38 ADULTERY. [PART I. 



band by the relations of the wife, if his rank does 

 not shield him. Sometimes the husband commits 

 suicide from fear of the consequences. A curious 

 case of this description came to my knowledge, 

 which I will relate, as being interesting in other 

 respects. We were accompanied from Kawia into 

 the Waipa district by a chief of the name of 

 Te Waro. Te Waro had been in Van Diemen's 

 Land, had seen the working of the English laws 

 there, and had resolved in his own mind to adopt 

 them in his country to their full extent. When we 

 were in Kawia, Captain Symonds, the police ma- 

 gistrate, explained to Te Waro the new state of 

 things in New Zealand, and especially that they 

 ought not to take the punishment of crimes into 

 their own hands, but give the offenders up to 

 justice. The chief made a promise that in his tribe 

 he would make known those laws and enforce 

 them. When we afterwards came to Te Waro's 

 own abode on the Waipa river, Captain Symonds 

 settled satisfactorily some outrages which had been 

 committed by the natives upon some European 

 settlers ; and as soon as this was finished, the chief, 

 calling a girl to him, stepped forward and said to 

 us, "I promised you to acknowledge your laws, 

 which seem to be good, and I will be true to my 

 promise. This girl has committed a murder. Her 

 brother had had forbidden intercourse with a slave* 

 girl, and, when the case became known, he feared 

 the consequences from the relations of his wife, and 



