Recovering Stolen Property.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 14 January 1892, Page 3

Recovering Stolen Property.

Mr J. P. Hamlin is a man of many good tales, one of the best telling how his father lost a blanket, says an exchange. The Rev James Hamlin, it is needless to remind all but " new chums," was one of the early missionaries to New Zealand. He was a big man, of great muscular development, and his feats of strength no doubt aided him to acquire an ; influence over the Maoris. One ' powerful chief regarded Mr Hamlin as his special pakeha. This chief owned a number of slaves. One day a little baby Hamlin was disporting himself on a blanket in the kite! ion, when a slave entered and stole the blanket. The alarm was raised, and Mr Hamlin, rushing out, caught the thief in the garden. By way of punishment he lifted the slave bodily and threw him over the garden fence, which was about seven feet high. The missionary returned to his studies, satisfied that he had saved * his blanket. Bpt he reckoned without his chj^jj^That august personr^a&waa^ery wrath when he heard of tne^ftt^mpted robbery from his pakeha, ana decreed that the slave should be killed and eaten. The slave, hearing of this, took refuge in Mr Haralin's house. There he was sought by the irate }>angatira, who stoutly maintained that the slave had forfeited his life, and that he must be sacrificed unless utu, or compensation was paid. The end of it was that Mr Hamlin had to give the identical blanket which the slave

had tried to steal to save the would-be-thief s life ! Such was Maori law in the early days.