Two Murders committed on the West Coast.

The want of influential chiefs amongst this people is generally felt by themselves, as well as by their Missionaries and Protectors, being often led to commit serious acts that well-disposed chiefs would prevent, and which sometimes end in loss of life. I am sorry to state two instances of this nature have recently occurred at Iringahoe, near Waimate. The death of one was occasioned by his having killed some pigs that were destroying his kumara plantations, and the other in a quarrel between two young men about a Native female. These murders caused a considerable sensation, some of the Natives desiring that the murderers should be brought to New Plymouth to be punished page 127according to English law, whilst others opposed it. I would here remark that the frequent visits of the Protector to those parts of the district less under the influence of chieftainship would prevent many such occurrences, by deciding the disputes which lead to them. The numbers of Natives returning from captivity, as well as from Cook Straits, also frequently occasion disputes. Some of these I was enabled to settle, which having done I returned to New Plymouth, where, I was glad to find, no serious difference had arisen during my absence.