THE WEST COAST COMMISSION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1858, 3 June 1884, Page 4

THE WEST COAST COMMISSION.

TnE following interesting account of the labours of the West Coast Commissioners has been supplied by the Wellington Correspondent of the New Zealand Herald : — A notable work in the political history of the colony is just ou the verge of completion, I lefer to the task undertaken in 1880 by the West Coast Commissioners, Sir Dillon Bell find Sir William Fox, afterwards canied on solely by the latter Commissioner, and just now receiving; at his hands the final finishing touches. Unquestionably it has been a work of great magnitude, gi eater probably than has ever been undei taken before by any New Zealand stitesmen. The concluding report has been finished by Su Wilhau Fok, and is now in the hands of the printer, and in about a week's time the author will be leaving the shores of New Zealand on a visit to the old country. With the final rcpoit, Sir William will return his commision to His Excellency and will have the satisfaction of knowing that his long and aiduous task is at length ended. Of the nature of the report nothing, of course, can be officially known until it is laid before Parliament. It is understood, however, to to consist of a recapitulation of the work achieved by the Commission and various final recommendations. Sir Dillon Bell and Sir Win. Fox were first appointed, as I said, in ISSO, as a Com mission of inquiry to examine into the grievancie3 of the natives of what is known as the confiscated territoiy of the west coast of the North Island. Their investigations lasted for seven months, and consisted partly of examining the uggneved natives in the locality itself and partly of researches among the archives of the Native Office, where they had to examine recoids extending back for the previous twenty-four jears. In Januaiy, ISBI, the Government appointed the same Commissioners to c.ury out their recommendations, but Sir Dillon Bell going home as Agent-General it de\olved upon Sir William Fox to finish up the woik alone. This proved a long and somewhat intricate undertaking, and the Commissioner lias been pretty steadily occupied ever since in carry in" it out. Some idea of the chaiacter of°the work may be gathered from an expression. of Mi Sheehan's, who, aftei going over the disputed ten itory, said the whole district was sown tiitee feet thick with broken pledges and bioken pi onuses. This view seems to have been practically endorsed by the Commision, whose business it was to asceitain what those broken promises were, ,uul to mike recommendations to the Government in detail as to how they should be fulfilled, the fulfilment consisting mainly in setting apart icsetves for all the natives who had no lijiht, tribal or otherwise, to be on the West Coast, and ascertaining the names of those who weic entitled to have their names put in any Ciowu giant. The Commission had also to survey in detail all the lesenes, amounting to many hundicds of thousands of acres. This in itself was a veiy l.ibonous job, particulaily as it appeals from the icports of the ConiinisMon that the maps of the whole of the T.uanaki pun nice pioved te be useless for its purpose, and, in fact, the Commission had piactieally to resurvey the whole piovmce for this work. As many a^> eleven paities of surveyors had to be employed for sevei.il months. The icsulfc of the Inborn of the Commissioners 1^ that cveiy native on the coast, f i om Wai totni a to White Cliffs— a distance of l">0 miles— who lias tiibal rights, or who is entitled through his anecslois oi othciwise to reside m the district, now lias his name in a grant, and is pio\ided with a homestead and means of subsistence. He al?o possesses a sliaie in \ery huge lents, which will acciuc fiom the leasing by the Government of the lcservis not occupied by the Maons — in fact he seems tobea\eij lucky fillow indued, whose lot will be eimcd by many of his pakeha neighbouis. It seems haidly too much to say that all causes of dissatisfaction on the coast appear now to be finally romoved, and the natives appear to be absolutely contented with the icsult Tr "Whiti, since his ie-turn, seems to have kept himself quiet, and it is believed his influence forever lias now passed away with the le-novalof the gne\ances which formed the groundw oik of his agitation, and the adoption of means to check any attempt to foment disaffection. In all, I believe close upon 400 giants have been issued to tubes, biib-tubes (hapus), and in some few instances to- individuals. Some of the^e giants lcpiescnt as much as 10,000 doics of land a-picce. Every man intcic&ted has hisname mentioned in the grant, and the land is not vested in trustees, so that he knows exactly what he is entitled to, and theic is no possibility of his b' ing defrauded of his lights, without hia knowledge. If be wishes to individualise his title he can do so in an eisy and expeditions manner. Concunently with the libouis ot the Commission, the Government has also been doing an iinpoituib woik by selling the land in the distiict not tequired tor the resents. Ju pom*" of fry t, I undcistnnd they have loeehcd as much &•> £300,000 by wn> ofpuicliasc money for lands on the Wai mate Plains, l'aiihaka, Stoney Kiver, and other bloc ks, and the settlement of the countiy in this way of com se gives the most effective guarantee for its peumucnt pacification. Undei the Act of 1881, moi cover, large quantities of the receives themselves have been leased by Mr. Mackay, acting under tiie Public Tiustee. The amount of labour required in investigating the claims which resulted m the issue of the large number of grants I ha\e mentioned, may easily be conceived to have been vciy heavy, and the task a very perplexing one. The Commission, I baheve, derived gieat assistance fiom Major Pan is, whose intimate knowledge of the distiict and the natives, the great lespoct he is held in by the natives, and his general judgment and tact lendeied him an invaluable coadjutor. The amount of clciical work requited to be done at times has been exceedingly heavy, In the caily days of the Commission, when Sir Dillon Bell and Sir Win. Fox weie holding their local enquiiics, four shoitLand waters, a sccictary, and nndei secietaiy were employed, in addition to the assistance lendered by Major Pan is. Mr Ei nest Bell has occupied the position of chiet secretaiy to the Commission, in which part he has distinguished himself not a little by his com tesy <uid abilities, and Mr Hadfield has been a veiy efficient native intcipictei and assistant With regard to the Coinmi->sioneis themselves, the public will probably piefer to judge when their final repoitis presented. As to the unweaiied zeal and public spiiit with which they have canied out theii moiiiemtous task, especially Sir Win, Fox, upon whom the bulk of the work lias fallen, there will, however, I suppose, be hardly two opinions.

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