Chap. XVI. CRIMPING OF LABOURERS. i487 
public-house along the beach : but it served to give the 
fresh immigrants an idea of their unprotected state, 
and of the indifference with which they were treated 
by the Lieutenant-Governor ; and thus confirmed the 
false reports and comparisons between the two places 
made by the constables. It also corroborated the 
growing belief among the natives, that the Kawana, or 
" Governor," did not care for the White people here, 
and that an armed force would never be allowed to 
afford them protection. 
Only once had the soldiers been called upon to 
act, and then the result must have emboldened the 
natives to think but little of their efficiency. A 
native belonging to a settlement near Mana had pil- 
fered from a shop while on a trading visit, and he and 
his friends laughed at the constables when they came 
to take him up. The officer and two or three soldiers 
had been sent to assist the civil power ; but the thief 
disarmed Lieutenant Best and threw him down, so 
that a bullet shot through the leg of one of his assist- 
ants by one of the soldiers probably saved his officer's 
life, the " mob" of natives having rushed in upon their 
fallen foe. The thief, however, escaped. 
The colonists were thunderstruck at this open 
manifestation of hostility on the part of Captain Hob- 
son. You could meet no one, of any class, who had 
not the subject on his lips and anger in every feature. 
As I have said before, this was the most tender point 
on which to attack a community whose very principles 
were that they could secure an efficient supply of 
labour by paying a high price for their land. The 
colony stood on the maintenance of a just proportion 
of land, labour, and capital. The founder of a distant 
settlement, who was attempting to establish his state 
with only one of these elements, was destroying our 
