202 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES, 
of all the articles produced in the islands, but ta 
send their servants to take whatever they required, 
however abundant the supply furnished might 
have been. This practice destroyed all security 
of individual property, and, so long as it continued 
was a great barrier to the improvement of the peo¬ 
ple. It had always appeared to us desirable to 
introduce such regulations, in reference to this sub¬ 
ject, as would procure for the king and chiefs a 
revenue more ample than the system of extortion 
and plunder had ever furnished, and at the same 
time secure inviolate to the people the right of 
private property. 
In proposing any regulation of this kind to the 
chiefs, we always felt some degree of delicacy, and 
found the introduction of the measure attended 
with difficulties. To the chiefs it appeared in 
some degree depriving them of their power, and 
rendering them dependent on the donations of the 
people; and there were others who, connecting the 
prosperity of the people with the continuance of 
the monarchical government, were not free from 
apprehension lest the restraint imposed on the 
chiefs should diminish their influence in the nation, 
and destroy the authority of the sovereign. The 
proposition arose from no desire on our part to 
limit the influence of the chiefs, or reduce them to a 
state of dependence; on the contrary, we were satis¬ 
fied that a certain proportion of the produce of the 
soil, fixed by- law, and. regularly paid, would give 
them greater power than they had ever enjoyed 
before ; • and though some were apprehensive of a 
Contrary effect, the rulers and chiefs of Huahine 
readily embraced the plan, and, heartily recom¬ 
mending it to the adoption of the people, have 
found it much more productive than the former 
