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Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1145, 28 October 1879, Page 2

TO THE HONOURABLE THE HOUSE OF EEPBESENTATIVES OP NEW ZEALAND, IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED.

The petition of the undersigned humbly showeth: —

First.—That your petitioners are residents at the township of Ngaruawhia, Waikato, or persons owning property there, or otherwise interested in it. Second. —That our object in petitioning your honorabls house is to obtain redress for the very great injury which we, as a community, have sustained at the bauds of successive Governments of New Zealand.

Third.—That as the injuries have been deliberately done by the Government of the colony to a small section of the colonists, principally residing at Ngaruawahia, we, your petitioners, approach your honorable House with boldness to ask you to redress the injuries so sustained. Fourth.— Ihe injury done for which your petitioners seek relief or redress from your honorable House will be found in a measure detailed in the petition also presented to your honorable douse with this relating to opening the Ngaruawahia lands for sale, but the injuries will bo more particularly described heroin as follows: —The first Government land sale took place in Auckland in 1804, just after the Waikato war, at which many of your petitioners bought Ngaruawahia town lots, realising to the public funds with allotment.? since sold some £12,000. Upon these lots your petitioners proceeded to build places of business and dwellings, and settled down there in all good faith that the township was to have been made the Government head-quarters in Waikato for the Waikato militia, &c, as announced at th 3 auction sale. And specially Ave thought to have had that fostering care extended to us which we had a right to expect at the hands of a paternal Government in the direction of opening up and selling the lands of the Government in and around tho township, and by offering them at fair and reasonable prices to induce settlement upon them.

Such a right as is in fact implied when the .'State sells lauds to its subjects, viz., to do all the good they can to the district so sold, and to sell land from time to time as demand for it arises, at fair and reasonable rates, aud certainly not to injure it or retard its progress in. any way.

But, instead of this, we have to inform your honorable House that the land has been studiously kept in the Government hands, thus the natural progress and prosperity of the place has been hindered, as they have refused to lease, sell, or otherwise dispose of it. This was done by order of the late Sir D. Maclean, then Native Minister, and this policy of the Native Office has been acted upon by each Government since, and is an incubus which we have been utterly uuablo to shake off, notwithstanding all our efforts. In this way our property has been depreciated in vaiue, and the lives of those who have stuck to the place have simply been wasted for fifteen years, and yaur petitioners are perfectly sick at heart with deferred hope and are without prospect of any relief (unless from your honorable House) in our con-, dition for the future. What sum can repay us for such waste of our time as this, or what rod ess cau be given us at all commensurate with our monetary loss extended ovor such a period ?

Had we settled down at Hamilton or Cambridge townships in this district, over wliich no native blight extends, we would have been prosperous like settlers there, instead of as now petitioners to your honorable House almost in forma pauperis.

Many men who saved money, oarned on public and other works about here, would have bought land and settled here, but they have been driven to otluv places because our Government would not sell land. Has any other township throughout this colony been so treated ? and what has been the reason for this policy so disastrous for us? Simply the native policy of the colony, the Government of which for years lias been vainly hoping to arrange with Tawhiao, to come within the confiscation boundary and to settle him here as a petty Prince with a salary of 43U0 per annum. It is well known, hoAyever, that all efforts have failed to bring the Maori King in, and meantime we have suffered for a colonial policy. Why should this be ? is it just or right that a small community like ours should suffer that gqod may result tq thVwholQ colony ?

As the Government of New Zealand settled ue hero on the implied conditions of advancing- our welfare and having received enormously high values for the lands sold to us, and then for the sako of native policy of the colony, having done all they could to injure our interests and hinder our advancement we have a fair legitimate right in all justice and equity to be compensated for such unheard of treatment, quite as much right to compensation as those settlers who were ruined in the Waikato wars, and who were afterwards compensated for such loss by the colony at large. Fifth.—The prayer of your petitioners to your Honorable House is therefore (a) . To pray that your Honorable House will take steps to buy back our land and to give us compensation for the improvements made thereon, and loss of our wasted lives, thus getting us cut of the way for the furtherance of the native policy and permitting us to begin life again in some other part of the colony. (b). Or to pray your Honorable House to see that the Uovernmenc do all they can to assist the progress of the Ngaruawahia township and district, to make us (as in your wisdom may seem good) such amends for the retardation of our prosperity, say in the direction of offering bonuses for the establishment of manufactories here, such as woollen mills, beet factories, &c. &c,, or. should the Newmarket site bo found too small or otherwise unsuitable for the rail tvay workshops, as your petitioners are informed will be found to be the case, then iu that event the Government might gracefully make up to us in a measure our losses by locating the workshops here. Your petitioners are prepared to prove that whether as a site for manufactories, or for railway workshops, Ngaruawahia cannot be beaten in the Provincial District of Auckland.

(c). Vx as it may seem otherwise advisable and good in your wisdom. We pray for justice and redress at the hands of your Honorable House and as in duty bound will ever pray.