Every Englishman's House is his Castle.--My Estate and Castle.--
How I purchased my Estate.--Native Titles to Land, of what Nature.
--Value of Land in New Zealand.--Land Commissioners.--The Triumphs
of Eloquence.--Magna Charta.
"Every Englishman's house is his castle," "I scorn the foreign yoke,"
and glory in the name of Briton, and all that. The natural end,
however, of all castles is to be burnt or blown up. In England it is
true you can call the constable, and should any foreign power attack
you with grinding organ and white mice, you may hope for succours from
without; from which cause "castles" in England are more long-lived. In
New Zealand, however, it is different, as, to the present day, the old
system prevails, and castles continue to be disposed of in the natural
way, as has been seen lately at Taranaki.
I now purchased a piece of land and built a "castle" for myself. I
really can't tell to the present day who I purchased the land from, for
there were about fifty different claimants, every one of whom assured
me that the other forty-nine were "humbugs," and had no right whatever.
The nature of the different titles of the different claimants were
various. One man said his ancestors had killed off the first owners;
another declared his ancestors had driven off the second party; another
man, who seemed to be listened to with more respect than ordinary,
declared that his ancestor had been the first possessor of all, and had
never been ousted, and that this ancestor was a huge lizard that lived
in a cave on the land many ages ago: and, sure enough, there was the
cave to prove it.
Besides the principal claims there were an immense number of secondary
ones--a sort of latent equities--which had lain dormant until it was
known the pakeha had his eye on the land. Some of them seemed to me at
the time odd enough. One man required payment because his ancestors, as
he affirmed, had exercised the right of catching rats on it; but which
he (the claimant) had never done, for the best of reasons, _i.e._,
there were no rats to catch: except indeed pakeha rats, which were
plenty enough, but this variety of rodent was not counted as game.
Another claimed because his grandfather had been murdered on the land,
and--as I am a veracious pakeha--another claimed payment because _his_
grandfather had committed the murder! Then half the country claimed
payments of various value, from one fig of tobacco to a musket, on
account of a certain _wahi tapu_, or ancient burying-ground, which was
on the land, and in which every one almost had had relations or rather
ancestors buried, as they could clearly make out, in old times; though
no one had been deposited in it for about two hundred years, and the
bones of the others had been (as they said) removed long ago to a
_torere_ in the mountains.
It seemed an awkward circumstance that there was some difference of
opinion as to where this same _wahi tapu_ was situated, being, and
lying; for in case of my buying the land it was stipulated that I
should fence it round and make no use of it, although I had paid for
it. I, however, have put off fencing till the exact boundaries have
been made out; and indeed I don't think I shall ever be called on to do
so, the fencing proviso having been made, as I now believe, to give a
stronger look of reality to the existence of the sacred spot, it having
been observed that I had some doubts on the subject. No mention was
ever made of it after the payments had been all made, and so I think I
may venture to affirm that the existence of the said _wahi tapu_ is of
very doubtful authenticity, though it certainly cost me a round "lot of
trade." There was one old man who obstinately persisted in declaring
that he, and he alone, was the sole and rightful owner of the land; he
seemed also to have a "fixed idea" about certain barrels of gunpowder;
but as he did not prove his claim to my satisfaction, and as he had no
one to back him, I of course gave him nothing; he nevertheless demanded
the gunpowder about once a month for five-and-twenty years, till at
last he died of old age, and I am now a landed proprietor, clear of all
claims and demands, and have an undeniable right to hold my estate as
long as ever I am able.
It took about three months' negotiation before the purchase of the land
could be made; and, indeed, I at one time gave up the idea, as I found
it quite impossible to decide whom to pay. If I paid one party, the
others vowed I should never have possession, and to pay all seemed
impossible; so at last I let all parties know that I had made up my
mind not to have the land. This, however, turned out to be the first
step I had made in the right direction; for, thereupon, all the
different claimants agreed amongst themselves to demand a certain
quantity of goods, and divide them amongst themselves afterwards. I was
glad of this, for I wished to buy the land, as I thought, in case I
should ever take a trip to the "colonies," it would look well to be
able to talk of "my estate in New Zealand."
The day being now come on which I was to make the payment, and all
parties present, I then and there handed over to the assembled mob the
price of the land, consisting of a great lot of blankets, muskets,
tomahawks, tobacco, spades, axes, &c., &c.; and received in return a
very dirty piece of paper with all their marks on it, I having written
the terms of transfer on it in English to my own perfect satisfaction.
The cost per acre to me was, as near as can be, about five and a half
times what the same quantity of land would have cost me at the same
time in Tasmania. But this was not of much importance, as the value of
land in New Zealand then (and indeed now) being chiefly imaginary, one
could just as easily suppose it to be of a very great value as a very
small one; I therefore did not complain of the cost.
While I am on the subject of land and land titles, I may as well here
mention that many years after the purchase of my land I received notice
to appear before certain persons called "Land Commissioners," who were
part and parcel of the new inventions which had come up soon after the
arrival of the first governor, and which are still a trouble to the
land. I was informed that I must appear and prove my title to the land
I have mentioned, on pain of forfeiture of the same. Now, I could not
see what right any one could have to plague me in this way, and if I
had had no one but the commissioners and two or three hundred men of
their tribe to deal with, I should have put my pa in fighting order,
and told them to "come on;" for before this time I had had occasion to
build a pa, in consequence of a little misunderstanding, and being a
regularly naturalized member of a strong tribe, could raise men to
defend it at the shortest notice.
But somehow these people had cunningly managed to mix up the name of
Queen Victoria, God bless her! (no disparagement to King Potatau) in
the matter; and I, though a pakeha Maori, am a loyal subject of her
Majesty, and will stick up and fight for her as long as ever I can
muster a good imitation of courage, or a leg to stand upon. This being
the case, I made a very unwilling appearance at the court, and
explained and defended my title to the land in an oration of four
hours' and a half duration; and which, though I was much out of
practice, I flatter myself was a good specimen of English rhetoric,
and, for its own merits--as well as for another reason which I was not
aware of at the time--was listened to by the court with the greatest
patience.
When I had concluded, and been asked "if I had anything more to say?" I
saw the commissioner beginning to count my words, which had been all
written, I suppose, in short-hand; and having ascertained how many
thousand I had spoken, he handed me a bill, in which I was charged by
the word, for every word I had spoken, at the rate of one farthing and
one twentieth per word. Oh, Cicero! Oh, Demosthenes! Oh, Pitt, Fox,
Burke, Sheridan! Oh, Daniel O'Connell! what would have become of you,
if such a stopper had been clapt on your jawing tackle? Fame would
never have cracked her trumpet, and "Dan" would never have raised the
_rint_. For my part I have never recovered the shock. I have since that
time become taciturn, and have adopted a Spartan brevity when forced to
speak, and I fear I shall never again have the full swing of my mother
tongue. Besides this, I was charged ten shillings each for a little
army of witnesses I had brought, by way of being on the sure side--five
shillings a head for calling them into court, and five more for
"examining" them; said examination consisting of one question each,
after which they were told to "be off." I do believe had I brought up a
whole tribe, as I had thoughts of doing, the commissioners would not
have minded examining them all. They were, I am bound to say, very
civil and polite; one of them told me I was "a damned, infernal, clever
fellow, and he should like to see a good many more like me."
I hope I am not getting tedious; but this business made such an
impression on me, that I can't help being too prolix, perhaps, when
describing it. I have, however, often since that time had my doubts
whether the Queen (God bless her) got the money, or knew half as much
of the affair as they wanted to make out. I _don't_ believe it. Our
noble Queen would be clean above such a proceeding; and I mean to say
it's against Magna Charta, it is! "Justice shall _not be sold_," saith
Magna Charta; and if it's not selling justice to make a loyal pakeha
Maori pay for every word he speaks when defending his rights in a court
of justice, I don't know what is.
Well, to make matters up, they after some time gave me a title for my
land (as if I had not one before); but then, after some years, they
made me give it back again, on purpose, as they said, that they might
give me a better! But since that time several more years have passed,
and I have not got it; so, as these things are now all the fashion, "I
wish I may get it."