Excitement caused by first contact with Europeans. -- The two
great institutions of Maori land. -- The Muru. -- The Tapu. --
Instances of legal robbery. -- Descriptions and Examples of the
Muru. -- Profit and loss. -- Explanation of some of the workings
of the law of Muru.
The natives have been for fifty years or more in a continual state of
excitement on one subject or another, which has had a markedly bad
effect on their character and physical condition, as I shall by-and-by
take occasion to point out. When the first straggling ships came here
the smallest bit of iron was a prize so inestimable that I might be
thought to exaggerate were I to tell the bare truth on the subject.
The excitement and speculation caused by a ship being seen off the
coast was immense. Where would she anchor? What _iron_ could be got
from her? Would it be possible to seize her? The oracle was consulted,
preparations were made to follow her along the coast, even through an
enemy's country, at all risks; and when she disappeared she was not
forgotten, and would continue long to be the subject of anxious
expectation and speculation.
After this, regular trading began. The great madness then was for
muskets and gunpowder. A furious competition was kept up. Should any
tribe fail to procure a stock of these articles as soon as its
neighbours, extermination was its probable doom. We may then imagine
the excitement, the over-labour, the hardship, the starvation
(occasioned by crops neglected whilst labouring to produce flax or
other commodity demanded in payment)--I say imagine, but I have seen
at least part of it.
After the demand for arms was supplied, came a perfect furore for iron
tools, instruments of husbandry, clothing, and all kinds of pakeha
manufactures. These things having been quite beyond their means while
they were supplying themselves with arms, they were in the most
extreme want of them, particularly iron tools. A few years ago the
madness ran upon horses and cattle; and now young New Zealand believes
in nothing but money, and they are continually tormenting themselves
with plans to acquire it in large sums at once, without the trouble of
slow and saving industry, which, as applied to the accumulation of
money, they neither approve of nor understand; nor will they ever, as
a people, take this mode till convinced that money, like everything
else of value, can only be procured as a rule by giving full value for
it, either in labour or the produce of labour.
Here I am, I find, again before my story. Right down to the present
time talking of "young New Zealand," and within a hair's-breadth of
settling "the Maori difficulty" without having been paid for it,
which would have been a great oversight, and contrary to the customs
of New Zealand. I must go back.
There were in the old times two great institutions, which reigned with
iron rod in Maori land--the _Tapu_ and the _Muru_. Pakehas who knew no
better, called the _muru_ simply "robbery," because the word _muru_,
in its common signification, means to plunder. But I speak of the
regular legalized and established system of plundering as penalty for
offences, which in a rough way resembled our law by which a man is
obliged to pay "damages." Great abuses had, however, crept into this
system--so great, indeed, as to render the retention of any sort of
moveable property almost an impossibility, and to, in a great measure,
discourage the inclination to labour for its acquisition. These great
inconveniences were, however, met, or in some degree softened, by an
expedient of a peculiarly Maori nature, which I shall by-and-by
explain. The offences for which people were plundered were sometimes
of a nature which, to a _mere_ pakeha, would seem curious. A man's
child fell in the fire and was almost burnt to death. The father was
immediately plundered to an extent that almost left him without the
means of subsistence: fishing nets, canoes, pigs, provisions--all
went. His canoe upset, and he and all his family narrowly escaped
drowning--some were, perhaps, drowned. He was immediately robbed, and
well pummelled with a club into the bargain, if he was not good at the
science of self-defence--the club part of the ceremony being always
fairly administered one against one, and after fair warning given to
defend himself. He might be clearing some land for potatoes, burning
off the fern, and the fire spreads farther than he intended, and gets
into a _wahi tapu_ or burial-ground. No matter whether any one has
been buried in it or no for the last hundred years, he is tremendously
robbed. In fact, for ten thousand different causes a man might be
robbed; and I can really imagine a case in which a man for scratching
his own head might be legally robbed. Now, as the enforcers of this
law were also the parties who received the damages, as well as the
judges of the amount, which in many cases (such as that of the burnt
child) would be everything they could by any means lay hands on, it is
easy to perceive that under such a system personal property was an
evanescent sort of thing altogether. These executions or distraints
were never resisted; indeed, in many cases, as I shall explain
by-and-by, it would have been felt as a slight, and even an insult,
_not_ to be robbed; the sacking of a man's establishment being often
taken as a high compliment, especially if his head was broken into the
bargain; and to resist the execution would not only have been looked
upon as mean and disgraceful in the highest degree, _but it would have
debarred the contemptible individual from the privilege of robbing his
neighbours_, which was the compensating expedient I have alluded to.
All this may seem a waste of words to my pakeha Maori readers, to whom
these things have become such matters of course as to be no longer
remarkable; but I have remembered that there are so many new people in
the country who don't understand the beauty of being knocked down and
robbed, that I shall say a few more words on the subject.
The tract of country inhabited by a single tribe might be say from
forty to a hundred miles square, and the different villages of the
different sections of the tribe would be scattered over this area at
different distances from each other. We will, by way of illustrating
the working of the _muru_ system, take the case of the burnt child.
Soon after the accident it would be heard of in the neighbouring
villages; the family of the mother are probably the inhabitants of one
of them; they have, according to the law of _muru_, the first and
greatest right to clean out the afflicted father--a child being
considered to belong to the family of the mother more than to that of
the father--in fact it is their child, who the father has the rearing
of. The child was moreover a promising lump of a boy, the makings of a
future warrior, and consequently very valuable to the whole tribe in
general, but to the mother's family in particular. "A pretty thing to
let him get spoiled." Then he is a boy of good family, a _rangatira_
by birth, and it would never do to let the thing pass without making a
noise about it. That would be an insult to the dignity of the families
of both father and mother. Decidedly, besides being robbed, the father
must be assaulted with the spear. True, he is a famous spearman, and
for his own credit must "hurt" some one or another if attacked. But
this is of no consequence; a flesh wound more or less deep is to be
counted on; and then think of the plunder! It is against the law of
_muru_ that any one should be killed, and first blood ends the duel.
Then the natural affection of all the child's relations is great. They
are all in a great state of excitement, and trying to remember how
many canoes, and pigs, and other valuable articles, the father has
got: for this must be a clean sweep. A strong party is now mustered,
headed probably by the brother of the mother of the child. He is a
stout chap, and carries a long tough spear. A messenger is sent to the
father, to say that the _taua muru_ is coming, and may be expected
to-morrow, or the next day. He asks, "Is it a great _taua_?" "Yes; it
is a very great _taua_ indeed." The victim smiles, he feels highly
complimented, he _is_ then a man of consequence. His child is also of
great consideration; he is thought worthy of a large force being sent
to rob him! Now he sets all in motion to prepare a huge feast for the
friendly robbers his relations. He may as well be liberal, for his
provisions are sure to go, whether or no. Pigs are killed and baked
whole, potatoes are piled up in great heaps, all is made ready, he
looks out his best spear, and keeps it always ready in his hand. At
last the _taua_ appears on a hill half a mile off; then the whole
fighting men of the section of the tribe of which he is an important
member, collect at his back, all armed with spear and club, to show
that they could resist if they would--a thing, however, not to be
thought of under the circumstances. On comes the _taua_. The mother
begins to cry in proper form; the tribe shout the call of welcome to
the approaching robbers; and then with a grand rush, all armed, and
looking as if they intended to exterminate all before them, the _kai
muru_ appear on the scene. They dance the war dance, which the
villagers answer with another. Then the chief's brother-in-law
advances, spear in hand, with the most alarming gestures. "Stand
up!--stand up! I will kill you this day," is his cry. The defendant is
not slow to answer the challenge. A most exciting, and what to a new
pakeha would appear a most desperately dangerous, fencing bout with
spears instantly commences. The attack and defence are in the highest
degree scientific; the spear shafts keep up a continuous rattle; the
thrust, and parry, and stroke with the spear shaft follow each other
with almost incredible rapidity, and are too rapid to be followed by
an unpractised eye. At last the brother-in-law is slightly touched;
blood also drops from our chief's thigh. The fight instantly ceases;
leaning on their spears, probably a little badinage takes place
between them, and then the brother-in-law roars out "_murua! murua!
murua!_" Then the new arrivals commence a regular sack, and the two
principals sit down quietly with a few others for a friendly chat, in
which the child's name is never mentioned, or the inquiry as to
whether he is dead or alive even made. The case I have just described
would, however, be one of more than ordinary importance; slighter
"accidents and offences" would be atoned for by a milder form of
operation. But the general effect was to keep personal property
circulating from hand to hand pretty briskly, or indeed to convert it
into public property; for no man could say who would be the owner of
his canoe or blanket in a month's time. Indeed, in that space of time,
I once saw a nice coat, which a native had got from the captain of a
trading schooner, and which was an article much coveted in those days,
pass through the hands, and over the backs, of six different owners,
and return, considerably the worse for wear, to the original
purchaser; and all these transfers had been made by legal process of
_muru_. I have been often myself paid the compliment of being robbed
for little accidents occurring in my family, and have several times
also, from a feeling of politeness, robbed my Maori friends, though I
can't say I was a great gainer by these transactions. I think the
greatest haul I ever made was about half a bag of shot, which I
thought a famous joke, seeing that I had sold it the day before to the
owner for full value. A month after this I was disturbed early in the
morning by a voice shouting, "Get up!--get up! I will kill you this
day. You have roasted my grandfather. Get up!--_stand_ up!" I, of
course, guessed that I had committed some heinous though involuntary
offence, and the "stand up" hinted the immediate probable
consequences; so out I turned, spear in hand, and who should I see,
armed with a bayonet on the end of a long pole, but my friend the
umwhile owner of the bag of shot. He came at me with pretended fury,
made some smart bangs and thrusts, which I parried, and then
explained to me that I had "cooked his grandfather;" and that if I did
not come down handsome in the way of damages, deeply as he might
regret the necessity, his own credit, and the law of _muru_, compelled
him either to sack my house or die in the attempt. I was glad enough
to prevent either event, by paying him two whole bags of shot, two
blankets, divers fish-hooks, and certain figs of tobacco, which he
demanded. I found that I had really and truly committed a most horrid
crime. I had on a journey made my fire at the foot of a tree, in the
top of which the bones of my friend's grandfather had once been
deposited, but from which they had been removed ten years before; the
tree caught fire and had burnt down: and I, therefore, by a convenient
sort of figure of speech, had "roasted his grandfather," and had to
pay the penalty accordingly.
It did not require much financial ability on my part, after a few
experiences of this nature, to perceive that I had better avail myself
of my privileges as a pakeha, and have nothing further to do with the
law of _muru_--a determination I have kept to strictly. If ever I have
unwittingly injured any of my neighbours, I have always made what I
considered just compensation, and resisted the _muru_ altogether; and
I will say this for my friends, that when any of them have done an
accidental piece of mischief, they have, in most cases without being
asked, offered to pay for it.
The above slight sketch of the penal law of New Zealand I present and
dedicate to the Law Lords of England, as it might, perhaps, afford
some hints for a reform in our own. The only remark I shall have to
add is, that if a man killed another, "malice prepense aforethought,"
the act, in nineteen cases out of twenty, would be either a very
meritorious one, or of no consequence whatever; in either of which
cases the penal code had, of course, nothing to do in the matter. If,
however, a man killed another by _accident_, in the majority of cases
the consequences would be most serious; and not only the involuntary
homicide, but every one connected with him, would be plundered of
everything they possessed worth taking. This, however, to an English
lawyer, may require some explanation, which is as follows:--If a man
thought fit to kill his own slave, it was nobody's affair but his own;
the law had nothing to do with it. If he killed a man of another
tribe, he had nothing to do but declare it was in revenge or
retaliation for some aggression, either recent or traditional, by the
other tribe, of which examples were never scarce. In this case the
action became at once highly meritorious, and his whole tribe would
support and defend him to the last extremity. If he, however, killed a
man by accident, the slain man would be, as a matter of course, in
most instances, one of his ordinary companions--_i.e._, one of his own
tribe. The accidental discharge of a gun often caused death in this
way. Then, indeed, the law of _muru_ had full swing, and the wholesale
plunder of the criminal and family was the penalty. Murder, as the
natives understood it--that is to say, the malicious destruction of a
man of _the same tribe_--did not happen as frequently as might be
expected; and when it did, went in most cases unpunished; the murderer
in general managing to escape to some other section of the tribe where
he had relations, who, as he fled to them for protection, were bound
to give it, and always ready to do so; or otherwise he would stand his
ground and defy all comers, by means of the strength of his own family
or section, who all would defend him and protect him as a mere matter
of course; and as the law of _utu_ or _lex talionis_ was the only one
which applied in this case, and as, unlike the law of _muru_, nothing
was to be got by enforcing it but hard blows, murder in most cases
went unpunished.
[And so, in this day, when a Maori, for some real or fancied injury,
or as a means to elevate his name, kills some wretched white man, he
nearly always goes unpunished. The Government ask for him to be given
up, the tribe refuse, and there is an end of the matter.--Pembroke.]