NATIVE LAND LEGISLATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5119, 20 August 1877, Page 2

NATIVE LAND LEGISLATION.

( Communicatee? ). We have reason to believe that it will be at last plain to the Maori race how much the pakeba desires to be just aud generous. To stay the progress of an important measure, merely because it came to be understood by Parliament that the Maoris desired time for the consideration of it, is a concession to a weak people which would be made only by great, strong, and lovely, though sometimes uncouth, John Bull. But now, will the Maoris make good use of the delay in passing a Native Lands Bill, conceded by Parliament ? For fifteen years we have been legislating on the subject of native lands. During all that time successive Governments have had almost any means they chose to adk for, in order to become acquainted with the “Maori mind;” yet we are now told, nor does if seem to be denied, that our legislation has failed to satisfy any side, aboriginal or colonial But we wiU not at present attempt to show why our legislation on this subject has failed to give satisfaction ; nor whether this or that person or institution has been more particularly to blame. It will be more useful, we think, to look forward rather than backward. It has been made quite clear that Parliament desires to legislate in the “ interests of settlement,” with due regard to the special “ interests of the Maoris.” It has also been made clear that the wide phrase “interests of settlement" means the beneficial occupation of the land in small blocks or farms; and that by the “interests of the Maoris” is meant, the retention by that people of sufficient land for their support, and the highest price for sections which they desire to sell But there is a fact underlying the problem as above stated which has not, we think, been sufficiently considered. It is this, viz., that the

land to be dealt with has at present no personal owner. It is simply a large and valuable estate, which Parliament desires to put to its best and proper uses, but the owners of which are unknown. Colonists have got so much in the habit of speaking of the Maoris as of a corporate body with a personal head or representative, with whom transactions might be effected, that one hears such phrases as “Let them sell their own land to whom they please “let them do this or that/* Such phrases are simply delusive. The Maoris as a whole are, and always have been, incapable of any united or authoritative action whatever. These phrases, therefore, if they are sincere, which there is no doubt they are, can mean only “let this or that particular Maori deal as he pleases with his own land;” “ let him do this or that, as he may choose.” Exactly ; but then no particular Maori or Maoris can be said to own—in the European sense of the word “ownership”—any particular land whatever, until, upon a division of

the tribal, or general, or family estate, certain parts are allotted to the individuals composing the tribe or family. But how is such a division to be satisfactorily effected ? It seems to us that this, and this only, is the real problem at present requiring solution. Whenever such a division shall have been righteously effected, It will in all human probability be proved that some members of each tribe or family are incapable by reason of infancy, or other incompetency, of managing their respective shares ; while others are perfectly capable of doing so. It appears, therefore, that in order to effect the object which Parliament has in view, viz., to legislate with a view to the joint “ interests of settlement ” and of Maoris, it is necessary in the first place to determine the personal ownership of the land to be affected by the proposed enactment. Now this preliminary step constitutes, as we have said, the real difficulty in the case. What sort of investigation, or by whom shall such an investigation be made, as shall at once satisfy the “ Maori mind ” and the higher English mind

that substantial justice has been done, and that there has been effected a righteous division of the common estate? At first sight it might seem easy to select persons in whom colonists and Maoris would have confidence as judges of title; but on further consideration it is seen that the mere appointment of absolutely just and righteous judges, even if that were possible, is not all that is required. The judges - —any human judges—must act according to evidence. But it will be found in practice, that some Maori claimants are better prepared with evidence than others. By the aid of trained lawyers, or natural ability, one Maori or set of Maoris may easily make the worse appear the better cause, as against another less fortunate claimant or set of claimants. Under the existing law one set of claimants may sell or mortgage their interests in a block of land to an “ agent,” than whom there does not exist a more acute or unsrcupnleus creature. The “ agent” has a powerful capitalist or company at his back ; and how, we should like to know, is another set of claimants without money, without any particular natural ability—and including, perhaps, infants, idiots, and decrepit old persons—to contend against such evidence as that acute and “ intelligent agent ” can bring to

bear against their claims ? If justice is to be done in this matter, every Maori must come iato that Court on equal terms as to professional assistance or other means of laying his claim plainly before the Court. Now this cannot in practice be done without money. Where is the money to come from ? We have no hesitation in saying that it should be advanced by Government, and in the meantime it should be distinctly announced that for the future any lien, mortgage, or other security upon land, taken by private persona before the aotual owners of the land in question have been ascernained, shall be absolutely void and useless. We trust such an announcement will be made this session, and that by next session the Government and the Maori tribes shall have agreed upon some speedy and satisfactory means of substituting Crown title for the existing title “according to native custom.” We propose to show in another article that when this has been done it will be perfectly easy to protect alike the “ interests of settlement” and of Maoris.