390 TUTIRA 



served, quite the contrary ; they would have been the first to remonstrate 

 at its desecration. They wanted mental stimulus amusement. A 

 deputation accordingly arrived to interview my brother. They requested 

 an advance of rent, funds to "fight" the Board that was the crude bar- 

 baric term used by their spokesman. My brother, acting as I should 

 have done myself, dismissed them with Pleydell's advice, " Go home, go 

 home, take a pint and agree." They were not to be denied, however ; 

 a few months later a larger and more important deputation requested a 

 still more considerable advance in rents. This time the object was more 

 ambitious. It was neither more nor less than to upset the title of an 

 extensive block of land in the South Island, a block in which several 

 of my Tutira natives had, or imagined they had, an interest. This 

 request seemed more preposterous than the other. Once more good 

 advice, or what seemed to be such, was proffered ; once more my brother 

 advised them not to waste their money, as if indeed it was possible to 

 waste money in litigation about land when the kudos of the conflict 

 must revert to the land, whoever won! Twice did we interfere thus 

 with their legitimate pastime ; debarred from lesser game, they now 

 determined to take on the writer himself. 



Other influences, too, were at work utilising for their own 

 purposes the litigious proclivities of the natives. The Royal Com- 

 mission had, in dealing with another Hawke's Bay property, given 

 mortal offence ; to upset the Tutira lease would have been to dis- 

 credit, perhaps to nullify, its labours. 



Thus egged on, the safety-valves of other possible channels of 

 litigation closed, balked of their desire to "fight" other Boards 

 and other persons, the eyes of my landlords turned Tutira - wards. 

 It was then, I imagine, that the idea of disputing the Tutira lease 

 took form. The plan had many advantages over the Tangoio and 

 South Island enterprises ; it would raise the mana of Tutira to a 

 height hitherto unattained. I feel sure that on the Maoris' part 

 there was no malice. One of the Commission, indeed, had told me 

 of the special wish of my landlords that I should remain on Tutira. 

 They thought, not perhaps that I would actually enjoy a lawsuit, 

 but that, as with themselves, it would dissipate ennui and boredom 

 and provide me with a subject for thought and varied speculation. 

 In the latter respect they were correct too ; it did. 



The old lease by which one-half of Tutira was still held was in 



