derstood what
they were doing, they had no right, under the Maori law and custom,
thus to alienate the heritage of their tribes. Had Colonel Wakefield's
alleged purchases been upheld the Company would have acquired
nine-tenths of the lands of no less than ten well-known tribes. The
price paid for this was goods valued at something less than L9,000.
The list of articles handed over at the Wakefield purchases is
remarkable enough to be worth quoting:--

300 red blankets.
200 muskets.
16 single-barrelled guns.
8 double-barrelled guns.
2 tierces tobacco.
15 cwt. tobacco.
148 iron pots.
6 cases soap.
15 fowling pieces.
81 kegs gunpowder.
2 casks ball cartridges.
4 kegs lead slates.
200 cartouche boxes.
60 tomahawks.
2 cases pipes.
10 gross pipes.
72 spades.
100 steel axes.
20 axes.
46 adzes.
3,200 fish-hooks.
24 bullet moulds.
1,500 flints.
276 shirts.
92 jackets.
92 trousers.
60 red nightcaps.
300 yards cotton duck.
200 yards calico.
300 yards check.
200 yards print.
480 pocket-handkerchiefs.
72 writing slates.
600 pencils.
204 looking glasses.
276 pocket knives.
204 pairs scissors.
12 pairs shoes.
12 hats.
6 lbs. beads.
12 hair umbrellas.
100 yards ribbons.
144 Jews' harps.
36 razors.
180 dressing combs.
72 hoes.
2 suits superfine clothes.
36 shaving boxes.
12 shaving brushes.
12 sticks sealing wax.
11 quires cartridge paper.
12 flushing coats.
24 combs.

The purchasing took three months. While it was going on Henry Williams
and other missionaries urged the chiefs not to sell. But with the
goods spread out before them--especially the muskets--the chiefs were
not to be stopped. The Wakefields justified the transactions on the
ground that population would rapidly make the ten per cent. of the
country reserved for the natives more valuable than the whole. Gibbon
Wakefield talked airily to the parliamentary committee next year of a
value of 30s. an acre, which, on a reserve of two million acres, would
mean three million sterling for the Maoris! Nothing can justify the
magnitude of Colonel Wakefield's claims, or the payment of fire-arms
for the land. But at the bottom of the mischief was the attempt of
the missionaries and officials at home to act as though a handful of
savages--not then more, I believe, than 65,000 in all, and rapidly
dwindling in numbers--could be allowed to keep a f