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 was 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 who 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, (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 to 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's duration; and which,
though I was much out of practice, I flatter myself was a good
specimen of English rhetoric, and which, 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
having been asked "if I had any more to say?" I saw the commissioner
beginning to count my words, which had been all written, I suppose, in
shorthand; 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 who 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."