W. T. L. Travers.. The Life and Times of Te Rauparaha. 21 
customs of the New Zealanders in especial relation to the ownership of land, 
and to war, and then to offer some observations regarding their social and 
individual characteristics; and I may at once say that in compiling the 
following notice of these matters I have availed myself largely of Mr. White’s 
“ Lectures on Maori Customs and Superstitions,” and of Mr. Colenso’s “ Essay 
on the Maori Races,” which, though by no means exhaustive, are sufficient to 
enable those who have had any opportunities of personal observation, and who 
may, therefore, read them by the light of locally acquired knowledge, to obtain 
reasonably clear ideas upon these points. It would appear from the facts 
collected by these and other writers, and from the traditions of the New 
Zealanders themselves, that from the very earliest times they clearly under- 
stood the value of the possession of land. This was, of course, naturally to be 
expected in a people dependent upon the cultivation of the soil for a consider- 
able proportion of their ordinary means of subsistence, for although New 
Zealand, as a rule, is a fertile country, and possesses a mild climate, and is 
almost everywhere covered with a dense vegetation, its natural vegetable 
productions, suitable for the proper sustenance of man, are extremely limited ; 
and the Natives would often have suffered from want if they had been wholly 
dependent for their supplies of food upon the indigenous vegetation, and upon 
the uncertain results of their rat-chases and their fisheries. No doubt, whilst 
the Moa still abounded in various parts of both Islands, it afforded them a 
better class of animal food than any other they possessed before the introduc- 
tion of the pig, but we have no positive information as to the date at which 
this source of supply failed them, nor do I think the materials for the 
determination of this question are at all likely to lead to any certain results 
upon the point. There can be no doubt, indeed, that long before the time of 
Cook, the most valuable articles of food used by the Maoris were not 
indigenous, as, for example, the Kumera (Convolvulus chrysorhizus), the Taro 
(Caladium esculentum), and the gourd-like Hue, in the growth of each of 
which a special and most careful mode of treatment was necessary. We find, 
accordingly, that a very large part of the time of the people of all classes was 
taken up in these cultivations, as well as in the preparation of such indigenous 
substances as were at all suitable for food; for, independently of the immediate 
family wants, the hospitalities of the tribes—to which all the members must 
necessarily contribute, especially on solemn occasions—led to the expenditure 
of large stores of provisions. As I have before observed, it was natural that a 
people, whose ordinary wants necessitated the cultivation of the soil to any 
large extent, should attach great value to the possession of land ; and we find, 
in effect, that every tribe claimed its own special domain, and preserved the 
most accurate knowledge of the extent and limit of its territorial rights. 
“There is no point,” says Mr. White, “on which a New Zealander’s 
