Did you observe to what Extent the Missionaries had succeeded in imparting Religious Instruction?
- Yes; I had an Opportunity of seeing all their Congregations on the River.
How did the People conduct themselves upon those Occasions?
- In a way that I have never seen in any Part of the World, not excepting this Country.
Well?
- Yes, exceedingly well.
You consider that the Missionaries have been very successful in their Labours there?
- To an Extent I have not witnessed anywhere else.
Could you judge whether previous to their Intercourse with the Missionaries the Natives had any religious Creed of their own; any Notion of the Existence of a supreme Power?
- I am only enabled to answer that from the present Condition of the heathen Natives, biassed as that is perhaps, by their Contiguity to the others, and having imbibed Opinions from them.
Were you in any Part of the Island in Intercourse with Natives among whom the Missionaries had not been at all?
- No; not where they had not made Efforts of some Description or other
In those Parts in which their Efforts had made the least Progress, what Sort of Disposition and Feeling did you witness among the Natives relative to Europeans?
- A very kindly Feeling indeed, produced entirely by the moral Influence the Missionaries have obtained among them.
Were you privy to any Negotiations or Arrangements about Land with any of the Natives?
- I was very near becoming a Landed Proprietor myself, to a trifling Extent.
What Steps did you take with regard to that?
- One particular Circumstance I am referring to applies to a Piece of Land that was offered to an Individual calling himself the Baron De Thierry. It was a considerable Portion of very fine Land. It was offered to him on such Terms that I observed to the superintending Missionary I thought I should buy it myself if the Baron did not.
You say a Piece of Land was offered; what Step did the Native take towards that?
- In this Instance this Individual had brought down Sixty Persons from Sydney with him; he arrived while I was there.
Of what Class were those Persons?
- The Majority of a very infamous Description, such as he had picked up in Sydney. He stated himself to have a considerable Claim upon Land at the Head of the Hokianga District, called Waihoo; and as soon as it was convenient after his Arrival a Meeting of the Chiefs of the River took place at the Station of Mangungu, the principal Station. After Two or Three Days meeting he was obliged, by the Force of Representation, to relinquish it; it being clearly made out that the Purchase was only, in their Language, rahood, that is, that only a Deposit had been paid, and that the Term of Completion was then long past. In these Circumstances it became a Matter of serious Consideration with the Missionaries, and with all the Residents, and the Natives themselves, what was to be done with him. He had no Money; he had brought no Provisions; and the Question was whether they were to be left to perish on the River. It was under these Circumstances that a Chief offered to sell him the Piece of Land I have before alluded to. That was done through the Agency of Mr. Turner, the senior Missionary, who acted as Interpreter.
So that the native Chief volunteered the parting with some Land for Consideration?
- For a Consideration, and under those particular Circumstances.
