a Maori word for «Return, price paid,reward, ransom, satisfaction for injuries received, reply.» (Williams.) Sometimes corrupted by Englishmen into Hoot (q.v.).
1840. J. S. Polack, `Manners and Customs of New Zealand,'vol. ii. p. 63:
«Utu or payment is invariably expected for any injusticecommitted, and is exacted in some shape, the sufferer feelingdebased in his own opinion until he obtains satisfaction. The Utu, similar to the tapu, enters into everythingconnected with this people.»
1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' vol. i.p. 29:
«He asserted that we should pay for the tapu; but suggested asan amendment that the utu or `payment' should be handed tohim.»
1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 252:
«Utu, which may be freely translated `blood for blood,'is with him [the Maori] a sacred necessity. It is the lex talionis carried out to the letter. The exactinterpretation of the formidable little word `Utu' is,I believe, `payment.'»
1857. C. Hursthouse, `New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 61:
«The learned commissioner's court was instantly besieged bybands of natives vociferating for more `utu' (payment), andthreatening the settlers with the tomahawk if more `utu' werenot instantly accorded.»
1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 470:
«Besides that, for such shining service done,
A splendid claim, he reckoned, would arise
For ` utu' – – compensation or reward.»
1873. H. Carleton, `Life of Henry Williams,' p. 79:
«Blood for blood, or at least blood money, is Maori law.Better the blood of the innocent than none at all, is arecognised maxim of the Maori law of utu.»