SUMMARY OF MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE ON NEW ZEALAND. (Continued from No. 47.)

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 48, 6 September 1845, Page 4

SUMMARY OF MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE ON NEW ZEALAND. (Continued from No. 47.)

Mr. G. B. Earp — Further examined, as to the trade between the natives and Europeans. In the neighbourhood of Wellington the natives were the market-gardeners and fishermen of the district. They are clever in their dealings, and it would be difficult for a European to get the better in a bargain with a native. In the native trade with the settlement, they are paid mostly by barter with an intermediate person ; a man whose employment it is to go to the different trading stations ; he purchases his goods at Wellington, for instance, and then he goes to the coast, to the different stations, and obtains goods from the natives in return for them ; for a long time after the settlement was formed, the natives have said that on the coast it was the custom to place a large quantity of potatoes in baskets alongside of each other, to the extent of Inahy hundred baskets, the European trader would place a stick of tobacco and a farthing on eftch, and the natives were satisfied. The natives do not acquire wealth for the purpose of retaining it ; they are fond of acquiring it for certain purposes — one purpose is, to invite a distant tribe, who will come down, and they will without hesitation, present to this tribe their whole earnings for three months before ; and wheu you ask them the reason for impoverishing themselves in that way, they immediately say, that it is because this tribe may think that we are great people in being connected with you ; it is done from a feeling of vanity. There is a man in Wellington, a native, known by the name of Richard Davis ; this man, as it were intuitively, when^the people first came there, thought that* frfethetway of vegetables it Should be very advantageous to any one becoming a broker between the^natives and the settlers. The natives found out that he was getting a profit, and they stopped his brokering. Upon that he turned a regular pedlar, and a very clever one he was. He got a lot of men, slaves and others, and sent them to tribes in the interior and elsewhere, who had not as yet had communication with Port Nicholson ; they took goods and brought back pigs. This man acquired considerable wealth ; he had £300 in the Bank. Since that he has built part of a schooner, which must have cost him several hundred pounds. That man rode^a horse for which he gave £80. He was an exceedingly well conducted person, and was sent from the Bay of Islands as a catechist by the missionaries. He has also combined that office with the one of getting money ; he is a most indefatigable -money getter, .and also a catechist. During the time the witness was at Wellington, he has known of only two instances of natives addicted to spirits. Warepori one of their principal chiefs, and Rangiaieta. In answer to a question from Mr. Aglionby, as to the capability of the natives to appreciate the great additional advantage arising from colonization on a large scale, he states, that the native at first was satisfied for great numbers to come there, upon being told that a tenth of the land he had sold should be reserved to him. When this was fully explained to him, he comprehended it.; but he found that the thing went on year after year, and he obtained no land, and his impression was — " It is merely a ruse to get from me the land, and I shall get none ; when the whole of the Europeans come and occupy it, I shall be turned off." They rather feared the introduction of the Europeans than appreciated the advantages. After some further evidence on this head, the witness states, the assertion may appear strange, considering what are the •ideas in .England of the savage habits of the New Zealander, that of all men he is the most pacific. During the whole time he (Mr. E.) was in New Zealand, he never heard of a quarrel between natives — between men or their wives or children ; never saw a native beat a child. He then gives evidence as to the effect of Mr. Clarke's letter on the natives in preventing them from giving up the land. The letter was written in September or October 1841 — and the understanding of the natives was, that it was a command not to go off the land ; that the Government would protect them in staying upon the land. The letter purported to come from the Governor* He then describes the title of the natives to the Port Nicholson district. Considers the additional payment of Te Whero-Whero by the Government for the lands at New Plymouth as the sole cause of raising a whole host of indefinite r'ghts to the land by the natives. Te WheroWhero was the most powerful of the Waikatos. He invaded the district of Taranaki and destroyed a great number of the natives, but was himself eventually compelled to retire. He preferred a claim to this land to the Governor on account of the right of conquest, he not occupying the land he had^onquered. The mode of conquest was one of the usual summer excursions of the powerful tribes. They used to

make a practice every summer of making excursions, and destroying some of the weaker tribes, destroying life, and carrying away slaves; the state of society at that time among them being not dissimilar to the Highlanders at a remote period, a summer raid, in fact. Considers Captain Hobson's policy in paying man extremely injudicious, and as a consequence of it, not only similar demands were made upon him, but demands also on the Company. Believes Captain Hobson was influenced by the best motives in settling the claims of this savage ; and without looking to future consequences, his idea was, if he suffered the land to be taken from him without compensation, the thing would be brought forward in England by the Aborigines Protection Society, of which he had most undue fear, and that he should get himself into a mess with the Government. The inordinate fear of that Society led him into things that he would not otherwise have done ; it was by that circumstance alone that Mr. Clarke acquired his undue influence over him ; he was the lay agent of the Church Missionary Society, and knew how to takt advantage of his position : the Governor was a religious man himself, and Clarke knew the Governor's fears of the Society in England, and worked upon them. Considers the policy of the Government with regard to the natives in that instance as altogether wrong. The natives ought to have been treated by the Government as they were by the first settlers; treated kindly but firmly, not given, as they have been , inordinate ideas of their own power. That treaty of Waitangi was fatal to the future acts of the Government. Had Captain Hobson, when first he came there, taken, as he might have done without opposition, the sovereignty of the island, and then given to the natives whatever his own sense of justice prompted, both for the laud, and with regard to the future settlement of their own villages and locations, nothing ol this kind would have arisen. It was the opinion of the settlers in Cook's Straits, that the object of Government was to keep back their settlement as much as possible, by involving them, in quarrels with the natives, and thus prevent its going ahead of the Government settlement. That petty rivalry which has existed has been productive of the very worst consequences in New Zealand. It has prevented that co-operation which would otherwise have taken place, and has given to the neighbouring colonies an idea of the instability of the New Zealand settlements^ as soon as these things are set at rest, numbers will flock to New Zealand from the neighbouring colonies, to an extent beyond what -can be at "present imagined. The witness then describes Captain Hobson's attempt to negociate with the natives of the pa Te-aro for the evacuation of the pa. He went accompanied by a number of settlers and the Protector of Aborigines, Mr. Clarke, sen. Two or three of the gentlemen who were there said that Mr. Clarke told the .natives not to go, and the proceedings were stopped in consequence. Mr. Clarke denied that he had told them not to go. These gentlemen asserted that he had told them so. Mr. Brooks, the interpreter, also declared that his language bore that construction. In a subsequent conversation with a native of that pa with the witness, he (the native) said they wanted a thousand pounds as payment for the pa^ and in answer to the question of who gave him any idea of a thousand pounds? replied Karake, (that is Clarke). The witness then describes the disputes arising out of Rangihaieta's claim to the Porirua district and the Wairau plains, and describes the nurn>er and extent of the pas in the town of Wellington. He gives an account of Captain Hobson's taking away some of the labouring emigrants at Wellington, and alludes to the introduction of the Parkhurst boys at Auckland by the Government. In giving an idea to the Committee of the relative values of Wellington and Auckland, he states, it has usually been the habit of different settlers to run down the places ; the Auckland man says " your land is hilly ;" the Wellington man says, "your land is barren ;" but that it is the mere expression of party feeling. He should decidedly give the preference to Wellington as most eligible in position, and also in point of adaption for agriculture. The good land at Auckland is not so abundant as in the Wellington district. Knows of no places at Auckland like the valleys of the Hutt or Porirua. The valley of the Wairarapa, according to all the accounts of those who have explored it, is of great extent. The number of small valleys in the neighbourhood ot Wellington, independent of the valley of the Hutt, is very great ; those valleys are very fertile and generally easily accessible. The Manawatu district is very good land, adapted for sheep and for cultivation for corn, and is of considerable extent. The land at Wanganui is very fertile : indeed fertility is the characteristic of New Zealand. Fern land is often called bad land ; but it is, in fact, among the most valuable land in the colony, or may be made so. The fern is in some cases of very great growth. Fern land requires to be fallow for some time. The plant is of a similar kind to the fern in England, is succu-

lent and easily cut. Iffhere were scarcely any potato grounds within the town of Wellington, they were upon the hills in the vicinity. They are placed upon the summits of the hills, or upon a declevity formed by two hills. Mentions this to show the preference the natives give to hilly grounds, notwithstanding the greater facility of clearing flat ground. States that the soil and climate of New Zealand are admirably fitted "fer the grow&- of tobacco. After some general evidence as to the capabilities of the southern island and Stewart's island for colonization, describes some of the harbours of the northern island, particularly the harbour of Port Nicholson. Considers these seas fitted for steam navigation, but has great doubt as to steam navigation paying individuals attempting it without the aid of Government. A steamer available for the purpose of navigating the coast would be of great use to Government, and Captain Fitzioyhad expressed himself as most anxious for a steamer. A vessel fitted for the purposes of Government, not with paddies, but with a screw, and adapted to sailing also, so as to use her steam only when obliged, would not create any very great additional expense. Would say in round numbers that it would be about £3,000 a year. Thinks that sum, after the purchase of the vessel, would be amply sufficient for keeping it up, provided the vessel were built for sailing and steaming too. A vessel built for steaming and sailing, if a new vessel, of about 250 tons, would cost to a mercantile man from £6,000 to £7,000. That would be allowing £2,500 for the vessel itself, and £4,500 for the steamengine ; but does not mean as the Government steamers are made, with copper boilers. The Company had put aside £20,000 for establishing steam-navigation ; but it was for encouraging steam-navigation, not for dealing in it themselves. A smallei military force would be sufficient for the protection- of^ the island than would otherwise be required, if Government had the facility of moving&it about by means of a steamer ; and the saving in respect of that military force would be a set-off against the expense of maintaining the steamer. Considers it essential that the vessel should be on the screw principle, for this reason, that in the vicinity of New Zealand we have heavy seas ; and if a vessel were fitted with paddle-boxes she would be bad for sailing alone ; there would be danger of her paddle-boxes being carried away ; it would also be essential, as the vessel would not steam with a fair wind. It would be advantageous even in point of money to have such a steamer, for this reason, the natives have a much greater dread of an English man-of-war than they have of troops ; they do not care for troops, but they hatre felt the power of a British man-of-war. Some time ago the Alligator went down and blew up one of their pas ; they have never forgotten it ; and if a vessel -of the kind I have spoken of could be thrown suddenly upon any point of the coast, and the natives felt certain that it could be so at any given time, it would do more to suppress any disturbances than troops would do. Considers, that, under certain circumstances, from the pecular nature of the country, a thousand New Zealanders as good as a thousand of the best troops in our own army. If the natives had to contend with troops in the open plain, they would, of course, be annihilated directly; but if the contest was in a forest, the New Zealander is quite a match for the soldier. The New Zealander carries his commissariat on his back, and when that is gone, he has always one under his feet, he can live upon the fern root ; of course it is not so nutritious as the potato, but it is nutritious and not unpalatable. Considers that if half-a-dozen rockets were thrown into a pa, the thing would be blown up in a moment, from the gunpowder of the natives being stored in the pas ; but a mere attack with the musket and bayonet would be difficult from the nature of the stockades ; the fortified pas are strongly entrenched ; they also build up a tower in the stockade, and they would fire from it as from loopholes. The witness is then examined as to the best mode of colonizing New Zealand. What New Zealand in his opinion requires, is chiefly capital, as the labourers are already there in the persons of the natives, as well as the Europeans. Should advise the colonization of the country to be carried out rather by private individuals, or by companies, than the Government, and is firmly persuaded that the preservation of the balance between the labour and capital is of all things the most important to the welfare of the colony, and colonization generally. Considers that a severe control and supervision should be exercised by the Government, and describes at some length his plan of conveying passengers to New Zealand on the chief cabin principle ; saving the money of the passengers till they got to the colony, and not wasting it in superfluities on board ship. (To be continued.)