334 
TE RAUPARAHA AND RANGIHAEATA. 
The Chief then visited one of his cultivations on the Wairau; 
and the Europeans returned to Nelson, and made the Company’s 
agents acquainted with all that had taken place. A warrant 
was at once issued by the police magistrate for the apprehen¬ 
sion of Te Rangihaeata and Te Rauparaha. The magistrate 
himself, Captain Wakefield, the Company’s agent, a Captain 
England, and several other chief settlers, with some constables, 
about thirty altogether, went to execute the warrant. When 
they reached the Wairau, they found the natives encamped on 
the opposite side of the river ; they called for a canoe to cross 
in, and one was immediately furnished them. On reaching the 
spot where the natives were sitting, the magistrate demanded 
of the chiefs their reason for burning the surveyors’ hut ? They 
replied, they had no business on land which did not belong to 
them, and which had not been sold. The magistrate was 
extremely angry, and said, you have done very wrong to burn 
the house. Rangihaeata replied, there was nothing English 
in it; the toetoe, or flags of which it was built, and the poles 
were all taken from my own land; there was not a single stick 
of it English; everything belonging to the surveyors he had 
caused to be carefully removed outside the house, because 
he well knew how fond the Europeans were of law; and so 
truly you have come to try me for my toetoe. If, indeed, you 
had bought the land, that would have been quite right, but 
this is a foolish affair altogether. This greatly incensed the 
magistrate, who cried to Te Rangihaeata, and said, the Euro¬ 
peans would soon hang him. The chiefs did not understand 
the threat, until a woman who could speak English explained 
it to them. Rangihaeata replied, Very well, hang me on my 
own land. My relative was killed by you English, and there¬ 
fore you may as well kill me also upon my land. You told 
me no European could go on land not belonging to him, yet I 
now see the European is false—he takes land not belonging to 
him. I am to be hung, but you are not. The magistrate, 
more incensed, cried to his followers fire, a gun went off, and 
shot a woman of Rangihaeata. Then Rawiripuaha exclaimed, 
now the law for us is clear. Tamai hengia ran to the place 
where their guns were laid, and Rangihaeata went away from 
