tain it. But supposing a man to get a musket for half a ton of flax,
another half-ton would be required for ammunition; and in consequence,
as every man in a native _hapu_ of, say a hundred men, was absolutely
forced on pain of death to procure a musket and ammunition at any cost,
and at the earliest possible moment (for, if they did not procure them,
extermination was their doom by the hands of those of their country-men
who had), the effect was that this small _hapu_, or clan, had to
manufacture, spurred by the penalty of death, in the shortest possible
time, one hundred tons of flax, scraped by hand with a shell, bit by
bit, morsel by morsel, half-a-quarter of an ounce at a time.

Now as the natives, when undisturbed and labouring regularly at their
cultivations, were never far removed from necessity or scarcity of
food, we may easily imagine the distress and hardship caused by this
enormous imposition of extra labour. They were obliged to neglect their
crops in a very serious degree, and for many months in the year were in
a half-starving condition; working hard all the time in the flax
swamps. The insufficient food, over-exertion, and unwholesome locality,
killed them fast. As for the young children, they almost all died; and
this state of things continued for many years: for it was long after
being supplied with arms and ammunition before the natives could
purchase, by similar exertion, the various agricultural implements, and
other iron tools so necessary to them; and it must always be
remembered, if we wish to understand the difficulties and over-labour
the natives were subjected to, that while undergoing this immense extra
toil, they were at the same time obliged to maintain themselves by
cultivating the ground with sharpened sticks, not being able to afford
to purchase iron implements in any useful quantity, till first the
great, pressing, paramount want of muskets and gunpowder had been
supplied. Thus continual excitement, over-work, and insufficient food,
exposure, and unhealthy places of residence, together with a general
breaking up of old habits of life, thinned their numbers: European
diseases also assisted, but not to any very serious extent.

In the part of the country in which I have had means of observing with
exactitude, the natives have decreased in numbers over one-third since
I first saw them. That this rapid decrease has been checked in some
districts, I am sure, and the cause is not a mystery.