House of Representatives.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 806, 16 August 1877, Page 2

House of Representatives.

[Press Agency.] GoTEKNMBNT BrjILDINa», Wellington, Tuesday, Ihe House met at 2.30 p.m. PETITIOtfd. Mr BUTTON presented a petition praying for the. construction of a bridge over the tiokitika River. NATIVE. LA.SD3 COURT BILL. MINISTffiRUL EXPLANATIONS. Upon the Orders of the Day being come to, Tue PftKMIBR referred to the promise he made to the House on Friday last, to d-clare oa Tuesday wo. at they iuteoded to do regarding vir Ballanue'a amendment. The bon geuJ^man detailed the oircumstt.nce4 which led to tne introducttciu of an Act to simplify the legislation, whioh had previously bee a acceptable to the natives, and it was prepared carefully co 'carry oat these principles. The bill appeared not to tie acceptable to eoma tfiaiMp au<j, uejauie a pari>y had grown up vh> thoughb tuas aay fresh, legislation o-i t'lis si >j jot Hii>aid be lift -rent from che courae Cuey ha 1 pursued f >r| the Uar. 10 years, th- native obj^ctad to thrt bi 1 iiu the ttr iuii I ih\, tha Courta were ujtha is act » y. Ic wis cl-ar taat the nutivea should ue tioa^ti ced. When t>e bill -vas brought before 1 1» H>usa, it was ciear that a large uim jer of the Government supporters oi'j^c.ed to the bill. Those gencleinen iv'uo usually voted a<aiust the Governmenc took advantage of thin, and eadeavoorad to make ic a party question. It wb* fortunate for the couutry that the Government were in a position to resi3C this, tor it was the first time ever a Native Land Bill had been imde a party queatio i. The hon. gentleman went on to say that, after giving the utmost consideration to the principle contained in the amendment of their hon- friend, the member for Rangitikei, and considering the, vast importance of the question to the natives, and the necessity of couaulting them, the Government decided to ask for the discharge of the Order of the Day relating to the bill. To-morrow he would move for leave to introduce a bill to prevent all purchase of native lauds by pnvata persons until the end of . next session. Mr STOUT raised a point of order, and argued that the amendment of the member for Rangitikei could not be intercepted in that way, because it was not the amendment which was really before the House, and that the Order of the Day referred to could not be discharged. After some discussion on the point of order the SPEAKER, decided that the whole question could be reopened. Mr LUSK then proceeded t o speak aa to the merits of the bill, which he said dealt with a questi >n that was the most importaut of all to the natives, and was one of life and death to the people of the North Island. If there was to be widespread improper dealing with the laud of the natives they they would necessarily have a widespread disaffection among them. Their duty was tor' do justice to the Maoris, but it would not be doing jmtiue to them to legislate so that all their land must unavoidably fall into the hande of a certain class of people, whose interests were not the interests of the natives,. They to d . they were giviuj free trade in land, but it was not free fade in land to allow Maoris to . mortgage their land ,; in order to g^.t it surveyed. Throne principle which ought to be in the measure was, that the land should be brought into the mwket, ao aa to enable settlers to buy the land, instead of playing i ito the hauda of capitalists, or oompauies of capitalists, who would shut up tha isiaudu to colonisation for an iudefimte number of years, and probably lead to troubles with the natives, waich had already cost the colony bj dejriy What they ou^ht to do was, co endeavour to 4«t the Maoris to settle d iwu »mongsi the Europ>aus, and give up their old scyleuf living, and enable llnm co grow up a united community. H>' l-spreu&ted the c mrae proposed by th- Premier, as unavailing and dilatory. Justice ou^ht to be dond to the nativea at oujh. Why should they wait a whole year 1 Time was aaked to eoaoie them to consult the narivea, but perhaps what was real y wauted waa t> coasalc tue native uffioern, a class ot Ma tri doctora w&o did more to iu jure tue colony taan any claaa of m?n wuo «Ver w«re here. T.iey w<»uld uut be doiuy chtir duty uuittss they demanded anoth rbilto be brought own that st-a-iiou. lhe hou. «eutl- man thau moved '• That tne followi-i w-irda be aided to the Promier'a moti-m for the discharge of the Order f in* Da}', namely : — • To enable Government to give effict to the amendment of the hon. member for Raugitikei.'" It was not the inteie.it of the colony to stop the sale of native landa for twelve months. It would be impossible to pi event the sale of native landa. If tlie Premier's motion was agreed to it would not mean stopping the sale of lands ; it would stop colonisation altogether.