THE NATIVE COMMISSION.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1994, 15 July 1880, Page 3

THE NATIVE COMMISSION.

[Br Tblegbaph.] [FEOM OT7B OWN COEBKBPONDEKT.] WELLINGTON, July 14. The report of the West Coast Native Commission was sent in to the Governor this evening, and was laid on the table of the House. It is entitled the second report of the Commission, and occupies thirty-five closely printed pages, exclusive of the appendices and evidence taken in the courts held by the Commission in various places on the West Coast, together with numerous documents and extracts from official papers. It is rendered comparatively easy of reference by copious marginal notes to almost every sentence of the report and full indexes of the subjects, with a lithographic map of the district. The report is divided into fourteen sections. The greater portion is purely historical, and much of the gist has already been given in the interim report of the Commission. The Commissioners commence by saying, “ In presenting this second report to your Excellency, our first word must be one of regret at having to ask so much from your patience, but the further wo went into the task which your Excellency had commanded us to undertake the more clearly we saw two things—first, that the disaffection of the Natives on the West Coast was but the natural outcome of a feeble and vacillating policy towards them during more than fifteen years ; secondly, that the troubles which during that period beset every successive Government might have been mastered at any time if only scrupulous good faith and steadfast counsels had been used. It was not possible for us to say this without bringing before your Excellency in detail the testimony on which we say it. In order to understand the actual character of the problem to be solved, it is necessary to trace very briefly from the history of our relations to the Native race, the circumstances under which we became involved in the hostilities with the tribes on the West Coast, out of which have grown the present embarrasments. It is also necessary, in order to understand the apparently inconsistent action of successive Ministries to know the motives by which from time to time they wore actuated. The first of those examinations was easily made by reference to well known historical facts, but the latter has only been accomplished by a close and protracted scrutiny of a vast mass of official documents, a great part of which had never been published, or had been lost to sight in the recesses of the Native office, and in volumes of Parliamentary papers from which they had to be exhumed.” The first section sketches the history of the Maori wars from the foundation of the colony until 18G5, when the West Coast campaign commenced and the Ngatiruanui drifted into it ; how after two or three years’ peace hostilities again broke out in 1868 under Titokowaru, who in his turn was defeated. The second section describes the result of the latter war, the resettlement of the rebel tribes on the Reserves south of the Waimate Plains by arrangement with the Government, and their return without permission to the Plains and adjacent country, under Titokowarau. The third section continues the subject and carefully traces the motives which induced the Government to adopt a different policy south of the Waingongoro River from that pursued on. the north side. The fourth section describes the change in the confiscation policy and the partial ignoring of it by Sir D. McLean, resulting in the system of purchasing from the rebel tribes the confiscated lands, which no doubt led them to believe that the confiscation had been abandoned. The fifth section describes how the Natives were encouraged to cultivate on the Waimate Plains, and how negociations wore commenced with them for the sale of their country, and how payments were mado tor outside blocks of confiscated lands. The sixth section brings the history to a point whore ' the survey of the plains was commenced by

Major Brown, stopped by Mr Sheehan, continued again, and finally arrested by the removal of the surveyors by the Natives in 1879, This section contains a very careful inquiry into the causes which led to the stoppage of the surveys, and shows how it is possible that had sufficient reserves for the Natives been made at the commencement of the surveys no opposition would have been offered, and we should have been in quiet possession of the plains two years ago. A large amount of evidence is brought to bear on this point, including that of a no less person than TeWhiti himself. The Commissioners say —“There can, however, be no doubt that it would have been better if on so very important a point as the reserves (on which, as will bo seen, in our opinion, the whole case ultimately turned) more careful consideration had been given to the subject by the Government, and specific instructions had been given to the Civil Commission, To anyone who has seen the locality and is acquainted with the position of the existing settlements of the several tribes, it must be evident that there was but one right way, namely, that a large reserve should be made at the edge of the forest, including all the villages, cultivations, and present improvements, with a few smaller reserves in the open country, such as those for Hone Pihama and Mania, as well as burial places, fishing places, and old pahs. If definite instructions had been given to Major Brown and to the surveyors to mark off such reserves on the ground before commencing the sectional survey, no misunderstanding could have occurred, for his line of action would have been perfectly clear to him and understood by the Natives. It is remarkable that the absolute necessity of this work being done before the sectional surveys wore oemmenced seems never to have been appreciated either by the Civil Commission, or any member of the Government, though

from various quarters earnest remonstrances on the subject had long been pressed upon them ; nor, as a matter of fact, were any reserves made. On this question we can come to no other conclusion than that it is true both in the letter and the spirit that no reserves were made either previous to the commencement or during the progress of the surveys ; that none were ever marked off on the ground, nor on any plan, except in the manner just described, and that not even those marked on the plan were ever made known to the Natives.” The seventh section gives a history of the attempt to sell the plains after the surveyors had been removed, the advertising of them throughout the Australian colonies, and their final withdrawal. Mr Ballance is exhibited as the principal actor during this period of events. Then in the eighth section follows a history of the ploughing, which is judged to have been a remonstrance by Te Whiti, and an attempt on his part to compel the Government to enter into negociations with him, for which he had already made overtures, which were unaccountably neglected by Mr Sheehan. The ninth section refers to some peculiar causes which are said by Major Brown to have interfered with hie attempts to settle the question, and a strong opinion is expressed as to the instruments used by the Government in its intercourse with the Natives. This sections winds up with a forcible appeal to the Government to make some attempt to rescue Te Whiti and the resident Natives north of Waingongoro from the curse of the publicbouse and the destructive power of Maori rum, things against whose ravages Te Whiti is said to be most anxious to protect his people. Sections 10, 11, and 12 are of a purely technical character, exhibiting the fearful entanglement into which the awards made to the friendly Natives and pardoned rebels had been got, in connection with which looms the greatest difficulty in any future settlement of affairs. Section 13, entitled “ The System of Takoha,” is of sufficient interest to be given in eatenso, inasmuch as it reveals the circumstances of the “bogus” vouchers and the extraordinary expenditure on luxuries for the Waitara feast, which, strangely enough, escaped the lynx - eyed auditor and financial secretary of the Land Department, as described by Mr Bryce in his recent speech. It runs as follows : —‘‘We have already said to your Excellency that the extinguishment of the claims by takoha did not deceive the Natives as to what was really meant by paying money under this new name. It was simply make believe. Their contempt for the pretence that it made any difference could not be better put than in the language of Mr Maokay’s report to Mr Sheehan —‘Although the term takoha (gratuity) is well understood by the Maories, it is absurd to think for a moment that they do not look upon any takoha payment made to them as being consideration for their lands.’ The change of method from deeds of cession to the gift of takoha made no change whatever in the thing itself, but the principle on which the new method was applied is, in our opinion, radically wrong. As described by the Civil Commissioner in his evidence it was nothing but secret bribery. ‘ I awarded the takoha,’ he says, ‘in two shapes. One was to covet the former tribal rights which were publicly paid to the Natives interested, and the other to cover the mana of tho chiefs, which was privately paid, only Europeans being present. The reason for the latter was this, the chiefs said they must oppose my action if all the money was paid publicly, because they would then be obliged to hand it over to the tribe, and they would lose their land without getting anything for it. But it was a mistake to suppose that such a secret could ever be kept. The records we have examined teem with evidence that the tribe knew money was being secretly received by their chiefs, but they did not know and were not allowed to know what sums were really paid. One of the reasons why Titokowavu kept away so long from Parihaka was that he could not go there without reproach for taking money secretly from the Government, and at our own meeting with him we “taxed him with it before all his people, to their high glee and his confusion. The system had three great evils. It demoralised the Natives, it gave vast personal power to tho Commissioner, and at the Waimate Plains it has ended in pure weste. There does not seem to have been the smallest control over the way in which the money was to be spent. The Commissioner could choose at will who

should be the recipients of this bounty. He could divide the money as he pleased among the tribe or withhold it from any but the chief. We can find no trace of any principle laid down to guide him or any safe guard against transactions being repudiated by the tribe, or the commonest precaution that at least the Government should know what was being done. An example of what the system led to is given in what happened on the plains. Major Brown had made a calculation that the sum to be divided among the tribe would be £4OOO for the country between Waingongoro and Raupukunui, and £2OOO from Raupukunui to the end of the survey near Oeo. An equal sum was to be paid for the mana of the chiefs, and the whole was not to exceed £15,000. Some of the money, however, went in quite another way. On going into the expenditure charged against the acquisition of the Plains, the first thing that struck us was the large proportion which contingent expenses bore to the sum paid to the Natives. Out of a total sum of £8924, which (up to the end of the financial year at March 31st last) had been charged to Waimate, £4357 appeared as contingent expenses, against only £4567 received by the Native owners. Out of this latter sum we found that £9OO had been received by Titokaworau, but ho did not get it in that name. When'the first vouchor was signed by him it was returned by the Audit office with the intimation that no payment of public money to him would bo passed, so a note was attached by the under-secretary that the vouchor had better be signed in some other name, which was done, and three other different names were used whenever Titokowaru had to get money. But on going further into the several payments, and asking whether the sums paid to the various chiefs (to the amount altogether of more than £2500) bad all been paid to them as takoha for their chiafship, wo wore surprised to learn that none of the money had reached the tribe at all, and that’£9oo had been paid not for anything on the Waimate Plains, but towards the expenses of the Waitara meeting in 1878. Moreover, that another sum of £IOOO returned as having been paid to the chief Tiera, of Waitara, and others, was not a payment on account of any proprietorship on the Waimate Plains, but for food and other expenses incurred at the same Waitara meeting, and that Tiera was himself desirous of an arrangement by which this money should be so applied. We naturally asked Major Brown ‘ Why he had described this money as takoha at all if it was spent for the Waitara meeting ?’ To which this was the reply— * Mr Sheehan considered it was one of those items of expenditure which could bo properly charged against takoha, against the expenditure on this coast, and in

■ the settlement of the question ho considered j it would have a beneficial influence.’ And so i it had for the time, till the Natives found I out after a few months that it (the > meeting) had ended in nothing.” Hearing, i with amazement, of such a proceeding, we i asked Major Brown what it was that ha had • got by the payment of all this money to the i chiefs. Was he any better than before he i paid it ? His reply was 1 No; and that is why I recommended that takoha should cease.’ ‘So that when you come to settle the question of the plains your money will go for nothing ?’ ‘ Yes; practically nothing.’ We wish that wo could have stopped here, but by the merest accident our inquiry had to be taken into a far different channel. On thinking over the circumstance that Toira and a Waitara chieflof the Ngatiawa tribe had received a fourth of all the money returned ao takoha for the Waimate Plains, we wondered how it was that he had established rights over land belonging to the Ngatiruanui tribe, entitling him to £IOOO to spend at pleasure on a Waitara meeting, when men like Hone Pihama and Ruakera had only got a couple of hundred. Then the truth came out, not only that the money had not been paid to him as takoha on account of any proprietary rights at Waimate,but that the money had never reached his hands at all, and that another £IOOO of the money for which the other chiefs had signed had never reached theirs either. Where the money had gone had been kept a secret. Wo called the proper officer of the Land Purchase Department before us, and requested the vouchers which had passed the audit to be produced to us. These vouchers, with detailed accounts of the true expenditure which they wore meant to hide, are now laid before your Excellency. It is enough to give a sketch of them to see what, at a time when heavy taxation had to be imposed upon all classes of the settlers could be done in secret squandering among the Natives at this Waitara meeting. To help that feast there were not wanting luxuries in the shape of tinned fruits and jam and fancy biscuits, with mullet and salmon and lobster, plenty of good ale and wine and three-star brandy. Nor did the women lack of anything. They had costumes, chemises, skirts, silk handkerchiefs and ties, fischus, innumerable shawls, scarfs, ribbons and feathers, French merinos and velvet, perfumery and trinkets, side saddles, riding habits and portmanteaux to pack all their finery in. Nor was the amusement of the mind unheeded in “ reserved seats at the star pantomime,” and a representation at the Imperial Theatre, as ordered by the Hon. Native Minister, with playing cards to while the time away, and views of the Waimate Camps to cultivate a taste for art. A remission was granted for summonses taken out against (A B) after he had filed as a bankrupt. The railway had to be refunded for goods stolen by Natives, and counsel was retained for Makarita when she was committed to trial for arson. An account for professional services to one Mr Wirenui Mania being met with the objection that there was only one of that name, and he lived at Waimate, the payee observed that of W, Mania he personally knew nothing, never having seen him, but that trifling circumstance seemed immaterial, and the account was paid. With mindful delicacy towards the great chief in whose honor the feast was given, a name familiar with the readers of Native office vouchers turned up as a oayee instead or his ‘You may pay Mrs Beay, at Waitara, £2O in money. This is really for Bewi, but you can’t ask him for a receipt yet.’ It all went down to the Waimate Plains. The Under-Secretary of the Land Purchase Department left us in no doubt as to what would have been the fate of such accounts if they had ever come before the auditor. After what has transpired we asked him ‘ What do you think was the Character of the i vouchers originally sent in to discharge the imprestee from this £2OCO?’ ‘ I think they did not i disclose the whole transaction. If they had, the Auditor-General would never have passed them.’ * Would there have boon any means of • tracing this expenditure if it had not been for the accident of your attention being called to it by this Commission ?’ ‘I do not think the expenditure would ever have been , shown unless my attention had been so directed to it.’ ‘ Are we then to understand that the sum of £2OOO charged to the acquisition of the Waimate Plains, as having been paid to certain Natives, turns out, , through an accidental investigation, not to have bean so paid at all; that nearly all the money passed into the binds of persons other than those who signed the vouchers, and that it was paid away for purposes which were not disclosed in audit ?’ ‘I am sorry to say it is so.’ * Have you any reason to think that the sub-vouchers ( you have now produced were ever brought under Mr Sheehan’s notice before payment by the Civil Commissioners?’ ‘Among the telegrams is one dated June 10th, 1878, addressed to the Hon. Mr Sheehan by Major Brown : ‘ Recommend that Waitara Natives be hosts at Waitara meeting at cost to be charged to confiscated lands against the margin, within which lam keeping the payments.* The Native Minister replied under date June 10th, ‘ Suggestion re Waitara meeting approved.’ ‘Then it would seem that Government were cognizant of the intention to spend money for the purpose of the Waitara meeting, which was to be charged, not to the expenses of that meeting, but to the acquisition of confiscated lands ?' * I think from these telegrams that the Native Minister must have _ been aware of it.’ There is no evidence that the accounts themselves, which had been concealed from the Audit were known to the Government, but vouchers signed by the chief for £2OOO were submitted for the * special approval’ of the Minister, and it was given. Major Brown’s own explanation will be found annexed to the evidence. Here we stayed our hand. Your commission imposed the duty on us of tracing how these spurious vouchers and pretended payments had come to be charged to the cost of the Waimate Plains, but here our own functions ended. It is for others to say if this charge is to be transferred, and what is to be its place in the public accounts.” In conclusion, the Commissioners say—"We have endeavored to trace in the preceding pages the history of this trouble, one phase of which your Excellency had allowed us to bring before you in an interim report last March. We wished to tell your Excellency why we said the difficulty was but the natural outcome of events in which successive Ministries had for so many years tried their hands and failed, and why we end as we began by saying that at any moment in all these years the trouble north of Waingongoro would have if, instead of talking about doing the right thing, any Minister had only set himself to doit. The story speaks for itself. Wo entirely believe the cause of all our difficulties to have been ever the same, that the tribes we had encouraged to return to Waimate Plains have never known what land they might really call their own, and if any of ns are tempted as an easy way of escaping from reproach to say that the fault is all Te Whiti’s, we ought not to forgot how our own records show he never took up arms against us, but did his best in all that time to restrain from violence his unruly and turbulent tribe. If the story we have told has not made this clear we have told it to your Excellency in vain. It still remains for us, however, to say what we think should be done in addition to the measures wo advised in our first report in order that the Crown may fulfil its promises and heal every real grievance on the coast. One thing is certain, that nothing can bs done without new legislation, as every power which formerly existed has been repealed. In this report, long as it is, wo have only been able to speak of the past, and wo ask your Excellency’s permission to offer to you in a few days our suggestions as to what such legislation should do for the future. Wo hope a brighter time may come. In January the Armed Constabulary crossed the Waingongoro to carry through the Parihaka country the road which for years a handful of disaffected Natives had (to the humiliation of our people) forbidden to be made. Simultaneously wo tried to learn what promises had to bo fulfilled and what grievanoen had to be redressed. This enquiry has now been completed ; the road has been passed through from end to end, and the really essential reserve has been marked out upon the ground. A line cut through the forest from Stratford to Opunako has shown a level fertile country fit for settlement. Cross lines have been cut to unite this lino with the Waimate Plain. The plain itself is being resurveyed to open the land for settlement next spring. As yet this work has all been done without serious opposition, and though the greatest care and caution must continue to be exercised at every step, we say to your Excellency that the Natives are now realising for the first time since the insurrection that there is a Government which will treat these claims with generosity, but is resolved to bo the master ; all which is with great respect submitted to your Excellency. Wsi. Fox. Fbancih Dillon Bull.