Page:Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords, appointed to inquire into the present state of the Islands of New Zealand.pdf/74

 70 You have stated that you think, in common Justice, there ought to be Districts settled in perpetuity among the Natives?
 * I think so.

Those Districts ought to be very considerable, for the Purposes of Justice?
 * I think they should be in proportion to the Population.

New Zealand is in the Heart of the South Sea Fisheries, is it not?
 * Yes, very near it; almost in the Heart.

That is a very growing Branch of Industry?
 * Remarkably so.

Do not Vessels employed in that Trade put in to refit and to obtain Provisions?
 * Yes, but not to repair; they are obliged to come to New South Wales to repair. If it had not been for the Fishery in that Part of the World there would have been no Oil for our Lamps this Winter.

Is it Sperm Oil?
 * It is generally called Black Oil, but there is Sperm Oil.

They go as far as the Coast of Japan for Sperm Oil?
 * Yes, then to Torres Straits, and all Parts of the World; they follow the Course of the Sun; Tongataboo and Otaheite, and wherever they chance to find them.

Is there any apparent Difference between the Slaves and their Masters?
 * There is not in point of mixing with each other, but you can tell from their Appearance.

They are exactly the same Race?
 * Yes.

There is no Difference in Intellect?
 * I think the Chiefs are a superior Race of Men; there is the same Line which may be drawn in this Country between People of Education and the lower Orders.

How do you account for this, as they have no Education?
 * I do not know how to account for it, but they do appear a very superior Race to the Slaves.

Would a Chief taken in War be immediately a Slave?
 * Yes. There are many tattooed who are Slaves; they do not tattoo those originally born Slaves, therefore if you see a Man tattooed, though he is a Slave, it is clear he has been once a Chief.

Did you ever hear of any Rebellions of the Slaves?
 * No; they keep them down, and make them work very hard.

And yet the Slaves are very numerous?
 * Yes.

It is stated that among the Enormities which have been committed by the British Settlers there, on some Occasion they gave Money to the Chiefs to kill their Slaves for the Purpose of selling their tattooed Heads?
 * I would almost believe any thing which is related. I know Captains of such very bad Characters go there I should be ready to believe any thing which was related; they have come at Night alongside the Ship with the Heads with a Bit of Candle in them. I never trusted myself on shore at Night at Entry Island.

You do not know whether the Story about the Captain of a Vessel having given a Chief Corrosive Sublimate by way of poisoning another Tribe was true or not?
 * I should believe any thing. I know some of the Captains who have been there have been Men who would be guilty of any thing; and in a Country where there are no Laws we know what Human Nature is; some Men do not care what they do. Rh