156 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
hoped, would by these means be less uncertain in 
their influence. 
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 
property, therefore, was still insecure, and the 
industrious cultivator of the land was not sure of 
reaping the fruits of his labour. This was remark¬ 
ably manifest at the present time, when the king 
of Tahiti, in his anxiety to pay for the vessel that 
had been purchased in his name, after making 
repeated applications to the chiefs for large 
numbers of pigs, prohibited every individual from 
selling to a captain or other person any commodity 
he might have for barter, but required them to 
bring all to him, in return for which he sometimes 
gave them articles of the most trifling value. To 
remedy this defect, several laws were added to 
those prepared for the people of Huahine, and a 
certain tax, somewhat resembling a poll-tax, pro¬ 
posed, by which it was fixed what proportion of 
the produce of the island each individual should 
furnish for the use of the king, and also of the 
chief of the district in which he resided. The 
remainder was to be inviolably his own, for use 
or disposal. The treatment of offenders, between 
their apprehension and trial, was also regulated. 
These were the principal additions made to the 
Huahinean code. 
The trial by jury had been incorporated in the 
laws of Raiatea. The alterations were approved 
of by the chiefs who had come from Huahine, and 
