THE NATIVE COMMISSIONERS INTERIM REPORT.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1918, 17 April 1880, Page 3

THE NATIVE COMMISSIONERS INTERIM REPORT.

[By Telegraph.] [feoli otjr own cohheßpondbnt."! WELLINGTON, April 16. I have just obtained a copy of the interim report of the Royal Commission on West Coast Native Affair?, it is as follows: "To His Excellency the Governor. " Sir, —We°ask your Excellency's permission to addreaß the present statement to Your Excellency in anticipation of our general report because thoro are two questions which we think must be determined at once, if the advancing session is not to be last. « J The question of the plains. By this wo mean the question of what i* to bo done with the country enclosed by the Waingongoro and Oeo rivera, which belonged before the confiscation almost entirely to the Ngaliruenui tribe, and contain? about 120,000 acrc-B of available land, of which 30.000 ura open plain. It would be- idle lor anyone to dony that the more turbulent r>nd disaffected of the Natives on the West Coast hud tor years determined to resist our occupation of tho plains, and that the secret of that resistance ky deeper than any mere discontent at our survey of laet year. But it waß not so with the resident "Natives. Indeed, it would not be going too far to say that the Natives most immediately interested would have acquiesced in our occupation if sufficient reserves had been previously made for them. Nor is it less true that the immediate cause of the ignomini jus end of tho Burvey was tho fact of no reserves having been made. General promises had more than once been given them that their settlements, fishing stations, burial places, and cultivations would be respected, and that largo reserves would be made for

them But no step was ever taken to let them'really know what was to be theirs. On the contrary, the officer in charge of the district was ordered to tell them nothing about reserves without the previous sanction of the Government. Even when the Minister had been warned later on, two months before the surveyors were turned off, of the harm this mystery was doing, and had given full authority for reserves to bo made, nothing was done, and when at laßt, after the surveyors had been turned off, it was hastily resolved to mark off some reserves upon the maps, even this was done at Wellington, and the Natives were never told of it, while what was then done was wholly inadequate to meet either their wishes or their wants. The confidence of tho Natives was hardly to be won by this prolonged secrecy upon the very question of all others on which their anxiety was sure to bo greatest. To them it was the question of whether they would be allowed to keep their homes. No one with any experience in acquiring Native land ever thought of getting quiet possession of the most ordinary piece of country without previously settling about reserves, and there was nothing to justify the idea that it would be otherwise with the Taranaki confiscation. On the contrary, there wore many reasons for being specially careful in dealing with it. For ten years the Crown had virtually ceased to exercise any right of ownership beyond the Waingongoro Kiver under the confiscation, and had tacitly sanctioned the return of tho Natives to the land ; 70,000 acres of the confiscated territory on the Coast had been given back in 1567 to the tribes; Sir Donald McLean's declaration of 1572 had nover been rescinded ; none of the country between Waingongoro and Stoney Rivers, though nominally confiscated, was available for settlement urjtil an arrangement had been made with the Natives for the land they were to have ; more than 160,000 acres within the confiscation had been acquired under regular deeds from the Native owners, while 180,000 acres more had been paid for by Takoha, or given as compensation. Above all, every tribe along the Coast had beon for years more or less under the sway of a singular fanaticism, and had become persuaded that tho confisca tion was unreal, and that Te Whiti's aupcrnatural power would soon give ihem possession again of all their hud. With so many warnings from the paßt, every question in relation to reserves upon the plains ought to have been arranged before any sur-

vey was attempted" there at all, and it was certain that settlers could not be put quietly upon the land while the Natives were not even told what they were themselves to have. The rashness which had marked our prcojedings culminated when, on the day after the surveyors were turned off, and we were face to face with a trouble that will soon have cost a quarter of a million. People in other parts of the colony, and even in Australia, were invited by wide-published advertisements to buy land, of which there was no longer even the pretence of being able to give quiet possession. We only press this now upon your Excellency's notice because exactly the same problem is before us to-day. Whatever else is doubtful thi», at any rate, is certain, that the plains will never be occupied in peace until proper reserves are made, and marked out upon the ground. We have no hesitation in declaring our oonviction to your Excellency that to do this is an immediate necessity. Moreover, it has to be done by the almost unaided exercise of tho Crown's authority. We have so disheartened our steadiest friends among tho tribes by our alternate rashness, that they are afraid to tell us what they wish, or even to point out the land that ought to bo reserved for them. They say that tho decision must be left in the Governor's hand, but if the influence of Te Whiti, which has always been exercised against war, proves equal to the strain of road making and reserve surveying at the same time, your Excellency's decision about the reserves will be accepted by the resident Natives, and their acquiescence will most likely prevent resistance on the part of others afterwards. The firßt thing to do is to determine the extent of the reserves. The quantity which appears from our debates in Parliament to have been contemplated by Sir George Grey's Government was about 25,000 acres, and we shall in due time lay before your Excellency our reasons for thinking that this amonnt is as nearly as may be the right one, but it is the question of position which is more serious than that of mere extent. We assume, as a matter of course, the fulfilment of promises to respect the fishing

stations, burial places, and cultivations on the open plains. But theee are nothing. The real question lies in reserving the villages and clearings in the forest. Now there is one governing fact about these. The forest is not merely fringed with native villages hore and there. One clearing succeeds another for a considerable distance into the bush, some being in cultivation, others apparently disused. The only way is to include them all, and to make sure that we take in enough land to do it. We accordingly advise the following conrse :—(1) To make a broad continuous belt of reserve extending the whole distance between Oeo and Waingongora Rivers. (2) To cut the boundary lines of this continuous reserve at once upon the ground, so as to take in all the villages and clearings, enough land being included to form an aggregate reserve of 25 000 acres. (3) To cut three or perhaps four broad lines through the forest !ho whole depth of the reserve for access to tho back country in such a way as to conserve the tribal rights of each hapu, and not to interfere with the settlements and cultivations. (4) To lay off ether reserves as sites for saw-mills and the supply of building timber, fencing, and firing, whenever settlers are placed upon the Plains, and to set apart sufficient land for the establishment and maintenance of Native schools. (5) To proclaim the 25,000 acres, when marked off, as being inalienable reserves so long as Natives live there in peace. (6) To ascertain, as was promised, the tribal ownership of several hapus, so as to be ready whenever they themselves consent, to subdivide their raserves and give them titles under Crown grants. (7) To allow no dealings whatever with any part of the reserve, except occupation, by the resident Natives until this ownership is ascertained, and regulations made under whioh such dealings can take place without danger. In laying out the continuous reserve its front boundary on the plain should be a line which will be a main road from Normanby to tho township of Manai, and then on to Oeo. Spocial care is necessary in this boundary to avoid a repetition of a difficulty that happened last year, for it is dangerously absurd to let a question on which may hang the peace of the country be subordinated, as it might be, by surveyors to tho question of the easiest point at which to ford a stream or make a road. The line of this front boundary should be cut from both ends at once, Oeo and Normanby. We ask ycur Excellency to observe that we do not propose that the whole of the land in the reserve should be given to the Natives. These are parts of the forest fronting the open plain, where there are neither villages nor cloarings, and where it may one day be advisable to dispose of some of tho lard, and what we look

to most in the long run is that along the lino which we should make tho back boundary, land now dense forest may gradually become occupied by a series of small farm settlements extending to tho branch railway, which Parliament has sanctioned to connect Opunake harbor with the main line. But the most essential point of all is that the General Government should resolutoly keep every acre of the reserve under its own control, until the Native villages are enclosed within the broad bolts of clearing which shall take from the inhabitants the powor of disappearing at pleasure in the lecesaes of the forest, and give us the strategical command of the whole coast. There is ono other matter connected with the question of the plain:) which we recommend being immediately settled, namely, the grants to tho chiefs Iloni Pihama and Mania. As to Mania's grant, there does not appc-ar to have been a specific promise (o him either of extent or locality, but tho Civil Conirr.issioner contemplated an aggregate of about 1500 acres for him, and there will be no difficulty in defining the localities when wo return to the district. Ae lo Honi Pihama'a grant, the promise originally mad:: to him in IS6O, by Sir E. Stafford's Government, wu3 a largo ono. It, was that as soon as pence war. restorod all his land should be returned to hira as far as possible. Sir D. McLean afterwards promised him a grant of 1100 acres for himself between tho rivers Oeo und Ourcinui, besides a tribal reserve of tho same extent for his people Later on Mr Sheehan seems to have contemplated giving him 1500 acres, and a like amount for his tribe. Lastly, Pihama asked to bo allowed to exchange tho land between the rivers for land on the southern side of the Oeo, where he has spent a large sum in buildings and improvements, to which _Mr Sheehan agreed. Ho has had many promises, ; none of which are yet fulfilled. We recom-

m>nd that the piece of land between Oeo and Wahoinoko, seawa'd of the main road, containing about 1100 acre 3, should be granted to him at once, as well as the land he has fenced and cultivated on the inland side of the road, which may amount to 300 or 400 acres more, and that the tribal reserve for his people to the same amount, between the Oeo and Ourenui, should be also surveyed new and made inalienable.

" The question of[Parihaka. By this we mean the question of what is to be done with the country between the Oeo and Stoney Rivers, which belonged before the confiscation to the Taranaki tribe, and contains about 125,000 acres of available land, of which 34,000 are open plain. It has been a popular idea that within these boundaries there was a vast area of valuable land, which would one day bring in much money to the Treasury. No delusion could have been greater. The country on the Taranaki coast extends for about thirty miles beyond the Waimato Plains up to tho Stoney River, and may conveniently be separated into four divisions. (1) The Stoney River block from our township of Okato to Waiweranui. (2) Tho Parihaka block from Waiweranui to Moutouti. (3) The Opunake block from Moutouti to Taungataru. (4) The Oeo block from the Taungataru to the plains. Following these streams to their sources in Mount Egmont, the areas of the divisions are nearly as follows : Stoney River, 18,000 acres ; Parihaka, 58,000 acres ; Opunake. 44,000 acres : and Oeo, 26,000 acres, but the Stoney River and Opunake blocks wore both returned years ago to the Native tribes, excepting 1400 acres retained by the Crown round Opunake township. Along the whole coast, therefore, north of the plains there are now only two divisions of the four which we are free to deal with, and in speak - of these we must first deduct a large part of the mountain itself as worthless, and then we must remember that for nearly the whole distance along that part of the coast the forest comes down to within three miles (and often within two) of the sea, so that if an arc is drawn round the mountain, with a radius of nine miles, leaving a breadth of not less than seven miles back from the sea, we shall onclose in tho latter all that will be worth taking for about the next twenty years. Within these limits the area of available land left to us on the Taranaki coast beyond the plains barely exceeds 6000 acres, and of this not more than 2000 acre 3 are open country. But against even this modest extent must be set two liabilities. In the first place there are the awards of the Compensation Court of 1866 still to be satisfied, and usually estimated at 10,000 acres. We cannot speak yet with certainty of the amount, as there are complicated questions about tho awards to which we do not yet see our way, but at any rate the floating character of the liability will have to be put an end to, and the place and time of seleotion under the awards defined. Secondly, and far beyond the first liability in importance, is the one caused by the necessity of providing for the Parihaka people. This question, quite independently of any opinion as to how far the land of men, like Te Whiti himself, who never were in arms against the Queen, was really taken by the confiscation, is a serious one, and ought to be faced at once. The population of the Taranaki tribe down to the tribal boundary between them and the Ngatiruenui at tho Rawa, near Oeo, was given in the census of 1878 at 841 souls, of which 342 were living at Parihaka. Since then it is said that the Parihaka settlement has increased, but whether this is so or not no one pretends to say. We cannot tell Te Whiti and his people thoy must leave it, so that for all practical purposes tho Parihaka block is only what will be laft after a large reserve for those people, and this means, taking the Native Land Act scale of fifty acres for each soul, that we have to set apart at least half the available land there for them. Nor is this all. When the land required for the Parihaka people has been Bet apart, what is then left to us there will only be a strip along ton or twelve miles of coast entirely isolated between the two large blocks that were returned to the tribes years ago. It is very doubtful whether for a long time to come it would be right to let settlers go upon such a strip at all ; certaiv ly tho examples we have had north of Urenui are a warning tnat wo should not hastily attempt such an experiment again. Putting together what we have said, it will be seen that half of what is left to the Government north of the plains will be wanted for existing liabilities and for the Parihaka people, and that over all tho distance from Oeo to Stoney River the only land we are free to deal with is hardly 30,000 acres, of which not more than 15,000 are open, and that if the inexpediency be admitted of occupying the strip of coast left to us in the Parihaka block, the land available for settlement beyond the plains is reduced to Bn altogether insignificant amount. If these facts are not encouraging, it is at any rate best not to deceive ourselves about the matter. We can have no doubt upon the advice we ought to offer upon them to your Excellency. No good will come of putting off the day when the question of reserves for the Parihaka people mußt be decided. The people are there and they mußt have land to live upon, and what is more, being there they certainly will not go away. The sooner everyone makes up his mind to that the better. The sooner everyone makes up his mind that aDy idea of appreciably replacing out of Parihaka land the vast expenditure going on is illusory the better too. We accordingly offer the following advice to your Excllency:-- (1) That the Parihaka country lying inland of the road being made along the coast, and extending as far back aB will comprise from 20,000 to 25,000 acres be at once set apart for the people so long as they live there in peace. (2) That the laud seaward of that road in the Parihaka block, containing perhaps 10,000 acros of open country (according to the line which may be chosen for the road), bb well as whatever is left in the Oeo block, after the reserve for Pihima's people, be kept in the hands of the General Government until the liability of the Crown under the compensation awards has been defined. We do not think such a definition can be made without legislation, and if so, nothing whatever ought to be done with the land that is left to us till Parliament lias expressed its will.

"In conclusion, we think it our duty to explain to your Excellency why it is that our recommendations about Parihaka are submitted to you at the same time as those about the plains. It is because the two questions are inseparably mixed up. The influence of Te Whiti is not confined to the people of his own tribe. In spite of all that has happened to shake the faith of his adherents, and in spite of the growing feeling among them that any struggle now must end in their destruction, their obedience to his will remains the same, because the first work of bis system is a denial of the reality of our confiscation, and a promise to restore them all their lands. His position is strengthened by his assertions of divine authority and prophetic visions, which are apparently implicitly belioved in by his_ followers. As these delusions are, there is no uro in ignoring their continuing force. Beyond Waingongoro we shall never cccupy the land of theJjNgatiruenui in peace. Whilst the Taranakis are in the dark about what is to be done with their land, any piecemeal attempts to get round this difficulty will but add to the contempt of both tribes for our feeble purpose, and strengthen their disaffection. We cannot escape, if we would, the necessity of deciding the quPetion of Parikaka as the same as the quostion of the plains, and, unless they are decided together, the Government may keep up a great force there for years and yet be unable to place other settlers in quiet upon the land. After all that has happened since tho war, and after the strain .o which both rac€3 are now exposed, it would bo very rash to say of any plan that there was no danger of rcsi3tanca to it, but we are convinced that none which ia contrary to thospiritof the propolis we are submitting to your Excellency will be carried out in quiet. Although Te Whiti has forbidden his followers to aitend tho Commission, wo hoar that ho has been kept thoroughly info'ined of what we have done, and is with nil the ether chiefs on the coast looking with anxiety to it/] result. He would welcome as gladly as tho settlera a termination to the present exhaualing suaponoe. Wo believe that if he Tvero sure of baing let alone at Parihaka he would let us alone upon the plains, but if we try to occupy tho plains without his having any assurance that ho is sufo at Parihaka, wo may find that we can get neither Parihaka nor the plaiur, except a l , tho prico of a struggle, which no one can doubt would then bo desporato. But although for these reasons wo have thought it our duty to submit both questions together to your Ex> ellnncy, the on» which most requires immediate action is, of courso, that of marking off the reserves upon the plains. The survey of theso reserves, and the cutting of the lines, we recommend must be begun at once if the advancing season is not to be lost, and

we Bee nothing, if our advice is taken, to pre> vent thiß work being done without delay. " We have the honor to be, Sir, Your Excellency's most obedient Humble servants, "Wiixiam Fox, "F. D. Bbll."