animal flesh is forbidden for food at certain seasons; and that thousands of persons are shut up in prison, and cast into slavery, for violating the numerous tapues in England.

The New Zealand system of Tapu will bear comparison with the laws flourishing in England not a thousand years ago. Does there not exist occasionally in the present day a belief in the divine right of kings and of certain priests? Several laws enforced by the New Zealand tapu are in accordance with the seventh commandment. Tapuing seeds and fields are types of the English laws for protecting out-door property; women tapued to men is matrimony; tapuing sick persons is analogous to the quarantine orders against lepers, the plague and the yellow fever. Every tapu relating to the dead is a law against sacrilege, and tapuing rivers and lands to annoy enemies finds a parallel in the modern system of blockade.

For every local prohibition which the tapu permitted chiefs to impose there was some good reason. Occasionally it may have been imposed unjustly, but the feeling of a republican community soon had it removed. The New Zealanders could not have been governed without some code of laws analogous to the tapu. Warriors submitted to the supposed decrees of the gods who would have spurned with contempt the orders of men, and it was better the people should be ruled by superstition than by brute force.

The tapu still lingers among the New Zealanders, but in a very modified state. That part of the code referring to the dead continues to be respected. Belief in Chris-

[Image of page 106]

tianity and the tapu are incompatible, although many good native Christians cannot obliterate from their minds every vestige of their old faith on this grave subject. One curious remnant has found its way into modern civilisation. A field of wheat is set aside or tapued for the purpose of purchasing a horse, a plough, or a ship, and no temptation will induce its owner to appropriate the money received from the sale of this wheat to any other purpose than that for which it was planted.