Chapter II.

1840—1844.

The misgivings and partial opposition occasioned by the proceedings of the British authorities, and recent settlers in the northern part of New Zealand, as well as the jealousy roused by the sudden arrival of large bodies of colonists in Cook's Strait, were neutralised for a time by the attractive advantages of a brisk trade with these new-comers, whose demand for pigs, potatoes, fish, and native labour, was unprecedented and very lucrative. By the payment received for these, and for their lands, the natives in the vicinity of the Pakeha^* settlements became rich in the estimation of their remoter countrymen, and were not a little envied.

Eagerness to trade, and to have settlers near them, overcame all other considerations during 1840, and 1841; but in 1842 the tide began to turn. More settlers arrived in every ship. The natives were not only treated with less caution and less kindness than previously, but they were threatened, even on trifling occasions, with the punishments of English law;^† and they were told by ill-disposed or unreflecting white men that their country was taken from them, that they were now Queen Victoria's slaves, and that they could not even sell their own property—their land—as they pleased. These taunts were felt deeply. The natives had been so accustomed to pass freely across land or water, wherever they pleased in their own districts, that they were perplexed by seeing fences rising, and by finding that people were becoming averse to their company. They also found that land which they had hastily sold for a few articles., soon consumed or worn out, was resold for many times—perhaps more than thirty times the value which they had received. They discovered that the government understanding of the treaty of Waitangi not only bound them to give the Queen of England the first offer of land they wished to sell, but that they could not sell to any other person, even if the government, on behalf of Her Majesty, declined to purchase. They were moreover much astonished and irritated by

^* Foreign, strange, alien.

^† To them unintelligible.

page 12 the interference of government with estates purchased from them previous to 1840; and by hearing that all land so bought, exceeding a certain quantity to each original purchaser, would be transferred to the government. In addition to these and other serious causes of irritation, the chiefs began to feel that they were no longer the principal persons; but that their influence and power were diminishing rapidly: that they were becoming suitors to the white men, instead of—as formerly—the white-men being dependent on them.

Probably, there is not in the world a race of men more truly democratic with respect to civil and personal independence, and yet equally aristocratic in their regard for descent and family connexion. On these subjects their feelings are sensitive in the highest degree. As an instance, when the now notorious Heke first heard the Queen prayed for in Waimate Church, instead of the chiefs (who were considered the principal authorities previous to 1840), he asked, indignantly, why the Queen of England was exalted to the skies, and the chiefs of New Zealand were trodden under foot. As another case, I have witnessed a long and anxiously sustained argument, lasting nearly a whole day, between two families, or portions of a tribe, respecting the ownership of a tract of land. One party had sold the ground to an Englishman for a small vessel of about thirty tons burthen; the other party denied their right to do so, and claimed the vessel. After tracing back their respective descents through eight generations, eagerly contesting every point, both parties agreed that the actual sellers of the land had not the right, and that the vessel ought to belong to the others, who also were willing to sell, on the same terms. On this the chief of the real owners waived the right of himself and his family, saying that they did not really want the vessel, but they wished their right to be known and acknowledged. For this right, I may add, they would have fought to extermination, if the quarrel could not have been settled in any peaceable manner.

These instances, among thousands similar, will suffice to show what a high-spirited and jealous people they are, and how keenly they must feel any attempt to treat their customs, or what they consider their rights, slightingly: moreover, how anxiously they must watch the progress of a Race which they themselves say is causing them to disappear, just as the Norway rat, brought by the first English ships, has driven away or destroyed the native rat.^*

It is necessary to bear in mind, that intercouse between the tribes, from one end of the islands to the other, is continual and rapid, whether war or peace prevail. Their mental activity, their love of talking, and their retentive memory, make them eager to collect and transmit intelligence. Hence, all proceedings of importance, whether at the Bay of Islands, or Cook's Strait, or elsewhere, are, in a few weeks, the subject of discussion throughout the country.^*

The gradual development of the real nature of the change which an established government, however feeble, would tend to work,—and the operation of courts of law, civil punishments, apprehension of offenders, and especially imprisonment for trial,—had already done much to make the natives more and more doubtful of the advantages of their altered position, when in June 1843 the fatal affray at Wairau gave a shock which vibrated through the length and breadth of the land.

That the settler should try to take land by force of arms was a startling idea, and it at once revived every former suspicion. Until then the settlers had been supposed to be men of peace, and trade; and the missionaries had invariably done their utmost to prevent warfare, but a new view was opened by the collision at Wairau. Happily—or, I should say, providentially,—the settlers at Wellington and Nelson were arrested forcibly in their insane projects of arming the community and attempting to act with farther hostility against the natives. Such conduct must inevitably have caused the total destruction of those settlements under circumstances of the most cruel description. Warlike preparations were stopped by the local government, conciliatory steps were taken, and the rising storm was dispersed, Awful indeed would have been the consequences, had a rash attempt been then made to apprehend the slaughterers of Captain Wakefield and his companions.

At this time there was neither fortification, nor defensible position, nor place of shelter or refuge for women and children, in either of the settlements. There were not four hun-

^* If a native who is travelling has really no particular news to tell, he invents something, in order that he may be a welcome guest where be stops, Frequently the natives sit talking by their fires during the whole night.

page 14 dred serviceable muskets among the whole white population, and even these were ill provided with accoutrements and ammunition. The whole military force consisted of one company^* of EL M.'s 80th regiment, stationed at Auckland, There was no ship of war.

Afterwards the arrival of H. M. S. North Star, and a company^† of the 96th regiment, at "Wellington, tended much to quiet the alarm of some settlers; while the judicious conduct of the authorities suppressed the hostile demonstrations of other colonists.

Before passing on to the events of 1844, it should be carefully noted that the removal of the seat of government, in 1841, from the Bay of Islands to Waitemata or Auckland, caused very great dissatisfaction to the natives of the northern districts, living near that Bay and Hokianga. They soon discovered that the restraints and inconveniences of the newly-constituted authority which they had consented to acknowledge, however reluctant to obey, remained to interfere with them; while the countervailing advantages of augmented traffic, and good markets, were not only lost—gone to their greatest enemies^‡—but that even the trade enjoyed previous to 1840 was almost destroyed by the Custom House regulations, and by the presence of government officers at Kororareka—(now called Russell).

The illness and death of Governor Hobson,^§ no doubt increased the difficulties under which the country was then struggling. The designs which he was forming, and the local acquaintance that he had gained, perished almost unrecorded. He suffered severely from the distractions of his false position, and the treatment he received while struggling to make the best of adverse circumstances.

Although selected for his difficult task on account of his qualifications; although he had previously visited the Bay of Islands and Cook's Strait in command of H. M. S. Rattlesnake, and had particularly distinguished himself by his conduct and gallantry in the West Indies, his representations of the real state of the country, true to the letter, were slighted, and his opinions, now proved sound, were bitterly assailed.