Tuhawaiki doubtless realised that whaling had transformed the world of his people. Many "kaiks" or villages moved to the vicinity of the whaling-stations (although some may represent foundations by refugees from the Ngati Toa). Large numbers of Māori men worked in the whaling stations while many women lived in "de facto" marriages with Pākehā men. These Māori joined one of the lowest strata of European society, characterised by violence and drunkenness. Observers like Shortland thought relations between the two races were often very good at the whaling stations. Probably no other tribe in New Zealand was so extensively intermarried with and involved in Pākehā society. Possibly nowhere else was the Pākehā so willing to tolerate or adopt Māori customs. Most of the Māori living in the whaling stations dressed like Europeans and during the 1830s acquired an addiction for tobacco and alcohol. But in this they did not differ from the whalers.