THE GOVERNMENT AND NATIVE LAND PURCHASES. (From the Wanganui Herald.)

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 306, 28 April 1874, Page 2

THE GOVERNMENT AND NATIVE LAND PURCHASES. (From the Wanganui Herald.)

The right of a Government officer to decide whether a sale of land may be conclnded between Natives and Europeans^ has juit been asserted and admitted in a Tray for which we" are without a precedent. The correspondence published in another column shows that the Native Resident Magistrate of Wanganui, Air R. W- Woon, has taken upon him to adjudge the value of native land, and to make a recommendation m accordance with his decision, by which the consummation of the sale is absolutely prevented until the intending purchaser shall have advanced another 2s 6d an acre. We grant without hesitation that it would be the duty of '» native protector, tnch. as Mr Woon ostensibly gives himself out to be, to prevent anj thing approaching to fraud. In this case there can be no pretence for saying that the price does not approximate closely to the market value , and it can only be a matter of nearly equally divided opinion whetber any land is worth 7s 6& or 10s an acre. We do nob wonder at all at the exclamation of surprise which Mr Allen, the surveyor mates, after perusing his own letter. The best judge of land tin fclle district could not authoritatively pronounce thafr'knd was worth 2s 6cf leu or 2s 6d more than any givwr sum, End 'it shows an ill-formed judgment in Mr Woon to presuma to an omniscience which is not th'e attribute of ablefr and mare experienced men. The natives were satisfied to tell — the land is no great thing^j — and the purchaser had gone to the expense incidental to^ all native transactions, ieno© a very grevious wrong has • tfoen.> done him by the intermeddling of an official whose office, but for his officiousnees, would bo pronounced sinecure. Nor is Major Heaphy blameless. He is placed in bis position to prevent frauds, or, in other words, to prevent the natives from being overreached in land transactions— not to come in witti a dogmatic opinion, which he shares with Mr Woon, upon the merits of what appears on the very face of it, and; in all its relations, a bond fide transaction* Th'e inference to be drawn) and that which we believe would be just, is that these gentlemen have become influenced by the Government policy, and are obstructing private transactions for the purpose of facilitating Government purchasoi. Yet we cannot see why Major Heaphy should feel a pressure inclining him to such a courst. It 13 different with Mr Woon, whose position depends upon, the amount of satisfaction ha^ is able to give to the Government, but who seem* to exceed * even the bounds of zeal, as he has certainly outrun all discretion. The question 11 not affected by the larger one as to< whether it would b* better for th« interests of colonisation that the Government, and not private individuals, acquired by purchase natiye territory. The law allows private persons to purchase land from the natives, and', therefore, it is unjust to exercise power given for a different purpose to prevent a perfectly legal transaction. Individuals have their rights as well as Governments, though it seems that a number of officials think otherwise. The prevention of tyrannical acti following from this presumption, can only be effected by the appointment of a higher class of officials, or by restraining the Government from carrying through such legislation as they may afterwards use for their own purposes.