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Mihawhenua: The Adventures of a Party of Tourists Amongst a Tribe of Maoris Discovered in Western Otago, New Zealand

Chapter XXI. A Maori Court of Justice

page 183

Chapter XXI. A Maori Court of Justice.

For some days after the attempt on our lives we saw nothing of Jars. He was evidently avoiding us, and this tended to confirm my more than strong suspicion that he was one of the men I had seen running from our whare after the attack on us. Ramana, on the other hand, seemed as if he could not do enough to exhibit his good feeling towards us. He brought us presents of every conceivable kind, and was ever willing to perform services for us. No doubt of his sincerity ever entered our minds, nor were we disturbed by any apprehension that he would repeat or be a party to an attack on us.

We had devoted some days, under the direction of Te Kahu, to the construction of a kite, and eventually a suitable day arrived on which to accompany him up to the nearest hilltop, and take our promised lessons in the art of flying it. This we did so successfully, and found our kite answer the purpose so well, that we determined to entrust our papers to it on the first opportunity on which the wind was in the right direction. We were absent from the village nearly all day, as we had, of course, to recover the kite we had sent off, and thought it prudent to do so at once. In the full flush of security after the experiences of page 184the past, we took Macdonald with us, and consequently our whare and its contents were left unguarded. I had taken the opportunity when passing close to the river to throw one of our floats and messages into the water.

Shortly after our return, Ramana came to us with a face showing great anxiety. Jars had reported to the Ariki the discovery of some writing of ours, which he alleged we were despatching to our friends, inviting them to come and attack the pa and destroy the Maoris. Could it be possible that he had been playing the spy, and had seen me putting the float into the river? An examination of the whare soon dispelled this fear. He had visited our dwelling during the day, and had carried off one of the several floats we had secreted there. Was there no limit to the malignity and persecution with which he would pursue us? Ramana said that a meeting of the Council was now being held to decide what steps should be taken with us. Jars had proposed that we should at once be put to death as traitors and spies, and was no doubt urging this upon the Ariki and Council.

Here was a dilemma! We might be tried and condemned without any knowledge of the charge against us. We already knew the unalterable nature of a decree of the Council once solemnly pronounced. What was to be done? Gordon and I looked at each other in perplexity.

"By Jove! Brock, this is the worst fix we ever were in. That sneaking Frenchman will make the most of it, you may depend."

"But he can't read our message," I said. "He hardly knows ten words of English."

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"All the worse for us. He will invent and exaggerate. He has evidently begun that already."

"Where is Te Kahu?" I cried, anxiously.

Gordon asked Ramana, and learned that our friend was at the meeting. Here, then, was some hope.

"I say, Gordon," I cried, suddenly, "we are members of the Council, and of right can attend this meeting. Let us go there immediately."

"By heavens! you are right. Why didn't we think of that at once? Let us go without loss of time and confront that wretch at his villainy."

We set out without delay for the meeting, Ramana accompanying us.

When we entered the meeting-house (whare runanga), we were received with ominous silence, but our presence was evidently something which our accuser had not calculated upon.

He paled at our entrance, and his countenance fell. Te Kahu at once showed his belief in us by joining us and relating what had taken place.

His account was substantially the same as Ramana's, but it was supplemented by information as to the efforts made by Jars to induce the Ariki and Council to take prompt and decisive action against us. Te Kahu also informed us that but for the interference of Ramana, the Ariki would have been thoroughly prejudiced against us. When Jars had reported the discovery of our writing, and accused us of treason to the Maoris, Ramana reminded him of the indebtedness under which the whole village stood towards the pakehas, and so strongly pleaded our page 186cause that the first impulse of the Ariki was turned, and diversity created in the Council as to the action to be taken. Jars had strongly opposed the suggestion of Te Kahu that we should be brought before the Council and permitted to give our explanation of the contents of the accusing document. He was the only person besides ourselves who could read it, and it was not likely that we would admit its contents as proving our own guilt.

Seeing the position of affairs, I whispered to Gordon that the best thing to do was to meet the accusation boldly. He should at once address the Council as a member of it, and demand a right to meet the accusation to be made against him by Jars.

This suggestion Gordon at once adopted, and, being able to speak with tolerable fluency, he soon made considerable impression on the assembled Maoris. It was not in keeping with the Maori notions of justice that anyone should be condemned before his own story was heard, nor that the word of one man should be taken as proof of the treason of three men whose friendliness had been so amply proved, and who could, if they had so desired, long since have escaped from the village and left the Maori territory. Their action on entering this unknown land, and ever since they had been here, was not like that of cowards or traitors; they were friends of the Maoris, and would never be otherwise, but had unfortunately become the victims of strong hatred on the part of a man whose position and power in the hapu were evidently endangered by our presence.

Gordon fortunately saw that he had said enough to gain page 187his point, and did not speak further. Jars distinctly winced under the sting of the concluding remark of Gordon, and the firm and confident front shown by us evidently rendered him less sure of his position. When Gordon ceased speaking, the Ariki whispered a few words to his chief advisers, who sat by him, after which he turned to us—

"The pakeha has spoken well for himself and friends. No one shall judge their acts without good proof. Their friendliness to the Maori is called in question, but we must not forget that no Maori is their accuser. The justice of the Maori is like the sun at noonday, and shall shine directly into the hearts of men. Nothing shall be hidden from the searching eye of daylight, and no cloud of untruth shall obscure his brightness. As searching as the wind shall be the enquiries of the Ariki, so also as swift as the wind shall be his punishment and vengeance. As clear as the waters of the river is the justice of the Maori; as cold as the waters is his mercy to those who wrong him. As the great Rata clings to and destroys the tree on which it lives and grows, so shall the Maori throw his strong arm around the false friend who, pretending to bear him up, all the while is seeking to throw him off, and with his firm embrace will choke and kill the infirm and failing friend. Let justice be done between the pakehas, though the hearts of the Maoris are sore at the task which must prove one of them to be a traitor"

The cold and clear logic of the Ariki's concluding remark was not without its effect on Jars. The inevitable effect of the enquiry he had by his action brought about, page 188must be either to prove us false to the Maori or him false to us. There was now, however, no retiring from the field without much ignominy to himself. A silence of some minutes followed on the speech of the Ariki. During this interval I could plainly see that Jars wished himself out of the dilemma. He seemed in no hurry to continue his accusation. Brought face to face with the victims of his treachery, confronted by the objects of his malignity, his cowardly nature displayed itself. He was influenced by the full force of that hatred which some minds naturally cherish towards those against whom they have failed in doing a great injury. But the time for feeling had passed. Nothing but reason could avail him now, and the cringing nature of the Frenchman shrank from the task. Presently the Ariki spoke again.

"Let the accuser now speak, and beware that he brings no false charge against any man. Treachery and deceit is the abomination of the Ariki, and shall be visited by his swiftest justice."

The chief turned towards Jars as he spoke, and, as he raised his hands by way of impressing the words more forcibly on him, I could not but see in the grandeur of his attitude the wonderful picturesqueness of the Maori in all his actions. The "noble savage" never looked more noble than as I saw him then, with stern face and slowly moving finger, drawing the lesson of truth and friendship from the difficulty which had arisen.

Jars now saw that further hesitation would be fatal to his cause. He must not let judgment go by default, so at once took the paper he had found, and, placing it in the page 189hands of the Ariki, declared that it contained a message to our people and an invitation to them to come and destroy the Maori village.

We saw that Jars was not able to read the writing. He had merely drawn this general conclusion from the fact that the document was evidently prepared for sending off. With considerable cleverness he had stated broadly what he conjectured must be the nature of our message, and so enlarged upon it to the ears of the chief and any members of the Council he could get at, that the impression against us became somewhat serious.

The accusation of Jars was so direct that we could not be surprised at being called upon for an answer. With something in the nature of a scowl the chief turned towards us and demanded what reply we had to make.

Gordon at once answered the chief. He told him in effect the contents of the paper, keeping back no part of the truth. When he acknowledged that portion which described the way in which the Maori village could be found, the faces of the chief and his immediate attendants lowered considerably, plainly showing to us that we had gone too far in our message. The decree of the Council that we should not seek to leave the native territory had been broken, and the faith of the Maori had been shaken. For the time, therefore, it seemed that we had been overconfident in our assumption of innocence, and that Jars would after all be triumphant.

After a rapid consultation with those immediately around him, the Ariki said—

"The pakehas will return to their dwelling, and the Maori will deliberate alone."

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At this, Gordon and I rose and left the meeting. Jars, too, rose hastily, and was seemingly anxious to get away before us.

As we were passing quietly from the scene, a Maori maiden glided swiftly to the side of Gordon, and, laying her hand on his arm, whispered in his ear in most musical Maori—

"Fear not, my white brother, the daughter of the Ariki shall plead your cause. Fear not the falsehood of the grey-bearded pakeha."

Without waiting for a word of reply, or to see the effect of her speech, she noiselessly glided back towards the meeting, and we were left to wonder as we walked silently towards our whare.

Our mysterious comforter was Ikemoke, the only daughter of the Ariki, and one of the most beautiful and influential maidens in the hapu. She was known to have great influence over the decisions of the chief, and a knowledge of this fact inspired us with great hope as we wended our cheerless way towards our whare, to undergo the suspense of waiting for the decree of the Council. This we were not long in learning.

Shortly after we had returned to our quarters Ramana appeared, and informed us of what had taken place in the Council after our departure; how eloquently Te Kahu had pleaded our cause with the chiefs, and made the most of our services to the hapu in many ways. Then, when the Ariki seemed to waver, and declared that we were guilty of a crime against the Maori hospitality, Ikemoke had spoken up for us, and so prevailed upon her father page 191and his immediate friends that our cause was won. With the exception of being required to surrender all other similar documents, and to give a pledge not to attempt to send any such away, we were to escape any further serious penalty. Some of the chiefs had suggested that our writing materials would be taken from us, but, at the earnest solicitation of Te Kahu, supported by the intercessions of Ikemoke, this indignity was spared us.

"By Jove! that girl is a trump," was Gordon's estimate of her interference when these facts were related to us.

It was some time afterwards before we could fully realise the value of her services on our behalf, or how much we were indebted to her assistance at this time. We did not then folly appreciate the danger we had been in. The light of subsequent events, however, threw a strong glare upon this critical period, and after knowledge revealed to us the delicate position in which we then stood, and made us aware of the narrow escape we had experienced.