nts should be regarded with kindness and consideration.
On the other side were the native tribes, who, as the price of land
went in those days, had certainly received the equivalent for a
considerable territory. There was room for an equitable arrangement
just as there was most pressing need for promptitude. Speed was the
first thing needful, also the second, and the third. Instead of speed
the settlers got a Royal Commission. A Commissioner was appointed, who
did not arrive until two years after the Governor, and whose final
award was not given for many months more. When he did give it, he cut
down the Company's purchase of twenty million acres to two hundred and
eighty-three thousand. As for land-claims of private persons, many of
them became the subjects of litigation and petition, and some were not
settled for twenty years. Why three or four Commissioners were not
sent instead of one, and sent sooner, the official mind alone knows.
Meantime, the weary months dragged on, and the unfortunate settlers of
the Company were either not put in possession of their land at all, or
had as little security for their farms as for their lives. They
were not allowed to form volunteer corps, though living in face of
ferocious and well-armed savages. Yet the Governor who forbade them
to take means to defend themselves had not the troops with which to
defend them. To show the state of the country it may be noted that
the two tribes from whom Colonel Wakefield bought the land round
Port Nicholson quarrelled amongst themselves over the sale. The
Ngatiraukawa treacherously attacked the Ngatiawa, were soundly beaten,
and lost seventy men. At first, it is true, settlers and natives got
on excellently well together. The new-comers had money, and were good
customers. But as time went on, and the settlers exhausted their funds
and hopes, they ceased to be able to buy freely. And when they found
the Maoris refusing to admit them to the farms for which they had paid
L1 an acre in London, feeling grew more and more acute. The Company's
settlement at Port Nicholson was perversely planted just on that place
in the inner harbour which is exposed to the force of the ocean. It
had to be shifted to a more sheltered spot, and this the natives
denied they ever sold. That was but one of a series of disputes which
led to murder and petty warfare, and were hardly at an end seven
years later. The settlers, though shut out of the back country, did,
however, h