832 JEssays. 



proverb still commonly in use, " Kura pae a MaMna," signifying a waif or 

 godsend. Thus, if a person find anything wMcli lias been lost by another 

 by the way-side or in the bush, and the loser afterwards bearing wbo found 

 it, were to go and ask bim to restore it, bis answer would probably be, 

 " I will not restore it ; it is a Ivura pae a Mabina ; if you Avisb to bave it you 

 must pay for it." 



Tbe Arawa sailed southward to the Bay of Plenty, and when they got 

 to Katikati they found the Tainui settlers we have spoken of in possession ; 

 so they went on, and, leaving a small settlement at Maunganui, on the east 

 entrance of the harbour of Tauranga, sailed to Maketu, about sixteen miles 

 further to the east, and there settled. Before they reached the shore two 

 of the chiefs stood up in the canoe and laid claim to all the land they could 

 see. This with them could be done by a very simjDle process. It was only 

 necessary to say, " This land is tbe bed of my child," which would give his 

 family so sacred a title that no one else of the colonists would dare to claim 

 it. Hence we perceive that the New Zealanders brought with them their 

 greed for territorial possessions ; and if it is reflected that they came from 

 islands of limited extent, where the increase of population tended to curtail 

 the lands of each, we may thus perhaps account for their grasping at large 

 landed possessions on their reaching JSTew Zealand. Certain it is that two 

 chiefs, Hei and Tia, claimed all the lands for miles north and south of 

 Maketu for their sons "Waitaha and Tapuika, Avhose descendants still claim 

 them. 



Such a system of colonization tended to disperse these settlers over very 

 extensive limits, and we consequently find that other chiefs started inland, 

 each little family taking possession of a separate locality at a wide inteiwal 

 from any neighbour. The different territories thus acquired became the 

 lands of their descendants, who came to be distinguished as a sub-tribe of 

 the xlrawa, the name by which all sub-tribes were known when spoken of as 

 a body. 



The territory of a sub-tribe belonged to the whole body, excepting such 

 parts thereof as had been specially appropi'iated to families or individuals as 

 cultivation grounds, fisheries, or otherwise ; and their rights passed to their 

 descendants. Other members of the sub-tribe had no right to meddle in any 

 way with lands so appropriated ; at the same time, lands never appropriated 

 specially belonged to the whole tribe. 



It is true that chiefs of influence often sought to seize lands which did 

 not rightfully belong to them ; but such acts could only be carried through 

 by might and not by right, and were always pertinaciously resisted ; and 

 there is a favourite proverb, that the best death for man is to die for his land, 

 and that his blood be shed thereon. 



