256 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap X. 
that gentleman administered the oaths in the presence 
and with the sanction of Captain King, the Chief Police 
Magistrate. Twelve muskets and fifty ball-cartridges 
were put into the long-boat ; and Mr. Cooke nominally 
commanding the party, they proceeded to the M^aitera. 
There they swore in the surveying labourers, making 
their force 28 men. 
The mere demonstration had the desired effect. A 
long knrero with the natives ended in their promise to 
refrain from any further annoyance ; and the Agent 
took formal possession, firing a volley of musketry as 
a salute, and then distributed a few presents. Mr. 
Cooke, who was well known and much esteemed 
among the natives, warned the ringleaders, that on 
a future occasion of the sort he would in person seize 
the culprits with a file of men and lead them to be 
tried. Since this decisive j)reservation of the peace, 
everything had remained quiet. The Company's 
Agent reported the whole proceedings to Colonel 
Wakefield. 
Soon after receiving this intelligence, and in con- 
sequence, also, of the increasing progress of the invasion 
on the Hutt, Colonel Wakefield proposed to the 
Commissioner that the Government should agree to 
an arbitration for the amount of compensation to be 
awarded to the natives who had really not been paid 
for land to which they had a fair claim, and that the 
award of this arbitration should be arranged to co- 
incide with the progress of the investigations ; so that 
the necessary payment might be made at once, and 
affairs thus set at rest in a more speedy way than if 
the final report of the Commissioner on all the claims 
had to be made before any arrangement could l>e come 
to. The Commissioner was understood to approve of 
this proposal, but could only forward it to Auckland 
