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Page 24.

There never was any "dark intimation" whatever by the Governor. His declarations were publicly made, and perfectly well understood by all those who for five years had been slaying each other in disputes about land. The Rev. Richard Taylor, a Church Missionary, says that the murder of Rawiri Waiaua was the first fruit of the establishment of the land league, which had been formed by many tribes at the general meeting at Manawapou in the Ngatiruanui country. The Ngatiawas perfectly well knew what the Governor meant when he said he would no longer suffer the existence of anarchy and bloodshed in the settlement, and that he would no longer tolerate the tyranny of the land league by which they had been caused. Every one of the feuds which had occurred were founded on disputes about land. Nearly all were the result of resistance to the mandates of the land league, by loyal Natives like Rawiri and Ihaia, who claimed the guarantee of their proprietary rights under the Treaty of Waitangi, and the fulfilment of the pledges given by Governor Fitzroy and Governor Grey. It was because Wiremu Kingi had broken his distinct engagement to settle on the north bank of the river that these disputes occurred: and there was not a single Native present at the meeting of March, 1859, who was not perfectly well aware that the Governor's declaration was in strict accordance with the promises of former Governors, and inaugurated no new system of land purchase whatever.