Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1872.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1355, 21 June 1872, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1872.

We have already taken occasion to give expression to our sentiments in relation to the agitation now being excited and fostered by certain more or less interested parties in connection with native land transactions. The recent public meeting, largely attended as it was, demonsti ated that the general public does not concern itself to any great extent with the disputes existing between certain native chiefs and those who have had dealings with them for their lands. The levity--to give it no stronger term —with which the efforts of the agitators were treated, although attributed by them to a want of appreciation of the importance of the subject, was in fact only a proof that the public regarded it as a question of a purely private nature, the merits of which could only be satisfactorily decided by the Courts of Law. All, without exception, who have dealt with the natives for their lands, whether legally or illegally, whatever the consideration may have been—whether stores, cash, or contraband such as spirits,

<fec, —have undertaken the business at their own risk, and with their eyes open, having had the example of the difficulties the Government itself has found in dealing with the natives prominently before them. These speculators knew well enough when entering into their engagements the exceeding slippery character of I he native title to land, and that a purchaser never could be sure that he had paid the right owner, or when or where some other claimant might arise, and on some pretext force him to effect his purchase over again, Such has been the general rule with them, and it has often happened that after a purchase has been effected over and over again the bulk of the purchased land been returned —as witness the Taranaki purchases. The troubles they find connected with their transactions ai'e therefore only '-ome of the contingencies attendant on them, and it is the sheerest folly to try to get up popular excitement in relation to them. Those who have had illegal dealings with the natives in times past have at length found a champion. We fear, however, that it is one whom they will not be inclined to thank for his advocacy of their cause. The question he proposes in their justification deserves reproduction here if Only to show what is implied by it. Our contemporary of last night asks, —" Had the Native Lands Act never been passed, and had the settlers of Hawke's Bay been a law abiding people, what would the condition of the province have been like at the the present time 1 " The settlers of Hawke's Bay then have not, according to him, been a law-abiding people, and it is owing to their contempt of the law that they enjoy their present prosperity—such as it is. The settlers will doubtless feel grateful for the compliment. They, however, as a body, have had nothing to do with the illegal transactions that have occurred in this province, beyond mete passive submission in allowing them. It seems to us that if the settlers of Hawke's Bay had appreciated the value of the estate that was being taken from them at the time, they would have brought such pressure to bear upon the Commissioner under the then existing land laws as would have forced him to have taken action and stayed the illegal transactions; and in this alone are the settlers to blame. With regard, however, to the question before us—what the condition of the province would have been under the circ-Minstances of the Clown's preemptive right of purchase continuing and being observed--though no one can tell certainly what would have been the case, there is no difficulty m saying what might have been Had, then, the law been respected, and the Lands Purchase Commissioner done his duty to the public, there would have been an immense estate in the possession of the province, a large proportion of which, instead of being in the hands of a few speculators, might have been covered with a thriving agriclutural population, and leaving ample means in the hands of the Government for promoting immigration, ft is mere nonsense to talk about the unwillingness of the natives to deal with the Government. Greater absurdity could not be perpetrated. The fault of these lands passinginto the hands of speculators lay enthely with those entrusted with the duty of negotiating with the native owners, who preferred their own personal gain, and the enrichment of their friends and supporters from this source, to the public interest, of which interest they were appointed the custodians and guardians. The native owners were desirous of selling

their lauds, and not being able to get them to buy on behalf of the Government, were almost forced into the illegal arrangements with the private speculator. The general public, to whose detriment all this was done, being dazzled by some paltry expenditure of Government money, permitted this neglect of duty and this violation of t.he law, by which their inheritance was made to pass from their hands for ever.