Ghai'. Vm. COMPLICATED PROCEEDINGS. 201 
belonged to the influential chiefs who could compel 
obedience to their dictates. 
The Commissioner of Land Claims, instead of in- 
quiring whether the natives had been fairly satisfied 
for all their rights as they thus stood in 1839, sustained 
the order of things caused by the long delay, and the 
new rights now claimed by the natives in deference to 
opinions formed for them, and carefully instilled into 
their minds in the interval, as those by which he was 
to be guided. 
And the investigation became at once a matter of 
length and intricacy, of long claims, by some argument 
such as Warepori would have crushed by a word or a 
look in 1839, of revived privileges, which had been 
overthrown long before that time by the only law 
then existing among the natives, that of might. 
Thus, one question which, as gone into at such 
length by the Commissioner, promised to encumber 
the inquiry, was that of whether, for instance, JVare- 
pori and the other chiefs who agreed to sell the dis- 
trict of Port Nicholson, in 1839, had a right to do so. 
It was clear that their right, founded on their might 
and influence, had been unresisted and undenied when 
the sale took place. But now, numerous natives 
from 'ie Aro and Pipit ea sprang up, undaunted by 
their former chieftains, and found tongues to claim 
an equal ownership, which then they had never even 
imagined. 
I attended the Court for the first few days, as well 
to give my own evidence as to observe the nature of 
the proceedings. 
To the surprise of every one, Mr. Clarke junior 
acted in the double ofllce of Protector of Aborigines 
and Interpreter to the Court. It seemed almost im- 
possible that the most well-intentioned man should 
