W. T. L. Travers.—The Life and Times of Te Rauparaha. 27 
and if, in this ‘disputed land, incautious dealing by Europeans takes place, it 
would probably result in a Maori war. The war in the Bay of Plenty, which 
has been continued until very lately between certain chiefs, also originated in 
a like cause ; the contending parties were all of one tribe, and sprung from one 
ancestor, but, by intermarriage, some have a more direct claim than others. 
The descendants, who, by intermarriage, are related to other tribes, have made 
an equal claim to the land over which they have but a partial claim, and 
resistance to this was the cause of the war. Disputes of this kind are not 
easily unravelled. I believe that were it possible to teach the Maoris the ` 
English language, and then bring them into some Court, allowing each 
contending party to plead his cause in such a dispute as I have mentioned, not 
according to English law, but according to Maori custom, both sides would, 
according to native genealogy and laws, make out their respective cases so 
clearly that it would take a judge and jury, possessed of more than human 
attainments, to decide the ownership of the land. 
While speaking about lands claimed by conquest, I will give a few 
instances of land claimed by the offspring of those male or female chiefs who 
have been made slaves in war. It would not generally be supposed that lands 
disposed of at the southern end of this Island would affect any native at the 
northern end of it, yet such is the case. A. chieftainess who was taken slave 
from the South by the Ngapuhi and other northern tribes, became the wife of 
a Ngapuhi chief ; her claim stood in the way of completing a sale of the land, 
and it was not until the consent of her son by the Ngapuhi chief was gained, 
that the land could be disposed of by the natives residing on it, and to him, 
in due course of time, a portion of the payment was transmitted. Again, a 
chief who was taken slave from the Bay of Plenty by the northern tribes, 
having taken a northern ¿woman to wife, and having a family, his relatives 
from the Bay of Plenty made presents to the chiefs by whom he was taken, 
and procured his return home ; but he was obliged, according to Maori laws 
of title to land, to leave his wife and daughters with the Ngapuhi people, for 
if he had taken them with him, they would have lost their claim to land at 
Ngapuhi, and would not be allowed any claim to land in the Bay of Plenty ; 
while his son, whom he took back with him, now claims, by right of his 
grandfather, an equal right to the lands of the Bay of Plenty tribe. Again, 
one of the northern chiefs having taken to wife a woman whom he had made 
slave from Taranaki, and having a son by her, this son returned to the tribe 
of his mother and claimed as his right, derived from his grandfather, a share 
in their land, which was not disputed, because, as I have before stated, the 
great-grandchild in the female line has a claim to land. I remember another 
instance of this : a certain block of land was sold by a tribe near Auckland, 
and when the purchase money was portioned out amongst the claimants, a 
