PETITION TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR FROM SETTLERS IN THE WAIKATO DISTRICT RELATIVE TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN "AUKATI" LINE ON THE WAIKATO FRONTIER.

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1871 Session I, A-09

A.—No. 9.

PETITION TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR FROM SETTLERS IN THE WAIKATO DISTRICT RELATIVE TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN "AUKATI" LINE ON THE WAIKATO FRONTIER.

PRESENTED TO BOTH HOUSES OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, BY COMMAND OF HIS EXCELLENCY.

WELLINGTON.

1871.

A.—No. 9,

No. 1. Captain McPheeson to His Excellency Sir Geobge F. Bowen, K.G.C.M.G., &c. Sib, — Hamilton, Waikato, 22nd March, 1871. I have the honor to transmit herewith a petition, signed by a large number of influential settlers in the Waikato district, praying your Excellency to urge upon your Government the expediency of establishing an Aukali line on the Waikato frontier, and the adoption of a bold and firm policy in their treatment of the Native question. I have, &c, J. McPheeson, M.H.E., Captain 4th Battalion, A.M.

Enclosure in No. 1. To His Excellency Sir George Ferguson Bowen, Knight Grand Cross of the most distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over Her Majesty's Colony of New Zealand and its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same. We, the undersigned settlers in the Waikato district, beg most respectfully to point out to your Excellency the unsatisfactory state of our relations with the rebel Natives. For years past, your petitioners have been subject to constantly recurring threats of attack by the rebel Natives outside the confiscation line, which threats have been the means of driving many of our settlers out of the district, and have kept away hundreds of useful men, who, but for this uncertain state of things, would have settled here, and has in numberless ways grievously retarded the advancement of this part of the country. Your petitioners beg to inform your Excellency, that it is their firm conviction that their liability to these threats of attack arises in a great measure from the rebel Natives maintaining what they call an Aukali line, which they forbid Europeans from crossing, but which they themselves cross at pleasure, and from their being allowed, without fear of being challenged in any way, to come into our settlements; thus allowing them unlimited opportunities of spying our weakness, and of obtaining information which would be of great advantage to them in the event of an outbreak, and which it is of the utmost importance, for the security of the district, that they should not possess. Your petitioners, therefore, beg most respectfully to suggest to your Excellency the advisableness of fixing a frontier line, and the issuing by your Excellency's Government of a proclamation, prohibiting any Natives from crossing said line under pain of death, and also prohibiting Europeans, under severe penalties, from trading or holding any communication whatever with Natives outside said line. Your petitioners firmly believe that the adoption of a policy as above respectfully suggested would tend greatly to the future peace and prosperity of the district, and ultimately prove the means of compelling the rebel Natives to sue for a more cordial and friendly understanding with the Europeans. Your petitioners are aware that within the limits of a memorial of this kind it is impossible to convey to your Excellency anything like an adequate idea of the magnitude of the question at issue; but trust that the almost unanimous public feeling in the district thus conveyed, will strengthen the Government of your Excellency in adopting a bold and firm policy in their treatment o a question which hitherto has been, and now is, tho curse of this fine country. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, <fcc, &c. [Here follow 167 signatures.]

No. 2. Captain Pitt to Captain McPheeson. Sib— Auckland, 10th April, 1871. I am directed by Sir G. Bowen to acknowledge the receipt, on this day, of your letter of the 22ud ultimo, with the accompanying petition, signed by a large number of the settlers in the Waikato district, and which his Excellency has read with interest, and forwarded for the consideration of His Eesponsible Advisers. The Governor presumes that you have already addressed, to the same effect, the Minister for Defence and Native affairs, who has been for some time past in the Province of Auckland, and who lately visited the Waikato. I have, &c, J. MePherson, Esq., M.H.E., Hamilton, Waikato. H. D. Pitt.

PETITION OF SETTLERS IN THE WAIKATO DISTRICT.