Teira offered to dispose of, although some of those were only received during the progress of the war; as for instance:--"It was a land of complicated claims, the property of the whole tribe, the site of villages and cultivations, and besides that, William King and his tribe were in occupation of it."

Upon reference to the enclosures to Governor Browne’s despatches, it will be found that the natives urged in letters transmitted to the Secretary of State, sometimes in terms of humble supplication, language often identical with that which is stated in the Secretary of State’s despatch No. 88, of the 25th August, 1863, to have been put into their mouths, in Sir G. Grey’s despatch of the 24th April of the same year.

The following extracts from such native letters will show this:--

"Was it by their permission that our lands, inherited from our ancestors, became our property, which lands have all been taken from us, at the point of the sword?"

"Was it they who gave our ancestors all their cultivated lands," which I have already mentioned, "when they went from Waikanae, which cultivations the soldiers have taken with the edge of the sword?"

"We have portions of the land at Waitara within the boundaries of the land which Teira wrongfully sold to the Governor. This land belongs to us, and to those who were driven off that land, and belonged to the ancestors of us all."

"How can they justify the denial of our claims, or of those who have been forcibly driven from it?"

"In our opinion, Teira’s act was a great crime, and nothing can be said in his behalf, which can hide his unjust act."

"Is thieving, indeed then, a legitimate occupation? It has been said to be a wicked one. It must be that only a theft by a Maori is wrong; but when an European commits one, it is a laudable action."

"If that land shall be permanently wrested from them, then this saying will be handed down through all future generations, 'that land was forcibly, and unlawfully, taken away by a Governor appointed by the Queen of England.'"

"They say the land all belongs to Teira. No; that land belongs to us all—to orphans and to widows."

"Should we look to the Queen—or to whom? We had always thought that the law afforded protection from wrong! We are, at the present time, wholly at a loss as to what course to adopt."

"Now, we are altogether perplexed; and exclaim, alas! alas! this is a new proceeding on the part of our Queen. The good which used to be associated with the mention of your name, and which caused the Maoris of this island to regard you only as our mother, has been lost. Your name was then sweet to the hearts of your Maori people."

"Your Majesty’s name also became strange to this people. Now, for the first time, we have been hunted with evil. Oh! mother; do not listen to fabrications, while are probably being written to you, to the effect that the Maoris are fighting against your sovereignty; it is a fabrication. Understand that this is really a quarrel about land."

"They were loving subjects of yours. Their object was not to trample upon the law; but rather to retain possession of the land which was handed down to them by their ancestors, and father. They did not wish to sell that land. This unwarrantable proceeding has occasioned grief and confusion to all of us, because we know that this system is not yours—this taking away, without cause, of the land of other people; and of the orphan and widow."

"The Queen’s sovereignty has been acknowledged long ago. Had it been a fight for supremacy, every man in this island would have been up in arms. But in the present case the fighting is confined to the land which is being taken possession of."

They also universally contended, not only that they had committed no crime against the Queen, but that some of them had previously rendered her Majesty valuable services, which they had done.

In regard to the statement made in the Secretary of State’s despatch, “that far from William King’s followers being evicted, as it were for the purpose of taking possession of the purchased land, they themselves in the consciousness of hostility abandoned their pas.” It should be borne in mind that the troops did not take possession of the land until the 5th of March, and on the 22nd of February, the Government had issued a notice to the natives warning them that from that date the law of fighting was about to commence in the district of Taranaki; the Europeans were on the same day informed that active military operations were about to be undertaken against the natives.

This notice, followed by the march of armed troops, ordered to maintain occupation on behalf of the Crown, of a block of land purchased by the Crown, from Te Teira, would probably not make the natives think that in abandoning their villages they did so in the consciousness of hostility. Their own statement is that they were forcibly driven from it.

In the Secretary of State’s despatch, No. 88, of the 25th of the August, the following paragraph occurs:

"I hold therefore that no injustice, and it is with justice only that I am dealing, was either intended or done to William King and his followers by the employment of military force to carry into effect the survey of the Waitara land, for the purpose of ascertaining how much or how little of it was owned by Teira and the others who joined with him in the sale to the Crown."