NATIVE LANDS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 980, 27 June 1883, Page 4

NATIVE LANDS.

read -- To the GovemorofNew Zealand and members of both Houses of Parliament This is a - petition from us, the Maniapotos, Kakawa, Tewhare-toa, and Wanganui tribes to Parliament Greeting. Your petitioners pray that you will fully look into and carefully consider the matters which are the cause of much anxiety to us, and are raising a barrier in front of us, because these matters that are causing jus anxiety have principally emanated from you, the Europeans, in the form‘of legislation. We have carefully wn 1 rlfcd the tendency of the laws which ypu have enacted from the beginning up'to the present day. They all tend to deprive us of privileges secured to us by the second and third articles of the Treaty of Waitangi, which conferred ito us the exclusive and undisturbed possession of our own lands. We don’t sjee any good in any of the laws which you have enacted affecting our lands, when they are brought into operation in ajd-' judicating upon lands before the Native Land Court at Cambridge and other places, and the practices carried on gt the Land Courts have become a source of anxiety to us, and a burdqn upon us. Through our ignorance of those laws, we have been induced by speculators (land swallowers) anp their agents to allow some of our ; land to be adjudicated up, sb that our lands might be secured gi|o us. Who was it that became '- possessed of them ? It is true that on further investigations the natives received a certificate of title showing their right to the lands, but through the superior knowledge of the Europeans we accepted foolishlv wpat the speculators (land swallowers), thinking that they were to act in our interest; but in reality thgjr were intended to prolong the investigation, thereby in* creasing the expenses to so great an extent that the natives were unable td defray thteh£) ThSjDSbe specula] tors) might seize the land, the resultj being that we secure a shadow, and speculators (land swallowers) the sub-* stance. We are-beset on every side byi outrageous practices, and the tempta-j tions we are exposed to by the specula-i tors, and even Maoris and half-castes,J whom the companiessecured to de-| coy us into the toils of the companies.! In our perplexity to devise some means: by which we our lands! from the disasters pointed out, we ask.j is there not a law by which we could su pprsss thes<* that the’ IJnty remedy is, to go to the. Court ourselves. Now, while we are striving to keep.purJands we l is trying to open our country by making roads, carrying on the sjuryeys-and railways, thereby clearing ■me! all these evils to' be practised in connection with our lands before we have made satisfactory wranggmeri’ts for the future. Are we to allow the present system to be carried on without remonstrance? jWeiwish lb state that if the above mentioned practices are to be carried on in future, we think, that it wo^^^i»tl ,^;^^■'M^atf I •dur' land should be rendered liable to such an objectionable system. What possible benefit should 'Awe > derive from* ! roads, railways, and Land Courts if they became the means of depriving us of our land? We capslwe asvwe are situated • at present without roads, railways, and Courts, but we could not live without our lands. We are hot oblivious of the advantages to be derived from roads, railway and other desirable works of the Europeans. We are fully alive to these advantages, .but, our lands are preferable to fh£rfr°all.’ ‘The matters set forth above are the cause of our

anxiety. During the, presept ( certain Bythe hapus to define the boundaries of our land and erect posts to mark out the.lands sjjll remaining (tonus* 'lytme ’ which the Europeans, to the best of our knowledge, have no legal claim. We, therefore, pray—that your honorable House will give effect to the following :—i. It is our wish that we may berff entatrgleirieHt^' incidental to employing the Native Land

Court to determine titles to land ; also

to prevent frau<L .drijnkenne£ s * demoralisation, and all oilier objectionable results attending the sitting of.the Land Court. 2. That Parliament will pass a

law to secure our lands’to us and our descendants for ever, making them abso-

lutely inalienable by sale. 3. That we may hiet SMWed ''fix' me boundaries 01 the four tribes before mentioned, the hapu boundaries in each tribe, and the proportionate claim of each individual, within'the boundaries set forth in this petition, which are as follows. (Here the boundaries are described). 4. When these, itfrangements relating.. to lantJ 'claims are-com-pleted, let the Government appoint some persons vested with power to con- , ,apd decision Irt 1 acCOToSnce with law. If after any inshall havehadtHe extent of his claim ascertained, and should desire

to lease it, it should not be legal for

him to do so privately, but an advertise- ■ ment should be duly inserted in any newspaper that has been authorised for the purpose, notifying the time and place where the sale of the lease of such land will be submitted, in order that the public may attend.the sale of such lease. There is no desire on our part to keep the lands within the boundaries described in this petition locked up from Europeans, or to prevent leasing or roads from being made thereon, or other public works from being constructed, hut it is our desire that the present practices that are carried on by the Land Court should be| abolished. We wish you to understand that if our petition is granted we will strenuously endeavor to follow such a course as will conduce to the welfare of this island. And your petitioners will ever pray. Signed by Wahanui and 415 others.