THE MANAWATU QUESTION.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XIII, Issue 583, 4 June 1868, Page 3

THE MANAWATU QUESTION.

(I'ron t'j:- I.yluTlua Times.) The Mauawalu qu. stion, in one slid ye or other, has been before the public for years ; I it lias been discussed in the General As-! senibly, talked about through the length and breadth of tin; Nona .Island, and! written about by almost every paper in' the colony. It has been the fruitful source of many lorn:- winded letters in (he columns of our Wellington contemporaries, and it I used to be a pet subject with the Tress. I It has taxed all the energies of such men! as Dr Featherston and Mr Walter 15 idler I on the one hand, am! evoked all the 'vrti-i naeiiy of Archdeacon ILulfield, Mr*\Vii | Hams, and similar .Maori advocates on theother. Latterly it lias come before the! .Native Lands Court, where the ca-v for the Crown was conducted by Mr Fox. nnd' the docisi mof t the judge is reported to ’ be so unsatisfactory to both part ies as to! induce the fear that the Man aw at u ques-' tiou may ap;:iin crop up in some other Conn. It is not merely because this e:i . is notorious that wo n.nv allude to it ; it is intimately connected with and will form a at’ lirli iipr precedent in many questions re-' learning the title to native laud in the I Nori !i island. Ami, b •ariiisj in mind the pact Shat the expensive war which we havc ; watted with the natives arose solely out of a dispute about land, it is de-cid.-dh to our ’uterests, so loop' as we are bound to the; North, to endeavor to umhustaml th.-p beari gs of such cases. Vi here iris posP sihle that the opinion of the pul vie may j he sought, it is necessary (hat the public I should be in a position to judge intelligently.

Stated briefly, the Manawatu question is as follows : —The Superintendent of Wellington had made up his mind to acquire a block of land lying coihigunus to the Manawatu river, and reputed valuable. Tlie laud belonged, or was supposed to belong, to a tribe known as the Ngatiapa, and it was necessary, before a purchase could he 'effected, to secure the consent of all the native owners. The negotiations attending the purchase were tedious, difficult, and costly, and they were mainly conducted by MiWaiter Fuller, who was employed for this purpose by the .Superintendent of Wellington. At length everything was salisfact’>nly arranged ; the price was agreed on, (ho deed of cession was drawn up and signed by those natives who were believed go h ive any title to the hind ; and lastly. Ur Featherston paid over the sum of 1*25,0ut) on behalf of the province whose chief magU'r.i'e he is. This closed the first act of the drama.

When the hind had thus become the property of the Wellington Government, 'certain natives, in-ligated, ns it. appears, by Archdeacon 11 ad tie] J, hi:' William-, ami others, brought forward a cl ;i'U to a ; considerable portion of it. Xlicy asserted, that they had a title, that thru bad not agreed to the sale, and that, th-refore, the Got eminent, was in illegal Dosscs-ion the parties to the suit against the Government are brielly and somewhat vngu.-U described as “ Parakaia and other.. v Sonic of our readers may have seen L'ara kaia’s name before, lie wrote letters to the Press and other papers, urging his c'ar.ns, and lie is known all over the district in wnioh lie lives by a proverb -o unsavoury and disgusting that Mr Fox saul lie dared not quote it in the Court though it would go far to strengthen his ease. The claimants entrusted the conduct of their case to Hr Thomas O. Williams,who is described as follows;—“Pern in New Zealand ; brought up among the native race ; graduate.! in a Zdaori pa ; better able to speak the Maori than the English language ; versed in all Maori ways ana thoroughly acquainted with the Maori tikanga ; having spent the last throe years of his life in landing, if not creating, the materials for his clients' claims/’ The evidence brought before the Court in support of ihs native claim is strongly eharnnjterised by one feature —eighteen cut of [the twenty-nine witnesses were interested

smiic u! liu'iii very pmicuiariy, in the delusion arrived at. The chief European witness for tha natives was Archdeacon Ifadlield, who as contrasted with the principal European witness for the Crown, had very little opportunity of getting correct information. The native evidence in support of the claim, with one or two exceptions, is that of men who have no position or standing; the native evidence against the claim, on the other hand, was given by inr-n who. without any exception, were fof high rank in their tribe—very many of • them the leading chiefs. | The first native witness on beha’f of tho claimants —Hie one on whom they maiuiy In-lied ler proving their title from historical recoli'a-uo- s —us-eru-T that lie signed the deed bv which the land passed from the natives to the Govi rnmeat, with a Mack lead, pencil, “ when full of wine in a cart,” and iie afterwards a (untied that ho signed it “ with pen and ink, in cold blood, in a house.” Jhe next witness was the redoubled Parakaia him-mlf. Mr fox’s dcscripli >n of this gentlemen deserves to he iju ted :—“Parakaia is no common nrm in tliis case Parakaia it is in whose n.-rsou we arc mid the treaty of Waitnngi has been tram; led under f ot. In Paraikaia’s behalf, ‘the outraged truth and jusiie of Jut Jan !.’ have hen invoked. Parakaia has been the /-.-'v/n/e of the Cat - terburv press, and a dozen other journals have re-echoed Parakaia’s wrongs. Even .Mr Williams hints.-If has put his hand in his pocket an 1 paid for the printing of a iParakai i pamphlet. When the Supremo I Court was applied to, Parakaia was the •champion who threw down the gauntlet; land when the Crown is challenged to do oej ti!e in this Court, all the information jvouchsafed as to who arc its antagonists is. j—“ Parakaia and others ” Hi is chief is farther described as an “ omt.iv.-vous land* ’shark,” and it is apparently proved, on evidence which it is impossible to dispute, , that he lias been guilty of the most deliberate perju’w, not on one ’point only but on three. Archdeacon lladil dd is the only other witness for the claimants who is entitled to any notice ; the remainder, as described by a native chief, were mere “thistles and rubbish,” who were mil into the b.»s to ooullr.n by their own irsay tint hearsay of the witnesses who had preceded t i lom

Archdeacon llulfi:’J’s connection with, and evidence in this ease, d s not redound to his credit. It would have been far better, fur the dignity of the Church end his own reputation, had the Archdeoeoii busied himself only in spiritual matters, instead of mixing himself up wit!: and giving time and attention to questions of native title. His interest ,in the ease before tlio Court may be judged from the fact that he admitted, on cross-examina-tion, having endeavored to secaire several thousand acres of the land in dispute as a L.dft for his Church. Mr Cox points out, also, that the Archdeacon's evidence is characterised throughout by an “extreme positivencrs of assertion,” and a haughty contempt Mr the opinions or as ml i m> of ■ rnctl who have at least. an <• pea claim to ■ credence and re-peei. AN itii all Ins positiveness, it i> clearly ma le mil, ami that •bv witnesses on his own -ode, that the j Archdeacon is decidedly at fault in several Important particnlars. j 'file e' ideiuv oifered by the Crown, as 'ahvadv remarked, is given by men who iliavc no interest in the decision, whose | posh ion is unquestionable and unqmstinned, and whose information is derived ilivin the best sources. Yet the Court has enno to a decision which can only bo regarded as a triumph for “ Par,-Gaia and j others.” They claim: d a I lock of land measuring 11,'-00 aerem the C-aut lies in warded them 5,50> •, whieli is said to iujelude all the best l-.nd in the block, it is laltoccther on oiler grounds, however, ■that the decision of the 'Court is objected !to. It establishes an interpretation of Itribai title and tribal right, on dam altogether withheld, which promises to be the :source of akno-t endless litigat M" Ivt ween i the Wellington Government and ihe natives. The land which ])r k'oatln vsion purchased far tdo.COO.and 'vlileh waseonsi- , dorod so an.-at and so e)ie..p an acqui-ii ion, is not vt; secured to the Government. Lite decision of the Court may bear fruit beyond the ; roviuce in which it lias been given.