Chap. X. E PUNl'S PRESENT. lt»^ 
A row of brick building, 80 feet in length, had 
been completed by the Company as an immigrant 
barrack ; and in one of its compartments I lodged my 
train. I obtained from the Company's Agent an order 
for rations during their stay, and gave them iron pots 
and free access to a potato-pit, containing some tons of 
potatoes, which E Funi had lately filled in Colonel 
Wakefield's grounds. 
E Puni had brought this present from Fitone, with 
all his people, in great state. To show the rivalry of 
feeling existing between the natives who held fast to 
their bargain and those who had repudiated, it is 
curious to record that E Tako and the Fipitea and 
Te Aro natives immediately set about making a present 
of the same kind to Mr. Spain and Mr. Clarke junior. 
This is only one proof of how completely, in the minds 
of the natives, the Court of Claims was identified with 
opposition to the settlers. The Commissioner accepted 
the present ; but of course made it clearly understood 
to be a mere mark of courtesy to an indifferent visitor, 
and paid them the full value of the gift. 
My train were quite the lions of the place for some 
days ; the very natives at Fipitea flocking in numbers 
every night to see them perform hakas and waiatas 
with all the gusto of the olden time. 
Mr. Moles worth employed some of them to put up 
a fence on his farm on the Hutt. They worked well 
for a " spirt,'' but he found that they gradually got 
lazy, and relapsed into their favourite pursuits of 
smoking and basking in the sun. In order to work 
well for a continuance, the natives require to be 
treated as companions, and to have the constant urging 
and encouragement of their employer. E Kuru par- 
ticularly possessed the art of leading them on to 
exertion by exciting their emulation and ambition ; 
