G.— i

them to their homes. Their release was promised, but the Native Minister would not let them out of his own control. "There must be," he told the Natives, "a clear understanding with regard to the land question, before the prisoners can return to the district which was so long the scene of strife. Your own good sense will tell you the necessity of having these outstanding questions settled, before they [the prisoners] can be allowed to move about as they think proper, and be in a position to create fresh disturbances. Therefore they are first to come to Wellington." At the end of 1871, therefore, the Government were in a double difficulty: north of Waingongoro the Natives were swarming back to their old homes, while in the Patea country on the south all the loyal tribes were clamouring for the prisoners' return to theirs. We ourselves believe that it was this grave embarrassment, and the extreme risk which would necessarily have attended any steps to prevent Titokowaru's return, which led Sir Donald McLean to conceive, at that crisis, the idea of not enforcing the confiscation beyond the Waingongoro. It is clear from what we have said to Your Excellency, that the Government had long been undecided in their course, but had tacitly allowed the dispossessed Natives to return. And these had returned with singular astuteness. Instead of keeping close together in one place, they had spread themselves at once' throughout their old settlements. The Native Office did not know what to say. One of the Under-Secretaries called the attention of the Government to the fact, innocently adding that "he did not know if there was any objection to it." The only answer he got was, that this "depended upon circumstances." Nevertheless it was almost immediately afterwards that the Native Minister seems to have made up his mind. Mr. UnderSecretary Cooper, in a minute on the result of the Ngatimaru meeting, had already recorded the policy which was to be pursued. " The West Coast tribes," he said, " are coming in one by one ; and Titokowaru must, if the present system of treating him with ' a wise and salutary neglect' be kept up, become so discouraged that he will give in before long." Sir Donald McLean approved this view. But in a later minute on the papers about Titokowaru's return, the real issue was expressed in striking terms: " With regard to the Ngaruahine (Titokowaru's hapu)," the Native Under-Secretary said, " I think it would be politically undesirable, and I fear practically impossible, to attempt to prevent their occupying the country north of Waingongoro, the confiscation of that country having been abandoned by the Government, so long as they behave themselves and keep the compact about not crossing Waingongoro." This minute was approved by Sir Donald McLean. Nor must it be supposed that the statement so approved was an accident, or a mere slip of the pen. The words, "confiscation of the country having been abandoned by the Government," were interlined in the Secretary's minute, and could not have escaped the Minister's attention. Taken together with all the events we have endeavoured to describe to Your Excellency, we believe the words indicate with clearness what was passing in the mind of Sir Donald McLean at the close of the year 1871. He would not abandon the confiscation : but neither would he enforce it. He would institute a new system, under which the Ngatiruanui tribes should be induced to relinquish their claims on both sides the river, receiving ample compensation out of the vote which Parliament had placed at his disposal for the acquisition of Native title in the North Island. Within a week he had left Wellington, and was busy preparing, at Whanganui, the Instructions of 1872. Before we ask Your Excellency to look at the effect of the new system, which so largely influenced the course of affairs throughout the Coast, it seems desirable to trace in a few words the position in which the Ministry of that day found itself at the opening of the new year (1872). We say at once that the right policy would have been to treat Titokowaru and Taurua both alike. They were both representatives of the insurgents of 1868, and should have been allowed to return to their respective districts on precisely the same conditions, the principal of which should have been that they were to settle on reserves assigned to them by the Government. This was the policy laid down for the Pakakohi, and should have been the same for Ngatiruanui. Nor are we here to refuse, as members of the Ministry of that day, our own share of the blame for having allowed a difficulty to

1871. Notes of Whanganui meeting, 30th November 1871. P. P. 1872, F.-3A.

Halse, Minute, 23rd December 1871.

Under-Secretary Cooper, Minute, 3rd January 1872. Sir D. McLean, Minute, 4th January 1872.

Under-Secretary Cooper, Minute, 25th December 1871, on 71/1791.

Sir D. McLean, Minute, 26th December 1871.

1872.

XVII