LETTER FROM MR. MOREING TO SIR ROBERT INGLIS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 60, 29 November 1845, Page 3

LETTER FROM MR. MOREING TO SIR ROBERT INGLIS.

[From the New Zealand Journal, April 12.] 25 Wimpole Street, March 24, 1845. Sir — Having recently returned frona a residence of four years and a half in New Zealand, my attention was naturally attracted to somfl observations attributed to you in a late debate in the House of Commons, conve)ing some of the impressions which you have acquired as to the state of the aboriginal inhabitants of that country* I trust you will believe that I address you with no trivial object, when I state that before leaving England I was for nearly three yeari one of the Committee of the Society for the Protection of the Aborigines* I have never ceased to entertain those views in favour of the native races, whether in New Zealand or elsewhere} by the constant advocacy of which you have so honourably won the reputation of ihe warmest philanthropy. I am, indeed, urged to address you because I feel strongly how very important it is that so high-minded and influential an advocate of the interests of the native* should not be misled by inaccurate statements respecting them, and that your sympathy for their helplessness and your exertions for their welfare, should not bedirertedby this imperfect knowledge into a course eventually at variance with their leal good. The condition of the New Zealandershas now reached «o critical a stage, thatlha most delicate care and most considerate treatment, founded on a true knowledge of (he causes that have led to that condition, seem absolutely required for the ultimate benefit of these poor and weak sava^e*", and even for their preservation in the mean while. You have been led (I quote from the Times) to think " that the inhabitants of Zew Zealand are now preity much in the same state that the inh.ibitanrs of England were centuries ago;" and that " the lands of the people of New Zealand have descended to the possessors by means of an undisturbed succession during thirty generations. I can positively assure you that this notion of native traditions has not the slightest foundation. It is from beginning to end a mere imagination. "UnHil their recent intercourse with Europeans, - the New Zealanders were wholly unacqu tinted with the art of writing, aud even with all the other means of recording events which some savage races have possessed. I have rarely met with a New Zealander who could trace his own descent further back than his grandfather. The language of the New Zealanders contains no word for "ancestors :" to express this idea they use the word '• fathers" and "grandfathers" in a vague and indiscnminate manner. Almost all their terms of relationship are applied in the most confused way to living persons. There is no word in the native language Tor " cousin ;" and the terms " father," "son," "brother," and "sister," are commonly addressed to each other by individuals between whom there is but a distant and often undetermined relationship. Scarcely any historical traditions are to bo gathered from these people as to the actions or even the names of the grandfathers of those now living. The songs and le-* gends which they relate at this day, entirely consist of fabulous accounts of divinities and demi-gods, mingled with contradictory narratives of the landing of their progenitors in the country at some unknown time. But of the indefinite period between that event and those which,have occurred during the present century, not a shadow of tradition can be found. It is worthy of- remark, thai the utmost difficulty exists in tracing any recollection of the visits of Captain Cook to New Zealand, only seventy years ago, although so important an event as the.introduction of pigs and potatoes into the country by the English discoverer would seem dne likely to be handed down witli some degree of care by a people to whom it afforded a new means of sustaining life. It is an undoubted fact, that scarcely a New Zealander can tell you his own age. With respect to the " descent of land during thirty generations," the information which you have received is equally erroneous. Until Europeans sought to acquire a title to lands i.i New Zealaud, by means of conveyance from the natives, those natives were destitute of any idea of landed pioperty in our sense of the words. The purchase or sale of land by individuals was wholly unknown; and even the public property in land, such as the right of a whole tribe to live upon, and keep others off, a particular district, everywhere owes its origin to some recent forcible,inroad of the tribe now in existence, and, in a great number of cases (with respect, indeed, to a large proportion of the islands), lo the extermination of the previous occupants during the present century. If tradition did not wholly fail us after one or two generations, it would probably be known that the tribes recently exterminated had acquired their habitation by destroying their predecessors. The,cpntrarj' romance, which you have unfortunately been led to adopt, is a doctrine which has been strenuously maintained by those Europeans in New Zealand who have acquired the name of " land-sharks." They are a numerous class, who have obtained great estates by inducing natives to execute deeds of feoffmenr, preparedly lawyers at Sydnej, of which it was impossible for natives to understand the meaning. This class j which, it gives me pain to say in*eludes a large number of the missionaries — having obtained such assignments of land for p&yment^-so trifling as almost to be nominal, and conscious, therefore, of the insecure nature of their unreal title, have taken great pains to spread a belief in the doctrine in question. The maintenance of their own property, acquired in the manner described, depended on their success in impressing this romance upon the belief of. the Government at home* and of gentlemen ex-

erasing, like yourself, much influence upon public opinion in this country. Their success has been great. I observe from the New Zealand Government Gazette, that the extent of land claimed before the Court of Claim 3, on what is called a land-sharking title, amounts to many millions of acres; and that of thirty-two persons employed by the Church Missionary Society in N,ew Zealand in 1837, twenty-three claim 181, ] 333 acres. . Among theseclaimants I observe the name ot the gentleman on whose authority you spoke of "the descent of the lands of the people of New Zealand to the present possessors, by means of an undisturbed succession during thirty generations." Mentioning this gentlemen, you are reported to have said, that " every man in the House of Commous must regard Mr. George Clarke, the protector of the aborigines, as good authority. The amount of land for which Mr. Clarke appears as a claimant is 5,500 acre 3. As there is every reason to believe that he was a mechanic in this country until sent to N~ew Zealand as a missionary catechist, it is highly improbable that he should have had the means of making any but a very small payment for this large amount of land. He has been, therefore, in common with many others, deeply interested, for the preservation of his position in New Zealand as a great landed proprietor, deriving his title from the natives, irt representing them as being no less civilized than our own ancestors in the time of Alfred. On this account alone - Ms evidence should be received with caution. ■ - But I have now to lay before you a fact concerning Mr. Clarke, which I will only characterize by saying that its effect upon me has been to make me regard any representation of his with great suspicion. In August, 1841, a formal conference took place between Captain Hobson, the Governor of New Zealand, and the native inhabitants of a pa called Te Aro, in the Town of Wellington, who denied having sold their land when Colonel Wakefield, as principal agent of the New Zealand Company, effected a general purchase of the district from Warepori and the other head chiefs in 1839. The object of the conference was to hear the •reasons of the natives for this denial, and to endeavour to arrange the affair equitably by awarding them some further payment. His Excellency was accompanied by a considerable number of the mos>t respectable of the settlers; and Colonel Wakefield attended the conference as principal agent of the New Zealand Company. Mr. Clarke acted officially as interpreter between the Governor and the natives. A paper, bearing writing in the New Zealand language, was handed to his Excellency by one of the natives. Mr. Cliirke proceeded to render the contents into English. After translating a few words, he stopped short, hesitated, appeared as though he was much shocked at something, and held the paper at arms-length, while his countenance assumed a serious and reproachful look. Upon being pressed by the Governor to state what he meant, Mr Clarke said, with a gesture which implied reluctauce to speak out, that a certain payment by Colonel Wakefield was described in the document as having been made by him, not to the natives as a payment for land, but to " a woman who had visited him on board the Tory" I must explain that the Tory is the name of the ship which carried out the New Zealand Company s first expedition in 1839. A gentleman present who had formed one of that expedition, and who had vow acquired a considerable knowledge of the native language, took the document from Mr. Clarke. After reading it through, he declared that Mr. Clarke's translation was utterly erroneous. He said that the word " woman" was not in the document, which really described the payment as having been presented by Warepori, the head chief of that district, to his own sister. Mr. Clarke attempted to defend his invention. A discussion took place, Some of the natives present, when appealed tn, contradicted Mr. Clarke's assertions as to the correctness of Irs interpretation. The woman in question was produced. Itis remarkable that she wai old, wrinkled, and filthy inher person and dress Most of the spectators laughed when she appeared ; and many of them immediately recognized her as Warepori's sister, who was really mentioned in the document. Mr. Clarke was at length reduced to defend himself by stating, that his interpretation was correct according to the dialect of the northern part of the island. Wishing to ascertain whether this last statement was correct, I went to a house close by, and brought back with me a man named John Brooks, who had lived ten years among the natives in the northern as well as the southern part of the country, and who was known as a perfectly competent and honest interpreter. This man, without the least hesitation, entirely dissented from Mr. Clarke's interpretation. A pause ensued. Governor Hobson appeared shocked at Mr. Clarke's attempt to fix upon Colonel Wakefield a charge of immorality utterly false, and suddenly broke up the meeting in confusion. I have said that there were many witnesses of this strange scene. I believe that two or three of them, besides myself, are now in England. I have the honour to be, tir, Your obedient humble servant, 11. Mousing. To Sir R. H. Inglis, Bart., M. P., &c.