FURTHER PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE NATIVE INSURRECTION.

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1861 Session I, E-01c

E—No. lc

FURTHER PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE NATIVE INSURRECTION.

STATISTICAL NOTES RELATING TO THE MAORIS AND THEIR TERRITORY, BY CHARLES HEAPHY.

PRESENTED TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES BY COMMAND 0E HIS EXCELLENCY.

E—No. lc

STATISTICAL NOTES EELATING TO THE MAOEIS AND THEIE TEEEITOEY, By Chables Heaphy.

It has been stated in England, and even asserted in New Zealand, that the present war has resulted from a feeling of apprehension on the part of the Natives of an encroachment by Europeans on their lands, to such an extent as would shortly leave them a territory insufficient for their wants —an aggression that, driving tribe upon tribe in its insiduous advance, was monopolizing all but the unfertile land. The decadence of the Native population was also so connected in various statements, with the extension of the white occupation of territory as to lead to but one inference— that of the Natives being engaged in a war for the preservation of their land, and with it for their existence. An examination into the circumstances of the numbers of the Natives, their extent of territory, and the amount of land acquired by the Europeans, will I think, prove that, however jealous the Maoris may have been of the increase of the whites, no fear of being dispossessed of their lands, or of being driven on each other could have actuated them in having recourse to arms. The area of the Northern Island of New Zealand, the seat of -?4- of the total Maori population, is about 29,688,480* acres ; and of this area about 7,064,660 acres are in the hands of the British • —while 22,623,820 acres remain to the Natives ; the latter then, have an extent of land equal in area to three times that which they have alienated. The numbers of each race, by the last Census, were of Maoris 53,056, and of Europeans 39,484. If a pressure had existed, its effects might have been looked for amongst those Natives who had sold the largest proportional share of their territory, and of those the Ngatikahungunu, the Earawa, and the Ngatewhatua tribes are most conspicuous. The Ngatikahungunu tribe, of the East Coast, with a populution of 6339 souls, out of a territory of 5,530,240f acres have retained but 3,025,440 acres. The Earawa tribe, at the North Cape, numbering 107 J souls, has retained but 264,000 acres ; and the Ngatiwhatua, of the vicinity of Auckland, with 505 souls, has kept but 107,520 acres. Of the Ngatikahungunu, it may be said, that while undoubtedly sympathizing with Kingi and participating in the National or "King" movement, they neither joined in the war nor committed any act of hostility at a time when a manifestation by them would have materially embarrassed the British and equally assisted the rebels. The Earawa tribe is loyal, and expresses its condemnation of the Taranaki rebellion. The Ngatiwhatua tribe has steadily opposed the King movement and discouraged the rebellion : the influence of itfl Chiefs has been actively exorcised to quell local disturbances during ■the war. With it, as a tribe, there is probably the greatest relative amount of agricultural industrial prosperity. The locality of the Earawa tribe is hemmed in by either coast on, the narrow part of the extreme North of the Island ; and that of the Ngatiwhatua is completely enclosed by the white possessions and the coast. In the instance of these two tribes a pressure would, if anywhere, have been felt, and an uneasiness on their part at once accounted for ; but so far from any such • effect having resulted, these natives—busily engaged in supplying the markets of Mongonui and Auckland with their produce—seem to be perfectly satisfied with the neighbourhood of the white man to whom they have sold a moiety, at least, of their lands. On the other hand, the tribes that commenced and fed the rebellion are all in possession of very extensive territories, and some with but an insignificant fraction of their land alienated to the British. The Ngatiawa, Wiremu Kingi's tribe, hold about 460,800 acres with a population of 1466 souls. Their country, which is very fertile, extends from the Waitara river northward to Mokau, a district to which they returned in 1848, § and on which the white people have never shown any intention of encroaching. That the migration from Cook's Straits of this tribe was not caused by a pressure is evident from the fact that since the time of the movement the Ngatiawa have leased and. sold considerable areas to the English. The Taranaki and Ngatiruanui tribes were, by the murder of the unarmed settlers and boys, the first to commence hostilities. They were entirely unconnected with Kingi's land dispute, and had no land grievance of their own ; but for many years they had been inimical to the settlers and had openly discussed a plan for " driving the white people into the sea," and occupying their cultivations. These tribes inhabit the fertile and almost plain country extending southward from the New Plymouth settlement along about ninety-seven miles of coast, from the Ilauranga stream to within a few miles of Wanganui. Their population is about 2,049 ; and of a territory which comprises 1,236,480 acres, they have sold 152,320 acres, leaving them 1,084,160, or rather more than 529 acres to each person.

See speech of tlie Rarawa Chiefs at Mongonui to Hii Excellency Governor Gore Browne, op occasion of recent visit i' H.M.S. •« Iris."

See report of proce*. ings of Ngatiwhatua Chiefs during the disturbances at Patamahoe and Otahuhu.

And in respect to the Ngatiwhatua are yet offering additional lands.

Exclusive of the Ngatiawa lands at Waikanae and Queen Charlotte's Sound.

* See computation of area of Provinces, by the Deputy Waste Land Commissioner of Auckland, and Chppman's Almanack for 1860. t Computation of areas, from Official Maps, &c., by C. Heaphy, Provincial Land Surveyor, 1861. j Numbers relating to Native tribes are taken from a " Summary of Native Population," founded on the last census, by Andrew Sinclair, Government surveyor, dated October, 1860. § See note in Appendix A.

3

FURTHER PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE NATIVE INSURRECTION,

E—No. lc

And this was the worst land in their district,

Few tribes in Now Zealand had less cause to fear the encroachment of the Pakeha than the Ngatimaniapoto at Kawhia. Out of a territory of 954,000 acres not more than 53,605 acres have been alienated, leaving 900,395 acres, with a good harbour, and fifty miles of coast, to a Maori population of 2585 persons. The fixed white population of Kawhia amounted, in 1859, to about forty-seven persons only, and was not fast increasing. Of the three harbours lying in or abutting on the Ngatimaniapoto country, Mokau is entirely without alienated territory, and two others, — Aotea and Kawhia, — have but small Missionary and trading stations on their banks : yet the natives of these places were the first to join Kingi's rebellion. On the adjacent harbour of Whaingaroa, where half the land is European, the natives and their Chief William Naylor are conspicuous for their loyalty. The natives who fought at Mahoetahi were of the Ngatihaua from Mata Mata on the Thames. The actions at Matarikoriko and those at Huirangi and the sap were chiefly with the Waikato natives. So far from the Europeans having excluded the Maories from the more fertile land, it is patent to all that the interior land of the Waikato, Waipa, and Taupo— particularly fertile and attractive, and accessible by means of the rivers—-is exclusively in the hands of the natives ; nor has any movement taken place of a nature to alarm them in an agrarian point of view. In the Thames district the Europeans hold 64,731 acres, and in the Waikato about 4343 acres, out of an aggregate area of 2,906,000 acres, and would be represented roughly by the fraction Vo-. The Chiefs of the Taupo country had at the commencement of the King movement urged that the Europeans should be expelled the country. They and the Upper Wanganui Natives afforded assistance in men, arms, and ammunition to the rebels. The Taupo and Upper Wanganui country comprises 2,880,000 acres. The white people hold 2 acres, the fraction is therefore X rr-r-o-,-o-(ro-> Since the commencement of the war offers of blocks of land have been made by the tribes near Auckland and the large settlements, but none by Natives of the more distant interior. It appears then, that as we go farther from settlement, the feeling of hostility to Government becomes stronger, and the desire to exclude the white man, by debarring him from the acquisition of land, the more steadfast. The Waikato tribes object now to a practice which had to some degree obtained, that which they term i the " tikanga rite," of giving leases to squatters, without the cognizance of the Government, While the Taranaki and Ngatiruanui tribes seem to have been actuated by the mere love of marauding and plunder, and to have acted without concert with Kingi, the Waikato appear to have fought for a principle. They have set up a King, and in his name and by him they expect to bring their numbers, united under one head, to bear successfully against the Government. The origin of their disaffection in the interior, was probably a jealousy (so general as to be almost national) of the European wealth, and increasing power —of the wealth that they could not participate in to the extent of the tribes that trafficed nearer to Auckland, and the larger settlements, and. of a power which the Chiefs feared would, by elevating the social position of the individual, undermine their influence amongst the people.

The lands in the Thames, although purchased in 1839 from the natives, have not (save in some insignificant cases) been yet occupied. The natives have scarcely yet been in contact with settlers, and far less had occasion to fear a pressure.

See speeches of Te Heu Heu and others at the native meetings at the commencement of the King movement. The Ngatiwhatua and Kaipara tribes have offered 102,314 acres, near Auckland, since the commencement of hostilities. The natives of Wellington have offered about 54,0(10 acres in the same period.

APPENDIX A. Note.—lt is a peculiar feature in the history of Taranaki that before the regular settlement of the country by the British, it had for several years been almost deserted by the Natives. The Waikato conquered it in 1830, while the chief part of the Ngatiawas were at Waikanae,. but not considering it worth while to retain occupation, they returned Northward to benefit by the trade of Sydney vessels in the harbours of the Thames and Manukau. A miserable remnant of about 30 or 40 Natives of the Ngatiawa lived at Ngamotu point in 1839, when the writer was there, and were prepared to swim off to the Sugar-loaf Island, where they had formed burrows, and \ laid up provisions, in anticipation of a renewed invasion of the Waikatos. At this time Wiremu King, or Whiti as he was called, sailed in the " Tory" from village to village in Cook Strait to pursuade the Ngatiawa to sell Taranaki, in order that he and they might return to the North of the Waitara and dwell there in the security afforded by the presence of the white people, and upon reserves which were promised to be set apart for such purposes. In 1848 Wiremu Kingi and a large section of the Ngatiawa returned and took up their residence on the north bank of the Waitara, where they yet hold about 460,800 acres.

" The fear of second inva&ion being now removed, the refugees began to re-occupy the land"— vide " The Taranaki Question," by Sir William Martin, D.C.L.

APPENDIX B.

On the roads of the Provinces of Wellington and New Plymouth it is, for example, common to meet a greater number of Maori bullock-carts than of vehicles belonging to Europeans * » It often happens that every second craft alongside the pier of the Port of Auckland is owned by Maories.

Note. —Although not brought into account in the preceding pages, the Native (Land) Eeserves and the benefits accruing from them must not be lost sight of. In Wellington and Wanganui, Taranaki and Nelson, these Eeserves were set apart from the period of the commencement of the settlements, and their purposes have been preserved in full integrity. On these lands the Natives have cultivated with more success than on any purely Maori territory. It is not the Natives who 7 e cultivations are interspersed with.those of the settlers that have resisted the Queen's Government and her forces, but chiefly those whose wide and unimproved territories lie most remote from the operations of the colonist.

Memoranda by C. W. Richmond, Esq., Col. Treasurer.—See " Further Papers relative to Native Affairs," 1860. The Ngapuhi, who inhabit this part of New Zealand, are, perhaps, the finest of its tribes. They have been longer and more closely in contact with Europeans than any other, and are at the present time more loyally disops?d and moie anxious to promote European settlement"—lbid,

4

FURTHER PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE NATIVE INSURRECTION.

PLAN Sherming Relative Extent of lands in the PROVINCE of TARANAKI REFERENCE