MAORI RIGHTS TO LAND

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 138, 13 June 1932, Page 6

MAORI RIGHTS TO LAND

BISHOP SELWYN , S DEFENCE

This k the ninetieth year since the arrival in New Zealand of Dr. G. A. Selwyn, the first and only Bishop of the Anglican Church for the whole Dominion. The following history of his strong. protest in defence of the rights of the Maori under the Treaty of Waitangi is of special interest as illustrating the attitude of the Church in those far-away days. Many of l the early arrivals in. New Zealand sneered badly from that ever prevalent disease, "Land hunger," and they seemed unable to understand why the Maoris should be allowed to retain large areas of country, which white men were anxious to secure at a nominal price. To that type of man the r "reaty of Waitangi ■■ was' but "a scrap of paper," but to Sir George Grey, Bishop Selwyn and others, it was a sacred obligation, that the provisions under which the natives ceded the sovereignty of these islands to ■ the British should be maintained in their entirety. Even in the English House of Commons a motion was adopted that all lands in New Zealand not actually occupied by the Maoris should be declared the property of" the Crown and offered: for sale to white settlers. Although that was never brought into force, it was communicated to the Governor, and it was that which caused the protest from the Bishop. In July, 1847, Bishop Selwyn wrote from St. John's Co'llege, Tamaki, the following letter to Sir George G-rey, the Governor: "I George Augustus Selwyn, by Divine permission Bishop of New Zealand, on my own behalf, and on behalf of the clergymen of this diocese employed by Captain Hobson to interpret and explain the Treaty of Waitangi to the native chiefs of New Zealand, do hereby record my deliberate and formal protest against the principles expressed in a letter of instructions addressed by the Rt. Hon. Earl Gray to your Excellency, bearing date Downing Street, December 23, 1840, to the effect that the savage inhabitants of New Zealand have no right of property in land which they do not occupy, and which has remained unsubdued to the purposes of man. Against this doctrine I feel myself called upon to protest, as the head of the missionary body, by whose influence and representations the native chiefs were induced to sign the Treaty of Waitangi, not one of whom would have consented to act as an agent of' the British Government if the assurance given to them by Captain Hobson had not been directly contrary the principles now avowed by the Rt. Hon. Earl Gray. "It ds my duty also to inform your Excellency that I am resolved, God being my helper, to use all legal and constitutional measures, befitting my station, to inform the natives of New Zealand of their rights and privileges as British subjects, and to assist them in asserting and maintaining them, whether by petition to the Imperial Parliament or other loyal and peaceable methods; but that, in so doing, I shall not forget the respect which I owe your Excellency, nor do anything which can be considered likely to add to the difficulties of the colony." This protest by Bishop Selwyn is of importance, as it disposes of the allegations made subsequently that the missionaries had deceived the Maoris by withholding facts when they took an active part in obtaining signatures of chiefs to the Treaty of Waitangi. Mr. Mair states in his diary that Archdeacon Williams and other missionaries spent many hours pointing out to Hone Heke the benefits secured to the Maoris under the provisions of that treaty. "Unfortunately," wrote Mr. Mair, "there were other influences at work to prejudice the minds of Heke and other Maoris against British rule. Heke was told by an American skipper of a whaler that the flag at Kororareka was a sign that the country had passed from the Maoris. The missionaries were often appealed to as to the truth of the statements made."