CorENso.—On the Maori Races of New Zealand. 361 
and die with them. The writer has known several instances, especially among 
the Ngapuhi (Bay of Islands) tribes, in which the slave, although without 
original rank, has become the principal man or leader in the sub-tribe in which 
he was a slave. A New Zealand slave had full liberty, even of speech, before 
his masters, and plenty to eat, and was generally as cheerful as the free. 
True, he could not wear the clothing or ornaments of patrician rank, nor 
would he be greatly bewailed at death, nor have his bones ceremonially 
scraped ; but these things now did not move him. Those about him knew, 
and he too knew, that his lot of to-day might be theirs to-morrow. Bad, 
irritating language was sometimes used towards a slave by tyrannical, pas- 
sionate masters; but such was the exception, not the rule, and was secretly 
disapproved of among themselves. All things considered, ordinary slavery 
among the New Zealanders was not so bad as the word imports, and as some 
Europeans, from want of due knowledge, have made it to appear. 
20. Their views of property were, in the main, both simple and just; and, 
in some respects (even including those most abnormal), wonderfully accorded 
with what once obtained in England. Among the New Zealanders property 
may be said to have been divided into two great classes—immovable and 
movable ;—or, ordinary and extraordinary ;—or, peculiar and common. 
Perhaps the latter definition may be most advantageous for consideration. 
(1.) Of peculiar or private rights —With them every man had'a right to 
his own, as against every one else, but then this right was often overcome by 
might. A man of middle or low rank caught, perhaps, some fine fish, or was 
very lucky in snaring birds; such were undoubtedly his own, but, if his 
superior or elder chief wished or asked for some, he dared not refuse, even 
if he would. At the same time such a gift, if gift it might be termed, 
was (according to custom) sure to be repaid with interest, hence it was 
readily yielded. The whole of a man’s movable property was his own, 
which included his house and fences, as well as all his smaller goods. All 
that a freeman made, or caught, or obtained, or raised by agriculture, was 
his own, private and peculiar; his house erected by himself was his own, 
but if not on his own land (rarely the case) he could not hold it against the 
owner of that spot, unless such use had been openly allowed to him by the 
owner before all (i fe aroaro o te tokomaha). So a plantation planted by 
himself, if not on his own land (also a rare thing), he would have to leave 
after taking his crops, on being ordered to do so; but not so if he had 
originally and with permission felled the forest, or reclaimed that land from 
the wild; in which case he would retain it for life, or as long as he pleased, 
and very likely his descendants after him. To land, a man acquired a pecu- 
liar right in many ways. 
(i.) .Definite.—(a.) By having been born on it, or, in their expressive 
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