SUPREME COURT SITTINGS, Friday, December 1, 1848. Before Mr. Justice Chapman.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 349, 6 December 1848, Page 3

SUPREME COURT SITTINGS, Friday, December 1, 1848. Before Mr. Justice Chapman.

Williim Wright, of Urui, was indicted for having- committed a rape on the person of Fanny Jenkins, a girl 15 years old, the daughter of William Jenkins of Urui. The evidence of the prosecutrix proved the commission of the offence by the prisoner on the evening of the 17th of September last. The Jury after a short deliberation found the prisoner Guilty, and he was sentenced to be transported for life. After the prisoner was removed from the bar, and while he was waiting to be conducted back to prison, he made a desperate attempt to escape ; but he was however recaptured and placed in safe custody. Michael Carroll and John Willow, privates in the 65th Regiment, were indicted for having robbed Charles Wilkinson of a one pound note and fourteen shillings in silver. From the evidence of the prosecutor, it appeared he was drinking at the Ship Hotel in Manners Stieet, on the evening of the 25th September last, in company with some soldiers whom he treated with liquour, when he was suddenly attacked by them,, his trowsers' pocket was cut open, and a pound note and fourteen shillings in silver, two knives and some other articles, were taken from him. He was not able to identify the prisoners being l.iraself rather intoxicated at the time. The prisoners were identified by William Robinson and Joseph Wilson, both privates in the same regiment, as having assaulted the prosecutor on the evening in question. The prisoners were both found guilty of an assault, and were sentenced to six calendar months' imprisonment with hard labour. These two cases were conducted by the Crown prosecutor, — no counsel were employed on the part of the prisoners. Saturday, December 2. Thomas Larkins was indicted with stealing, on the 24th November, two sheets, a towel, a table cloth, three aprons, and other articles of wearing apparel, from the house of Charles Lewer, on the Forirua road. Mr.' Ross appeared for the prosecution, and Mr, Brandou for the prisoner. From the evidence it appeared that the prisoner was seen by the prosecutor on the afternoon' of the, robbery going up the hill about fifteen yards from the house of the latter with a bundle under his arm. The prosecutor having occasion the next morning to look into a 4 box'iH bis possession found it half empty ; after this he went to Forirua, and on his return home found his wife had left his boiise ; he also missed his wife's clothes and other property. The next day (Sunday) he found Jiis wife on board the Edward Stanley ; the< prisoner was on board also. A portion of the missing property was found in a box belonging to the prisoner; which was' taken

possession of by the police. The prisoner had taken his passage on' board the Edu.ard Stanley, intending to go away with the prosecutor's wife to Wanganui, having upon a misrepresentation obtained a special license from the Lieutenant-Governor. The prisoner, who was an old offender, having several times previously been convicted of felony, was found guilty and sentenced to be transported for seven years. On his return to prison the prisoner contrived to escape from the custody of the police, and has not since been retaken.

The following amusing and interesting letter, giving an* account of a journey from Wanganui to New Plymouth, was originally published in the Gateshead Observer. We hope the suggestion of market-places in all the different settlements will not be lost upon the Governor-in- Chief. We have repeatedly urged the establishment in Wellington, of a public market, which would prove a great convenience to the inhabitants, and be of great service to the country settlers, as well as to the natives, by enabling them to dispose of their produce :—: — Wanganui, October 10, 1847. I sent you an account of a trip from this place to New Plymouth and back, the other day, by Capt. H. and myself. We had four aboriginals with us as servants, and an interpreter, who had been a missionary, and was very useful to us. Our first servant was from the east coast of New Zealand ; and having been taken prisoner in a taua, had been kept a slave. We called him John Snooks ; and, being a stout fellow, he carried our provisions, and helped himself to biscuit as he walked along. The second was a little fellow, a pupil of Mr. Taylors, the missionary, and was called Able. The third had four names : — one when he was born ; then he took his elder brother's name when he died ; and then his father's name, when he died; he was now called Pehira. We should have been hard up for a fourth, as it was planting season ; but, at the last moment, a strapping young fellow, above six feet, came in from the coast, and volunteered ; he was not more than eighteen, but the biggest of the party — so we called him " The Pup." He carried me through all the rivers — as H. preferred walking through them. There are four prominent characteristics in the New Zealanders : — First, their mode of j living; secondly, their spirit of commerce; thirdly, their state of savageness ; and fourthly, their power. I will give you an illustration of each that we met with. We walked twenty miles the first day, on a hard sandy beach, and at such a pace, to save the tide, that our heels were blistered ; and we tnly made fifteen miles the second day. A little before sunset, we came to a small river about the size of the Coquet. The tide was in, and there was no ford. On the opposite cliff, 100 feet high, was a native pa. After shouting for some time to no purpose, the Pup volunteered to 5-wim over and bring a canoe. After crossing and mounting to the pa we found it completely deserted. The Pup, who was a native of these parts, explained that the wheat and potato grounds of the owners were several miles inland, on the forest ground ; and during the planting season, the whole pa migrated into the bush, returning only on Saturday nights, to spend Sunday at home ; so, under his direction, we took possession of the best hut in the pa, and rooted out some potatoes in a cavern or pit every one possesses, and which makes it dangerous to walk about apa at night, as the old pits are left uncovered. Our hut was twenty feet by ten, with a roof ; the walls four feet high — the timbers rough poles — the roof thatched on the outside with a coarse grass called "toetoe," and the walls the same ; but the inside tastefully finished with yellow reeds of the toetoe and the brown stalks of the fern, interlaced together ; but it was full of soot, being the sleeping room, where twenty men and women slept every night, and only one opening-for door, window, and chimney, (and that three feet by two), which was closed every night, and afire lighted in the middle for warmth, during the winter. We changed our clothes — lighted a wood fire after the Maori fashion — hung up the lantern — laid down on the fern the boys had collected for our bed— and discussed tea, ham, biscuit, and potatoes, and a pipe — and, wrapped up in a blanket bag, my plaid, and a Mackintosh, and a thick canopy of smoke, I slept like a top. The Pnp informed us that the owner of the house was Harry Brummell. He belonged to the tribe near New Plymouth, but had a house here in right of his wife. He was then planting his land at New Plymouth, and would presently return and plant his wife's land bere^a few acres being the dowry of a Maori young lady. There were about thirty huts close together, without regularity ; ours was the best. On three sides was the high cliff overlooking the beach, and on the fourth palisades of very rpugh poles, cutting off the place from the ground beyond. This is a good specimen of one of their strong old

pas. For several miles in the interior of the country is quite Hat, and covered with grass, flax, and rushes, uncultivated. Next morning began one of the worst gales that has been known in New Zealand for a long time. It extended all over the country, and wrecked three or four vessels in Cook's Strait. It began from N. W., and after twenty-four hours suddenly changed to the S.E., and blew for three days. During that time we were lying in a hut built by a Wesleyan missiona:y, on a cliff 100 feet high, with the same flat country around us, without any shelter from the storm. The doors and windows had been taken away. A native and his family had taken possession, and, with all the indolence of savages, had made no attempt to provide either door or window. Unable to stir, we had nothing to do but to lie on our fern beds, forming a circle round the fire, including our four servants, our host, Tomati Waka, his wife, and three sons, and talk to them over the smoke. Tomati and his fathers before him had lived on that ground from time immemorial, and said the old hut was quite good enough. " But why .not put doors and windows in ?" "No saw, no axe.'* "Then take pigs to Wanganui, and buy them." "How much cost?" So he promised to get doors and windows. He owned four acres of ground. One acre, very neatly fenced, was close to the house, and planted carefully with sweet potatoes. According to custom, all his neighbours from the nearest pa had come to help him to plant, for which they receive their food. The work was just over. The rest of his property was several miles off, on the skirts of the forest, amongst the clearings of bis neighbours ; but he knew exactly the bounds of his own cultivations ; and, if any should intrude on his grounds, it would be a case of dispute, to be decided only by a long discussion in full tribe assembled. If the intruder belonged to another tribe it would be a case of war. Thejrest of his property by which he got his living, consisted of pigs running wild about the country. His neighbours were going to make a party to go to Wanganui with pigs and potatoes ; so he sent his sons out (and great difficulty he had to make them .obey him) to catch two pigs, which they drove into Wanganui, about forty miles, the mother carrying a basket of about forty pounds of potatoes. They would get about threehalfpence a pound for their pigs, and sixpence a stone for the potatoes. But Tomati complained that they were obliged to hawk their goods all about the settlement, and that the soldiers would get him into the stockade, and seize his potatoes tt their own price. Indeed, market-places for the natives to bring their produce into are wanted in all the settlements ; which I shall mention to the Governor when I see him. Tomati was a man of great respectability among his people ; but he had no other garment than an old mat of flax, reeking with red paint and dirt ; and his body had not felt water since the last time he had occasion to go to the river. He took an active part in the wars, when Te Rauparaha fought his way from Kawhia to Port Nicholson. He is one of a large tribe whose lands extended from Wanganui towards New Plymouth. They call themselves lineal descendants of one of their demigods, who came from some distant island and landed on the spot Tomati's house stands on. Their title is " Sons of the Great Mountain," and they muster 500 fighting, men, collected in a dozen pas at intervals on the coast ; but each pa is a distinct division of the tribe, and each family has its separate interest ; and though one chief is called the head, he has no power to raise more men than his own family. Tomati's wife cooked three meals of potatoes a day for her family and our boys. Her oven consisted of a round hole in the ground, half filled with hot pebbles : the potatoes filled up the remainder— with a flax mat and a mound of earth over all. The potatoes are eked out with greens and pork occasionally, and during the summer, dried dog-fish at every meal. If you had seen the number of fish caught at Putiki pa the first day of the season, you would not be surprised at the anxiety of the taua to make peace for the summer. Tomati was a great missionary man : he had his bible and prayer-book, and attended church twice every Sunday. And so we travelled on, day after day, walking about twenty miles a day, and sleeping in the native huts at night. We inquired for old weapons and other relics — but they said they had thrown. them away on their becoming missionaries ; but on our return we fouud at every, pa something to be bargained for :— among others, some bones of the gigantic moa bird. One man brought me a skull. "How much?" "One half-crown." I forked out the money so expeditiously that he saw it was a bad bargain — so he said he must have six shillings. I have sent the bones to Auckland. It is the custom of the Maoris to feed strangers ; but they knew very well that we would remunerate them, and they always took care to be on the look out.

One night we arrived when they had finished their evening meal. They did not cook anything for our stewards, who' went supperless to bed ; but the next morning, on leaving, they abused them heartily. Eighty miles from Wanganui the land of another tribe commences, and extends to New Plymouth. Their title is Taranaki. Here they carry their produce to New Plymouth, and, with the advice and assistance of the missionaries and the police inspector, they have tried their hands at planting wheat in a rough way, and have carried baskets of it to New Plymouth, where they get 3s. 6d. a bushel for.it. They have also raised 200 pigs, and got a water mill and grind their own corn. This illus1 trates the mode of living and spirit of comriierce of the Maoris. * Of the third proposition — the savageness — we had an example immediately on entering the land of the Taranaki tribe. ,The first pa we came to contained abou,t thirty huts.. It stands on the end of a point running out to sea. All the people were absent but two or three. A cause of war had occurred between the Taranakis and the next tribe, the Puketapus. Both tribes are strong missionaries, and are connected with each other by marriage, and both parties against a taua from Wanganui ; but now the fighting men ot both tribes had assembled on the mutual borders of their territories to watch the. others' movements. The cause is this : — The men of the sacred hill (Puketapu) held a great feast at Easter. Formerly feasts were held at making war or making peace ; — now they held at Easter or Christmas, and are in. general peaceably conducted. But accidents will happen. The wife of a Taranaki chief was fair in the eyes of a Puketapu youth. In the j midst of the feast the pair ran off, and took j refuge in a Puketapu pa. The --feast was ; broken up — the Taranakis stood to arms — j and the injured husband demanded, his wife back. But the Puketapus held back the wife, and the Taranakis took all the pigs and property of the Puketapus they could lay hold of, as utu, or revenge. We found them watching each other, and talking a great deal on both sides : and, but for the interference of the Wesleyan missionaries they would have been fighting again. We saw the fair Helen — who, it was settled, should remain with the Puketapus ; but her .beauty was not of- that ravishing description such a heroine ought to have possessed. The Taranakis are now in treaty with Government for the sale of, that part of their territory which joins the Puketapus. While we were at New Plymouth neither of the parties appeared in the town without being armed. On Sunday we wanted to go on three miles to the next pa after service ; but the inhabitants of the pa protested against it in a most vehement manner. One man addressed such violent language to me that I should have expected to be tomahawked on the spot ; but I understood enough of the language to make out that it was a quotation from Scripture about profaning the Sabbath ; and not one of them would give us a helping hand to go the three miles. We returned the same way, and in the same manner, from New Plymouth to Wanganui ; and I am now going overland to Wellington, as I have recieved orders to examine the country in case of another, attack of the taua. T. B. C.