342 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chav. XTV. 
call upon the duties of his office. This attention to 
minutes consorted but little with the long months 
which had been dragged over the Port Nicholson in- 
vestigation. Here, too, quite as large a district had 
been bought, as large a payment had been made, a larger 
number of chiefs had signed, and a larger number of 
natives had partaken in the transaction. 
The result of our correspondence was the postpone- 
ment of the departure, and the opening of the Court 
for two days more ; one of which was occupied by the 
evidence of Rangi Tauwira, called by me. 
Like E Puni at Wellington, this venerable patriarch 
told a plain unvarnished tale ; proving how perfectly he 
had understood the bargain, how sincerely he had 
entered into it, and how faithfully he had maintained 
its fulfilment. His evidence closed with the emphatic 
Ae! answering to " Yes, truly!" in reply to three 
pointed questions from the Commissioner himself, 
whether he had sold his pas, his cultivations, and his 
very burying- grounds. The fine old gentleman had 
repeatedly promised to remove his jsa from the section on 
which it stood to a Native Reserve half a mile higher 
up the river, the moment that the sectionist, who lived 
in the town of Petre, should wish to occupy his land. 
The next day was a blank one : but I was not sur- 
prised at this, as my messengers could not reach 
E Kuru^ village by any possibility in less than four 
days ; and if he were there, or perhaps still higher up, 
he could not reach the sea with all his train for several 
days more. 
But on the Friday, notwithstanding my remon- 
strances, the Commissioner departed towards W^el- 
lington. 
When dawdling for many months over the Wel- 
lington purchase, Mr. Spain had lived in a tolerably 
