Note 47 — Chapter IV · AGRICULTURAL TRIBES.

Tregear has the following notes on landed property in New Zealand: “Land was held primarily by tribal right; but within this tribal right each free warrior of the tribe had particular rights over some portion. He could not part with the land because it was not his to give or sell, but he had better rights to certain portions than others of his tribe. He would claim by having the bones of his father or grandfather there, or that they once rested there; or by the fact of his navel-string having been cut there; or by his blood having been shed on it; or by having been cursed there; or by having helped in the war party which took the land; or by his wife being owner by descent; or by having been invited by the owners to live there.” Thomson states that “all free persons, male and female, constituting the nation were proprietors of the soil.” The chiefs were the greatest landholders. “Conquest and occupation gave titles to land. The right of fishing in rivers and sea belonged to the adjoining landed proprietor. Amongst the families of each tribe there are also laws regarding landed property. Thus the cultivation of a portion of forest land renders it the property of those who cleared it, and this right descended from generation to generation.… It was illegal for one family to plant in another’s clearing without permission”. “The independence and social happiness of the people were chiefly caused by cultivating their own lands.” According to Taylor, each tribe had its own district; “each member can cultivate any portion of it he thinks fit, if unoccupied, or if it has not been previously cultivated by another.” Polack says: “Possession is obtained by planting a portion (however small) of the soil, and reaping the same”47.