328 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XUI. 
At this time, the Company's agent issued a contract 
for the clearing of the Porirua bridle-road to a width 
of six feet, and the felling of the timber for 10 feet on 
either side along the whole 12 miles, so as to admit the 
sun and wind upon the swampy and muddy portions. 
The contractors engaged a large gang of Hutt axe-men, 
headed by a renowned Yankee backwoodsman, who 
used to pocket many a half-crown by making bets with 
new-comers as to the number of minutes he would 
take to get through a tree. They got expeditiously and 
creditably through their contract. 
On the 20th, Mr. John George Cooke, the magis- 
trate who had so firmly settled the fVaitera dispute 
at New Plymouth, started for his home with a herd of 
70 head of cattle and a large flock of sheep. They 
defiled along the beach, followed by their owner, two 
or three stockmen, and Dicky Barrett ; some mounted, 
some on foot. Mr. Cooke had been spending the an- 
niversary at Wellington, and employing it usefully in 
buying stock. Dicky Barrett had been giving his 
evidence before the Court of Land Claims, which had 
resumed its sittings. I was one day present, and was 
much hurt by the pains which Mr. Clarke junior took 
to sneer at his way of pronouncing Maori, and at his 
unsophisticated narrative of his doings as interpreter at 
the different sales. Barrett's Maori diction, like that 
of most of the whalers, was of course not superior to 
his English ; and he had a broad honest way of utter- 
ing lx)th, for which Mr. Clarke junior seemed delighted 
to display his contempt. Dicky perfectly understood 
and could make himself understood by the natives ; 
was thoroughly acquainted with their customs and 
feelings; and possessed twice the qualifications to be Pro- 
tector of Aborigines that the almost equally uneducated 
and infinitely worse-bred lad could boast, who took 
