Is that a common Occurrence, or only an isolated Case?
- I do not recollect any other Instance of the Kind.
When the Land has been purchased in the Manner you have described, by an Agreement with the Chiefs, what Means were taken of ascertaining the precise Boundaries, so that there should be afterwards no Dispute if another Person wished to purchase the adjacent Land?
- I went round with Mr. Fairburn, on one Occasion, to inquire how far the Land extended, and as we were sitting in the native House the Natives remarked that it was up to such a Wood, and up to such a River, and up to the Outside of a certain Wood. In general the native Landmarks are to a certain Wood or a certain Creek, and if a River divides the Land, though the River may be serpentine, all the Land inside (that is to say, of the purchased
Side) would belong to the Purchaser.
Are those Boundaries described in the written Agreement?
- Yes; the Names of Places are specified.
Are you aware of any Instance in which, when a Chief was going to sell his Land, an European laid claim to having previously purchased it under a written Agreement?
- I am not aware of any European being present, and laying claim to it, on such an Occasion.
Do you suppose that if Persons purchased a Tract of Country from the Chiefs, and did not immediately occupy it, the Chiefs would afterwards permit them to return and exercise any Authority over it?
- Yes.
Though it had remained unoccupied for a Year?
- Yes. Most probably if he intended to leave it for a Time he would state that at the Time of the Purchase.
They would perfectly comprehend that?
- Yes; that would probably be included in the Document.
You state that the Natives in the Bay of Islands were more immoral than the Natives in the Interior?
- Yes.
Are those Natives in the Bay of Islands Christians or Heathens?
- There is a striking Contrast amongst the Natives at the Bay of Islands. There are many Natives who will not listen at all to the Instruction of the Missionaries; there are others, again, at Paihia and Kanakana, and other Places, who will listen to the Instructions of the Missionary Body.
Are the Heathens of the Interior more moral Persons than the native Christians who reside in the Bay of Islands?
- Not more moral than those who are with and under Missionary Instruction, but more moral than those who are living in such a disgraceful Way, by going on board the Ships, and have been corrupted and degraded by our own Countrymen.
Those are not professed Christians?
- No; and it is obvious to me that they are far worse than those in the Interior, both Male and Female, but especially the Females.
Did you reside in the Bay of Islands?
- Yes; Nine Months.
Were there any English Men of War there during that Time?
- There was an English Man of War put in just before I left; I think it was His Majesty's Ship the Zebra, but I am not confident as to the Name of the Ship.
Did the Crew of that Vessel behave in the same sort of way as the Crew of the Whalers?
- I did not see or hear of any Improprieties; the Captain and his Officers, with some of the Crew, came ashore on Sunday to Paihia Chapel.
