On April 27 Mr. Shortland, who had now become Colonial Secretary, accompanied by the Rev. Mr. Taylor, Dr. Johnston, and Lieutenant Smart of the mounted police embarked on board the little schooner _New Zealander_, and steering for the far north, touched first at Mangonui, where they obtained the services of a native pilot, and on the following Saturday anchored in the Awanui River, fully sixteen miles from their destination. Mr. Taylor and the Doctor at once left the vessel, and pushed on to the Mission station, there to arrange the preliminaries with Mr. Puckey, the resident Missionary. The Colonial Secretary remained on board the schooner until the Monday, and then with Lieutenant Smart and the members of his force proceeded up the river to Kaitaia, where they were received with volleys of musketry, and the fearsome evolutions of the war dance. From an early hour on the following morning the chiefs and people were astir, busy with the preparations for the meeting, their demeanour being marked by a cordiality which had been so conspicuous by its absence at Waitangi and Hokianga. At 10 o'clock the people--a motley and vivacious crowd--assembled on a large grass plot in front of Mr. Matthew's house, where they were addressed by the Colonial Secretary, with a solemnity befitting the occasion and a pomposity[103] which he deemed becoming his station. The illness of the Governor was touchingly referred to as a reason for the speaker's presence; the text of the treaty was read; the purpose of the compact explained; the machinations of the Queen's opponents were denounced, and a promise given that His Excellency would strictly perform all the solemn engagements which the treaty imposed upon him in the name of Her Majesty. With this important difference, that there was but little opposition, there were few features to distinguish the debate from its predecessors. Several of the speakers boldly stated they had been told that the treaty was nothing but a cunning device to enslave them. There were also dark references to a Nga-Puhi plot to drive the _Pakehas_ into the sea, but to which they unhesitatingly declared they were not prepared to give their countenance,[104] the speeches as a whole breathing deeply the influence of the Missionaries. The first speaker was a chief who had accepted the baptismal name of Taylor,[105] who appeared to scent trouble, but subsequently signed the treaty under the name of Reihana Teira. "This is my speech. We have always been gentlemen; we do not want a shepherd. We will not be hindered getting wood; we formerly cleared any spot of land we liked, burnt the wood; then some once came and built a house on it, and then we quarrelled."