Chap. YIU. MR. MURPHY, THE POLICE MAGISTRATE. 191 
A deputation waited on Mr. Murphy, to convey to 
him the sense of the public ; but he bowed them off in 
a diplomatic way, saying that he would avail himself 
of their services when in his opinion recourse to them 
was expedient. 
And his official letters since published prove that he 
was delighted to find, soon afterwards, that the Crown 
Prosecutor had been applied to on the subject. He then 
declared that the application for the indictment of Ran- 
gihaeata before the Supreme Court took the matter out 
of his hands. And thus the affair was left for the present. 
At the same time, letters from IVanganui described 
the natives there as more pertinacious than ever in 
preventing the cultivation or even occupation of any 
land by White people. 
Mr. Clarke's memorable letter, and the mischievous 
advice of the unworthy members of the missionary body, 
had produced a general spirit of repudiation among 
the natives. To meet one, among the numerous chiefs 
who had been parties to the sales in 1839, that held 
fast and honestly to his bargain, was now a rare 
occurrence. 
Mr. Murphy's official letters on the subject to the 
Colonial Secretary sufficiently prove the spirit in which 
he acted. He throughout defends the natives in their 
aggressions ; adduces them as proofs of the absolute 
necessity that the whole question of title should be 
investigated before a Court of Claims ; and does not 
disguise a sneer at the offer made by the settlers to do 
that which he could always compel them to do at his 
pleasure. 
And at this very time his professions of regard for 
the settlers, and of interest in their cause, had pro- 
cured him the confidence and intimacy of the leading 
men. He was reckoned quite one of the settlers, in 
