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Sport 26: Autumn 2001
VIII The Undisturbed Ownership
VIII The Undisturbed Ownership
1
The tiers were piled with food—potatoes, dried
shark, eels, pork, oxen, pumpkin
and kumara.
Fine mats were displayed in piles, pound notes pinned
to pieces of string. A man
could stand between the tiers—the feast platform
was seven men tall.
The posts bore labels: Hamene—mutterings
that the feast was overdue. Takariri—we are angry
we have not provided enough.
Afterwards the tower was cut down for firewood,
and the site was never touched.
2
Beams
and rafters
painted in red
and white. The rafters
carved at the ends.
The roof raupo, the walls
totara bark
tied with flax.
The door at the centre and at each end
a large window.
3
The island of Kapiti
was claimed by five different parties—
each declaring they had purchased it, but each
naming a different price.
In much the same way
the district of Porirua
was claimed by eight separate parties,
each claiming Te Rauparaha had sold it to them,
each claiming the chief had offered the undisturbed ownership of
these lands
to him
alone.
4
A Mr Webster, an
American, claims to have purchased
40 miles of frontage
on the west side of the River Piako;
a Mr Painham claims nearly the whole
of the north coast
of the Northern Island;
a Mr Wentworth, of
New South Wales, asserts his right to 20,100,000 acres
in the Middle Island;
Catlin & Co. to 7,000,000;
Weller & Co. to 3,557,000;
Jones & Co. to 1,930,000;
Peacock & Co. to 1,450,000;
Green & Co. to 1,377,000;
Guard & Co. to 1,200,00;
and the New Zealand Company, 20,000,000.