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 j the contending jDarties 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 

 ijistances of land claimed by the offspring of those male or female chiefs who 

 have been made slaves in wai*. 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 w^ho was taken slave 

 from the South by the Ngapuhi and other northern tribes, became the wife of 

 a Kgapuhi 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 IS'gapuhi chief was gained, 

 that the land could be disposed of by the natives residing on it, and to him, 

 in due coui^e 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 

 IS'gapuhi, 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 



