*Sl^ ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XVI. 
objected to his being taken to Wellington before a 
White Kai ff^akawa, or ** man to decide," the chief 
said he should not go. The assault on the constable 
was not denied, but asserted to be quite right. The 
thief was produced before us, and most of the stolen 
things were returned ; but Chapman positively refused 
to acknowledge our authority or let the thief go to be 
punished. And so we three Magistrates went away as 
we had come. 
The next day we rode to Porirua. We found 
neither pa, boat, nor a large assemblage of natives. 
But a small party of natives who were there told us 
that Puaha was at Pukerua with the boat, and that a 
pa was about to be built between the whaling-station 
at Parramatta and the ascent towards Pukerua, in a 
sandy bay called Taupo. They laughed at the idea of 
giving the boat back without utu ; and treated the 
whole affair as one of their own wars, where the vic- 
torious party keeps the plunder. And they told us 
plainly that they looked upon these visits merely as the 
reconnoitering of spies. They combined Mr. Spain's 
visit to Otaki with this one of ours in this light ; and 
taunted us with our cowardly way of conducting war. 
They would not believe " that we had come merely to 
" ask for a boat taken in fair fighting ; that was too 
*• absurd ! No ! we were come to spy, and we were 
*' keeping our feud quiet till we saw the right moment 
** to send the soldiers !" 
With this perfect evidence that they had not the 
least idea of considering themselves in any way subject 
to our laws, we returned to Wellington. 
Our observations reported to the next meeting had 
only confirmed the local Magistrates in their opinion, 
that the continuance of the drilling was absolutely 
necessary, not only as a means of restoring confidence 
