Emmissaries were despatched to all parts of the Island to gain the adherence of the several tribes to this movement and protests were made in the Kings name by these deputies against the sale of any land in any part of New Zealand to the Govt. The Ngatiruanui and Taranaki tribes avowed their hostility to the Europeans as a race and threatened to attack them and cut down the flag staff at New Plymouth many years before the Waitara question was heard of. It is necessary to bear this state of Native feeling in mind before entering upon the Waitara question which could have had no effect