Copy of a Despatch from Governor Grey to Earl Grey. Government House, Auckland, April 7th, 1847.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 283, 15 April 1848, Page 3

Copy of a Despatch from Governor Grey to Earl Grey. Government House, Auckland, April 7th, 1847.

My Lord, — In my despatch No. 28, of the 26th ultimo, I reported the arrangements I had concluded for the settlement of the land

I questions in the districts of Porirua, and in the Middle Island. I did not, until this morning, receive the accompanying letter on this subject, which was addressed by the New Zealand Company's Principal Agent to the Superintendent of the Southern District, upon the 25th ultimo :—: — In his letter, a copy of which is enclosed, the New Zealand Company's Agent states as follows, in reference to the Porirua district : — " The land offered to the New Zealand Company in the Porirua district, in exchange for sixteen sections that have been surveyed, and selected by purchasers from the Company and which have been the subject of numerous contracts and engagements, are now reserved for the natives, is not known to contain any merits, either of quality or position, to render the choice of it available for the purpose of effecting an exchange for that kept for the natives ; and if the owners of the sections so retained should, as I cannot but consider probable, decline to accept such an exchange when proposed to them, the Company would be paying largely for but a partial settlement at this day of a question that has been for years in abeyance ; and contemplating this, I stated to his Excellency, in the conversation in which he verbally acqainted me with this arrangement, that I should protest against the award of Mr. Spain, on which 1 presume the Government have proceeded, so as to relieve the Company from responsibility to the owners of the sections which the Crown had thus, by its own act, taken out of their possession." Upon the foregoing paragraph I have to remark, that I do not think that ihe Crown could admit that this question was in what may be termed abeyance. The Company ori- ' ginally claimed to have purchased the Porirua district, and proceeded to dispose of it to Europeans. In taking this step, I have no doubt that they considered their title a good one, and from what I have seen of the manuer in which the natives in the South oi New Zealand dispose of their land, and of the characters of some of the natives in that particular district, I must frankly confess that I should doubt the sincerity and fair dealing of the majority of the Ngatitoa tribe in any question of the kind. But her Majesty's Government sent out from England a Commissioner to inquire into these titles to land. The natives of the Polirua district, who were almost entirely unacquainted with our customs, submitted to the Queeu's authority, by appearing before her Commissioner, to support their claim to the district, and this Commissioner made two decisions in this case :—: — lstly. To the following effect, — "And therefore I, William Spain, her Majesty's Commissioner for investigating and determining titles and claims to land in New Zealand, do hereby determine and avtard that the New Zealand Compauy is not entitled to a Crown grant of any land in the district of Porirua," 2ndly. The Commissioner determined that the country on the North Island, from Wai Nui to Porirua, inclusive of both places, was in the real and bond fide possession of the Ngatitoa tribe. These decisions had both been communicated to my predecessor, who appears to have acquiesced in them, and the natives have, up to the present time, remained in undisturbed possession of the land. It is, therefore, I think, clear that the Crown will, by ray act, put the Company's purchasers in possession of lands, and not take lands out of their possession as stated by the Company's Agent. Under the circumstances above stated, I felt that I could not, as Governor, either legally or properly interfere with the decision of a properly qualified Court, which decisions had been communicated to the authorities, and were recognized long previously to my arrival in the country. Indeed, this was one of the very claims upon which my predecessor reported to Lord Stanley that it could not "be fully occupied by the settlers under the existing circumstances of the colony until very large additional payments have been made, with great care, much time, and an amount of difficulties that few will encounter." In reference to the details of the purchase of the Porirua district now objected to, I will only remark on two other points. lstly. The amount paid as purchase money. 2ndly. The extent of land acquired. Upon the first of these subjects, I beg to state, that Lieut.-Colonel M'Cleverty was sent out by her Majesty's Government, partly to judge of the reasonableness of the terms of any purchase which the Company might make from the natives with reference to the Company's right to reimbursement in land in respect of monies paid for such purchase. I therefore took his opinion upon this point, as I thought I ought to do, and he stated that he considered the natives entitled to the sum of £2000, for the land they were about to surrender in the Porirua district. I, upon reflection, saw no' reason to differ from

this opinion, and therefore agreed to pay that amount. Upon the second point, viz., the extent of territory acquired, I beg to offer the following remarks: — The Company (as nearly as I can ascertain) claimed, in the Porirua district,. 270 sections of land, a great number of which had been sold to Europeans. Under the arrangement I have made, I secured for the Company all these sections, with the exception of about 16. These 16 sections the Company are still at liberty to purchase from the natives if the natives will dispose of them to the Company, which I doubt, as they would not sell them to the Government. In addition, however, to the surveyed land now purchased by the Government, there is a large tract of unsurveyed land, from which the Company are free to select any portions they think proper. I thought, therefore, that I had concluded a most advantageous arrangement for her Majesty's European subjects ; I can, at least, say it was the best 1 could make. In reference to the remarks which the New Zealand Company's Agent has made in the enclosed letter, on that portion of the arrangement which relates to the amount to be paid for the district of Wairau, viz., "leannot but remind his Excellency that the Company's claim to the whole district has never even been investigated, as the late Commissioner of Claims, Mr. Spain, has publicly admitted in his official capacity, and respectfully, but earnestly submit, that the payment of this sum, not to resident natives in actual enjoyment of the land, but to the very men who savagely murdered our countrymen at Wairau, now nearly four years ago, is tantamount to a declaration of the invalidity of that claim, without investigating it, and therefore a justification of the perpetrators of that dreadful tragedy." I beg to remark, firstly, in reference to the unfortunate fate of those who fell at Wairau, that I do not think any act of mine would justify the New Zealand Company's Agent in putting such an interpretation upon the arrangement I have made, as he has thought proper to do, and I much regret that he should have done so. Secondly. I must also differ on auother point from the New Zealand Company's Agent, for I distinctly understood Mr. Commissioner Spain as reporting that he had investigated the New Zealand Company's claim to the Wairau district ; his language in the report on this claim to land in the Middle Island is, — "I am compelled to state that I am not prepared to recommend that the district of Wairau be included in the Crown grant to be made to the New Zealand Company in the Middle Island. "I am aware of the peculiar and very delicate nature of deciding on this question, involving, as it necessarily must do, a reference to the melancholy occurrence connected with it, which has caused this subject to assume so painfully prominent a position in the eyes of the British Government, — I may add, in the eyes of the British public, — nevertheless I have come to the decision expressed above, after much and careful deliberation, after a consideration of the evidence which has been given on the whole case, and which I cannot but declare has failed to prove in any way that the district in question was ever alienated to the Company by the parties from whom that body asserts, through its agent, that it has been purchased ; and I entertain no apprehension that a candid and impartial perusal of the evidence will ever lead to any other conclusion." Subsequently to this decision, and in the same report, Mr. Commissioner Spain states : — " The various districts, then, in the real and bond fide possession of the Ngatitoa tribe, are on the North Island from Wainni to Po--rirua, inclusive of both places ; on the Middle Island, in Cloudy Bay, comprising the Wairau, and a part of Queen Charlotte's Sound; -and, in the Straits, the Islands of Mana and Kapiti, and in each and all of these places has the tribe both residences and cultivated lands." These decisions I understood to have been received and adopted by the local Government nearly eight months previous to my arrival in the colony. I did not, therefore, think that I could legally or with propriety question them: and this not only on account of the bad impression my doing so .would have produced on the Ngatitoa tribe, but up- : on the numerous uative population throughout the whole islands who, had I adopted such a course, must have lost all confidence in the decisions of our courts. Moreover, the extent of land now purchased by the Government, in the Middle Island, is so large that, in reference to its quantity and value, the payment made for it cannot but be regarded as small, and the proportionate amount to be re- . funded by the New Zealand Company, if the Government should iequire them to defray some portion of the expense of this purchase, cannot amount to any important sum : how-

ever, I have again to repeat in this instance, that I spared myself neither anxiety, exertion, nor care, to make the best arrangement I could. I have yet to beg your lordship's attention to the following general remarks upon the subject of the settlement of these land questions. I was not required to undertake this duty ; a Commissioner was sent out from England to perform it for me ; but the Lieut.General commanding in New South Wales thought proper to deprive me of the services of that officer. After I had been for more than fifteen months in the colony, I found that the Agent of the New Zealand Company was making no effort to acquire the tracts of land required by the Company to fulfil their engagements ; and, as great distress from the non-settlement of their land claims existed among the settlers, and as it was impossible for the country to settle down into a thoroughly tranquil state until these questions were definitely arranged, and her Majesty's Government had so repeatedly urged upon myself and my predecessor the necessity of a prompt adjustment of them, I felt it to be my duty, although I would most gladly have avoided engaging in so difficult and ungracious a task, to make the most advantageous settlement of these questions which I could effect. I should also observe that the position I understand to be adopted by the New Zealand Company's Agent, that if tracts of land are not in actual occupation and cultivation by natives, that we have, therefore, a right to take possession of them, appears to me to require one important limitation. The natives do not support themselves solely by cultivation, but from fern-root, — from fishing, — from eel ponds, — from taking ducks, — from hunting wild pigs, for which they require extensive runs, and by such like pursuits. To deprive them of their wild lands, and to limit them to lands for the purpose of cultivation, is in fact, to cut off from them some of their most important means of subsistence, and they cannot be readily and abruptly forced into becoming a solely agricultural people. Such an attempt would be unjust, and it must for the present, fail, because the natives would not submit to it ; indeed they could not do so, for they are not yet, to a sufficient extent, provided even with the most simple agricultural implements ; nor have they been instructed in the use of these. To attempt to force suddenly such a system upon them must plunge the country again into distress and war ; and there seems to be no sufficient reason why such an attempt should be made, as the natives are now generally very willing to sell to the Government their waste lands at a price, which, while it bears no proportion to the amount for which the Government can resell the land, affords the natives (if paid under a judicious system) the means of rendering their position permanently far more comfortable than it was previously, when they had the use of their waste lands, and thus render them a useful and contented class of citizens, and one which will yearly become more attached to the Government. I am satisfied, that to have taken the waste lands I have now purchased by any other means than those I have adopted, would once more have plunged the country into an expensive war, which, from its supposed injustice, would have roused the sympathies of a large portion of the native population against the British Government, and would thus probably have retarded for many years the settlement and civilization of the country. The enclosed copy of a letter which I addressed to the Superintendent of the Southern Division contains the reply which I have directed to be returned to the Agent of the New Zealand Company, which is in substance this, — that I have no wish that the New Zealand Company's Agent should acquiesce in the arrangement which 1 have made until the matter is referred home ; that he can either proceed at once to select lands in the districts alluded to, or refrain from so doing as he thinks proper ; and that in either case every assistance shall be afforded by the local Government to the Company's settlers. I have also promised to bring under your lordship's notice the proposition of Colonel Wakefield, that the New Zealand Company should be permitted to pay in land for any sections which they may select in either the Porirua or Wairau districts ; and that I would at the same time recommend that this arrangement, to which I see no objection, should be adopted, if the Company wish it. I have, &c, (Signed) G. Grey. The Right Hon. Earl Grey, &c, &c.