The Telephone. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, JANUARY 8, 1884. WE TE RUKI AND OTHERS V. N.Z.N.L. CO.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 34, 8 January 1884, Page 2

The Telephone. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, JANUARY 8, 1884. WE TE RUKI AND OTHERS V. N.Z.N.L. CO.

Sevebal of the leading journals North and South have reviewed the surroundings of this case more or less impartially, according to the views taken of the evidence elicited at the trial. The most salient points of the evidence have, however, been overlooked, and we consider it would be shirking a duty incumbent on us were

we to neglect laying the actual facts of the case bare, Justice for the time being has been baulked of her due, yet the trial has been attended with most salutary results, inasmuch as it has had the effect of showing the public at large, including the Native population, the monstrously inadequate manner in which lands have been acquired by this philanthropic company. In the first place the credulity of the confiding Natives is worked upon by glaring pictures of untold wealth, and professions of the Company being actuated by a philanthropicai desire to raise the status of the Native race and retain them as lords of the soil. By an expert admixture of theology, law, stock-job-bing, and eloquence, they are plausibly informed that alone they cannot attain to thia elysium state, the Company being the only good means to a good end,—that, in the course of a few years the Natives would be rolling in wealth, masters of the soil, and lords over the pakeha—revelling in indolence, without a care for the present, or a thought for the future ; and all this to be accomplished under the fosteringwing of the Company. For bringing all this to pass, a few simple forms, they were told, would be necessary to enable the Company to deal expeditiously with the land,— such, for instance, as the form of con~ wying in freehold tenure for a nominal consideration—in this instance for £9,000, —the land at the time being worth £20,000. But, as the Natives had no desire to part with their land, this “ mere form " was regarded with some amount of doubt, which was speedily allayed by another adroit move. They were informed that the Company would go through a "form of re-oonveyanoe ” under a so-called “ deed of covenant,” purporting to reconvey the power of dealing with the land back to the Natives, to administer in conjunction with the Company. Its actual effect, however, appears to be that of further binding the Natives to the Company under that mysterious “ Kawanata ” —compelling the acceptance for the nominal consideration of £9,000, or a quantity of untransferable scrip amounting to £B,lOO, and £9OO in cash. Here creeps in one of the most remarkable features of the transaction. Accepting as a fact that £9,000 was the amount of consideration for the land, why, then, under this covenant, are the Natives bound to refund the £9OO to the Company with 7 per cent, interest, it being part of the consideration expressed in the deed of conveyance. This is, probably, also, a mere form arranged to the satisfaction of the benificent Company, The operation having progressed so far, another obstacle arose — the requirements of the Native Lands Court. To overcome this obstruction, another form was necessary, not to merely blind and deceive the dictates of common-sense, but to evade the wise provisions of the Native Lands Court, which renders it imperative that actual oath shall pass in payment for Native lands. For this purpose it became necessary to cleverly manipulate accounts. A “dummy cheque "—croued, not marked, for £B2so—was made out and alleged to bare been shown to the Natives, which, however, appears to have been held in possession by the Company’s agent, and not paid into the Bank to credit of a temporary Paremata account until after a second “ dummy cheque” for £B,loo—drawn out in favor of the Company for scrip—had been paid in to the credit of the Company’s account. This piece of barefaced bogus financing evinced clearly that the Natives never received the consideration, or even had the free handling of the cheque for the £8,250 drawn in their favor, and which, being crossed, was not cash. Nor could it be said to represent it when, by the evidence, it is shown that at this time the Company had only £2500 to. its credit when it paid away cheques amounting to £B,BO0 —one only of which was intended to be cashed that for £lso—after certain things had been accomplished in the Native Lands Court, and so endorsed by the Company. It was clearly evident it was not deemed possible to cash the cheques for the larger sums. What would be the result of such an action on the part of a private firm or individual we do not venture to say. Upon this flimsy pretext of payment it now became absolutely necessary for the success of the whole scheme that the Natives should be induced to go before the Judge of the Native Lands Court and Frauds Commissioner and swear that they had received the whole of the purchase-money in cash, and that they knew it was an absolute sale of the land. Unfortunately for the success of these well-laid schemes, the Native selected for this important part was a lay-preacher, and feared to enact the role of Ananias (what a contrast to his civilised and educated prompters I) j consequently, when asked if they had received the whole consideration in money, £9OOO, he answered in the negative. This unlooked-for result caused the greatest consternation among the Company’s jackals, and necessitated obtaining an adjournment of the case, in order to obtain a more-pliant and lessconscientious instrument. This was successfully accomplished, the next scene before the Court passing off smoothly. A satisfactory minute was made, and the Company’s deed Whatever might have been

the idea of the deluded Maori when performing his part, there can be little doubt as to the crime committed, The next act followed—th at of drawing up and signing the said “deed of covenant"—not such a one as the Natives were led to expect, returning to them their laud, but one well worthy of the Machiavelian diplomacy of the Company’s agents. The vital provisions of this deceptive document were so wrapped up in legal phraseology and tautology as to render it impossible to be understood by any but a most expert European, and to the Maoris to whom it was interpreted — not explained — it was wholly unintelligible. Nay, the interpreter himself confessed ignorance of its import; consequently, the flies had to rest content with such explanation as the spider chose to maae in order to lure the victims into the web so finely woven. The Natives were told, and many foolishly believed, that the deed conveyed the land back to them—a delusion in which even Wi Pebb himself seemed to share, and that the Natives expected a deed of this kind was clearly shown by their repeated applications for the covenant giving back' the land. On each occasion they were put off with excuse and subterfuge. The Natives never understood they absolutely alienated their land for the nominal £9,000, as had they been willing to do so they could have obtained £20,000 in actual cash, Nor were they ininformed that in the event of a dis« agreement with the Company upon any proposal of theirs, fair or unfair, the land would lie idle and unproductive until consumed by the accumulation of compound interest— the Company becoming the sole gainers, the Natives the sole losers; or that the Company alone had the power to mortgage the whole estate, failing to redeem which it would become the property of the mortgagee. The evidence of the accountant lets a strong light into the peculiar system of accounts— pro rata and per centum charges, one item of £478 Bs. 9d., for legal commission, having been paid by the Company to their solicitor, and charged against the land, being at the rate of 8 per cent, on their estimated value of the land, £16,000, and not upon the nominal £9,000. This appears a most magnanimous and philanthropical arrangement, as we find that the land is altogether charged with £2,949 9s. Id., comprising the £9OO cash to Natives, Native land duties, legal commission, surveys, sundry expenses, and interest, so that by the time the existing lease expires (5 years) the capital value of the land will be consumed and become the absolute property of the Company, without further payment; that all the Natives bright visions of power, wealth, ease, and affluence will have ended with the one small bait of £9OO. This is the legal aud general aspect of the case, as shown in evidence ; but what is the real position of the deluded Natives ? They were in undisturbed possession of a valuable estate, bringing in a yearly rental of £B5O, with the land secured to them under statutory law, without difficulty or encumbrances. There were then some 140 owners, The Company stepped in and lured the Natives into removing the restrictions off the title by sub-division, allocating a portion of 1,100 acres to those who dissented from their schemes, and a second small portion of 400 acres to some 100 other owners, and eighteen others in the larger area of 8,000 acres conveyed to the Company under the documents herein reviewed. Thus we find that, under a delusion, some 122 persons allowed themselves to be deprived of the ownership of 10,000 acres, and limited, without reason or payment of any kind, to that of a paltry 400 acres. That the eighteen others intended to be representatives only have actually now no land or estate, having conveyed it away to the Company, under illusory promises never to be realised. Taking a calm aud unprejudiced view of the whole case, can the fact that a wrong has been done be disguised,—that justice has miscarried,—that the jury in its findings confined itself to legal facts—not to equities ?