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POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES, 
their conviction that he would approve of the same. He 
replied —Ua tia ia ia oti ra May e tai ai. It is agreed^ 
but let May be over^ and then go alluding to the an¬ 
nual meetings held in the month of May. 
I took up my abode with Mr. Nott, and spent the whole 
of the week in revising^ with him and one or two of the 
chiefs from Huahine, the laws which had been prepared 
for that island. In this revision we endeavoured to cor- 
rect what was defective in those already published in 
Tahiti and Raiaeta. This employment occupied a number 
of hours every day. It was a matter of importance: I was 
anxious that their laws should be framed with the utmost 
care^ and felt desirous that we should avail ourselves of 
Mr. Nott’s familiar acquaintance with the character of 
the people^ and his observation on the effect of the laws 
on the inhabitants of Tahiti and Eimeo. I wished also 
to consult with Mr. Davies^ but he was too far off. Mr. 
Nott stated, that the greatest defects he had observed, 
arose from the power vested in the hands of the magistrate 
to punish according to his own discretion those who were 
found convicted. In consequence of this, the same crime 
was followed by different punishments, in different parts, 
or by different magistrates. In order to remedy this, the 
punishment to be inflicted was annexed to the prohibition 
of the offence. The laws, it was hoped, would by these 
means be less uncertain in their influence than they had 
been. 
Another subject of importance was the revenue of the 
government, and the means of support for the king and 
chiefs. On this subject, Pomare had refused to make 
any regulations, preferring to demand supplies from the 
people as his necessities might require, rather than receive 
any regular proportion of the produce of the soil. Private 
