CoLENSO. — On the Maori Baces of New Zealand. 361 



and die witli thera. 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 coul^ not wear the clothing or ornaments of patrician rank, nor 

 would he be greatly bew^ailed 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 oi 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 ot^ti, 

 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, v*'as 

 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 te aroaro o te tohomahct) . 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 

 46 



