26
Account of
Chap. VI.
Government—Chiefs of the Interior—Chiefs of the Coast—Power of the Chief—Consultation with Elders—Civil Power—Punishment in criminal Cases—Tiarrah.
I believe the form of government of this part of New Zealand, and perhaps of the whole island, to be aristocratical, and hereditary. On the coast it is administered by chieftains, who are of inferior consideration, and probably subservient to those who govern the interior.
I am led into this conjecture by the accounts of the natives, who, when speaking of their ruler at this part, evidently considered him as a personage of small note compared with other chiefs dwelling at a considerable distance in the country.
