148 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Ckap. VI. 
a jury " de medietate lingua." This was tx) be had 
only when the defendant was an alien. The prisoner 
was, however, clearly a British subject. So soon as 
New Zealand became a British colony, all the 
natives became ipse facto British subjects. With 
regard to the challenge for partiality, it was not 
needful to express any opinion as to the omission of 
the natives from the jury-list. The present jury had 
been fairly selected, and no ground existed for attri- 
buting any partiality to them. The challenge, if 
made at all, must be made to the poll, not to the 
array. 
The Court decided that the jury empannelled should 
be sworn ; which being done, and the indictment read, 
and the purport interpreted to the prisoner, the case 
was proceeded with. 
The evidence was very clear, and showed that the 
native had been aware of his guilt, by the fact that he 
had rolled up the blanket and hidden it in one that he 
was wearing, when charged with the offence by the 
shopkeeper. 
Dr. Evans, in his address to the jury, pleaded with 
great earnestness in favour of the unfortunate native 
at the bar ; bespeaking their merciful consideration, 
seeing that he laboured under the disadvantage of not 
understanding one word of their language or customs ; 
and contending that the dispute had arisen through 
the prosecutor not being sufficiently versed in the 
native language to comprehend the explanation of 
the native in accounting for the possession of the 
blanket. 
The jury retired for a few minutes, and then re- 
turned a verdict of guilty, with a strong recommenda- 
tion to mercy, as he was the first native who had been 
tried under English law. 
