GOVERNOR GREY'S DESPATCH.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 402, 9 June 1849, Page 3

GOVERNOR GREY'S DESPATCH.

[From the Times, Dec. 21.] A despatch has been lately received in Downing-street from the Governor of New Zealand, datel "Auckland, May 15, 1848," which will be read with interest by all who are solicitous for the fortunes of our youngest colony, and who augured from its early troubles a premature decline or a tedious struggle. It suggests, however, matter for earnest deliberation. It is now little more than sixteen years since a British resident was first despatched to New Zealand. He was accredited as the representative of a friendly power to guard the interests of English traders in the Pacific, and to throw the pretext, if Hot the re-.

laity, of an English alliance over the defenceless tribes who claimed our friendship. His functions were conGned to the assurances of sympathy and the guarantee of protection. He was without any authority except such as the reflected greatness of his country lent him. He was without support except that which llie semi-savage notions of British power and the occasional presence of a British frigate afforded. He claimed from the country of his residence the usual rights and privileges of consular office. Two years had scarcely elapsed when in the name of his sovereign he presented the fragmentary powers which constitute the body of New Zealand chiefs with a a national flag, and saluted it from the decks of her Majesty's ship Alligator. A few years elapse. We find a body of Englishmen occupying a portion of one of the islands ; this body grows greater and greater, bolder and 'bolder; designsof aggrandizement are avowed by the colonists, and repudiated by the Government ; one Consul is superseded by another, and fiually the Consul rises into a Governor. As if conscious of the difficulties which clouded the clearness of its title to possession, the British Government instructs .the Viceroy of New Zealand to exercise the most scrupulous and hesitating caution in receiving any cession of lands from the natives. " They are not to be permitted" — thus wrote Lord Normanby — " to enter into any contracts in which they might be the ignorant and unintentional authors of injuries to themselves. You will not, for example, purchase from them any territory, the retention of which Avould be essential or highly conducive to their own comfort, safety, or subsistence." This was the gist of every despatch, the spirit of the whole policy adopted towards the colony. It breathed at the same time the love of justice, the desire of •power, and the wish to reconcile the two. But when did a despatch from Downing-street control the acts of subjects of 19,000 miles off? or when did Parliamentary philanthropy check injustice at the antipodes ? Accident had begotten enterprise ; enterprise fostered speculation ; speculation degenerated intolandjobbing, and this jobbing was complicated with every sort of wrong that cunning could devise or violence inflict. It was necessary to unravel the twisted yarn of complex titles and antagonist claims. A resort to first principles was sought, and in the treaty of Waitangi it was found. Captain Hobson staited with the most comprehensive credentials. He was Governor "of all territory which was, or might be, acquired by her Majesty within that group of islands commonly called New Zealand." His authority was elastic, expansive, co-extensive with theftuits of each daily negotiation^ But each separate treaty was based upon, and each new cession was regulated by, the principle which we have enunciated above. Whatever doubt, difficulty, or injustice hung over the first act of occupation, was as far as possible corrected by this re- lease of tenure. The treaty of Waitangi and others in succession ceded the sovereignty of the northern island to the British Crown, and secured to the Crown the right of pre-emption in those lands which the chiefs might wish to alienate. The Queen became paramount of the soil; but the proprieias remained with the chiefs. It was optional for them to sell or dispose of their property. In the language of the treaty, they were guaranteed "the full, exclusive, and undisturbed possession of their lands and estates, forests, and fisheries." " But,'' the clause proceeds, " the chiefs of the united tribes and the individual chiefs yield to her Majesty the exclusive right of pre-emption over such lands as the proprietors may be disposed to alienate, at such prices as may be agreed upon between the respective proprietors and persons appointed by her Majesty to treat with them on that behalf." Now, for all practical purposes, the treaty of Waitangi is the title by which the Crown of Great Britain holds the sovereignty of New Zealand. There is no occasion to enter into the question of title by conquest, or title by discovery. Here is a contract entered into between the English sovereign and a confederacy of chiefs, which pre-supposes equal powers of self-agency on either side, and which i ebuts the notion of any previous suzerainty on the part of one over the other. The treaty, then, possesses all the elements which jurists have pronounced necessary to establish its validity, viz , "un pouvoir suffisant dans les parties contraetantes et leur consentiment mutuel suffisament declare." The terms ol this contract, then, must in equity determine and adju*i all negotiations between the Governor and the native chiefs of New Zealand in regard to the transfer of land. An infringement of the-n by either party \itiates what is properly a continuing bargain, and, in equity of nations gives to the injured one the right of-self-vindication. \ -Now, we uke the present state of things to be tttis : — The natives (whom it is an abuse ofiinguagfe to call savages) are 'keen-witted \

enough to perceive the benefits of British sovereignty. It has put attend to their feuds, their wars, and their cannibalism. It has taught them the blessings of peace, of commerce, and of civilisation. It has peopled the barren solitude with hamlets and towns. It has broken the ruggeduess of the untilled earth, and called forth plenty where once frowned a wilderness. It has also taught them the value of properly. The acres which they once gladly yielded for a se' of beads, a gaudy waisstcoat, or a rifle, have now a higher value in their eyes. They observe that ihey are wealth and the means of wealth. They have thus learned to haggle for a price. And it is this notion of property which is likely to create difficulty between the Government and the natives. It is impossible to withhold from Governor Grey the praise due for having carried out the very letter of the treaty of Waitangi. He resumed for the Crown the right of pre-emp-tion in spile of opposition, remonstrance, and war. He had many enemies more difficult than the natives to deal with, — jobbers, sentimentalists, aud enthusiasts; men with a ten-shilling-an-acre and men with a penny-an-acre title. Bet he stuck to his text; for on that rested the very basis of his own authority. So far he was quite right. The only thing we fear is that he may push his right to a wrong. In his despatch he says, that the chiefs "will cheerfully recognize the Crown's right of pre-emption, and that they will in nearly all instances dispose for a merely nominal consideration of those lands which they do not actually require for their own subsistence. Even further than this — in many cases, if her Majesty requires land for the purpose of immediately placing settlers upon it, the native chiefs would cheerfully give up such lands to the Government without any payment, if the com.} Ihnent is only paid them of requesting their acquiesence in the occupation of the lands by European setters ." This we believe to be far too sanguine a view of the case to be acted upon. Great as may be the prospective advantages of an European settlement in a semi-civilized community, they are not of a kind to be appreciated by the natives. These, while they shui their eyes to distant and speculative, are keenly alive to present and tangible considerations, they are not likely to give up their property without an equivalent, unless they are forced to do so ; and to force them would be to violate the essential condition of the treaty of Waitangi. Again, the Governor writes in what seems to us too light a way of large tracts of waste land "claimed by contending tribes, to which neither of them have a strictly valid right." Now, we do not for one instant suspect Governor Grey of any design to " extinguish" these invalid claims by any arbiirary act of his own. We only fear that language of this nature may be adopted by governors and colonists less scrupulous than himself. Let him and them remember that the possession and sovereignty of New Zealand rest upon the foundation of a solemn compact : and that the soundest construction of its terms is that which is most favourable to the weaker party. If there is to be a purchase n.ade by Europeans from natives, let it be an honest, bona fide purchase, for consideration. But, for the honour of civilisation and law, let not a powerful empire condescend to cheat the savages whom she has scorned to coerce. In conclusion, we would recall to the minds of the Governor and his Council a suggestion contained in a despatch of Earl Grey, written some months ago, in which his lordship recommends that the natives should be paid for their lands by a rent charge rather than by a sum of money. This method has the advantages which a permanent profit has over a transitory benefit, where the recipients ar- too ignorant to invest, and too untrained to hoard, wealth.