THE HALF MILLION CLAIM.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7828, 22 June 1909, Page 4

THE HALF MILLION CLAIM.

THE HISTORY 1 0F fHE .SfiMAND/

, A UGK^AND/. June' 21.' In connection ifitH. ,the .claim, of half a million made by the 'Aineiityn Government on behalf of one of ;iU cifiztas! against the^New Zealand Government, li is admitted'that it concerns 1 a large area ol land in the Auckland province acquired for ft mere song from the Natives prior td\ 1849, by • a m:aft iiamod Webster, and the' stdf£, i& told as loilow'il: , . ■;.;.,.; When the country was, constituted there lived on the little strip of la'no. inside the Coromandel harbour, 'aim. known as Hcrekino, a man who _has i^pit. (Jegcf-ibed as a big, stout,: jolly itrchtfiatiaij" kijifi; 6f voice and free; of mariner,, pbsfeSsiilg _%. addition to ( lsa strong, American accent ; d p'ffSonahty that forced ..jts _ uppji ; fl» and sundry with whom h,e came' ifi 66iiJ tact. He had arrived some fears be^fore as .a, ship's .carpenter uport.. an American whaler, and seeing p6§Mbil,itios, both pleasant and profitable; in" life ashore in New Zealand that an Americail, whaler would never offer, he cast in jiis lot affiohg the small band of ,pa)ce'has. that wjeVe scattered here and. there in the midst of the cannibal lords, ,of the, land.. "Wiiiiam Webster was jiis Jiafttp, aiifl Very soon, from one' of the- simple/ .makers or nations in New Zealand, he became jthe. dictator and arbitrator between Native and I European over a wide range ,of ..cb.uritrv including the Hauraki, Gulf.. and all its neighbourhood. .In shorp,. without the medium of William Webste'i: iio pakeha could obtain so much;. vlrind as would suffice to give resting room to | his tent or whare, and he was the hogom friend of the great Coromandel chief Hooknose, whose daughter he was (liven in marriage. So Webster set- j tied in the land and prospered. His busy mind, not content with mere idle proprietorship of tlie vast areas of Native demesnes he had either acquired or of which he had claimed possession, lie established trading stations all over the Gulf and Firth of. Thanies, and through these he reaped a rich profit at the time of. the influx of. immigration to. New South Walesby>-buying shiploads of maize, potatoes.and ,other food from the.Natives ,a%d ..sending them across' to New' South. Wales. His headquarters we're at this littlq' ,spqtof Herekino, where he kept a Wiarct'-ing-house for the convenience, of the numerous adventurous 'spirits who came and went, and with whom money or kind was frequently plentiful. From the influence and power he exer'cJsed, both over Maori and pakeha, WeDste£ obtained the sobriquet of "King of Waion." When the commission was olip'oiiitetl h$ Governor Hobson:in.lß4l to enquire into,arid Settle the ■question of these land claims and g'rantSj Webster's claim to landed property wag found to fit with the enterprise of such a man, his possessions or claim or possessions including big areas yn the choicest spots bordering the ~nlt, the Waitemata haying been an apparently favourite pegging-out .place^of his long before the New Zealand Government thought of making : it the ' provincial ) capital, or even before any sign /or European habitation manifested itself round its shores. He a,lso, ,it is authentically stated, laid claim,to,the whole of the Great Barrier, Island, while the Piako Country met with considerable attention. When these-vari-ous '• landholders " were required to give an account of their proprietorship and its ofigin,' Webster agreedi.tp declare himself a claimant as ari Englishman and not .as an 'American' citizen, and when the allotments were made his large_estates dwindled down to mere "backyard estates by 'comparison. Apparently, with the majority of the other dispossessed ones, hejaccepted the situation as philosophically as might be, and little or nothing was heard in protest from him until in the early fifties, when he left; New Zealand for the Californian goldfifelds, in search of further fortunes. Some time after haying left the colony,.a claim, was received by the New Zealarjd Government from Webster, who was then in San.Francisco, and either th£ original claimant or his heirs have at. intervals been pressing their • claims against the New Zealand Government for this dispossessed property.^:'Some few years ago, however, Sir jßobert Stout was commissioned to , sift, the whole matter arid report upon jt, and the result was thai Webster as a claimant was ruled out of cour'.jb It is almost certain that Webster Jis .the man referred to in .the claim respecting which the Solicitor-General is going to England,'but it alsb seems pretty, clear that there is little likelihood |of the claims being substantiated, .for: before the, Crown settled the rights oj claimants to land the Native rights Were.invariably extinguished first by purchase, so that in the event of a claini. being disallowed the land by right 6f purchase went to the Crown.- :\ " ,