POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
455 
In tlie year 1824^ when the infant^ Pomare III. was 
recognized by the nation as the successor to his father 
in the government of Tahiti and Moorea, the Tahitian 
code was revised and enlarged. At this time, a most 
important law was inti-oduced; which gave to the 
nation, for the first time, what might be termed a 
representative government, and rendered the Tahitian a 
limited, instead of an absolute monarchy. It was then 
decreed that members from every district should meet 
annually, for the purpose of devising and enacting new 
laws, and amending those already in existence. The 
duration of the session was to be regulated by the busi¬ 
ness to be transacted. The inhabitants of the districts 
were to select their representatives, and fresh deputies or 
members to be elected every three years. It was at first 
enacted, that two should be sent from each district ; but 
the same law authorized the body which might be thus con¬ 
vened to increase the number to three or four from each, if 
it were found desirable. No regulation was to be regarded 
as a law, but such as had been approved or proposed by 
them, and had received the sanction of the king; and 
every regulation made by them, and approved by the 
king, was to be observed as the law of the land. 
The printed report of the session of what may be 
termed the Tahitian parliament, which assembled in 
May 1826, contains an alteration of two laws, and four 
new regulations. The first of these is sufficiently im¬ 
portant to justify its translation, it is— 
Concerning Seamen who may leave their Vessels. 
1. The captain, or master of the vessel, who shall turn one of his crew 
on shore, without the consent of the governor of the district, is criminal. 
He shall pay thirty dollars ; twenty to the king, six to the governor, and 
four to the man who shall conduct the seaman back to his ship. 
