ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 730, 13 April 1853, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the New-Zealander. Sir, —I wish to address through your columns a suggestion or two for the consideration of any fellow Land Claimants under the Fitzßoy proclamations. I believe we have now entered on a new state of things in qur colonial affairs, in which wc have stronger grounds to hope for justice being done to us than ever we have had since we were despoiled of our lands. By the new Constitution the disposal of the public lands has been given over to the General Legislature of the Colony. Now, our lands, which a former Government encouraged us to purchase, have been in many instances taken away from us, and have not been given back to the native owners, but retained by the Government, and arc now designated " Waste Lands of the Crown." Some of these lands which we bought fairly with our money have been sold before our own eyes, and, although wc protested, we could not help it, for there were always those to be found ready to occupy or buy our property, and wink at the fraud. But a great deal of tbe land still remains unsold, and surely we may expect better from our own representatives in the General Council than a continuation of this system of spoliation. I am aware that one of our number, some time back, on protesting against the sale or leasing of his land at Papakura to Messrs. Wm, Brown and Co., stated his intention of appealing to the home authorities on the subject, and I rejoiced to find that the matter was about to be brought before the Government of Lord Derby. But however that individual case may have proceeded, there is now good reason to believe that a still safer and more satisfactory course has very fortunately been opened up'to the claimants, by which they may have, as a body, a full and fair opportunity of reopening the question of their claims, and of having it decided in the Colony by the Representatives of the Colonists themselves, many of whom have been eye-witnesses to the fairness of the transactions with the natives, under the pre-emption certificates, and of the injustice which has been afterwards done to # them. 1 would therefore urge upon the claimants to unite as a body in petitioning the General Council to take the whole matter into their consideration, and for a Committee of the House to investigate the claims arising out of the Proclamations of Governor Fitzßoy, and the manner in which they have been disposed of by Governor Grey. Should they think well of this suggestion, then they must prepare in time to act upon it. The House of Representatives, I observe, is to consist of thirty-seven members —twelve of whom are to be sent from our province. On those twelve our hopes mainly, indeed, I think, entirely, depend. The Representatives from the other Provinces will have no sympathy with our petition—some of them, Avho are interested in the speedy payment of the New Zealand Company's debt will be inclined rather to

thwart it. It will behove the claimants, then, to sec what they are about in electing men for the General Council. As a class they have the sympathies of the people here, who will unite with (hem, I believe, in asking for a fair and impartial investigation. Let us, then, elect such men onl}' as will pledge themselves to obtain this fur -us—men wlio -will -untlortuke to atteiva the Council at its first meeting, whererer that meeting may be held, and 1 have no fear for the result. Let us keep clear of individuals who, as in the case to which I have referred, have attempted to sacrifice our rights to (heir own sordid interests, and I have every confidence that the truth and justice of our case will be made clear, and our rights restored to us.-—Yours, truly, A CtAIMAKT. Auckland, April Oth, 1850.