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

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 38, 28 June 1845, Page 3

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

Frederick Alonzo Carrvrtgton, Esq., examined — Is r by profession, a surveyor : was nearly 15 years in the Government service, and went out to New Zealand under a written agreement with the New Plymouth Company, to take the lead of their surveying staff. Arrived at Wellington 12th December 1840. During his stay there the natives appeared to be living on very amicable terms with the settlers. The witness then explains that having carefully examined various districts, he made up his mind to fix upon Taranaki district, which he had determined at first not to take, on account of there being no harbour, with the proviso that the Port Hardy district should be, if requisite, an appendage to the New Plymouth settlement. Continued as Surveyor until August 1843, when he left in consequence of the surveying-staff of the Company having been diminished, owing to the want of funds, the want of means of employing them, and the non-settlement of the land claims. Complains his dismissal was not communicated to him in the way it should have been. Surveyed thirty-two thousand acres ; the great mass of which was done by contract. In the district of New Plymouth there are about 70,000 acres of open country. When he leit New Plymouth the number of the British population was from eleven to twelve hundred : at the time he landed, the native population within the part surveyed was not more than 50 or 60. The quantity of cultivated land occupied by the natives in the settlement was very insignificant, not a quarter of an acre a man j outside the boundaries of the settlement there is a blxick of 50 acres in cultivation by the natives. The settlers generally were on good terms with the natives; — but disputes have very much increased since the Wairau affair. " Referring to New Plymouth, where I lived, and speaking of the way in which the climate has been described, I should say, that it has not at all been over-rated ; it is very splendid ; it is a magnificent climate. There is no part of England in which the climate is as fine. In the depth of winter it is very beautiful weather ; the thermometer ranges, taking the year through, between 60 and 80. I have been up to my middle in water, in the swamps, and have laid down in the same clothes at night for several nights, and have never experienced any injury. The dimate is so healthy that you can undergo wettings and exposures, without suffering any injurious consequences which in England would make a person seriously ill. The soil in the neighbourhood of New Plymouth was excellent. Labourers have contracted to cut down the fern and hack up the roots, and parties have sown barley in it r for 1 8s. an acre ; from 18s. to 255. was the contract price." — The witness then enters into a statement of the mineral productions,' produces a specimen of magnetic iron or black oxide, which was abundant in New Plymouth, and which he had shewn to Mr. Murchison and Sir H. de la Beche, who said that it was very good. Submitted to the Committee a piece of metal smelted from the ore by Messrs. Dymond of Holborn, which they reported to be a first-rate specimen. Their analysis gave 70.6 of black oxide iron, and 8.96 of protoxide iron in 100 parts. Excellent coal for the purpose of smelting was found at Mokau. Believes that from the climate, the soil, and the productions, both vegetable and mineral, New Zealand would be an exceedingly valuable possession to the British Crown ; that fish are very abundant on its shores ; but as a whole it is a very mountainous country. The witness in answer to questions from Mr. Hope, then produced what he called a statement in black and white of Col. Wakefield's, that he had purchased the whole of the country, in the following letter ;—; — (1297.) " East Bay, Queen Charlotte's Sound, " November 8, 1839. " I have to inform you that I have purchased for the New Zealand Land Company, from the chiefs of the Kafia and Ngatiawa tribes, the whole of their possessions, rights and claims, on both sides of Cook's Straits, be-

tween the 38th and 43d degrees of south latitude. Atf ample consideration having been paid for the same, and' all the chiefs, including those of the small tribes, forming part of the Ngatiawas, having executed deeds of conveyance to the Company, and fully Understanding that they are not to re-sell any portion of land or timber 1 within these boundaries ; I beg that you will ui;\ke the sale known to European settlers in the Sound and its neighbourhood, in order that they may a\oid the useless expense and trouble, and the collision with the Company, -which will be caused by their making ary purchases in these districts, from this day's date. At the same time, I am authorized to inform you, that, on the arrival of the large body of settlers expected in January" next, and to be followed in succession by others, at the expense of the Company, the Company will be glad to avail themselves of the services of any British subjects now resident in New Zealand, qualified for employment, and that the settlers will be recommended to do the same. As principal agent of the Company in these islands, it will at all times give me satisfaction to be of any service in my power, in the settlements about to be formed on the Company's territory, to my countrymen, who have led the way to the colonization of this country ; and I entertain a sanguine hope that the numbers 1 and union of British residents will materially improve the condition of those who have hitherto struggled in New Zealand against the want of law and of the advantages of society, and will present an example of a prosperous and happy community. — I remain, sir, your obedient, humble servant, v "W. Wakefikld. " To Mr. Richard Barrett, Agent of the New Zealand" Land Company in Cook's Straits." States that he g'otthisletterfi om Mr Barrett under very peculiar circumstances, which it would he very painful for him to state, as they concern the character of men who are not present. That' he has had a great deal of talk with the agent (Mr. Barrett), who treated it as a perfect farce. On his return to England, he said he had heen deceived, that he went out to New Zealand helie ving there was a large field open for him, and that he should do well, having made a bargain with the Company, which was liberal and' handsome ; but, instead of the land having been sold, as was represented to him, it was not sold, and the consequence was his removal from the service. — Believes, the Directors fancy to this day that they have purchased the land, but the statement's Which have been sent home to them, are not correct. He then attempts 1 to prove from the dates in Col. Wakefield's Journal, that at the time the letter was written, Taranaki was~ not' purchased. That early in January 1 840, the Guide brig arrives at' the Sugar Loaves with' the payment for the land, which payment is* landed in two boats. On 1 6th, the Guide finally leaves Taranaki, and Dr. Diefenbach, Messrs. Barrett, Wakefield, jun., and Dorset, and some natives (Barrett's relatidtis), all go in her to Port Nicholson. Had the goods sent out by the Company, been given to the natives, they would have bought the land over and over again, and every thing would have been at peace. After some evidence relating to his purchase of land from the Company, and his reception by the natives on first landing, which he describes to have been very favourable ; he relates his first' dispute with the natives, in which he took a stick and made a number of lines, and put so many for the Europeans, and so many for the natives, and got an interpreter to explain to them the great value the native reserves would be. Believes that the natives now ask a hundred times more for the land than they would in those days. That in his next dispute with the natives, a chief named Tupanangi called upon him, with Mr. Creed, a missionary, " who told me the Waitera district had never been 1 sold. Mr. Barrett, the agent appointed to negociate with the natives for the purchase of the land, stated in their pfesence the land had been bought as far as' the White Cliff, and was in the title-deed. The Missionary took a principal part in- the conversation, and' seemed warm fh the' cause of the natives: There' were about 30CT natives* living there when I left; there were not above 60 there whenI arrived ; and I must- say that it (the colonization oi the country) was one of the greatest blessings that could befall the natives : the land was in abeyance between two tribes — The Waikatos conquer-ed the district about the Sugar Loaves, the Ngatiawas retreated to Queen Charlotte's Sound and various other places, — the strongest party has the possession." States' that there are immense districts of what he' should call waste land ; that" the mass of New Zealand is practically waste, and that in the' New Plymouth district, if certain presents- or compensation were made to a few individuals,the Crown might take upon them the whole of that district. There is nothing like continuous occupation or proprietary right in the land; which they cultivate in small patches; If they had one-tenth of the land, as proposed by the Company, it would be a very judicibns measure,, paying attention to the pas, but not to the occupation of the land, because they do not hold it three years together. After some evidence asrto the Crown granting positively the right to all lands within any particular district, and the es--timation in which the natives hold their pas — the witness states that no reserves were made for the natives in the Waitera district, that in con--sequence the natives have scattered along the banks of the river Waitera,. but the villages formed since the selection interfere so very little,, it is scarcely worth speaking of- The Government might easily have settled all the question* of title at a very small expense ; in the purchase of the New Plymouth district they would have had only to pay a certain sum to the Waikato chiefs, and a certain sum to a few inhabitants of New Plymouth, — but from the protraction of the

disputes as to the land claims, the expense of settlingthem now would be enorraous — Cannot positively say he knows any instances in which missionaries have endeavoured to persuade the natives to deny a sale of land, although he has heard it frequently. After some evidence as to the occupation of land by the natives, and the sale of the land by some of them, which in a general way they admitted for the land between the Sugar Loaves and the Waiongona river, he enters into a long account of the selection of rural lands, his correspondence with Capt. King, protector of aborigines in that district, the reasons why no native reserves were selected (" Capt. King not having put in the land for the natives on the day we drew for them,") and that great mischief ensued.— The witness is then examined at length about a disturbance with the natives, which occurred in July, 1 842,- at the Waitera, in which a demonstration of force was employed to settle the dispute, and censures the New Zealand Gazette, which, after describing the occurrence, " earnestly recommends to the Local Executive, in all parts of New Zealand, that, in order to suppress bad feeling between the two races, similar steps to those above recorded should be pursued by them on all occasions of difference between the white settlers and the natives;" — says this recommendation is the" most unfortunate thing that ever happened in New Zealand. Should be sorry to say that that statement and that example induced the Wairau affair ; but, at the same time, it appears to him from what he has read of that affair, as though they did. — The evidence in this part is contradictory, the witness affirming the statement in the Gazette to be incorrect, and afterwards admitting the facts to have occurred as there stated. Describes the valley of the Hutt as very fertile but not extensive. Knows the character of Nelson very well, it is very mountanous ; rather a barren country. The greatest distance that parties who bought rural laud in connection with town sections were obliged to go was to Wairau, distant about 50 miles by land, and 130 miles by water. Thinks no road can be got to it, as it is very hilly. — Enters into a long account of the different description of pas, and of the Waikato fight, in which, according to Barlett, from 1,000 to 1,500 were- killed, and a great many carried into captivity to Kafia, who, long after the alleged purchase by Col. Wakefield, came and put in their claim to the land. — The natives have come back because they get protection from the Europeans. The settlement of that country by Europeans is the greatest blessing that ever happened to it, as one tribe would have exterminated another. The witness is then cross-examined- at length as to his previous statements about Col. Wakefield's purchase of the land — Scutes the reason, he says, that Col. Wakefield had not made the purchase was, that he wrote this letter before he visited Ihe place. The date of the letter, and of the first deed, is the Bth November, and no European from the Tory visits Taranaki till the 27th November, nineteen days after the alleged purchase. " It states in the letter and in the Book (Col. Wakefield's Journal), that all the Kafia chiefs had signed the title-deed, but none of the gentlemen belonging to the expedition had seen the Kafia chiefs at that time, when they say they had all signed it. 'The Kafia chiefs have not seen the deed to this hour. The purchase was never completed to this hour, and Kafia never sold. No goods were given to Te Whero- Whero and the leading chiefs. None of the chiefs were paid at Taranaki till after January 1840.