SIR GEORGE GREY’S PETITION ON THE COLONIAL LAND FUND.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4258, 12 November 1874, Page 3

SIR GEORGE GREY’S PETITION ON THE COLONIAL LAND FUND.

(To the Editor of the Herald.) Sir, —I herewith forward for public information the copy of a petition received by mo this day from Sir George Grey, K.C.8., and request that you will give it insertion in your paper.—l am, &c., J. Williamson, Superintendent. Superintendent's Office, Auckland, November 5,1874. To his Honor the Superintendent of the Province of . Auckland. The humble petition of Sir George Grey, of the Island of Kawau, in the said province, respectfully sheweth— . That your petitioner recently received a newspaper, the Lyttelton Times, of the 11th of September last, from which he became acquainted with the nature and origin of the so-called Compact of ISSO, which took from the inhabitants of the province of Auckland in great part their rights In the revenues arising from the waste lands of the Crown in New Zealand, and that your petitioner represents thereon and prays as follows: — That in the year 1816 the British Parliament placed in the hands of the Governor of this colony, and under his sole control, a sum of ton thousand poundsof British money, to be employed by him in the extinguishment of the native title and rights over lands in such districts as were, in his judgment, suitable for the purposes of settlement, and as he might be able to obtain from the natives with their free consent. The land so acquired was to be brought into the market as the Governor might judge expedient. That it was foreseen that the property so acquired would become, as the country was settled, of great value, and would afford the means of extinguishing from year to year the native title over new districts of country'. The Governor was therefore further instructed that after applying the profits of the sale of lands ia districts over which he might have extinguished the native title, to the purposes of immigration and public works, to which alone under the terms of the Australian Waste Lands Act, at that time in force, the profits arising from the sale of waste lands of the Crown could be applied, he was to deduct from the gross proceeds of such sales the original sum of 1 ten thousand pounds, and apply such sum of ten thousand pounds in the purchase of new districts, and that he was to continue from time to time to repeat the same operation so long as lands remained over which the native title could be extinguished. That by these means, and under this {system, the native title was, in the course of several years, extinguished over large tracts of territory in the Middle Island, and in parts of the Northern Island of New Zealand, which for years past have been, and the un-‘ sold portions of which still are, of great value. That such lands were acquired by or through British money, and were the property of the entire British people. That the lands so purchased were, from the sparseness of the native population in their vicinity, those which could be most easily obtained, and which from the same cause, as also for their fertility and the facilities which the nature of the country afforded for internal communication, and the depasturing of sheep and cattle, could be easily colonised, and were likely rapidly to increase in population and augment in value, thereby affording a promise of a future large land revenue, being made available for all parts of New Zealand, which would constantly afford the means of extinguishing the native title over new dU tricts in other portions of these’islancls. That in the year 1852 Parliament granted a Representative Constitution to New Zealand, consisting — to follow the order of the Act conferring the said Constitution upon New Zealand—of Provincial Governments and a General Assembly, the latter body consisting of three estates—a Governor, a Legislative Council, and a House of Representatives. The ■powers of these several bodies, which jointly composed the Representative Constitution, were carefully defined and limited by the Act of Parliament—they were all the creatures of that Act, and had no powers but such as they derived from it. The inhabitants of New Zealand were in the most complete and thorough manner represented in every branch of the Provincial Governments. They were only imperfectly represented in the General Assembly, two estates out of three of that Assembly being nominated by the Crown, the third estate being also necessarily, from various causes, greatly under the influence of those who exercised the powers of the Crown. - That in the New Zealand Representative Constitution Act of 1852 the most careful precautions were adopted to preserve and to extend and perpetuate that system for the extinguishment of the native title over lands, and the due application of the proceeds from the sale of lands so acquired, which had been laid down and adopted in 1845, and had been acted upon up to 1854. That for this purpose all the extensive tracts of land, which had been acquired in New Zealand under that system, as well as those which might subsequently be so acquired, were under the said Act retained as the property of the British nation, and were vested In the Crown (as it is believed they are to the present time), and were described to be the Waste Lands of the Crown in New Zealand. That valuable general rights in such lands were secured to those subjects of Her Majesty, of whatever race, who might be in New Zealand in 1852, or who for all time might resort there. So carefully was this subject attended to, that even the annual revenues arising from the waste lands of the Crown throughout New Zealand were subjected to the same rule, and in the despatch which enclosed the New Zealand Representative Constitution Act to the Governor,'he was instructed that by that Act the appropriation of the surplus revenues was in the first place entrusted to the General Assembly, because they would thus be more efficiently administered, both for the benefit of the empire at large, and of the community of New Zealand. That Parliament empowered the Governor, by the aforesaid Act, to assume the control of the gross revenue arising from the disposal of the waste lands of the Crown, and directed him, and authorised and required him, in the first instance 1 , to pay from such revenue the costs, charges, and expenses incident to the collection, management, and receipt thereof, throughout the whole of New Zealand ; and then, in the second instance, to apply such revenues for or on account of the purchase of land from aboriginal natives, or the release or extinguishment of their rights in any land that might be purchased or acquired, or in any way accepted from them by the Governor of New Zealand, or the Superintendent of any province within the limits of such province. That the General Assembly was thus restricted from all interference with the gross revenues arising from the sale of waste lands of the Crown, and its power over such revenues was carefully limited by the following proviso:—“ Provided always that full and particular accounts of all such disbursements (those before stated) shall from time to time be laid before the said Legislative Council and House of Representatives/' That the General Assembly having by these means been made aware what was thesuqdus of the land revenue, which surplus alone Parliament intended to place at its disposal,, the New Zealand Representative Constitution Act went on to provide as follows: —“ After and subject to the payments to be made from the land revenues, as before mentioned, the surplus of the general revenue (including the surplus land fund) maybe appropriated to any specific purpose which by any Act of the General Assembly shall be prescribed in that behalf, and the surplus’of such revenue (the general revenue) which shall not be appropriated as aforesaid, shall be divided among the several provinces for the time being established in New Zealand under or by virtue of the New Zealand Representative Constitution Act, in the like proportion as the gross proceeds of the whole revenue from any source, shall have arisen therein respectively, and shall be paid, over to the respective treasuries of such provinces, for the public uses thereof, and shall be subject to tho appropriation of the respective Provincial Councils/' That by a subsequent clause of the said Act the General Assembly is authorised by any Act or Acts to alter any laws, for the time being in force, respecting tho distribution of the said surplus revenue between tho several provinces of New Zealand. That by another clause in the New Zealand Representative Constitution Act, it is enacted that “sub-, ject to the above-mentioned provisions, it shall be lawful for the said General Assembly to make laws for regulating tho sale, letting, disposal, and occupation of the Waste Lands of the Crown in New Zealand, and that all lands wherein the title of the natives shall be extinguished, in tho manner provided by tho Act, shall be deemed Waste Lands of the Crown." But tho General Assembly was not allowed to interfere with the extinguishment of the native rights over any lands; the to do this was carefully restricted to the Governor and Superintendents of tno provinces. That the proceedings and arrangements of tho British Parliament In the before-mentioned respects, wero“beneficent and wise. It had, with provident forethought, provided In New Zealand a great public estate, of tho most reproductive nature, for tho entire British people. It had then, with equal wisdom, provided that tho re-productivo powers of that estate should bo used, year by year, in tho first instance, in the acquisition of other like re-productlvc property, and that it thus should not bo speedily exhausted, but that It should augment and lost for generations. To secure this end it committed the above-mentioned duty to the hands of that person who was, for the time, the fitting trustee for the whole British people. Parliament then gave thp residue of the revenue from this great property, to be expended as it might arise, by its subjects, who might at tho same time be in these islands, and carefully provided that such revenue should, in the main, be expended by trusty representative Legislatures on local objects, which bodies were well fitted to watch against an unfair and partial administration of tho public lands, or an unjust distribution of them to favored persons, whilst a strong Inducement was given to them to watch these important points by tho expenditure of the surplus revenue derived from tho sale of land being placed in their hands. That tho general principle exemplified in these arrangements was, that the wealth of tho entire empire depends upon tho wealth and prosperity of its several parts. That the most wealthy and flourishing fiart of our empire may really best promote Us own' ntcrests by taking from its own funds the means of developing the resources and establishing tho prosperity of poorer portions of tho same empire. It is by following up this principle, and assisting poor outlying portions of the empire, that Parliament has raised British influence and British commerce to tho gigantic proportions which they have attained. It must have been anticipated that tho several parts of New Zealand would follow out to each other so beneficent a principle with the funds which, under Us influence, had been obtained for themselves. More* over, the several parts of Now Zealand have a common interest in promoting the, constant extinguishment of tho native title over now districts, inasmuch as a land fund Is thus continually called into existence, in tho benefits of which all would share as population increased, Instead of tho land fund being allowed to expire in one generation by tho sale of all the public lauds in one or more districts.

That the province of Auckland was peculiarly in* terested in the maintenance and impartial administration of the above-stated arrangements for the continuance and division of the land revenues which Parliament had devised for, the welfare and protection of Her Majesty's subjects, because its inhabitants consisted in great part of small farmers, often with large families, who were not wealthy men, who lived amidst the densest portion of the native'population, so that the extinguishment by degrees of tho native title in districts of country which the natives might be willing to relinquish, was, for various reasons, a matter of deep concernment to them. The country in the province of is also in many places covered with forests and broken. It was, therefore, -essential to the interests of its people that by the judicious expenditure of a considerable land fund, railroads, roads, bridges, and other works should be constructed, without which its truly industrious race of small farmers could not get their supplies from town, or their produce to market, except at an enormous cost, nor even maintain that degree of intercommunication throughout the country without which civilisation languishes, if it does not die out. Tiiat your petitioner would state generally that if a powerful Government deprives the weaker Government of a poor country of a large portion of its revenues, which is also that portion which can be most easily collected, and the payment of which presses least upon the inhabitants of a country, the weaker Government will probably become so impoverished that, rather than see the duties and public works which are absolutely necessary for the welfare of its citizens, entirely neglected, it may be led to permit the more powerful Government to perform such duties or execute such public works. It is thus by degrees rendered an object of contempt to its own citizens, who are too likely ultimately to be ready to barter their liberties for what they regard as substantial advantages. * That it appears that the cause from which tho deprivation of the province of Auckland of Its land fund mainly arose was the following resolution, passed by tho House of Representatives In 1856 “ Tins House is of opinion that the administration of tho waste lands of each province should bo transferred to the Provincial Government of such province, and the localrevenuo thereof made provincial revenue, subject to certain charges." There were, however, no waste lands of a province. The waste lauds were the waste lands of the Crown and nation. That the British Parliament did, nevertheless, on application made to it, as a consequence flowing from the said resolution, pass in the year 1857 to .amend the Act for grantinga Representative Constitution to the colony of New Zealand. That Parliament, however, in the amending Act of 1857 carefully defined its Intentions with regard to the waste lands of the Crown in New Zealand, by stating its intentions to be to repeal certain clauses of the New Zealand Representative Constitution Act, whereby certain charges were imposed on the territorial revenue of the said colony, for which charges other provision had been or was intended to bo made. And it is submitted that the British Parliament could never, therefore, have contemplated,, in using such words, that whole provinces of its subjects possessing independent Legislatures could, without such Legia-' latures having been consulted, and whilst tho inhabitants of such provinces were ignorant of the nature or scope of that which was being done, be deprived of rights of vital value which Parliament had first purchased for them, and then by enactment assured to them; and it is further respectfully submitted that due provision for the charges on the territorial revenue of this colony was not fairly and adequately made according to the true meaning of the said Act of Parliament. That for these and other reasons it seems doubtful if some of the Acts of the General Assembly, in relation to the waste lands of the Crown in New Zealand, are not open to question as to their force and validity either in whole or part. That looking to the manner in which the waste lands of the Crown in New Zealand were acquired by parliamentary grant, to the authoritative declaration that they were to be administered for the benefit of the Empire at large, as well as for that of the New Zealand community, and to the fact that the Parliament in the New Zealand Representative Constitution Act recognised that it was necessary that it should by positive 'enactment authorise certain persons to exercise particular powers in relation to sueh waste lands of the Crown, it seems at most very doubtful if the mere repeal of such empowering clause or clauses by which repeal powers given to the Governor, or any other person or persons, were taken from them .would—without any other words, giving such powers to the General Assembly—vest such powers or greater powers, or any other powers in that Assembly, to which body they had never belonged, and which tho Crown itself could not exercise, until empowered by Parliament so to do. That a resolution has recently been passed by the House of Representatives in relation to the ultimate disposal of waste lands of tho Crown in New Zealand, but which mentions only land revenues, apparently the property of certain localities, under the terms of a lawful and positive compact. That it is doubtful if such House of Representatives as then constituted was empowered to pass such a resolution. It is, however, most probable that the said resolution ho* been or will be submitted to the Home Government, with a view to Parliamentary action being taken thereon. That the people of New Zealand have a constitutional right to know every step that is taken in this matter, in order that after having given full consideration to the subject they may yet have ample time given to protect their rights, either in the colony or before the British Parliament, if an appeal to an exterior Legislature becomes necessary. That a Northern member of the House of Representatives has recently staled to Iris constituents that the representatives from tho Middle Island feel and admit that the north of New Zealand has not been rightly dealt with in tho matter of the land revenues, and that they are, and always have been, not only willing, but in fact most desirous to come to terms, and have not themselves felt disposed to adhere to the so-called compact of 1856. That there would bo from this cause alone a strong reason that such terms as are above mentioned should, without delay, be come to, and tho reasonable rights of the inhabitants of the province of Auckland, in the general land revenue, past and prospective, be ascertained and adjusted in a constitutional manner before the British Parliament is again‘appealed to on this subject. That your petitioner therefore prays that your Honor and tho Provincial Government will take such steps as you may judge most expedient to protect the rights of the inhabitants of the Province of Auckland in this matter, and to delay any hurried action of tho British Parliament in relation thereto. And your petitioner, as in duty bound, will ever pray. G. Grey*. Kawau, November 4, 1874.