ht it out himself against the Government," and
"ratted" to a man. Every one of their number also expected to be
appointed a Director of a Village Settlement, and were not disposed to
fly in the face of a Providence that would give them each a permanent
and comfortable billet, especially as their parliamentary career was
doomed--not one of them had the faintest hope of re-election.

And so Dr. Rauparaha made the effort of his life, and the House listened
to him in cold and stony silence. From the first he knew that he was
doomed to failure, when he saw two or three of his once ardent admirers
get up and sneak out of the Chamber; but, with a glance of contemptuous
scorn at their retreating figures, he went on speaking. And then, at the
close of an impassioned address, he held up in his right hand a copy of
the Treaty of Waitangi.

"And this, honourable members, is the solemn bond and testimony of a
great nation, the written promise of our Queen and her Ministers to
these people that their lands and their right to live in their country
should be kept inviolate! How has that promise been kept? Think of it,
I pray you, and let your cheeks redden with shame, for the pages of this
Treaty are blotted with the blackest treachery and stained a bloody red.
And the Bill now before the House to rob and despoil some hundreds of
native families of land that has been theirs before a white man ever
placed his foot in the country is the most shameful and heartless act
of all. I say 'act' because I recognise how futile is my single voice
raised on behalf of my race to stay this bitter injustice. Rob us,
then, but offer us no longer the ghastly mockery of parliamentary
representation. Better for us all to die as our forefathers have done,
rifle in hand, than perish of poverty and starvation on the soil that is
our only inheritance."

"Rot!" called out a short, fat man wearing a huge diamond ring and an
excessively dirty white waistcoat. This was the Minister for Dredges and
Artesian Bores, a gentleman who hoped to receive a C.M.G. ship for his
clamorous persistency in advocating the claim of the colony to "'ave a
Royel dook as its next Governor."

"Shut up!" said an honourable member beside him. "Rauparaha doesn't talk
rot. You do--always."

The Minister muttered that he "didn't approve of no one a-usin' of
inflammetery langwidge in the 'Ouse," but made no further remark.

Rauparaha resumed his seat, the proposer of the Bill made his