424 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
divided into districts and villages, which sometimes 
extend five or six miles along the coast; at others, not 
more than half a mile. A head man, nominated by the 
governor, usually presides over these villages, which 
are again subdivided into a number of small farms or 
plantations. The names of these are generally signi¬ 
ficant ; as Towahai , the waters broken, from a stream 
which runs through the district, and is divided near the 
sea; Kairua, two seas, from the waters of the bay 
being separated by a point of land, &c. 
Although this is the usual manner in which the land 
is distributed, yet the king holds personally a number 
of districts in most of the islands, and several of the 
principal chiefs receive districts directly from the king, 
and independent of the governor of the island in which 
they are situated. 
The governor of the island pays over to the king 
annually, or half yearly, the rents or taxes required 
by the latter. These he receives from the chiefs under 
him, who generally pay in the produce of the soil. 
Sometimes the king requires a certain sum in Spanish 
dollars, at other times in sandal wood. 
This, however, is only a modern regulation, intro¬ 
duced since they have become acquainted with the use 
of money, and the value of sandal wood. The rent 
was originally paid in canoes, native cloth, mats, 
fishing-nets, hogs, dogs, and the produce of the soil, 
for the use of the king, and the numerous train of 
favourite chiefs and dependants by which he was sur¬ 
rounded, and who were daily fed from the provisions 
of his house. 
For this tax the governor is responsible, and it is his 
business to see it conveyed to the king, or disposed of 
