SUMMARY OF MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE ON NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 37, 21 June 1845, Page 4

SUMMARY OF MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE ON NEW ZEALAND.

[3fr- Walter Brodie's evidence, continued from No. 35.] Mr. Hope."] You referred to the appointment of Mr. Clarke, and said, that you knew no reason for his being appointed, except that tbe Governor had lived' in his house when he first arrived there ; I wish to know, do you know what Mz. Clarke'* previous history was ; when did he arrive in the colony :? — He was apprenticed to a gunsmith in this country ; he went to New Zealand as a catechist from the Church Missionary Society, about fourteen or fifteen years before the Governor arrived. —He was a person very well acquainted with tke native language-,; he was stationed at a place called the Wairaate, where the Bishop is now living, as a <eatechist, and had certain -schools of natives-; he might have been jeducated a little, but " I should say, from what I have seen of him, he *was an illiterate person. I eanuot say whether his letters are his own writing ; he has . had so much to do, as Protector of Aborigines, that I dare say he writes -a good hand, or ought to do by this time.* s—After5 — After some evidence relating to , the appointment of Mr. Clarke's son to the offtce of Protector of the Aborigines at the age.of sixteen, which was much objected to, aad .that many of the age of Mr. Clarke's father might have been appointed, speaking the language better than young Mr. Clarke ; he proceeds to describe Port Nicholson; says the River. Hutt is dry about -tJvree miles up; there was merely a little stream, except in the winter time, when the freshes come down, but a vessel of 80 tons, with a flat bottom, could go up a few miles, not more than Jive miles; — that the fertile land in the lower part of the river is not of very great extent ; it costs a man from £30 to £60 an acre to clear those lands ; and that the timber cut upon this land is of no value. — That the finest district, in his opinion, for settlement upon, is the Kaipara ; and that there was no land at Port Nicholson to supply the population. There were no English at Auckland \>hen Captain Hobson arrived, but at a rough estimate, there were about 3,000 persons in the settlements of Cook's Straits. After some general evidence relating to tke .Manakau and the mutual harmony existing between the settlers and natives before Captain Hobson's arrival, he describes the natives, " as being something like' dogs in respect, the more yaukick them, the better -they like you," but as being ■very much alive to their own interests, and not easily taken in ; he states-; that many of the chiefs were very much opposed - to the treaty of Waitangi, and that very few irom the southern part of the island were at the meeting ; the notice was so short : that the natives have got new ideas as to the value of their land since the Government satea; they .stuck up on a board at a place about two or three miles from Auckland, so much land $1 so mjuchjper foot. " They are a great deal sharper than the Europeans., Talk of a Protector for the natives indeed,; they want a jprotectar for the whites, I think, more than for the natives 4 it is very; seldom you hear of a native .being imposed i upon." The Government are seldom able to

i buy land of the natives now, they ask such. ail exorbitant price even for waste lands never oc . cupied by them. There were no hunting tribes : if one tribe destroyed or drove out the former I -tribe, the new tribe took possession of that tract of country ; they used a very small portion of the land, generally on the banks of a river, where they have communication by water ; there are not three or four (occupied) places in the whole of New Zealand in the heart of the country, unless there has been a river up the place. After some general evidence about the resumption by the Government of the overplus lands purchased from the natives by the old settlers, above the amount awarded them by the Commissioners, which he considers would have been disputed by the natives ; the unsatisfactory state 1 of the land claims ; and of his travels from Wellington, where he resided about three weeks,-, to Otaki about 70 miles into the interior* (but he" had not visited Wairarapa, about which he had heard contradictory reports) ; — he states as his opinion, that if Government, when they first went to New Zealand, had confirmed every man in the land which he had acquired, and put a tax upon the land over a certain number of acres, of a halfpenny an acre, Government could have possessed a revenue from the country directly, and would have given general satisfaction throughout all the old settlements, that partieswould have abandoned all lands beyond the amount they required, and Government would have obtained sufficient for colonization purposes; — if the Europeans did not give the Government so many acres of land, they would have sold the land at a few shillings per acre to get the burden of the Government tax off their own shoulders. He then enters into a long account of his dispute with the Land Commissioner Colonel Godfrey ; he states that there is a general feeling among the natives ; that if they make any opposition to British claimants, they will be received with more favour than the British claimants; could mention fifteen or twenty cases where pei sons have been robbed, and no notice taken of it by the Government, because it has been done by a native : and " they have gone on from one thing to- another, till the natives .can almost do what they/ please." Gives evidence relating to the interference of the missionaries in the sale of land at Wanganui, which we have quoted in our 34th Number; — considers the land claims have been in Chancery for three or four years, and that ckcamstance chiefly has upset the country. Expects flax will be the great export of the countryv and relies on Captain Fitzroy settling the land claims. — Considers - that the natives neve* had any idea they wereto give up any waste land by the treaty of Waitangl — Thinks that if the- afiairs of New Zealand were placed on a good footing as to thesettlers and the natives j; from climate, position, . and produce, it would be & raost; valuable acquisition, as almost every mineral in the known, world is to be found in New Seafood. The witness then gives an. account of the purchase of Russell from Mr. Clendon by the Local Gov.ernm.ent at £15,00.0, though not worth more than £1,500 to £2,00& — That it was in. direct opposition to Kororarika, a* small place for a township,, but with sufficient fend to contain a population of ten thousandipeoplte; "there were^ seven or eight hundred people- living; there at the time, and Mr. Shorland recommended the parties to give up their claims to- this town, and leave it to the generosity: ofi tfoe Government how they would treat ira in> return; we thought,., however,, our land was mael* safer than the generosity of the Government, especially as we had expended £30,000 in. buildings on the land; Mr. Shortland told me- i£ ifc ims not done, we should repent it; shortly aftei? Mr. Glendon left;. *nd Russell was purchased^ by- Government."' — Mr. Matthew (the Government Surveyor) .stated 1 , he had looked all over Kororarika, and considered it one of the finest placea in the Bay of Islands — ',' We did not choose to give up the land, but at the same time we offered, Government sufficient land for all the Government offices, and half the land that was not. built, upon to sell for emigration purposes, andttheyy refused it ; they said — " we will, have all's or? none"" — that was Mr. ShorlaraTs remark-. Mr. Clendon's was not the next best position .»_ His land was like fifty loaves of sugar placed oni a table, just up-hill and down-dale all over."* Mr. Busby's was the next best place- to Koro- - rarika for a township. Captain Hobson never - saw Russell ; he was ill at Wairoate. It was^ done by Mr. Matthew and Mr. Shorland. — Staters that the importation of the Parkhurst boys was a great injury to the colony, that they were much worse than sending convicts out_ who would be able men to work on the roads,, and that .the system was viewed with dislike by the. colonists at Auckland. Considers that wheat" would .be cultivated to a great extent, if the flax plant was not cultivated in preference ; but that flax, in his opinion, will be cultivated in preference to -any thing else, and will become a great . article of export in New Zealand, far more than wool feoin the Australian colonies, and that flour would be imported from Valparaiso or from the colonies. The examination of the witness concludes with a long account of his case against the laad-jeommissioner Colonel Godfrey, who he • alledges taeated him with injustice.

* For the information of our readers out of the colony, we may .state ihat Otaki is situated on the coast, about 48 miles from Wellington.