E—No. 7

LECTURES ON render the proceeds of their first day's sport to the owners of the land. Nor was the time for this acknowledgment optional with the giver; for on the morning of the day after the first fishing or hunting excursion, certain men of the tribe were obliged to take the fish or game to the owners of land, and the rest of the tribe were not to fish or hunt again until the present so sent was acknowledged by the return of the messengers. There are lands held on these conditions to this day. Sometimes, also, a permission was given to cultivate in consideration of a few of the best kumaras or taros being sent immediately orr the crops being gathered. Lands have been used in this way by father and son for many generations. As a general law it was not allowed to bury the dead of the occupying tribe on land held by such a tenure, indeed only one instance of this law being broken has passed under my notice; in the case I allude to, the burial having taken place with the consent or tacit admission of the owners of the land, a claim was in course of time raised upon this pretext, and the claimants even sold portions of the land to Europeans : nor was the unsold portion regained by the proper owners until after a war in which the offending tribe were driven off by force of arms. I mentioned the Ngatiawa tribe as being one of the most restless in former days, and tradition speaks of them as the most powerful in respect of numbers. A reference to the names of the different tribes now occupying New Zealand would show, that the Ngatiawa are located in the North end of this Island, in the Bay of Plenty, at Taranaki, and on both sides of Cook's Straits. As these places now occupied by them were not taken by right of discovery or by force of arms alone, there remains to be shown another custom relating to claims of land by means of which they became the owners of those districts. The progenitors of this tribe came, as I have stated, in the canoe Tokomaru, and landed near Taranaki: but being of a restless disposition, they shortly afterwards migrated to the Bay of Plenty, and then after a brief stay, came down the East Coast to, the Thames and ultimately went on as far as the North Cape. In the course of their wanderings they (being the most powerful in respect of numbers) drove the other tribes out of each district which they visited; they overran all the Ngapuhi land in the North, and were the cause of that portion of the Ngatiwhatua who were located at the North Cape coming South and joining the main body at Kaipara. Having by force of numbers taken all on the West coast to the North of Kaipara and all on the East coast to the North of Whangarei, they claimed it as their rightful property, not only by the Jaw of might but because of having buried their dead in the sacred places of the tribes of the land; for they had, according to Native law, proved the power of their own heathen customs relative to the dead to be superior to that of the tribes into whose district they had come. I may mention that the laws relative to the burial of the dead are strict: it is supposed that to bury the dead of an inferior tribe in the same place where superior chiefs are interred, without the consent of the relatives of the superior chief's, would cause the gods of the superior chiefs to destroy the tribe of the relatives of the inferior chiefs so buried ; hence the circumstance of the Ngatiawa having buried their dead in utter disregard of such consent proved an undisputed right to the district, not only by the law of force but by that of superior rank. At the time of which I speak, the Northern people did not dispute the tide of the Ngatiawa to portions of the land to which I have referred nevertheless : their restless disposition again led them to migrate South, and in this migration the tribe divided, part going by the M'est coast and part by the East. The chief of the West coast party took with him a tame lizard (kaweau), and being now lessened in number, this party had to travel more circumspectly, being in the midst of their enemies. The New Zealanders are not more in fear of any known thing in the world than of the lizard, and this tame one effectually became the passport of the West coast party from the Hokianga district to Taranaki. The East coast party went by water, and landed in the Bay of Plenty ; where they, by the same means as above described in the case of the Ngapuhi, took possession of a district which they still retain; while of the party which returned to Taranaki, some remained there, and some crossed Cook's Straits and took possession of portions of the South Island. In fact, there is not another tribe in New Zealand which is more separated, and by which more land is claimed. According to the laws of tapu, the Ngatiawa hold to this day undisputed possession of each district in which any portion of their tribe is located ; had any of them remained at Ngapuhi, that portion of the district which they might have thought fit to occupy in accordance with the mode in which the whole tribe originally asserted their right to the entire district, would have remained in their undisputed possession to this day. I have now given, as far as my time will allow, a sketch of the laws and customs of the Maories in respect to their claims to land; but it must be borne in mind that I have spoken of the Maories of the past, the present Maories have almost become another race in that respect. Had the rules of their ancestors been kept in every instance were claims to land were in question, I can confidently say there would have been very few disputes, such as have taken place since land has become known as a commodity by which the Maori can obtain money. In ancient times, the boundaries of each tribal claim were so definitely marked out by the traps made to take the rat, that a dispute about a boundary very rarely took place; indeed I may say never except in the portioning out of a conquered district; but since the Maori has not to wander through the forest in search of his daily food, since the old men who were accustomed to take the rat on their own boundary line have passed away, and since land has become an article saleable at the option of the owners, not only a deficient knowledge of the exact boundary but also the desire of each claimant to get the greatest portion of the proceeds of the sale causes disputes. Moreover, the claims of the more distant relatives have come to be entirely disputed, and not only the claims but even their right of relationship to the ancient owners. It will be seen, therefore, that the acquisition of a perfect knowledge of the existing tribal claims is not an easy matter, where there is not the slightest help derivable from documents, where the evidence given is all oral, where the ancient traditions are le_s and less committed,