In the absence of a gaol, the Vigilants were known to keep a culprit in duress by shutting him up for the night in a sea-chest, ventilated by means of gimlet-holes.
They were not, however, the only representatives of law and order in New Zealand.

The British authorities in New South Wales had all along, perforce, been keeping their eye on this troublesome archipelago in the south-east.

In 1813 Governor Macquarie made Sydney shipmasters sailing for the country give bonds for a thousand pounds not to kidnap Maori men, take the women on board their vessels, or meddle with burying grounds.

In 1814 he appointed the chiefs Hongi and Koro Koro, and the missionary Kendall, to act as magistrates in the Bay of Islands.

Possibly the two first-named magistrates were thus honoured to induce them not to eat the third.