tives,) had been perhaps too lenient in allowing some previous acts of aggression on the part of the natives to go unpunished, and to this has been attributed one of the causes of the late calamity. The government must, no doubt, have thought, that greater allowance should be made for men so lately removed from savage barbarism, than for those accustomed from their very infancy to the laws and restraints of a civilized community; and that some consideration was due to the feelings of the old and original inhabitants of a country, when excited by the encroachments of those whom they naturally considered interlopers upon their soil.

The feelings of the local government of that country, in regard to the late catastrophe, may be gathered from the following extracts taken from the reply of the officer administering the government, (previous to the arrival of Captain Fitzroy, the present governor,) to the deputation sent from Nelson to Auckland, and dated 9th August, 1843.

"For the recent bloodshed, I am to observe, an awful responsibility has been incurred; what is the degree of criminality of those concerned in the fatal conflict, and on whom that criminality chiefly rests, are questions on which no opinion can be expressed, as the transaction may become the subject of judicial enquiry; but whatever may be the crime, and who may be the criminals, it is but too clear that the event, we must all deplore, has arisen from several parties of surveyors, without the knowledge or concurrence of the local government, proceeding to take possession of, and to survey a tract of land, in opposition to the original native owners, who have uniformly denied the sale of it.

"For the information of the settlers at Nelson, I

am desired to state, that one of Her Majesty's Commissioners had appointed the end of June last to investigate claims to land in the valley of the Wairoa, and, but for the recent fatal collision, all claims in that district would in all probability at this moment have been disposed of.

"His Excellency deems it proper now to inform you, that the New Zealand Company has not selected any block of land in the valley of the Wairoa, nor has the local government yet received any intimation that it is the intention of the Company to select a block in that district."

The settlers, in stating that the primary cause which led to this disaster, was the delay in settling the land claims, seem to have lost sight of a most important fact, namely, that this was not the fault of the natives. If blame attached to any quarter, it must have been to the government, or rather, perhaps, to the commissioners appointed by government to settle these claims. But it is by no means clear, that even they were to blame, as it must be recollected that these commissioners had to settle upwards of a thousand claims to the whole land of a country larger than Great Britain, and these claims too, in almost every instance, more or less disputed, and with few or no records to assist them. Indeed, the exertions of these commissioners, and of Mr. Spain in particular, were so indefatigable, that more than a year previous to this occurrence, they had within a short period settled upwards of 500 of the claims given in, comprising nearly one-fourth part of the whole land in that country; and their decisions, upon the whole, had given great satisfaction.

Although the New Zealand Company seem to have

made an application respecting certain blocks of land which they had wished to acquire in the Nelson district, yet it does not appear that they had actually by name claimed the Wairoa valley, though they assert that they had. They were aware, at all events, that that valley had not only not been assigned to them at that time by the government commissioners, but that their taking possession of it in any shape whatever would be disputed by the natives who laid claim to it, and who were determined to keep possession of it until an arrangement had been made betwixt them and these commissioners. Mr. Spain, the commissioner, could not overtake every thing at once, but he had promised to the natives that he would attend at Wairoa as soon after the 18th of June as he possibly could. But, unfortunately, before the time appointed, the surveyors had been going on with their survey, regardless altogether of this intimation. When the natives accordingly found them erecting huts, &c., on ground which they still considered their own, and for which they seem to have received no equivalent, (though the Company state that they were paid a sum for abandoning all claim to land in Cook's Straits,) it is not to be wondered at, that like most other men in a similar predicament, apart altogether from their being savages, and unacquainted with any other law but the law of force, they should order the surveying party off their ground, and pull down, or set fire to the temporary huts which they had erected, on their refusing so to do.

Possession is said to be nine-tenths of the law, even in civilized countries, but among savages it is the whole law, and nothing but the law. To have allowed the surveyors to carry on their operations without

molestation, would no doubt have been considered by them as tantamount to an abandonment, not only of the land itself, but of all claim for any future remuneration or compensation for giving it up, a claim, moreover, which (perhaps erroneously) had been sanctioned by the local government of that country, though called in question in the report of the committee of the House of Commons. And had they been like many other savages in the world, they would not only have set fire to the huts, but have put an end to the surveying party altogether, which, from their numbers, they could easily have done. So far, however, from doing so, they seem to have acted with great forbearance. They, no doubt, ordered them off the ground, and when they refused to go, set fire to one or two of their temporary huts, erected probably in the course of a couple of days; but, it will be remarked, that before doing so, they removed carefully all the implements and goods of the surveyors from the inside of them, and delivered them up to them. Mr. Tuckett depones," that Barnicoat, one of the surveyors, informed him that the natives had removed his effects, but that the chiefs had used their influence in restraining their people from appropriating any of his effects, or cominitting any violence."

In all savage countries nothing excites the hostility of the aboriginal inhabitants so much as the sight of a surveying party of white men; as they know well, from sad experience, that it is invariably the forerunner to their being driven from the land of their forefathers. In New South Wales, the engineer of a surveying party (Mr. Stapleton) was killed during the time of my residence in that country, by a tribe of the natives at Moreton Bay, for which two of the ring

leaders were executed; and surveying parties in that country are frequently exposed to their attacks. Among the Red Indians of North America, the surveyors are also occasionally exposed to the attacks of the natives, though the summary manner in which they are treated by the government of the United States fills them with a sort of awe, and generally disarms their hostility.

Had Mr. Thompson, the acting magistrate at Nelson, not been a rash, hot-headed (though no doubt a well meaning) man, he would undoubtedly have said. to the person sent by the surveying party to obtain a warrant for these aggressions, that he could not possibly grant it, as the lands were disputed, and would be settled in the course of a week or two by Commissioner Spain. Instead of that, he at once issued his warrant against the two chiefs, on the charge of arson. What savage ever heard of a charge of arson? And even when he went himself to execute the warrant with his armed force, the native chiefs, though they would not, of course, allow themselves to be seized, (and it was unreasonable to suppose it,) behaved as well under the circumstances of the case as could have been expected. They declared they did not wish to fight, nor use violence of any kind, but were quite willing to abide by the decision of Commissioner Spain, who was so soon to arrive amongst them; and Rauperaha even went further, and said he would pay the utu (damage) done, on the spot, if a fair statement were made out. Mr. Thompson should have readily acceded to so reasonable a proposition, instead of persisting in taking them up, and exciting their anger by pointing to his armed men on the other side of the stream. Indeed, when he saw