THE NATIVE COMMISSION.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1877, 28 February 1880, Page 3

THE NATIVE COMMISSION.

[By TKLKaBAPH.]

Cfbom ottb aws cobbbseokdbntJ H AWES A, February 27. The Commission has been making very good progress, though the Natives give a good deal of trouble by their peculiarities, and the difficulty there is in keeping them to the point at issue. The Commission will finish their sitting here to-day with the exception of one or two points, upon which the records at New Plymouth have to be consulted. The claims and grievances of the Natives do not appear very formidable when examined. In one instance it transpired that the original lines laid down had been altered by the Natives with the object of increasing the area of the reserve. The Native from whom the evidence was extracted did not seem at all proud of the position he occupied when brought to book by the Commission, and afterwards volunteered an explanation in private. It would appear that the leading men frequently do things on behalf of their tribes that they would scarcely do if consulting only their own individual interests.

The greater part of yesterday morning was occupied in the examination of a bright, intelligent young Native named Wm. Fox, a clerk in the office of Messrs Buller and Lewis, Wellington. There is somewhat of a history attaohed to this young lad. During the last war, when our forces and their Native allies were in the neighborhood of Ngutu-o-te-Manu, the latter captured threo Native boys. Two of them blubbered a good deal, and their oaptors dreading that the enemy would be alarmed, summarily silenoed the boys by braining them against the nearest tree. The third, being an attractive looking youngster, and keeping quiet, was taken away uninjured. Subsequently, Sir William Eox obtained the boy from the Natives, adopted him, and reared him up, giving him a good education, so that the young man is now in a fair way of becoming the first lawyer of his race.

Although a good many of the Natives who might easily have attended the meeting declined to do so, several of them have since come to Hawera. This was in consequenee of the favourable reports of their kinsmen who did attend, on the way the inquiry was being conducted. Another old fellow, who lives back in the bush and who, it appears, has not been to Hawera since the Europeans made their appearance on the plains, came in yesterday to have a look at the Commission, though he took no part in the proceedings. Later.

The Royal Commission has finished its enquiry, as far as concerns the country between Fatea and Stoney Biver. The Natives interested appear very well satisfied with the manner in which the investigation has been conducted, and the conclusions which the Commission have arrived at in all the cases brought before it. Some of the newspapers and their correspondents from this neighborhood appear to have thought that the Commission was of a political oharacter, and their duty that of getting access to Te Whiti, and inducing him to come in. Any one who has read the Commission issued by the Governor must know that the business of the commission-is simply one of inquiry. They are charged to ascertain and report on certain pledges alleged to have been made to the Natives on this coast in reference to the confiscated lands, the non -fulfilment of which is said to have led to much dissatisfaction amongst the Natives, and to be the chief impediment in the way of the restoration of friendly relations and the quiet occupation by Government of a grt at portion of the confiscated territory. The Commission has had access to every source from which any information is likely to be obtained on the subject, and has gone into every alleged case with the greatest pains, and there is no doubt that they now know everything whioh their Commission required,them to find out, within the limits mentioned. The sittings have been crowded with influential Natives of both sexes. The Commissioners leave for New Plymouth on Saturday, where they will have to make similar inquiries affecting a class of caeea supposed to exist in that part of the country as far as the Whitecliffa (the northern boundary of the confiscated lands). These, it is said, will be of a technical character, and affecting the allocation of awards made by the Compensation Court to local Natives. Tbe general character of the evidence taken before the Commissioners hitherto has been to show that substantially the promises to the Natives between Waimate and Patea have been fulfilled by the restoration to them of large reserves which have mostly been surveyed, though they have not yet received Crown grants for them, or had their titles individualised. There would seem to be no reason why it should not be done in a few weeks. The Natives allege that Mr Sheeban promised to produce a plan on which the reserves were laid down. It turned out in the evidence of Major Brown that no suoh reserves had been made during the survey, and that the lands had been advertised for sale without any reserves being made or the Natives consulted in any way on the subject. But after the surveyors had been turned off, Major Brown, being then in Wellington, was directed by Mr Bheehan to go to the survey office and mark off on the plans some imaginary reserve. This he did, the result being of a character quite unlikely to meet the wishes of the Natives who were never told of it or about it. Mr Sheehan's statement in the House is apparently irreconcilable with the facts as brought out in evidence before the Commission. It also comes out that Major Brown, on his own responsibility, would have made reserves while the survey was going on, and was on the point of consulting the Natives about it when he was stopped by a telegram from Sir George Grey, which prohibited him from doing so until the Government had been consulted. The Natives were in the meantime not to know anything about it. Later on Mr Sheehan directed Mr Brown to disregard the telegram, but it was too late. In a few days the surveyors were ejected, and nothing had been done. Mr Brown very distinctly declared his belief that if the Natives had been consulted about the reserves when the survey was commenced, they would been made in accordance with their wishes, and the stoppage of the surveyors would not hare occurred.