130 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chaf. V. 
not more learned in the law than himself, hy quota- 
tions from a book which contains an epitome of the 
New South Wales law, called ' the Australian Magis- 
' trate ;' and that at the end of several hours of 
evidence, and cross-examining, and clearing of the court 
to discuss knotty questions of law out of hearing of 
the vulgar, I was held up as an example by the in- 
fliction of a fine and costs amounting to 17*. But this 
decision was based on a bye-law of the town of Sydney, 
which imposes a penalty for " firing in the public 
" streets ;" as the wiseacres could not discover, with 
all their law-books, any authority for condemning 
" a tumultuous manner of firing guns," or for making 
that firing a breach of the peace on the Sabbath 
which was not so on a week-day. The decision on this 
ground was of tolerably doubtful legality ; for TVan- 
ganui, although laid out as a town on paper by the 
Company's Surveyor, was not yet proclaimed, or even 
acknowledged as a town, by the Government ; and there 
were not above 150 White inhabitants in the proposed 
town and its environs together. 
But I was principally amused by the grave demeanour 
of the dignified guardians of the law, who hsid s6nt for 
Mr. Mason on the occasion, and begged him to take a 
seat on the bench, and by the anomalous appearance of 
one of them, a dilapidated bookseller from Cork, who 
had not thought proper to array himself in a pair of 
stockings in order to dispense justice. The Chairman 
of the Bench swearing himself on the book, in order to 
give evidence, was also one part of the funny proceed- 
ings. He appeared to think it quite in/ra dig. to l)e 
sworn by the head const-able, as the other witnesses 
had Ijeen. 
The effect u})on E Kuru and the other chiefs was 
rather more serious. Several times during the progress 
