Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

J 835. TEKRITOKY I'UIICHASE OF I.AXD. 585 quadrupeds, excepting rats, upon New Zealand : and while so destitute of animal food, a rat was considered ' game '' by the na- tives ; and no man would attempt to kill his neighbour"'s rats, or those which were found on his territory, without intending, or declai'ing war against him. Had not the rats, eaten by the older men of Cawa-cawa, belonged to them, the lawful or understood owners of the rats would long since have made war upon the people of Cawa-cawa. Rats having been there killed, and war not having been consequently declared, were irre- sistible arguments in the minds of those men, who never forgot, and who knew not how to forgive an injury.* Some of us arc apt to think modern game laws harsh inventions, and the result of civilization. Yet if, in our own history, we look back seven hundred years, we find that human lives were then for- feited for those of beasts of the chase : and if we look at this country, which may be supposed two thousand years behind our own, in point of civilization, we find, that to kill a rat upon a neighbours land, is an oft'ence almost suflScient to cause a general war. The precise manner in which territory is divided among tliese savages surprised me not a little : I thought land was but slightly valued by them. Though sold to Europeans for what we consider trifles, the sale is, to them, matter of high importance, in which every free man of the tribe ought to be consulted. Uncleared land is supposed to belong to the tribe, collectively. Cultivated spots, and houses, are private pro- perty, but cannot be sold, or given away, out of the tribe, without the consent of the whole community. This division of land among small tribes,-|- looks much like a comparatively late appropriation of the country. To make a purchase of land in New Zealand, in a manner which will ensure quiet and unques- tioned possession, it is necessary to assemble all the tribe of * In Mariner's Tonga Islands a full description is <riven of the man- ner in which the Friendly Islanders shot rats : as an amusement. + There are several varieties of the human race in New Zealand difl'erinjj from one another as much as the lightest olive-coloured Ota- heitan differs from the 'brown-black' New Hollander.