HAWKE’S BAY NATIVE LAND PURCHASE DEBATE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5137, 10 September 1877, Page 3

HAWKE’S BAY NATIVE LAND PURCHASE DEBATE.

TO THE EDITOIi OP TUB SEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sib, —In the House of Representatives a most savage and useless debate is being held, and the utmost malignity is shown, one party calling the other lacdsharks and worse, the others indignantly denying the accusations. The general public are wholly ignorant, but believe that where there is so much smoke there must be fire. I, having no private interest in the transaction, but knowing much of these transactions, propose to give a clear, succinct, and unbiassed account of the real state of affairs. In the early days of the province there ■were many settlers Who by birth and education and by their good behavior were fully entitled to the term “ gentlemen.” Some had been officers in the army or navy, or had held good positions in India. The Government of the day thought so well of these men that it pot them in the commission of the peace, or otherwise showed a belief in their honesty. Seven of these gentlemen (I ase the term advisedly), bought some land from the natives, and because this land was divided into twelve shares these buyers were , called the Apostles. This piece of land is now known throughout the colony—it is the famous Heretaunga Block. The names of the seven Aportles were T. Tanner, J.P., Mr. Gordon, J. N. Williams, J.P., Purvis Bussell, J.P. (brother of the Hon. H. B. Bussell), J. D. Ormond, .T.P., Captain William B. Russell, J.P., and Captain A. H. Russell, J.P. AIL of the men who bought this block had and still retain a reputation for honesty and upright-

ness, and have never been accused of swindling •Europeans. “Several ’of "them have been specially chosen representatives by their fellowsettlers : yet we are asked to believe that these men suddenly became rogues, and swindled the wily Maori. Mr. J. M. Stuart tried to buy the block for £12,500, Mr. John Buchanan acting as his agent. The negotiations of the purchase extended over more than twelve months. Had- anyone offered more did the seven gentlemen be would have obtained it. The Maoris knew perfectly well the value of the land, and they were keenly alive to the fact that they were selling it to the highest bidder.

For some time after the purchase all went smoothly. Then arose a feud between one or more of the seven purchasers and the Hon, H. R. Russell, M.L.C; at first it had nothing to do with the Heretaunga block. The Hon.; H. R. Russell is an enterprising good settler; a capital, genial, openhanded host; a man of considerable ability and power; but be has one failing, he is apt to disagree with his neighbors, and fairly revels in going to law with them. Aggressions on his part are met by reprisals on theirs—the hatred of each waxing more and more bitter. Moreover, each party forgetting that it had wounded the ! other, looked on each wound which it received as having been maliciously and causelessly inflicted. Mr. Russell and his lawyer, Mr. Sheehan, investigated the titles of most, if not all, of the purchasers of Maori lands made by his foes. Of course the purchasers or leaseholders Neve furious. . They retaliated in various ways, and the war raged most hotly. Mr. Sheehan is believed to have acted with goodness of heart, even his enemies admit this, and to have tried to use arbitration ; but like many other lawyers he has a firm belief in his client’s case. After a long period of fighting and of fierce recriminations, an impartial commission was appointed, which investigated many complaints, and decided that the purchases had beeu honestly made. Turn now from a study of the history of this quarrel to its present condition. In Hawke’s Hay a fearful feud has been and is raging : nearly all the settlers forming one party against Mr. Russejl and party. The wildest accusations fly from mouth to mouth. Why, if onefifth of the stories told by one side of the other were true, the leading persons in the feud should stand in the felon’s dock. But all these stories are mere phantasms of excited wrathful brains ; they cannot, and never will, be substantiated. They are all alike foundationless, begotten of malice, hatred, and all uncharitableness. The real facts are these : (1.) The great majority of the purchases or leases in Hawke’s Bay were honestly made ; the natives knew full well the worth of their lands, and sold them to the then highest bidders. (2.) Owing to the complexity of native customs, a complexity rendered still more complex by the addition-of many Native Land Acts, each of which repeals or amends or modifies its predecessors, a few of these purchases, though honestly made, may be informal. (3). The wily natives are now educated to play this part. They assert that they did not mean to sell their lands. Some assert that they were drunk when they signed; others that they did not know the contents of the documents which they were signing. By these little manoeuvres they hope to upset the old sales, which they made in good faith, and thereby to get back the lands which they parted with—lands the value of which has increased tenfold, owing mainly to the energy and introduction of capital by the purchaser. (4.) Knowing full well that the general public and many Members of the House of Representatives are utterly ignorant of the truth or untruth of . the statements made, knowing, moreover, that it is most difficult to disinter the truth, certain members of the Opposition have used their accounts of these transactions as political weapons, and loudly abused Sir Donald M cLean, Mr. Ormond, and Captain Russell. The grossest misstatements and the wildest assertions, due, I believe, entirely to ignorance and misapprehensions, have everywhere been bandied about.

■ It has been said, that settlers sold grog to the natives, and then, having got them into debt, took their lands; and out of this political capital has been made. I imagine the late Sir Donald McLean, or Mr. Ormond, or Captain Russell indulging in sly-grog selling. Nothing could be more absurd. Sir Donald McLean, Mr. Ormond, and Captain Russell are all men of the highest principles—men who have led or are leading public lives—men whom all their fellow settlers would unfailingly trust. These then are the men, and these the transactions, which the Repudiationists have so loudly and so grossly abused. —I am, &c., Ahcriri.