tribes, and who, there is no doubt, owed their undisturbed possession to their Ngatiapa blood. I am therefore of opinion that in the decision to be given as to the ownership of the whole block, these people holding land within the Ngatiapa boundaries by virtue of their Ngatiapa blood, and for that reason unopposed by the Ngatiapa, should be held to be members of the Ngatiapa tribe and have all the rights which may accrue to them from that position, and that when the Ngatiapa tribe is spoken of for the purposes of the decision in this case it shall be understood to include these Rangitane half-castes.

For the sake of brevity and perspicuity, I have avoided as much as possible recurring to many minute circumstances, seeing that the questions under consideration can be decided, as far as the Court can decide them, on the evidence adduced, on broader considerations, which are more easily understood.

I now therefore pass at once to the time, about the year 1829, when we at last find the whole emigration of the Ngatiraukawa tribe arrived and settled about Kapiti, Waikanae, and the immediately adjacent country.

The whole Ngatiraukawa emigration having arrived, it appears that they did not immediately disperse themselves over the conquered country, but remained for about three years in the vicinity of Otaki, Waikanae, and Kapiti, where they employed themselves in manufacturing flax, and producing other commodities for sale to the European traders for gunpowder and fire-arms, without which they could not count on being able to establish themselves on their allotted lands; but, having at last accomplished this object, the different sections of the tribe separated, and each section went to, and took possession of, and settled on, that particular portion or district of the conquered country which had been granted or allotted to them by the paramount chief Rauparaha.

During the above period of time, between the arrival of the Ngatiraukawa tribe and its final occupation in sections of the different districts allotted to them, it appears that the Ngatiapa had also, with the full consent of Rauparaha, and the active assistance of the chief Rangihaeata, made the most of the time in arming themselves with firearms, which, it would appear, they succeeded in doing to fully as great an extent as their means of purchasing allowed, and probably to fully as great an extent as the Ngatiraukawa had been able to do. This fact has a very significant though indirect bearing on the questions at issue, as it seems evident that had Rauparaha intended to depress or subjugate the Ngatiapa tribe, he would on no account have allowed, or offered facilities, to their war chief Hakeke in coming to Kapiti with parties of his young men to procure those arms, which, were it not for the friendly relations subsisting between them, would have made the Ngatiapa formidable even to Te Rauparaha himself. The policy, however, of Te Rauparaha has been evidently, from the beginning, after having made the Ngatiapa feel his power, to elevate and strengthen them as a check on his almost too numerous friends the Ngatiraukawa, who, were it not that they were bound to him by a great common danger, created by himself in placing them on lately conquered lands, he would never have trusted. He has also evidently had the purpose, and succeeded in it, after having made peace with his enemies in the South, who were not likely to attack him again, to set up both tribes, Ngatiraukawa and Ngatiapa, as a barrier against his far more dangerous enemies in the North.

There, however, is no evidence at all to show that Rauparaha, in granting or allotting lands to the different sections of the Ngatiraukawa tribe, did ever give or grant to them any lands within the boundaries of the Ngatiapa possessions, between the rivers Rangitikei and Manawatu, or elsewhere; to have done which would have been clearly inconsistent with the relations then subsisting between himself and the Ngatiapa tribe, over whose lands he had never claimed or exercised rights of a conqueror; and, moreover, the Ngatiapa, a fierce and sturdy race, were on the land, no longer unarmed, but well provided with those weapons, the want of which had, on the occasion of the first invasion, reduced their warriors to seek reluctantly the shelter of the mountain or the forest.

It is however sufficient that we have the fact, that, influenced by whatever motives, Te Rauparaha did not at any time give or grant any lands of the Ngatiapa estate, between the Manawatu and Rangitikei rivers, to the Ngatiraukawa tribe, nor is there any evidence to shew that he had ever acquired the right to do so. It is however a fact that soon after the year 1835 we find three distinct hapu of the Ngatiraukawa tribe settled peaceably and permanently on the Ngatiapa lands, between the Manawatu and Rangitikei rivers, unopposed by the Ngatiapa, on terms of perfect alliance and friendship with them, claiming rights of ownership over the lands they occupy, and exercising those rights, sometimes independently of the Ngatiapa, and sometimes conjointly with them; joining with the Ngatiapa in petty war expeditions; “eating out of the same basket;” “sleeping in the same bed,” as some of the witnesses say, and quarrelling with each other, and, on the only occasion on which the disagreement resulted in the loss of one life, making peace with each other like persons who, depending much on each other’s support, cannot afford to carry hostilities against each other to extremity, and who therefore submit to the first politic proposals of their chiefs for an accommodation. Upon investigation of the causes which brought about this state of things, with the view of ascertaining what was the real status or position of the three Raukawa hapu on the land, we find that they did not make their settlement on the lands of the Ngatiapa by virtue of any claim of conquest, or any grant from Rauparaha, or by any act or demonstration of warlike powers by themselves; but it is in evidence, which from all the surrounding circumstances seems perfectly credible, that two at least of these Raukawa hapu, namely, Ngatiparewahawaha and Ngatikahoro, were simply invited to come by the Ngatiapa themselves, and were placed by them in a position which, by undoubted Maori usage, entailed upon the incomers very important rights, though not the rights of conquerors. The third hapu, the Ngatikauwhata, appears to have come in under slightly different circumstances. The lands allotted to them by Rauparaha were on the south side of the Manawatu river, the lands of the Ngatiapa were on the north, and to quote the very apt expression of one of the witnesses, “they stretched the grant of Rauparaha and came over the river;” the facts appearing in reality to have been that they made a quiet intrusion on to the lands of the Ngatiapa, but offering no violence, lest by so doing they should offend Rauparaha, as under the then existing established relations between the tribes, to do so would have been