206 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. VIII. 
" manner of procuring information by precise written 
"questions, taken down before they were put to the 
" witness. I had also to satisfy the Commissioners, 
"jealously alive to every minutia, and two Native Pro- 
"tectors, one of them the local Judge and an ex- 
"perienced Magistrate and Commissioner at home, 
" and to protect myself against two hostile practising 
" lawyers, eager to trip me up, and ready to take ad- 
" vantage of the smallest discrepancy in the evidence." 
" The scene," he adds, " gave one more the 
" idea of the progress of a long-nurtured, vindictive 
" family lawsuit, than that of a fair, equitable, and 
" court-of-conscience investigation into the real merits 
" of a treaty between a colonizing body and the abo- 
" rigines, who are anxious to see its conditions fulfilled 
" on both sides." 
It could not have appeared to a mere spectator that 
the claims of the Company were considered fair and 
legitimate by the Court, until proof to the contrary 
should be adduced by opposing parties. On the con- 
trary, the effect produced upon the mind of a stranger 
must have been, that the Court conceived the Company's 
Agent to have foully deceived the natives into the 
bargain by lying tricks and false promises, and to 
have vamped up a superficial and unreal claim ; and 
that upon him lay the burden of removing this odious 
imputation. 
On the next day, E Punt not appearing to be further 
examined, Mr. Spain called upon Colonel Wakefield 
for further evidence. He has recorded the words of 
his own answer to the Commissioner : — 
" I had understood that ff^arepori always left 
" E Pmii to talk upon occasions of this nature. His 
" evidence, stamped with truth, was before the Court ; 
" and I therefore did not think it necessary to call 
