404 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XIV. 
some investigation of the occurrence at Ji^airau. But 
it appeared that, however suspicious were the circum- 
stances which I have mentioned above, no very clear 
evidence could be found of violence having been com- 
mitted. The Cloudy Bay natives stated their opinion 
that Mr. Wilton and his party had been murdered l)y 
the aboriginal natives, whom they described to be still 
existing as fugitives there as well as at the Pelorus 
river. Some more searching investigation should 
have taken place at the time ; for the treating of such 
an event almost as though of no consequence was 
calculated to be of very bad effect on the natives, 
whether guilty or not. Nothing more, however, was 
ever said officially about the affair. The Police Ma- 
gistrate was, perhaps, hardly to blame ; for, while the 
Governor was playing at town-making to the North, 
we were still left destitute of any of those autho- 
rities, such as a Coroner and his Jury, under whose 
notice such an affair must have been brought publicly 
forward, had we enjoyed the protection of laws re- 
sembling those to which we had been used in Eng- 
land. 
Mr. Murphy had afterwards visited the whaling- sta- 
tions in Queen Charlotte's Sound, and then come over 
to Kapiti, in order to compel the heads of stations and 
others selling spirits to take out licences, just like the 
tavern-keepers in Port Nicholson. This measure ex- 
cited a considerable degree of ill-feeling among the 
whalers, who thought it very oppressive and unjust ; 
as the amount of the required licence, 30/, annually, 
would take away seriously from their profits. And 
they added, with great truth, that they derived no 
protection or advantage from the Government which 
thus proposed to draw a revenue from them. They 
had still to protect themselves against the frequent in- 
