THE NATIVE LAND CLAIMS IN THE SOUTH ISLAND.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1606, 28 August 1874, Page 337

THE NATIVE LAND CLAIMS IN THE SOUTH ISLAND.

The following is a copy of Taiaroa's to the Otago Guardian, which he has also sent for publication to the London Standard and the New York Herald:— Sin,—l have had the articles that appeared in your contemporary concerning the land claims of my tribe read and explained to me carefully. I should have got a better knowledge of their contents and inaccuracy had they been written in Maori instead of English, but even with this'disadvantage I believe I shall be enabled to produce such evidence as will throw an entirely different complexion over the whole of the transaction to that sought to be established. It will be needless to state that I have had to seek one of your own race to put my views, opinions, and evidence in the English language. There was no other course open for me to adopt. It will be seen that I am thus placed at a great disadvantage at the commencement of the inquiry. Both as tribes and individuals we labor under heavy drawbacks in the maintenance of our rights, and in the prosecution of claims we consider to be .just. Comparatively ignorant of the English language, English laws, and the customs of Europeans, we can only judge of actions by their Jesuits, and the justice meted out to us by the fidelity with which guarantees or promises made to us are kept. We are considered by those who know us only imperfectly to be as a people subtle and supple, never satisfied with justice, but always clamoring for what we have no right to obtain. We are told we are prone to suspicion, always seeking to , find out an undercurrent of motive for the actions of Europeans—have no faith in friendship and disinterestedness, and are always eager to obtain an advantage in a bargain. If such be the case, suspicion and doubt have been engendered in our minds from our transactions with your race. At the time when the members ofmy tribe signed the Treaty of Waitangi, no man, Maori or European, possessed of common sense, will for a moment contend that they understood the full meaning of tho document to which they affixed their signatures: neither will any man of ordinary intelligence maintain that, when the Ngaitahu were induced to part with their lands, they had any clear comprehension of the value of that which they sold j or that, if they had been on a par with the Europeans in intelligence and commercial knowledge, they would have failed to obtain a price for their possessions approximating in some measure to the value of the concession. The manner of the purchase was like that of a wily man meeting a little child who had found a piece of gold, and being ignorant of its value was induced to part with it for a larger pieco of brass. We had the gold, and the pakeha gave us the brass. We have never complained of the terms of the purchase, whatever may have been our thoughts on the subject; we have never attempted to repudiate the sale of a single acre of our lands; wo had a long struggle to obtain the paltry sum that was given us for our land north of Kaiapoi; we have acted as a tribe honestly, and with good faith with our fellow subjects; but we have, and do

bitterly complain, that the promises which were made to us when selling our land, notwithstanding our pertinacity in asking, still remain unfulfilled after the lapse of 30 years, that every successive year sees our claims put off for another season, in the hope we may get tired of asking, and that the memory of unfulfilled promises may be allowed to wear out through the lapse of time. As a tribe we are determined to seek justice, and failing all other means will carry our grievance to the foot of the throne. An opinion is current in the minds of many that we havo land enough—more than sufficient for our wants—and that therefore wo have no claim for consideration. I would say in answer to such a hypothesis that myself and other members of my tribe are as much British subjects as if we were born in Great Britain, and are as good judges as to what constitutes a sufficiency for our needs and wishes as any other class of her Majesty's subjects. No Europeans, as far as I am aware, who have settled on the lands of my fathers, are told by the Government, when they wish to acquire additional landed estate, that they have enough for their wants already, and are thoreby precluded from obtaining more. He would consider such a statement as impertinent, as I am warranted in doing when this theory of sufficiency is paraded before myself and my people. I am the trustee for the carrying out of my father's instructions, and the recognized head of my tribe, and as such shall persevere and endeavor to obtain for myself and people the fulfilment of the conditions promised to us at the time we ceded our lands. Whatever amount of compensation wc are entitled to we expect to obtain. If it be but an acre we shall be satisfied—if 10,000 or more, the result would bo the same. Our claims are no longer ignored by the Colonial Parliament ; the Native Minister admits we have cause for complaint; and whatever opposition we may encounter, I am led to believe that wo will yet receive justice from the Imperial if not the Colonial Parliament. The inquiry naturally divides itself into two parts, the Otago Block and Kemp's purchase. I shall deal with the former first. The following Europeans were present among others: Colonel Wakefield, Capt. Symonds, Messrs Tuckett, Clarke, and Scott. I believe these were the only Europeans present connected with the Government or the Company at the sale. Of the five gentlemen here enumerated only two are living ; Mr George Clarke, who resides in New South Wales, and Captain Symonds, who lives at Onehunga. Of the twenty-five natives who signed the deed of cession, six are still living, so there is no lack of witnesses to testify to the nature of the bargain then made. The published evidence of Captain Symonds is clear and conclusive. He says: "At the suggestion of Colonel Wakefield I left the further choice of reserves —namely, the tenth part of all lands sold by the New Zealand Company —to be decided by his Excellency the Governor." That it was the intention of the Government to insist on the reservation of tenths is apparent from Superinintendent Richmond's letter to the Governor from Wellington, dated 23rd May, 1844, in which he says, " It will be necessary to have an officer on the spot to select reserves for the Government and the natives.' Other evidence of a similar character can be produced whenever wanted. Were Mr Clarke interrogated on this matter, his testimony would be the same as that by Captain Symonds. There are six of those of my tribe living who signed the deed of cession, They one and all,unite in declaring that" tenths" were to be reserved for my people in the Otago block. Other witnesses, who did not sign, but were present on the occasion, I can also produce. My father constantly told me of the promise of the reservation of "tenths "for our use being the chief part of the inducement held out at the time of the sale, and instructed me to prosecute the claims of my tribe when he should have passed away. From our intercourse with the Ngatiawa and Ngatitoa tribes we knew all about the reservations to be made by the New Zealand Company, and I have since learned that no sale of lands at that period, by my people to the company, could have been valid unless the reserves claimed by me had been included in the compact forming a portion of the conditions of the sale, It was always stated by the agents of the company that it was never pretended that any sum of money paid on execution of an agreement for the purchase of land was an adequate consideration for the property ceded, but that the real consideration was the reservation of tenths for our future benefit.. .That Governor Eyre considered "tenths" had been reserved for us in the Otago block is plain from his memo, of June, 1848, when he says, " Certain lands having been set apart in all the New Zealand Company's settlements as reserves to be managed for the advantage and benefit of the native race." It is now about 30 years since we sold this block of land; and almost every year for the last 25, either my father Karetai, or myself, have inquired from almost every Government official with whom we have come in contact, when these reserves were to be selected and surveyed for our use. Having been precluded for this lengthened period

from enjoying their possession, and the profits that would have accrued from their rental, to add to the injustice of our case we are now told that we have no claim to the land at all, and that my effort to obtain justice in only an attempt at extortion. If we manifest suspicion and distrust at times in our dealings with Europeans, transactions such as I have here narrated will plead abundant justification. The land we enjoy in the Otago block is what we exempted from sale at the time of cession, and is not a reserve made for our benefit. For myself and my people I claim—l speak plainly, so that there shall be no misconception on the matter —the "tenths" in the whole Otago Block. It concerns me not in the slightest degree the enhanced value of land; I have only to remember that wo have been kept out of its possession for nearly a generation. With reference to Kemp's purchase the facts are equally plain. The deed by which the purchase was effected was known at the time to be worthless. Lieutenant Governor Eyre stated this fact broadly to Governor Grey, and it is only a few years since the Colonial Legislature had to pass a Bill to render it valid. Had we objected on technical j grounds, it is most probable we should have succeeded in proving the sale to have been void, and again obtained possession of land, for which we had been paid. I believe many Europeans would have adopted this line of conduct. The less that is said on this subject by them will give evidence of their wisdom, and their dislike of fraud. The sale was completed on shipboard, Mr Kemp never visiting the block of land, or knowing where our cultivations were situated. It was arranged that all our cultivations, burial-places, and kaingas should be reserved for our use. The following is a copy of the deed of sale, by which it can be easily seen how the promises it contains have been fulfilled. The translation is the one given by the Government as being authentic : " Hear, 0, all ye people! We, the chiefs and people of Ngaitahu who have signed our names and marks to this deed on this twelfth day of June, in the year of our Lord, 1848, consent to surrender for ever to William Wakefield, the agent of the New Zealand Company, established in London, that is, to their directors, our lands and all our territorial possessions lying along the shores of this sea, commencing at Kaiapbi, at the land sold by the Ngatitoa, and at the boundary of Whakatu, and thence on to Otakou, and on till it joins the boundary of the block purchased by Mr Symonds, running from this sea to the mountain of Kaihiku, and on till it comes oul at the other sea—at Wakatipu Matai (Milford Haven). But the land is more accurately denned on the plan. Our places of residence and our cultivations are to be reserved for us ) and for our children after us. And it shall le for the Governor hereafter to set apart some portion for us when the land is surveyed hy the surveyors; but the greater part of the land is given up to the Europeans for ever. The payment made to us is £2,000, to be made in four instalments ; paid to us this day, £SOO ; in the next instalment, £500; in the next, £500; and in the next, £SOO ; making a total of £2,000. And the signing of our names and marks, being the token of our full consent, is done at this place, at Akaroa, on the 12th of June, 1848. Taiaroa, and others. " Witnesses : " R. A. Olliver, Commander, H.M.s. Fly. " T. Bull, Lieutenant. " John Watson, Resident Magistrate. " C. H. Kettle, J.P., Principal Surveyor N. Z. Company. " H. Tacy Kemp, J.P., Commissioner. " James Bruce, Settler." The part italicised .reads in the original as follows : " Ko o matou kainga no hoanga, ko a matou mahinga kai, me wai ho marie mo matou, mo a matou tamariki, mo inuri iho i a matou : a ma te Kawana e whakaritc mai hold tetahi wahi mo matou, a mua akc nei ate wahi e ata ruritia ai te whenua nga kai ruri." The interpretation given of the words "mahinga kai" fails to convey their proper meaning. It includes more than " cultivation grounds ;" it moans all the lands on which my fathers were domiciled or had in use, either as kaingas, urupas, eel weirs, or fooil'producing places. The second part of the sentence commencing " ma te Kawana " makes it imperative that further reserves beside those stipulated for should be made for our benefit. Mr Kemp failing to make or mark off any reserves, Mr Mantell was sent by the Government to complete the work MiKemp had commenced. The larger portion of our cultivations were not included in the reserves marked out by hirn, and have never been given to us to this day. Thus the provisions of the deed, either according to the recognized translation or the more liberal meaning which the words " mahinga kai" arc susceptible of receiv- , ing, have been in a great measure ignored, and I have as gfeat cause for complaint in the non-fulfilment of the conditions of this deed as in the case of the Otago block Besides the reservation of our " mahinga kai" we were promised by Mr Mantell that schools should be established for our children, and hospitals for our sick; he

told us he was instructed by the Governor to make these promises. I need not say how.these conditions have been fulfilled. For a nominal sum we conceded the right of possession to three-fourths of this island, with the understanding that we were to be dealt fairly and honorably with —that the pledges given were to be kept, and with the conviction that we were dealing with honest men. It is now too late to make reparation to the dead, but I wait with anxiety to see what justice will be meted out to their descendants. — I am, &c, H. K. Taiaroa. Dunedin, May 9, 1874.