SETTLERS’ PETITION.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 83, 30 August 1873, Page 2

SETTLERS’ PETITION.

The following Petition is in course of signature, and will be forwarded by first opportunity to Wellington :— To the Honorable the Members of the General Assembly for the t ■ Colony of New Zealand in Parliament Assembled. .- * . The humble Petition of the undersigned residents . pf the Poverty Bay District, Sheweth: That a native named Henare Matua is proceeding to Wellington to lay before your "Honorable . House certaiivPetitions from the natives of. this district, praying for a Court of Commissioners to bo held here to enquire into the sales of laud from natives to the Government and to Europeans in-this District: That he is armed with' a large number of complaints from natives who harfo sold land, as to the manner in which the land wsA purchased : That these complaints' were made through undue ' ‘ representations having been, made by Henare Matua that he would cauve al! their land to be returned to them if they supported him ; and to their being falsely excited, and overawed, by his having upwards ot 100 followers . from; Porangahau, and other districts * That the signatures to these complaints are, in several instances,’ forged”: •That if any grounds of complaint as to legality o? aula, exist , the ordinary Courts of law are epen to natives as to Emwpeans; and that if they seek redress, they should apply to them, rather than that .the,.Government should be at ths expense of providing a free Coulft tof tfiein, wltli'ff*** would lead to frivolous and vexatious charges being bsdught forward, to the loss, and 'RfiSoffVenience of basy/settlers ft 7/ ’ { '/ That through the influence of Henare Matua’ and his followers the Commissioners now sitting at Gisborne was suspended and the Judges in [open Court insulted and defiedr ; - ; - i ■' • -..'i -A.ii I *>. That for the above-reasons your petitioners rpriiy,': G-.I l Si’j/.ARL.o? T . ~, your HonoxahleuHwee will Beccivk the representations of Henare- MatuAiwith jftftution, and will not accede £u his application for ft Court of Enquiiy, but leave *ll matters to the ordinary course 1 of law ; • arid'your ‘Petitioners will ever pray Ac., Ac. i - . ; - f