146 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Crap. VI; 
At the Quarter-Sessions, the most interesting case 
tried had been that of a native for stealing a blanket 
out of a store. 
The Chairman, in his charge to the Jury, distinctly 
held that " the natives were in truth and in fact 
" British subjects, and that they were to be treated in 
*' every respect as any of ourselves ; and that they had 
" the same right to the protection of the law, and 
** must be held equally amenable for any breach of it. 
•* In order, however, to shield them from the con- 
" sequences of their presumed ignorance of our laws 
" and customs," he held that " the Court should assign 
" them counsel, and that a sworn interpreter should 
" faithfully translate all that it was important for them 
** to know." 
Dr. Evans was assigned as counsel to the prisoner 
in question, Pakewa, who was the man of highest 
rank in the slave-tribe inhabiting Te Aro. Before 
the jury were sworn. Dr. Evans handed in a plea to 
the jurisdiction. The substance of the plea was, that, 
by the Treaty of JVaitangi* all the rights of chief- 
tainship were reserved to the New Zealanders ; and 
that among those rights was that of administering 
justice among the inhabitants of their own tribe. 
Mr. Hanson, the Crown Prosecutor, objected to the 
plea, on the ground that the Court could not take 
cognizance of the Treaty of TVaitangi unless it was pro- 
duced. That if they could take cognizance of the Treaty, 
and it was of the nature described by the plea, there 
was no evidence to show that the right of administer- 
ing justice was among the rights of chieftainship ; and 
* So the agreement was called by which Captain Hobson had 
acquired for the Queen of England the sovereignty of New Zealand ; 
and which guaranteed to the natives their lands and the privileges 
of British subjects. 
