Ut' ADVENTURE IN NBW ZEALAND. Chap. XIV. 
persuaded them to allow one or two of the settlers to 
locate on sections which had been formerly strictly in- 
terdicted, and to trust that they should be ultimately 
treated with the most ample justice. This was indeed 
an improvement on the conduct of his predecessor. But 
I regret to say that I have since heard, from most excel- 
lent authority, that he has taken advantage of the death 
of poor E Kuru in last September to urge the repudi- 
ators on to as great exorbitance and obstinacy as before.* 
They had already refused the compensation of 1000/. 
awarded to them finally by Mr. Spain as umpire. 
E Kuru had distinguished himself during my absence 
by a very spirited action. A White settler had begun 
farming operations on a section close to the town, in a 
part of the country the entire alienation of which had 
never before been disputed by any native. Soon after 
he had built a small straw hut there, two or three 
natives from one of the missionary villages had come 
and given him the usual " notice to quit." A slave of 
E Kuru, acting as servant to the White man, heard the 
threat and reported it to his master. E Kuru imme- 
diately ordered six of his young men to take arms, to 
go and live at the hut, and to assist in building a larger 
house which was in progress on the section. A few 
days afterwards, a party of 30 missionary natives, well 
armed, went up avowedly to pull down or burn the 
houses ; but they had desisted from all interference as 
soon as they heard from the slaves that E Kuru had 
instructed them to fight if necessary, and had promised 
to make the affair one of life and death. 
I now proceeded by land to Taranaki, accom})anied 
* On receiving this intelligence, I looked at the List of Land 
Claims, and found that the Reverend Richard Taylor, who only 
went to New Zealand in the year 1838, was a claimant before the 
Land Commissioners of 50,000 acres of land in the northern part of 
the island. 
