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New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 735, 30 April 1853, Page 2

Amidst (he agitations of political conflict, from which wo cannot expect to be free while the elections are still pending, it is refreshing to find a centre of agreement at which the sympathies and endeavours of men differing widely on various other points, can be harmoniously combined. Such a centre is presented by the reduction in the price ol Land, effected by the Governor’s recently published Regulations,—a measure in approbation of which the people of the Province of Auckland are, we are satisfied, nearly, it not wholly, unanimous. It would be more than fitting that the grateful appreciation of the great boon of Cheap Laud M-birn 5s entertained by the community.

should be formally expressed to His Excellency, more particularly in view of the fact that so much opposition to it, and to him as having granted it, has been manifested by, selfish individuals and parties in the South; and the desirableness of strengthening His Excellency’s hands in the maintenance of the measure by such support as the unequivocal j expression of j nblic opinion in Ibis Province can afford, is too obvious under existing circumstances, to require any enforcement from ns. We have, therefore, much pleasure in calling the attention of our readers, one and all, to the following Address to His Excellency which now lies at our office and at the office of the Southern Cross for signature, and to which, we trust, men of all classes will cheerfully and without delay append ihcir names : To Ills Excellency Sir Georye Grey, Governor and Commandcr-in-Chief, die., die., d:c. Sir, Wc the Undersigned Inhabitants of the Province of Auckland desire to give expression, in the most cmphatical and unequivocal manner, to (lie satisfaction with which wc regard the alterations made hv flic Proclamation of the 4lh of March last in the system of disposing of the Demesne Lands of the Crown. !t has ever been our opinion that the prosperity and advancement of (ids Provdice would he most effectually promoted by a reduction in the price of Land, and the removal of those restrictions which stood in (he way of its easy acquisition, and it is most satisfactory to us to have Your Excellency’s practical confirmation of these views. Looking forward, aswc do, to a rapid increase of population, we request permission to direct Your Excellency’s attention to the limited quantity of Land in lids Province at the disposal of j the Government, and the great importance of an j ample supply of Land to satisfy the increasing demand. To meet this, we need hardly point nut to Your Excellency (he great desirability of rendering the Lands at present in lire hands of the Natives available for the purposes of settlement; and while wc render to \our Excellency our unqualified thanks for a measure well calculated to servo the interest of the Province, and so much in accordance with the often declared wishes of its Inhabitants, we venture to express a hope that Your Excellency will he pleased to adopt means so to open the country for settlement as to render the easy acquisition of Land at a moderate price, not a temporary, hut a lasting benefit. Wc have (he honour to be, Sir, Your Excellency’s most obedient servants, John Salmon, Fir:i). Whitaker, James Mackv, John Woodiiouse, Thomas S. Fousaitu, Wm, Drown, Wm. S. Guauame. Auckland, 28lli April, 1853. It will be seen that this Address has been prepared in. an eclectic and conciliatory spirit, so as to contain nothing from which, —candidly interpreted,—men of any party need feel themselves bound to dissent. AH can agree that Cheap Land is a blessing, and that llis Excellency merits 41 unqualified thanks for a measure well calculated to serve the interests of the Province;” and there can scarcely be a second opinion as to “ the great importance of an ample supply of laud to satisfy the increasing demand.” Tiie practical difficulty, however, evidently is to accomplish the confessedly most desirable object, of “ rendering the lands at present in the bands of the Natives available for settlement.” The- Address properly abstains from touching the moot point how ibis may be done; and if wc venture a remark or two upon it, we must be understood as adverting to a question which, though closely allied to, is not necessarily involved in, that document—to which, therefore, those who may not. think with us can attach their signatures just as consistently as those who do. It is well to hear in mind the position in which the case, as respects the purchase of Native lands, is now placed. The restriction to (lie Crow n of the right to acquire in any way lands belonging to the Aboriginal Tribes, does not rest upon the mere enactments of the Native Land Purchase Ordinance, (which it would be competent for the Colonial Legislature to repeal), but on the positive and specific authority of the Imperial Parliament. The 73rd clause of the Constitution Act is distinct and imperative on the subject; and in the 20th paragraph of Sir John Pakinglon’js. despatch on transmitting the Act, it is emphatically stated—u it has appeared so essential to maintain the principle that all acquisitions of land from the Native tribes should lake place through the Government only , that this regulation which previously rested on the Royal Instructions only, lias now been incorporated in the Constitutional Act.” It is therefore clear that such “an opening up of the country” as some contend for —that is, an unrestricted liberty for Europeans to deal with the Natives for laud, irrespective of the Government,—is altogether beyond the power of the Governor and the Colonial Legislature. Whether such a measure would be right or wrong is not the immediate point before us; the practical fact is that no authority but that of the British Parliament can sanction it. Pat the question is deeply interesting,— Could not some present arrangements be made which, without infringing on the Imperial enactments, might be at least an instalment, and a valuable one, of the liberty to acquire Native lands with greater ease and freedom than the settlers have hitherto enjoyed? Although we cannot lay our hand upon the documents or refer to them more particularly, wc have some re.collcciion that, a few years since, Governor (nicy, in a despatch to Earl Grey, suggested a plan which might now perhaps be carried out with advantage to the country. Without vouching for our precise accuracy in slating it, wc believe its substance to have been tins:—that in districts deemed desirable for settlement, the Government should appoint a Commission to investigate the claims of the Native owners, so as to ascertain and register the names of those whose property the land really was: —that then these districts—after setting apart proper reserves for the Natives — should he proclaimed as fully open for negotiation between the

ascertained Native owners and European purchasers :—that on the completion of anf agreement between the Maori proprietors and the intending purchaser for any larger or smaller portion of the proclaimed districts, the latter should report the transaction to the Government, and—on the payment of a small sum per acre (sufficient, we will sup. pose, to cover the expenses incurred by the Government)—should be entitled to receive a Crown Grant for his purchase. Such a plan as this might obviate the—at first view insuperable—difficulty arising out of th e Imperial law on the subject; because the process would, wepresumc, be soconducted as that the land would become Crown Land by the form of a conveyance from the Natives to the Crown as a necessary preliminary to the conveyance to the purchaser:* —it wouldbd an incentive to good conduct on the part of the Natives, as it might be understood that this privilege of selling to whomsoever they pleased would be granted only where the Maories had shown by their peaceable behaviour that their neighbourhood would be safe for settlersand it would afford the European a wider field from which to select his land, and any advantage that he might anticipate from direct dealing with the Native owners. Our impression is that Earl Grey’s reply made his lordship’s acquiescence in the suggeslion contingent to a great degree on a general expression on the part of the colonists of a desire that such an arrangement should be made. However this may bo, the value of the plan is in no sense dependent upon the correctness of any impression or recollection of ours; and we only introduce this point because, if the plan, or anything like it, did commend ilselflo His Excellency’s own judgment some time since, it is reasonable to expect that he would now, in the new and more favourable circumstances in which the colony is placed in relation to all these matters, be disposed to bring it, or some other equivalent, or perhaps better, plan into practical operation, if he bad reason to believe that it vvould be regarded by the community as an important benefit. Submitting these hints to the consideration of our readers, we again call attention to the Address —which, as we have said, involves no point in dispute amongst the people in this province—and which should be so signed as to be a demonstration of the universal pleasure with which we hail the Cheapening of Land.