"Agent be hanged!" quoth the pioneer impetuously. "This allotment belongs to me; have I a right therefore to sell the whole town? Though, between you and me, there are men in business here who would have a try at it, if they could delude one of you innocent new arrivals into taking his word and paying over the cash." "I trust I'm not quite so innocent," replied Massinger, smiling, "as to make purchases without due inquiry." "Depends upon whom you inquire from," said his experienced friend. "Advice is cheap, or rather dear enough, when the giver has an axe to grind." "Then how am I to find out, if no one is to be trusted in this Arcadia of yours?" "Devilish few that I know of," rejoined the senior. "The Government officials and the Land Commissioners are, perhaps, the safest. They have some character to lose, and are fairly impartial." "After what you have said, may I venture to ask counsel from you?"--instinctively trusting the open countenance and steady eye of the pioneer. "Oh! certainly; you needn't take it, of course. Don't be in a hurry to invest; that's my first word. The next, _buy from the Government_; they have a title--that is, nearly always--and are bound to support you in it." "But suppose their title is disputed? What will they do?" "Take forcible possession, which means _war_. And Maori war--savages, as it's the fashion industry call them--is no joke. And mark my word, if they're not more careful than they have been lately, 'the deil will gae ower Jock Wabster.'" Here the speaker lapsed into his native Doric, showing that though half a century had rolled by since he first anchored in the Bay of Islands, and the Southern tongue had encroached somewhat, he had not forgotten the hills of bonnie Scotland or the expressive vernacular of his youth. "But surely the tribe, whichever it may happen to be, could not stand against British regulars?" "So you may think. But I was in the thick of Honi Heke's affair in '45, and I could tell you stories that would surprise you. You must remember that, as a people, the New Zealanders are among the most warlike races upon earth, inured for centuries past to every species of bloodshed and rapine, and bred up in the belief that a man is a warrior or nothing. Fear, they know not the name of. They are wily strategists, as you will observe, when you see their 'pahs,' and the nature of their primeval forests gives them an immense advantage for cover or concealment." "Then you think there may be another war?" inquired Massinger, with some interest. "Think! I'm sure of it. Things can't go on as they are. We're in for it sooner or later, and all because the Governor, who means well, lets himself be led by half a dozen politicians, in spite of the advice of the old hands and the friendly chiefs, our allies, who have as much sense and policy as all the ministry put together." "But will not they always naturally lean to their own countrymen?"