THE NEW ZEALANDERS AND THEIR LANDS.

New Zealander, Volume 1, Issue 14, 6 September 1845, Page 2

THE NEW ZEALANDERS AND THEIR LANDS.

In the Autumn of the last year, immediately after the Select Committee of the House of Commons had made their report, Mr. Dandeson Coates, the well-known Secretary of the Church. Missionary Society, published a pamphlet under the head of" The Ncw-Zealanders and their Lands/ in the form of a letter to Lord Stanley, and of which the report of the Select Committee is the topic. The pamphlet, winch is now before us, we have perused with deep attention ; and as it may be considered to convey the opinions of the Society of which the author is the Secretary, we deem it deserving of particular notice in our columns. The perusal of this pamphlet excites great disappointment, for it is principally, throughout the whole sixty pages, composed of ex-" tracts from the report of the committee, and other parliamentary papers. The reason for addressing and laying more distinctly before ITis Lordship these various documents, Mr. Dandeson Coatca alleges to be :—": — " It is within my knowledge that the tcnour and recommendations of the report, and the resolutions appended to it, have excited very strong feelings and alarm in the minds of those friends of Christian missions, who have become acquainted with the contents of these documents. The ground of this solicitude and alarm is, that the recommendations of the select committee's report are considered as unjust and injurious to the Natives, with regard to their lands, and as involving a breach of the stipulations of the Treaty of Waitangi, under the sanction of which the sovereignty of the Island was ceded to the British Crown by the assembled chiefs in 1840. The questions raised are closely connected .with the welfare of the Natives of New Zealand, and with the honour and good faith of the country ; and on these grounds call for consideration." Mr. Coates has placed his meagre remarks under six heads, but they are as indistinct as they are unconnected. The first is explanatory of the views and reasoning of the select committee. Then follows a history of New Zealand from 1831, down to the Treaty of Waitangi. Under the third head, he enters into detail of the proceedings of the committee, and their rejection of Mr. Cardwell's resolutions, and refers also to the draft report of Mr. Hope, which was rejected by the committee without a division. This document of Mr, Hope, is properly considered by IN Jr. Coates as very important, in affording strong ground of encouragement, that by such principles, His Lordship will abide in the future administration of the Colony, and, in that point of view, we consider the following quotation from that draft report of Mr. Hope worthy of record, " Your Committee does not consider it necessary to enter upon any discussion of the propriety of the different steps which have from time lo time been taken in reference to the occupation of New Zealand, nor of the soundness of the policy which dictated the terms of the Treaty of Waitangi. , " However interesting" the question, whether that Treaty was or was not consistent with sound colonial policy, they do not consider it one directly \i\ issue in the present inquiry. They think that treaty, whether wisely made or not, binding on the faith and honor of the Crowu. It appeals from the papers piesented to them, and has been distinctly proved by witnesses called before them, that w hatever confusion may evi&t in the minds of the natives as to the meaning of a cession on their part of the sovereignty of the Islands, they clearly understoodand fully lely upon the guar|an tec, which the treaty gives of their proprietary rights $ nor is it pretended, by any of those acquainted with their feelings and habits, that an infringement of those rights, (even were the Crown to attempt it.), would be submitted to without the most dcteimined lesistance. Your Committee therefoie, consider that the question of the extent to winch the rights of the natives in land in New Zealand are to be recognised, is no longer one to be determined by reference to thegeneial prerogative of the Crown, to sound j principles of colonization, but tnat it must be [tried and decided upon the true construction of t lie Treaty only ; and in considering the question it is to that point that they have directed their attention. * * * * • " Your Committee bas> had under its conside ration much evidence, both oral and written, on the rights of the natives in land. There appears no doubt that since the making of the Ti eat) of Waitangi, and the increasing resoit of British settleis to New Zealand, limy have, together with increased and (misled by particular sales), exaggerated notions of the value ot their land, acquired also more definite ideas of ownership ; and hi consequence, have put forward more extensive claims to uncultivated land, than it appeais probable Ihey would have done at an earlier peiiotl ; but at the same time, although the usages which seem always to have regulated their rights to laud, appear to be obscure and complicated, they are admitted and are acted on among themselves; and. not among themselves only, but have been so in the numerous trausacj tions which for )eais previous to the declaration [oj the Sovereignty of Great Britain took place. |as to the sale of land from themselves to Kmo- [ peans. | '* Even could no such right by natives to the whole wild lands in the Islands, be shewn to^ havu existed previously to the resort of Europeans to those shores, the exercise of ownership by transfers to settlers, may in lact.be considered to have created them to a degiee which would make it unsafe to deny' them altogether 5 nor do jour Committee think it would be prudent or right to give any decisive opinion on their ex-

lent, withouta much fuller investigationii,ot only than that alieady instituted by themselves, but that it would be possible to institute anywhere except in New Zealand itself " The fourth division is comprised of extracts from the instructions and despatches of the various successive Secretaries of State for the Colonies, expressive of the deep inteiest which they have taken in the Native population, and the stroug solicitude which they have felt te protect their rights and promote their Avelfare. The mo.'t important ohjcct and real intent of Mr. Coates pamphlet shadow out in the fifth part, which is on the Chinch missionaries. He commences this section :— " The part taken by the missionaries, in the obtaining of the cession of the sovereignly of New Zealand lo the British Crown, must not be overlooked in an enquiry into the interpretation of the second article of the Treaty of Waitangi, respecting the Natives' proprietary lights, in Lord Normanby's instructions to Captain Hobson, quoted above, it will be seen that he was directed to call for the services of the missionaries in his negotiations with the native chiefs, (or the cession of the soveicignty of the Island. Though the Committee of the Church Missionary Society had been strongly opposed to the colonization of New Zealand, yet when her Majesty's Government were induced to sanction that proceeding, they considered it to be their duty to give such support and assistance to Captain Hobson, in prosecution of the object confided to him, as was compatible with their character as a missionary body., Instructions to that eftect were, therefore, addressed to the missionaries. Without their agency as interpreters, and the information communicated by them to Captain Hobson, it is not easy to conceive how his mission could have been conducted to a satisfactory issue." Our readers will observe the passage marked by italics,— indicative, as we deem it, of no little presumption in such a body as the Committee of a religious society taking upon themselves to oppose colonization. The assistance of the missionaries, and their fears that the Treaty of Waitangi might act injuriously to the interests and rights of the natives, ate detailed by various laudatory extracts from letters and despatches. Mr. Coates then observes:— " Should these rights, recognized and confirmed as they have been, by the approval of the Treaty by the Home Government, be violated under the sanction of the recommendations of the report of the select committee, the position of the missionaries will be rendered most difficult and painful. They have acquired the confi- ! dence of the natives as their friends and benefactors. In virtue of that confidence the chiefs were induced by them to sign the Treaty of j Waitangi ; understanding, as the missionaries also understood, that their pioprietary rights to the whole lands of the island, not alienated by themselves, were secured to them. Hov\ can the missionaries remain among them under the imputation of having deceived and betrayed them? — under which imputation they would lie, should the recommendations of the select committee, with regard to their lands,' be adopted and acted upon by your lordship. That this is no ungrounded apprehension is apparent from the following passage in a letter from one of the missionaries, dated 22d Dsc, 1843 : ' Even now, the missionary is accused of having persuaded them to lay aside their arms, in order to facilitate the occupation of the soil by his own countrymen, and is looked upon with suspicion, as an emissary of the settlers.' — If such jealousy and suspicion have been excited among the natives, by the state of things around them nine months ago, I leave it to your lordship to judge what will be their feelings, when the report and recommendation of the select committee shall become known to them ; and if, in an evil hour, her Majesty's Government should adopt those recommendations, — resistance, collision, and bloodshed must be looked forward to as the certain consequences. How, my Lord, could the missionaries remain among the natives under those circumstances? On the other hand, should the missionaries quit the ground, as possibly »hey might, in such an event- as that adverted to, think themselves bound to do, in proof to the natives of their sincerity, and uprightness, the event to the natives themselves might be still more disastrous. lam sure neither your lordship nor the British public will endure that such calamitous events should be risked, in order to give effect to the unrighteous recommendations of the select committee, in furtherance of schemes for facilitating emigration." The sixth, and last section of the pamphlet is intended to prove the prevalence of Christianity, among the New Zealariders, and reference is made, in evidence of such truth, to a letter from the Bishop of Australia, in March, 1839* to the committee of the Church Missionary Society ; and, likewise, to a sermon preached by Bishop Selwyn, atPaihia, in June 1842. Mr. Coates describes the labours of the ministers and catechists of the Church Missionary Society to have been most successful ; and estimates, that oxit of the native population, exceeding very little 100,000 souls on the northern island, 35,000 are attendants on public worship, in the Church Missionary Society's mission alone ; upwards of 15,000 scholars in the schools ; nearly 300 native teachers ; and more than 2,850 communicants.

The letter concludes: — "One word more, and I have done.. Should doubt, after all, rest on your lordship's mind, as to the extent of the proprietary rights of the natives, 1 would implore you not at once to decide against them, hut to pursue the course suggested in the passage of Mr. Hope's draft report, quoted above, and institute, in New Zealand itself, • an investigation of the whole question, by competent persons, in whose character and principles the natives could be reasonably expected to confide. The very fact that they must sink before British power, if that power be turned against them, is a conclusive reason why every means should be employed to arrive at a clear discovery of the facts of the caste, in order that such a terrible alternative may, be averted ; for, I repeat, a desolating conflict with the natives must, I fear, be regarded as inevitable, should the recommendations of the select committee be adopted and acted upon." It will be obvious, by the brief analysis we have thus given of Mr. Dandeson Coates letter to Lord Stanley," that the Church Missionary Society are fearful that the influence of their missionaries in New Zealand will retrograde in proportion to the progress of emigration and advancement of the colony. There can be no objection to the Secretary of the Church Missionary Society seizing on the occasion, which the plea of urging the proprietary rights of the natives to their lands in New Zealand offered, to detail and enlarge on the very great assistance which the missionaries of that Society afforded, on the first settlement of the colony, in obtaining the assent of the chiefs to the Treaty of Waitangi. — But while, on the one hand, we would not disparage the services ! rendered, at that juncture, yet we have always been of opinion, and every succeeding day and event confirm the conviction, that the Church missionaries have had too much interference with the administration of the Government in this colony, and they have been far too highly estimated by the late and present Governors, — as they have been also taken out of their proper sphere, and been invested with influence and power, inconsistent and incompatible with their avowed profession. As interpreters, there can be no doubt of their utility : but beyond that, in secular affairs, their interference should cease. From the extracts we have given from Mr. Coates 1 letter, it will be observed, that the Church missionaries labour under the imputation of having deceived the natives, and he fears that such feelings will increase among the aborigines, should the views and recommendations of the select committee be acted upon ; and he then asks, : "How could the missionaries remain among the natives under these circumstances ? — and on the other hand, should the missionaries quit New Zealand, the event to the natives would be still more disastrous." - Granting to the Church missionaries all due praise and merit, for their acts among the natives of New Zealand : we do not anticipate with Mr. Coates, that they will quit the Colony "in proof to the natives of their sincerity and uprightness." Much as they have done for tlie natives, the Church missionaries have been no less active and " wise in their generation" for themselves, and in proof of which we shall conclude our observations by the following account, extracted from the Government Gazette, of Crown Grants, issued for land purchased from natives, to the following claimants, who are missionaries of the Church Missionary Society ; but first premising, that by a rule of that Society, in England, each member of the mission is permitted to purchase from the natives, and hold possession of, 200 acres of land, for every child born in the colony : and in the same Gazette there also appears a Grant has been issued for " James Kemp, on behalf of families of Church missionaries — 3,100 acres."

-Mrßto— Supreme Court. — This Court assembled on Monday last, for criminal business j but, to the credit of Auckland and its distii't, there was not a bill lo present to the Giand Jury— and the Court was adjourned till Monday, the Bth instant, for civil causes. The "Falco." — There is every reason to believe that this vessel has gone direct to the South Sea Islands. It is more than piohable that when she left America, the Government of that country were quite aware of the annunciation ! th<it would be subsequently made, by the President jegai ding Texas and Oregon, and that the Consul for these islands, furnished, as it is said, with more extensive powers than when previously in these seas, Mould have some secret orders to execute, in refeience to the critical state of affairs between Great Britain and America, in the Pacific Ocean. The ca>go of 15 cases tnuskets, 400 kegs gunpowder, 40 pigs lead, and 500 rockets, are intended, very likely, for the St. Louis, or any other American vessel of war, (hat may be cruizing among the Polynesian Isles; and the Ameucan Consul, judging that about the time of his arrival here— if he did come at all— the news of the hostile intention of'

his countrymen would have reached Auckland, and might lead to detention of his munitions of war, thought it more prudent to go directh among the whalers and put them on their guaid. If, perchance, the Falco meets with a vessel bound to Sydney, or to this Colony, the mail of the Tyne may, perhaps, arrive heie some time before 1546.— 50 much, for the management of the Post-otfice at Wellington. Total Abstinence Society. — On Monday evening next, Mr. Hart will deliver his second lecture on the doctrines of the above Society, in the Mechanics' Institute.

JName George ClarkeRichanl Davis . James Hanilin. James Kemp . John King Joseph Matthews James Preece . W. G. Puckey . James Shepherd William Williams Henry Williams Grant 2 2 9 5 4 1 2 2 6 6 6 ts Acres . 5.500 . 3,500 . 3,087 . 5,276 . 5,160 . 1,706 . 1,4,50 . 2,300 . 5,330 . 890 . 9,000 Acres i 44,039