E—No. 9 Sec IV.

their sick !" But my interpreter, Mr. Fulloon, put an almost ludicrously sudden stop to these outpourings at Ohiwa, by reminding them of certain plans for aiding in an attack on Auckland, had the fighting of last year broken out also in the North; and at places farther East, by reminding them of a projected " kutikuti," i.e., cutting off or killing all the Pakehas on that coast, which was once discussed at Wangaparoa, near East Cape. On this South coast of the Bay of Plenty there is, I think, a very unusual proportion of fine men, with quite Caucasian features—large high noses, moderate lips, light brown complexions, and often with a respectable fringe of whiskers and beards—men, indeed, who, but for the tattoo, might be taken for Turks. Yet children are few—certainly few-er than amongst the Urewera. The Whakatohea occupy the coast from Ohiwa to a point called Tirohanga, about half way between Opotiki Heads and Opape—that is, to a hill with some Rata trees on it, about half way along the sand-beach South-East of Opotiki. ( Vide sketch map at the end of this Report.) At Opotiki, the Whakatohea capital so to say, the Maoris bear a specially bad character for insolence, extortion, inhospitality, " puremu," repudiation of debts, and insolent distrust of everything Pakeha. Here is the focus of " King" agitation ; here the purely Native Runanga may be seen in its most rampant state, and is, I firmly believe, worse for the Maoris than the old " taua" (plundering party), as accustoming them to injustice under the name of law. Both Pakeha and Maori tell of cases against evidence, of severe penalty for trifling offence, of penalties neatly fitted to the circumstances of the offender rather than to the circumstances of the offence, and of similar abuses of law. Lest this should be deemed mere vague abuse, I add instances. Te Teira, of Ohiwa, told me that a man has been fined £5 for calling another a " taurekareka" (slave). Rev. Mr. Clarke told me of a man having been fined £10, because his pigs had rooted in a "tapu" spot; his wifp, indignant at this victimization of her husband, rated the judges soundly, told them they were "runanga-pirau" (runanga-rotten), and was fined £2. A respectable old settler of Opotiki told me that the Maoris came into his courtyard on one occasion and " aggravated" him till ho swore at them ; the Runanga fined him his gold watch. The Maori wife of this old man, though professing disapproval of the reviving fashion of tattoo, in a moment of weakness gave a young niece or cousin £l to help her to pay the expense (£1 10s.) of getting tattooed, —the Runanga heard of it and sentenced the husband to a fine of £5. This he refused to pay, and he declared to me he would let the Runanga plunder his store first. Extravagantly heavy penalties for crim. con. with women of notoriously bad character is another weakness of their Runanga. While I was at Opotiki, one Whakatautari, a very great man (especially in his own estimation) was tried for this offence with such a woman—pleaded guilty, and offered 15 horses, two pieces of land, a cance, a gun, and a " mere pounamu" (green-stone hatchet), to the husband as damages. The husband referred this surprising offer to the Runanga to award him what they thought fair ; they said 12 horses ; but Whakatautari refused to receive back any part of his self-imposed damages. As the man appeared no whit abashed or penitent, I naturally asked Mr. Fulloon. and also a Missionary, for some probable explanation of Whakatautari's conduct. Neither believed in the heavy penalty's being an effect of penitence. Two motives were suggested: one, that a Maori chief prides himself on munificently paying for his " he" (wrong doing) ; another, that Whakatautari knows of, or reckons on, some offence of the other party, which will enable him (Whakatautari) in his turn to get inflicted on him a swingeing penalty. The frequent meetings of Runangas and Komitis to try cases of "puremu;" the unblushing minuteness with which Maoris relate such cases ; the number of women present to hear them tried; and the long open discussions of the trial afterwards in their mixed evening gatherings, must have the most unwholesome effect on their small societies. Bad in any society, all this must evidently be supremely bad when the village population live so much in public, so constantly together, as do the Maoris. A Runanga from Opotiki some time ago went up the Whakatane to try to effect the establishment there of a Runanga like itself, but met, I was told, with no success, As an instance of their impudent attempts to bully the Pakeha, take the following:— While I was at Ohiwa, a letter was brought to me with a message that it came from Te Kaha; it was addressed to the Governor, or to whomsoever it may be, at Ohiwa (" Kia Kawana, ki a wai ranei"), and its contents being interpreted areas follows: — May 12. Go, 0 my letter, to the Governor, or to whoever it may be ! If you are the Governor, you must go back ! If you are a Magistrate, you must go back ! If you are a postman from the Governor, you must go back ! If you persist in coming here, you shall pay £100 penalty ! From the Komiti, from the whole tribe. —Afterwards, when I came to Te Kaha, the men of that place indignantly repudiated this insolent production, and one of them wrote to Puhipi to remonstrate about it. When I came to Opotiki, I found that Puhipi had entirely neglected a letter which I had written, requesting him to call the people together to hear the Governor's message; and Puhipi himself, having first made a most transparent attempt to evade us altogether, when he did meet us, began by saying " Did you not receive a letter forbidding you to come here?" The answer was of course the remark that, firstly, a letter without date or signature was worthless, and, secondly, the denial of the right of any man to stop us. This unpromising opening to a public talk was followed by violent speeches, from Puhipi, Whakatautari, and others—some twenty may have been present —against the Governor and the Pakeha generally, repudiating the Treaty of Waitangi, (although it bears five Whakatohea signatures, as it happens,) saying that the whole country must yet fight the Pakeha, claiming ail the

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