ever see another war dance, if the hardened
villain was not whistling "Pop goes the weasel!" What will all this end
in?

My only hope is in a handy way (to give them their due) which they have
with a _tupara_; and this is why I don't think the law will have much
_mana_ here in my time: I mean the _pakeha_ law; for, to say the worst
of them, they are not yet so far demoralized as to stand any nonsense
of that kind; which is a comfort to think of. I am a loyal subject to
Queen Victoria, but I am also a member of a Maori tribe; and I hope I
may never see this country so enslaved and tamed that a single rascally
policeman, with nothing but a bit of paper in his hand, can come and
take a _rangatira_ away from the middle of his _hapu_, and have him
hanged for something of no consequence at all, except that it is
against the law. What would old "Lizard Skin" say to it? His grandson
certainly is now a magistrate, and if anything is stolen from a pakeha,
he will get it back, _if he can_, and won't stick to it, because he
gets a salary in lieu thereof; but he has told me certain matters in
confidence, and which I therefore cannot disclose. I can only hint
there was something said about "the Law," and "driving the pakeha into
the sea."

I must not trust myself to write on these matters. I get so confused,
that I feel just as if I was two different persons at the same time.
Sometimes I find myself thinking on the Maori side, and then just
afterwards wondering if "we" can lick the Maori, and set the law upon
its legs; which is the only way to do it. I therefore hope the reader
will make allowance for any little apparent inconsistency in my ideas,
as I really cannot help it.

I belong to both parties, and I don't care a straw which wins; but I am
sure we shall have fighting. Men _must_ fight; or else what are they
made for? Twenty years ago, when I heard military men talking of
"marching through New Zealand with fifty men," I was called a fool
because I said they could not do it with five hundred. Now I am also
thought foolish by civilians, because I say we can conquer New Zealand
with our present available means, if we set the right way about it
(which we won't). So hurrah again for the Maori! We shall drive the
pakeha into the sea, and send the Law after them! If we can do it, we
are right; and if the pakeha beat us, _they_ will be right too. God
save the Queen!

So now, my Maori tribe, and also my pakeha countrymen, I shall c