G-.—l

11

implied an obligation upon all other parties to respect it; no one conceived the idea of authority carrying with it the corresponding obligation of obedience. Such rights and obligations are the creation of law, and cannot subsist without it. The Maoris had no law but the law of the strongest. It is certain that the Maoris had no fixed rule to guide them in the disposal of their land. It was a commodity to which no exchangeable value had even been attached —a transaction for which no precedent existed; and, as in other things, the weak were overborn by the strong and impudent. Those who, according to our rules of lineal descent from the common progenitor, ought to have had most to say in the matter had often the least. This shocks our ideas of right, but it came as a matter of course to them. Nevertheless, there are ideas attached to the possession of land which may well be called instinctive. When a man has felled the forest and fenced-in and cultivated a portion of land he has established a right against all other persons, which is at once felt to be as natural as that of a man to his own children, and is precedent of all law ; and great injustice may be done to individuals who hold such a possession if they are prevented from selling it by a supposition that what we call a superior right exists in some other person, that right being nothing more, in the minds of the Maoris, than the exercise of an arbitrary power by those who have strength and arrogance enough to assume it.—[Letter in " Southern Cross" newspaper, July, 1860.]

Eev. Mr. Buddle, Superintendent of the Wesleyan Mission. Mana of the chiefs.—This word means authority, power, influence. It was originally applied to persons and their words or acts, not to land. A chief whoso authority or influence enabled him to gather together an army for war was he iangata u-hai mana (a man possessing mana). Commands readily obeyed are a kupu tohai mana (words having influence). A promise faithfully kept and duly performed was mana (Kua mana te kupu a le Kaivana) the Governor's word has been fulfilled. This word has of late been used in reference to land, and now we hear of the Mana o te whenua (the mana of the land); what distinct idea is attached to it is difficult to say. The disputed land at Waitara is claimed by the Maori King party because the King's mana has reached it— Kua tae te mana oto matou kingi ki reira (the mana of our king has gone there). And wherever this mana is gone the land is held as inalienable without the King's consent. Kia mau te mana ote whenua is another expression now in frequent use—-i.e., hold fast the mana of the land. What does it mean ? This is altogether a new application of the term ; perhaps it has been adopted in consequence of the Queen's sovereignty over the Island having been translated as the Queen's mana. But it certainly did not originally mean that which is now claimed for it—viz., a chief's "manorial right." This use of the word was not heard until this Maori King movement originated it. It is by no means clear that any such custom as manorial right ever obtained among the Native tribes—was either claimed by the chiefs, or ceded by the people originally. A man took possession of territory by the strength of his arm, and rested his claim on his conquests. "Na tenei," he would say, stretching out his arm—"by this I obtained it," Or he claimed it in consequence of having cultivated it. What reason could exist originally for such rights ? Land sales were things unknown. If land exchanged hands it was not by sale but by conquest—by might disregarding right. A propos to this subject : A Waikato chief who was adducing reasons for the King movement remarked, " Hoko takae " (dishonest sales of land) was one reason. A chief offered land to Government, and because he was a chief it was taken for granted the land was his own ; "but," he added, " you must not suppose that every chief, because he is a great man with a great name, is a great landowner; there are many great chiefs who have no land, and therefore have no right to sell." How does this accord with manorial rights ? Take another fact: One man at the great meeting at Ngaruawahia drew a circle around him and said, " This is mine; let no man interfere with me. lamon my own land, and shall do what I like with my own." Another asserted the same right, and declared his intention to sell what he pleased when he returned from the meeting. Did these men acknowledge the chief's manorial rights? Take another fact: Potatau himself sold a block of land to the Government a few years ago, and received a deposit of £50 ; but the sale has never been completed, because the men who had cultivated the block deny his right to sell, though he is principal chief of the tribe, and refuse to allow him to do so. Manorial rights are imaginary rights when claimed for New Zealand chiefs.— [Pamphlet, " Origin of the King Movement," 1860.]

Mr. Shortland, formerly Protector of Aborigines. The spot where each canoe [of the migration] was finally drawn to land was taken possession of by the crew, who spread themselves from that centre over the more fertile districts till they became a numerous tribe. Each of the grand divisions under which the Natives of the Northern Island may be classed has its own characteristic dialect, and it seems probable that the term waka (canoe), which is also used to denote these primary divisions, has reference to that origin of the tribes. At the present day these wakas are divided into many distinct iwi, each of which is subdivided again into hapu or smaller communities. The territory claimed by a waka is subdivided into districts, each of which is claimed by an iwi; these again are variously apportioned among the different hapus and families of chiefs. ; _~...',, -. • In the immediate vicinity of a pa the land is more minutely subdivided between its inmates, nearly every person having his own small cultivation-ground, or holding some spot in common with other" members of his family. This circumstance renders it difficult to purchase lands once so occupied, even though the pa may have been deserted for many years, as every-man whose ancestors cultivated there will expect his claim to be satisfied. * The chiefs are the principal landholders. Every individual, however (as far as I have been able to learn), has his own estate, which he has inherited from his branch of the family, and which

? That is not in accordance with facts,