THE MIDDLE ISLAND NATIVES AND THEIR UNFULFILLED CLAIMS.

Evening Star, Issue 3578, 11 August 1874, Page 2

THE MIDDLE ISLAND NATIVES AND THEIR UNFULFILLED CLAIMS.

{From our own Correspondent.) Wellington, August 4. The report by Mr A. Mackay, Commissioner of Native Reserves, on the state of the Middle Island Natives, and their alleged claims on account of unfulfilled promises, was distributed in our pigeon-holes yesterday (August 3). i'aiaroa intends getting the document translated into the Native language. so that bis people may have a clearer knowledge of its contents than they otherwise could hare. Considering how intimately the whole question concerns Otago, I cannot do better than quote at length what the Commissioner says in reference to eur Province. Referring to the social condition of the Otago Natives, he says ; The condition of the natives residing at the settlements I visited in the South, excepting at Otago Heads and Waikouaiti, is much the same as it was six ysars ago; they do not appear to have improved in either industry or their mode of living, and their cultivations are still on the same limited scale. In the early days of the Colony, when they found a ready market for their produce, they were stimulated to greater attention te agricultural pursuits; but now, owing to their incapacity to compete with the European settlers in the production of grain and potatoes, they have drifted into indolent habits, and in many instances prefer letting their land, though the rental received forms but a trifle of what they might obtain by cultivating it themselves. A number of the young men find employment on the stations iu mustering and shearing seasons, and, during harvest, with the farmers; some also own boats, and go fishing, sealing, and whaling, and are able to make a fair living that way; but a large proportion of the population are incapacitated for hard labor either through age, ill health, or other causes! At Otago Heads and Waikouaiti the social condition of the people is far more satisfactory than at the other settlements in the South. Their dispersion into families has evidently effected a great improvement amongst them, and there is an evident desire to raise themselves to the level of the Europeans. Many of the residents possess neat weatherboard houses, and the most of the land is enclosed with substantial fences. At Otago Heads the Natives own over 1,000 sheep, besides a number of cattle and- horses; and at Waikouaiti they own over 2,000 sheep, well as cattle and horses. They also possess carts, ploughs, a threshing machine, and other agricultural implements. At the latter place the Natives are becoming alive to the importance of securing education for their children as a means of elevating their status as a people, and have made application to have a tchooi established there. There also appears to be a general desire on the part of the residents to have their land subdivided with a view to individual occupation, as they find that the system of holding their property in common affords too great facilities for the idle to prey on the industrious.

With regard to the tenths in the Otago block, he says The aggregate area of the blook may be set down at 20,000,000 acres. The Natives appear to have taken up the question in earnest, and have made up their minds to appeal to the Imperial Government, if they cannot obtain redress in the Colony, The first purchase effected by the New Zealand Company in the Colony averaged about a halfpenny an acre, but in addition to that one-tenth of the land was to be set apart for the benefit of the vendors, The average rate paid by the Government in the early days of the Colony for the acquisition of land was threepence qq acre. The price paid by the Nw Zealand Company for the Otago block in 1844 was under three-half-pence an acre ,• and by a return made to an vr ™ ie ouse Representatives in 1861 (£. No. 10), the average price paid by the Government for land in the North Island appears to exceed sixpence an acre. If it should be decided to pay the Natives a sum of money in final satisfaction of their claims, the amount determined on should be invested in the funds, or else on freehold security, to produce a fund for the purpose of carrying out the original intention ; or, if the land is appropriated instead, it should be invested in trustees for the same object. It will probably be urged as an argument in favor of the low price paid for the land compassed within the Ngaitahu block that a large proportion of it was unoccupied territory, and did not belong to the small aqd scattered remnant pf the Ngaitahu tribe, who, but fqr the arrival of the JSuroT'eans, might probably have been exterminated by the more powerful tribes from the North Island, who had formerly invaded a portion of the country, but that it became, on the assumption of British supremacy in 1840 the property of the Crown. It is submitted! however, that this view of the question cannot be adduced ex post facto, as the right of the Natives to dispose of the laud had been previously admitted. According to Native custom, the Ngaitahu tribe were the undisputed ownpr ? pf t|]at portion of the South Island comprised within the Provinces of Canterbury and Otago. Their ancestors, from whom they inherited the soil, conquered the country about 300 years ago from the Ngatimamoe, a powerful tribe who formerly owned the whole of the said territory, together with a large portion of the former Province of Nelson. All who are conversant with the question of Native tenure are aware that the Maoris base their claims to land mainly on the following grounds:—l hereditary claims; 2. lands obtained by conouest; 3. by occupation or possession. Heredi*f r y claims are considered the best. The tS’ken by oonouegt depended on its being occupied <by the conqueror. Mere occupation did not gjve a valid title; it 'feB1 to be supported by other claims, It will ore be perceived that the claims of the iNgaitahu to this territory are good on all three grounds, and that they or their progenitors or those from whom they claimed title had actually had occupation of the land so claimed for a long period of years. In the instructions from the Colonial Office to Governor Hobson, m 1839, he was enjoined to obtain, by equitable contracts with the Natives, the cession to the Crown of such waste lands as might be required for the occupation of settlers resorting to New Zealand ; but bate ftas f,o be taken, in the ao. quisitjoq of land from them; riot ’fo 'purchase any territory which they required for their own comfort, safety, or subsistence. Here, therefore, was an admission on the part of the Crown, that the Natives were entitled to dispose of their waste lands as well as those they occupied or enjoyed! With reference to the claims raised by the Natives to “tenths” within the Otago block purchased by the New Zealand Company in 1844, there is ample evidence to be obtained by all who choose to peruse the Parliamentary papers published by the Imperial Government, and the New Zealand Company’s reports, of the intention to make these reserves on the same principle as obtained in the other settlements founded by the company. Reference to Captain Symonds’s report op the Otago purchase, dated 2nd Septemher, 1&44, wil) that he abstained, at Col. Wakefield’s request, from inserting ip the deed of cession any express'‘stipulation* with rggard to further reserves. Allusion is also made to tha subject in Colonel Wakefield’s report to the secretary of the company, under date 31st August, 1844 (vide Now ZealandLCompany’g 17th report, p. 142), in which he states that these reserves cannot be_ made till the surveys are completed and selections are made. Major Richmond, in his letter of the 23rd May 1844 to Governor Fitzroy, also alludes to’these reserves, and states his intention to appoint Captain Symonds to select them. The 13th clause of the agreement of 1840 empowered the Imperial Government to make reservations of lands within the company’s settlements fpr the benefit of the Natives (rule Lord Stanleys deto Governor Fitzroy, dated 18th April, 1844. Mr Harrington, the secretary to the New Zealand Company, in, communicating to the principal agent the amended terms of purchase tor the Otago Association Blook, distinctly admits on the part of the company the right of the Government to make reserves for the Natives in that block, in addition to those lands which, as they were merely excluded from the purchase, could not be considered Native reserves under the New Zealand Company’s scheme. Evidence of the intention to make such reserves on the part of the founders of the settlement is alfo to be ffljmd in the sixth parkgraph of the original pVtfgjf&tujj of the settle-

Mont of 1846. The original scheme of ih® N®W Edinburgh settlement composed 2,400 properties, the price of each property being fixed at Ll2O 10s, The proportion for Natives, therefore, had the original intention been carried out to set apart ** tenths,” would have been 240 properties, consisting of sixty town acres, 2,400 acres of suburban land, and 12,000 acres of rural land, or 14.460 acres in all, representing a total value of L 29,920; to this a further sum should be added for thirty years’ interest, to be calculated on the basis of a fair rental for the land according to its relative value. I trust it will be understood that, in advocating the cause of the Natives, I am not actuated by feelings of sentimentalism—my only desire being to assist, as far as lies in my power, to make the several questions clear to ell who may interest themselves in them ; and all that is urged is that a fair and generous view of the ease should be taken when the circumstances are thoroughly comprehended, more especially as these claims are purely of an equitable character, and could not os taken into a Court of law, excepting in the form of a petition of right, the promises upon which they are based not having been entered in the deeds of purchase, as full reliance at the time was placed in the honor of the Crown that they would be fulfilled to the letter.

At the time of the cession of the Otago block (18441, Dr Shortland and Colonel Godfrey estimated the Maori population at 3,060 *ouls. They now number only 2,608, including 797 hall-casts. Mr Maokay further states :

It is generally understood by students of ethnology that sexual unions between individuals belonging to different varieties of the human race are in general prolific'; and not only so, but that their offspring are in general prolific. It is also known in many parts of the world the mixed race are a rapidly increasing people, especially in some of the West India Islands, where it is probable they might eventually become the permanent masters of the place, were it not for the great numerical superiority of the genuine negroes. In New Zealand wo have not only the European and Maori mingling their blood, but the Maori and the half-caste, the half-caste and the half-caste, and the offspring of each of these with the offspring of the other, or with members of either of the parent stock. In all of these cases the union is usually prolific, but unions between the pure Maori race are rarely so. It is generally advanced by authorities oh the subject, that it is impossible to determine how far the mixed colored race is capable of permanency, either by the development of a fixed type or by continuous fertility until the predeminant primary type reasserts its powers, by their return to that of the origi- ? a l white or black parent. Through these halfbred descendants the Maori may yet continue to possets the reserves set apart for him, but he himself is fast disappearing, and may eventually disappear altogether before the advance of civilization. This general decline is not merely confined to the New Zealanders, but is univiri sal wherever the Polynesian race is found, owing to their utter disregard of all those social and sanitary codditions which are essential to the continuing vitality of the human race.

Taiaora would, I think, be content if he cot 130,000 or L 40,000; but if a disposition is not shown to meet him in some fair spirit, I should not be the least surprised to learn that he had called upon the North Island Natives to refuse to deal with the Govern* meat for the purchase of their lands, lest they should be treated as he has been. Should he be again put off as he has hitherto been, the sympathy of the Natives in the two Islands will be invited, and they will be asked to raise a monster subscription tori the pqrpoßfl of sending Air dqhn Sheefiw Home, and to the foot of the throne if ueoessary, V> obtain the equity and justice that are denied to him in the Colony. There is not te the conscientious and honorable politician a grander problem pre* seated for his ‘considerarion in the Whole realm of New Zealand politics than the bald facts above narrated. Correspondents have at certain seasons other duties than to amuse their readers or castigate unworthy public men, and this is such an occasion. With our present flood-tide ot prosperity, and our rapidly accumulating wealth, it is worse than a disgrace for us to allow such a statement as Mr Mackay here presents to the Colonial Parliament to remain unanswered, or, if tha claims of the Natives be valid, te allow them to remain unsatisfied. Statesmen hayo qo right, qq sqch a matter te calculate the cost of rendering justice t{j the weak. As a Province, we are too wealthy and strong, and, it is believed, too honorable to ignore a just debt which should have been paid years since, or to rest tamely under the reproach of having incurred liabilities we are able but unwilling to fulfil