TREATMENT OF THE DEAD. 135 
ever just it is generally acknowledged to be, is 
the occasion of rousing even more bitter feelings 
than were felt before. The language they make 
use of is : “ They killed my father (my son, my 
brother, or my friends) ; and shall I rest satisfied, 
and sit in peace, till I have sought and obtained 
satisfaction for those who have been slain — 
Thus perpetual wars break out ; and will continue 
to do so, till the glorious Gospel, which brings 
with it peace and good-will, be established among 
them ; or till the supreme government of the 
country be placed in the hands of one or two in- 
dividuals, who may have power to quench the 
flames of anarchy and confusion, to check these 
predatory excursions, and to punish delinquents 
with banishment or death. 
Their treatment of the dead may next be no- 
ticed. — In no country can greater respect be 
shown for the dead than in New Zealand. Those 
who, whilst here, were the pest of society — those 
who for their crimes were almost universally dis- 
liked — those to whom no assistance was rendered, 
if they required it, during life — are wept over and 
honoured when dead ; and all the customary forms, 
the tapuing, and the feasting, are gone through, 
as though the departed had been a rich man, a 
mighty conqueror, a great friend of society, or a 
person universally beloved. 
When a chief dies, the event is immediately 
announced by a long- continued fire of musketry ; 
and those friends who are not within hearing are 
