524 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XIX. 
to be qualified to assume the office of public prosecutor 
of the accused men. When did he hear the White 
story ? It is just possible that he may have read the 
depositions taken before the Magistrates ; but as no 
further proceedings that can be called legal ever took 
place, how can the public know that he ever even did 
that ? He may have read the White story ; but, if he 
did, it could only be that which was reported by those 
Magistrates for the purpose of justifying a particular 
step in the process of investigation, and not as substan- 
tiating the European view of the whole subject. 
He professes to have heard the Maori story, and thus 
to be qualified to act as counsel for the accused person. 
When did he hear the Maori story ? He heard a con- 
fused narrative from one of the accused men, which 
was only one of half-a-dozen varying narratives which 
the same man had told to different persons. 
Thus he picked up what he calls the story of each 
party from one or two chance representatives of its in- 
terests ; and heard both stories by snatches without 
any means of testing the truth of either, and without 
giving either the opportunity of commenting on the 
other. Among the uncivilized savages themselves, 
when they do decide a dispute by formal conference, a 
korero is never thought complete unless the two parties 
fire confronted with each other. But Captain Fitzroy 
preferred a course no less inconsistent with the customs 
of New Zealand than with the laws of England and 
the practice of civilized men. 
There was in the whole proceeding just so much of 
resemblance to the forms of judicial inquiry as to mark 
the absence of substantial justice. Without an oppor- 
tunity to the prosecutor to state his charge, the accused 
person (for he was no prisoner) having been called 
upon to criminate or exculpate himself, without con- 
