Extract from Wesleyan Missionary Notices for May, 1848.

Anglo-Maori Warder, Volume 1, Issue 22, 21 September 1848, Page 3

Extract from Wesleyan Missionary Notices for May, 1848.

An important question, very seriously involving the interests of this Mission, has recently occupied the attention of the Committee. The subject was brought under their consideration by a Memorial signed by all the Society's Missionaries in New Zealand, stating that the publication of a despatch from the Right Honourable Earl Grey, of the 23rd December, 1846, together with the •• Instructions" explanatory of the 44 Charter" at the same time transmitted, had produced a great feeling of alarm auKg the Natives; as being, in their view, io the terms of the Treaty of Wailangi, of the 6th .February, 1840, by which Treaty, while they ceded the Sovereignty of New Zealand to the British Crown, their right to the entire soil of the "country waa solemnly recognized. The Missionaries, moreover, alleged tnat were not that philanthropic aorangement—designed by the Imperial Gov. to protect the Natives Irora the evils of irregular colonization—faithfully observed, their own character* in common with that of the Missionaries of the Cbvrch Society, would be irrecoverably compromised, in consequence of the part which they took, at jhe request of Her Majesty's Representative, tn the execution of the Treaty.; that their influence with the Natives, who would be led.to regard them as their betrayers, would be destroyed ; and that the great injury, if not ultimate ruio, of the Missions, must certainly be the result. After serious deliberation upon this painful subject, the Committee, in a lengthened document, 1 made a suit&ole represention of the c«se to the ISoble Earl at the head of the Colonial Department, earnestly requesting him to furnish to the Governor of New Zea« t lend such further instructions, as should satisfy the Natives that the Treaty of ffailangi will be maintained D all its integrity. The Commi tee are happy to report that to this communication they have received a very satisfaciory reply. A single Extract must, for tbe piesent, suffice. Under date of Downiug Street, 13th April, 1848. Mr. Undar-Secretary Merivale writes as follows " I am directed by EarJ Grey to acknowledge your Xetter of the 24th February, 1848, together with the Memorial of the Weslejau Missionary Committee, bearing date of the preceding day, which acompamed it. His Lordship has g"Jgjfi the CoDt e»ts o f t' ,jt Memorial his earnest atteotOTgf He has felt this to be doe, not only to the importajw of the Document, but to the character of tbe Body fiom wbich he has received it. He fully4ecogoixes tbe claims which that Body possess npon Her Majesty'aXtojjtoneat in relation to New Zealand, from U19 litiporM&niutiea which were cast upon its Missionary, on the occasion ot those negociations with the Natives on which tbe pre. •eat settlement of the Islands is based; from the fact on which the Committee justly lay atre&s—that their

Missionaries stand is the position of disinterested and impartial Witnesses, owing to their abstiuence from dealings in land with the Natives ; and, more than all) from their meritorious and successful exertions in re* claiming New Zealand from Heathenism* and disseminating among its people the principles of Civil as well as Religious Instruction. And it is in deference to 6uch claims as these, that his Lordship proposes, on the present occasion, to enter a little more folly into the post and present policy of the Government in the New Zealand Land-question, than is perhaps absolutely required by the Memorialists themselves. ««I am directed, in the first place, to assure you that the Committee do her Majesty's Government no more than justice, in believing that they intend, and have always intended, to recognise the Treaty of Waitangi. ! They recognise it, as Lord Grey believes, in the ssine sense which the memorialists themselves attach to it. j They recognise It in both its essential stipulations; the lone securing to those Native Tribes, of which the Chiefs have signed the Treaty, a title to those Lands which tbey possessed according to native usage (whether cultivated or not) at the time o( the Treaty: the other, securing to the Crown the exclusive right of extinguishing such title by purchase. And I am directed once more to refer you to Lord Grey's Despatches of 23rd December, 1846, and 30th November, 1847, aa shewing that Governor Grey has been throughout directed to proceed with the utmost caution in acting upon the principles of his Laud Instructions, of the 28th December, 1846, and to respect all rights which have been secured under the stipulations of the Treaty. •* Nor can his Lordship agree with the Memorialists that there is anything in these Instructions which is either inconsistent with the Treaty, or calculated to excite anything like a reasonable alarm in those who may he interested in maintaining it. The 'Protector of the Aborigines is required to transmit toj the Registrar a Statement of the extent of all claims to Native Law's, whether'by Tribes or individuals in his District, f< t Provisional Registration. Cut no native claim can be finally registered, unless it be established that the right has been acknowledged by some Act of ; the Executive, or some judgment of a Court, or that i the Lind has been occupied in the manner which the i Instnr'ions go on to specify. Now the Treaty of W&itangl is unquestionably an Act of 'the Executive Government; and it appears to Lord Grey, that the reasonable construction of these words would be that, wherever a claim had been made to Land on behalf of a Tribe which had been a party to the Treaty, and it was established that the Land so claimed had belonged to the Tribe at the date of the Treaty, the claim would bs secured ly final registration. But, clear as this may be thought, his Loidship is so anxious that there ahauld be no possibility of any misapprehension on this subject, that he will specially direct the attention of the Governor, and, through him, of the Local Authorities, to this, as the true meaning of the Instruc The Committee cannot now particularly remark upon that fuller exposition of his views on the New Zealand Land Question, with which his lordship obligingly favours them in the course of his answer. Regarding the assurance that her Majesty's Government concur iu that interpretation of tfle Treaty of Waitangi which the Committee respectfully advocated, and that the Governor of New Zealand shall receive further instructions for the purpose of removing any remaining misunderstanding upon the subj ct—as a satisfactory answer to the prayer of the memorial; »t only remains for the Cornmi tee to express their deep sense of the kind and considerate attention manifested by the Noble Colonial Secretary to this important subject, while they purpose to enjoin a new upon the Society's Missionaries in New Zealand, 6uch a constant aod persevering endeavour to promote the best iuterests of both races of her Majesty's subjects in that colony, as will prove them to be deserving ot the high encomium which bis Lordship has been pleased to pronounce upon their character aud services.