rorarika, and only thirty miles away from it, was a
charming place for a settlement. The agent bought a square mile of land
from the Maoris and also two little islands in the harbour. The company
fitted out a ship the _Rosanna_, and sixty colonists sailed out in her
to form the pioneers of the new colony. They landed, and liked the look
of the place, but they were timid by reason of the tales they had heard
of Maori ferocity. Now at this time the Ngapuhis were at war with the
Arawas, and the latter were getting up a war dance, which the settlers
were just in time to see. Five or six hundred men stood in four long
rows, stamping in time to a chant of their leader. It was night, a fire
lit up their quivering limbs and their rolling eyes; they joined in a
chorus, and when they came to particular words they hissed like a
thousand serpents; they went through the performance of killing their
enemies, cutting up their bodies and eating them. The settlers fell into
deep meditation and departed. Not half a dozen remained in New Zealand,
the others went to Sydney, and so after an expense of L20,000 this
association, which had been formed for the kindly purpose of putting
people in lands less crowded than their own, failed and was disbanded.

#3. Settled Government.#--Between 1825 and 1835 the Maoris of the North
Island were in a miserable state. Wars and massacres and cannibal feasts
made the country wretched, and though the missionaries were respected
they could not secure peace. But they persuaded the chiefs of some of
the weaker tribes to appeal to England for protection against the
conquering warriors who oppressed and destroyed their people. It was in
1831 that this petition was sent to King William, and about the same
time the white men at Kororarika, terrified at the violence with which
the Waikato men were ravaging the surrounding lands, asked the Governor
at Sydney to interfere. The result was that although the English would
not regularly take possession of New Zealand, they chose Mr. Busby, a
gentleman well known in New South Wales, to be the Resident there, his
business being, so far as possible, to keep order. How he was to keep
order without men or force to make his commands obeyed it is hard to
see; but he was expected to do whatever could be done by persuasion, and
to send for a British war-ship if ever he thought it was needed.

The first war-ship that thus came over did more harm than good. Its
visit was caused