NEW ZEALAND PARLIAMENT.

Press, Volume X, Issue 1170, 7 August 1866, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND PARLIAMENT.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. [From the " Independent," July 28.] NATIVE AFFAIRS. The Hon. Colonel Russeil said —I was anxious to lay before this Council at the earliest period of the session the statement upon Native Affairs which I now propose to make, but my absence at Taranaki, which I have already explained and apologised for, prevented my doing so until now. I hold it, sir, to be the one great advantage of responsible Government in Native Affairs that it gives publicity to our administrative action, and enables the Legislature to exercise that surveillance and control over its Ministers which it has an undoubted right to exercise. I therefore, without further delay, propose to state : — Ist. The position of affairs upon my assuming the office of Native Minister. 2nd. The objects which I have aimed at in administering that office, and the progress wbich I have made towards their attainment. 3rd. The measures which I desire to introduce for the future government of the NativesIt will be remembered that the present Government came into office at the close of the last session of the Parliament, when largely increased representation had been lately given to the Middle Island, when the mind of the country was very unsettled aa to its future gov_mment, and when it would have beenj very unwise to adopt any great change in ■ native policy until the views of the colony aa

to that future government had been obtained through its representatives and through this Council. I have spoken of the advantage of responsible Government in native affairs, but I conceive, sir, it haa also this great evil, that since its introduction, no one lino of policy has been persevered in for more than one session, that the peace policy of Mr Fox's Government was succeeded by tlie more belligerent policy of Air Domett, and that again by the avowedly war policy of the FoxWhitaker administration, that again by the self-reliant policy of Mr Weld, that again by the Government of which I am member, onall this in the course of four sessions. It appeared, therefore, to be my duty to address myself during the recess to the more careful administration of the Native office, to take up the tangled rein 3of native government, to endeavor to educe order out of chaos, to stop, with a firm but prudent hand, the lavish expenditure which Lid become a scandal and a cause of just irritation to the European taxpayer, and an equally just cause of contempt and demoralisation to the natives, to cease the attempt to bribe them to good behavior, to keep in pay those only who do good service, and above all to bring them under the laws which govern the Europeans, and teach them that they are really and indeed what we have professed to make them, viz., subjects of the Queen, having not only the rights and privileges of British subjects, but their duties and responsibilities also. Sir, it appeared to mc that if I could make only some progress during the reces3 in carrying out these objects, I should be much better employed tban in devising some elaborate scheme of native government which would be scarcely introduced before, in its turn, it also might be set aside by the General Assembly. I will now state as briefly as possible what progress I have made towards the attainment of those objects. My first duty was the appointment of Judges under tbe " Native Lands Act, 1865." Most of the gentlemen so appointed had held office under the Act of 1862, and having held sittings, some of which had not been eonpleted, it was essential that not a day should be lost alter the passing of the Act of 1865, in their re-appointment. Six Judges were accordingly appointed under the new Act, and the Native Lands Court has since been in full operation chiefly in the Province of Auckland, but it is gradually extending to other provinces. I lay upon the table of tho Council a return giving the fullest information which I am myself posaessed of, and it will be my duty to return to this subject upon a future occasion. I may here remark that I have heard of some dissatisfaction with the working of the Native Lands Act, and I fwill not myself say that it has been as extended in its operations as I could have wished for. Hitherto, its chief action has been in the Province of Auckland, but some progress has been made in Hawke's Bay. We have also lately had a court sitting in Wellington, and I have no doubt that, as it becomes better known and understood, it will work in the other provinces as freely as it ha_ done in Auckland. There have been already about 200,000 acrea adjudicated upon, and I have no doubt there will within the next year be at least a million.

Contemporaneous with the action of tbe Native Lands Court has been that of tbe Compensation Courts, held under the " New Zealand Settlements and Amendment Act," for the compensation of those friendly Natives from whom it has been necessary to take land for military and other settlements required for the security of the country. And hero again I have heard of dissatisfastion with the working of the Court, but I believe that dissatisfaction should be directed to the conflicting action of the Acts of 1863 and 1865, and to that of the Orders of Council, proclamations, and instructions which have been issued, rather than to the Compensation Court.' It has been found impossible to carry out the provisions of those Acts and Orders in Council consistently with the action which has been taken by Government, without causing an amount of complication which would have caused a most seridus difficulty to the colony. It waa on this account that I wa« summoned to Taranaki, and I believe but for the presence of a Minister and the cordial assistance of the Court, of that very able officer, Mr Parris, and tho Crown agent, Mr William Atkinson, the result woidd have been not only the renewed disturbance and further complication of the Waitara question, but the absolute payment of compensation by the colony to the military settlers of from one to two hundred thousand pounds. This, I am happy to say, has -been averted, and the whole of the very complicated questions adjusted without the payment of one farthing by the colony. I now pass on to the subject of native expenditure, to which it may be remembered I called tho attention of the Government in the course of last session, and to which I \ immediately turned my own attention on I assuming office. I found, as I feared, that I all tho machinery for carrying out Mr Fox's peace policy of 1861 was still exist- , ing in 1865, though that scheme of policy had given place to so many others in the I interim. I found, in some cases. Civil Commissioners with nothing, or worse than nothing to do, yet drawing large salaries, and forage allowances, and travelling allowances, and house allowances, and contingencies, having also clerks and interpreters also witli good salaries and forage allowances, &c. I found also medical officers, who should have had plenty to do but did not do it, with salaries, forage allowance, travelling allowance, allovvance for drugs, allowance for medical comforts, &c. I found Civil Commissioners provided with yachts, each yacht with two boatmen, each boatman with £127 10s a year ; but the climax of absurdity was reached when I came to the native officials. These, I found, ranged under tlie heads of pensioners, assessors, heads of runangas, wardens, kareres, ! constables, directors of public works, clerks j of works, clerks to runangas. With regard to the pensioners, it was not easy to say in many oases for what service they had been granted. They range from £5 a year to £200, and they amount on the whole to £2400 per annum. In the absence of any information about them in the Native office, I have abstained from interfering with those pensions lest I should unintentionally injure some man who had really done the State good service, but I propose to avail myself of such information regarding the granting of these pensions as I can obtain from gentlemen attending the General Assembly. The assessors are a sort of native magistrate, intended to assist the Resident Magistrate, and I have found as many as twenty-two in one district, and of wardens, who seem generally to have had no j duty assigned to them, as many as thirteen in one district; then Kareres, a sort of Native policeman, as many as forty in one district. I had intended to read the list of European and Native officers in the Native district of the Bay of Plenty, but it would weary the Council, and I therefore refrain. It was not pretended that these men were, except in a few cases, employed in the offices which they professed to hold —no such offico existed in many cases. When I proposed reducing them, I was often told that the owners had not desired them; that they had been pressed upon them; that they leluctantly accepted them ; but ; that, having been induced to accept them, it would be very dangerous to the peace of the country to attempt to suppress them. But these officers and salaries appeared to mc in fact a miserable attempt to bribe the Natives to good behaviour, and I veriiy believe they had no other effect than to expose our weakness to the contempt of the recipients. Well, sir, I do not believe in such Native policy as this. I do not believe in giving a pension to a man who flies the Hau-hau flag at bis pa, who entertains armed rebels, and draws around him the disaffected from all- quarters in defiance of tbe law— who openly and avowedly breaks and defies the law. I believe it to be not only the more manly but the wiser policy to cay to such a man : choose your line, be friend or foe • but if you choose the latter, do not look for pensions or presents or rewards, but i sooner or later for the Chatham Islands. Entertaining those views, I have made considerable reductions. In the one district to which I have alluded, I have cut off £1700 a year, including Europeans and Natives. I

announced those reductions to thera myself, and was met in tho frank spirit wi»h which I always havo been met by Natives when speaking frankly and honestly to them. In other districts I have made corresponding reductions, yet in general they aro far from being as great as I think they should be. I have felt that where I have be*>n unable to visit the district myself, it has bivn necessary to allow considerable weight to the representations of the Resident Magistrates of the districts ; and therefore, whilst I have laid down, as a general rule, that few districts require more than four assessors :rni four policemen, I have not generally reduced thera at onco to less thau half their former number, requiring, however, that no vacancies should be filled up until they had from absence, misconduct, or other cause, reach the minimum which I have established. The expenditure, however, is at present £25,000 a year less than asked for by my predecessor. But I fear I weary the Council with these details, end will only add upon this subject that I have, except in three cases, suppressed the office of Civil Commissioner altogether, and have brought the Resident Magistrates into direct communication with myself. By so doing, I have thrown the responsibility of the district upon the Resident Magistrate, and havo simplified the transaction of business, which formerly passed through the Civil Commissioner's office before it reached the G-overnmenc. In the three cases to which I have referred, viz , at Auckland, Tanranga, and Taranaki, I have retained for a time the i Civil Commissioners, because it appeared necessary to have an experienced Native officer nearer than the seat of Government, to whom reference could be made iv caso of great and sudden emergency; but even in those districts the ordinary correspondence and business is carried on by Resident Magistrates direct with the Government, copies only of important communießtions being eeufc to the Civil Commissioners. As respects Resident Magistrates, T conceive they have been too numerous, and their district, too small. Two magistrates only have, however, yet been suppressed, but as opportunities offer of making other provision for the present incumbents, I propose further reducing the number of districts. I have endeavored at the same time to simplify the duties and correspondence of tho Native department, by requiring that a printed return should be posted on tho first day of .each month, giving in a few words all the information which can be desired from every district in the colony. Thus at a glance the Native Minister is able to see the whole state of the colony on the first day of each month, as woll as every remarkable circumstance which has occurred during the previous month. I lay upon the table of the Council a complete file of those returns for the Ist July, and if any hon. member desires to see the state of native feeling, the European and Native population, the general occupation, the state of health, or any other particular relating to a district, he has only to refer to those returns to find all the information he desires. There is another and scarcely less interesting return in course of preparation, which, however, I should hesitate to lay upon the table of the Council for a reason which I will explain. I found on entering upon my duties an absolute want of information in the Native office as to men who were taking a prominent part in the history of the country, few of the gentlemen connected with the office had held their position for any length of time, and native names were frequently coming before mc, of which I myself knew nothing, and of which no one in the Native office knew much more. A letter might therefore be received, seemingly fraught with important matter, might be from a chief of high rank and influence, or from a person of no rank or importance. I therefore caused a circular and pi inted form to , be addressed to Resident Magistrates, ' begging them to insert the names of every man of first, second, and thirdrate influence, who had taken any prominent part in their district since the commencement of the Taranaki war in 1860, with a short history of each. From these returns I am having compiled an alphabetical list, which will give a short history of every Native of importance in the country, and my intention was to have had ifc printed in book form,-and furnished to each member of the Legislature, and each Resident Magistrate in the colony; but it has been suggested that however valuable such a book of reference may be in the Native office, it would scarcely be safe to publish generally tho opinion which Resident Magistrates have expressed of the remarkable characters in their districts, and I should therefore hesitate to lay it on the table of the Council lest some hon. member should move that it be printed. If, however, any hon. gentleman should in future desire a character of any leading man in New Zealand, we shall probably be able to supply it from the Native office. "I will now advert as briefly as possible to the action which I have taken with respect to the Chatham Islands. In doing so I will not dwell upon the military successes which have crowned our efforts upon the east and west coasts of this island, those details belong rather to my hon. friend the Defence Minister, who will not fail to bring them under the notice of the General Assembly. It will be sufficient forme to state that they have eventuated in the capture, trial, and punishment of most of the murderers- of Mr Volkner and Mr Fulloon, and although the chief instigators,viz , Kereopa, Patar'a, and isome others are yet at large, as are also the murderers of Kereti and Mr Brougbton, there is every reason to believe that their capture is but a Question of time, and that they also will eventually be brought to justice. But it was felt that in addition to the protection which tho Supreme Court affords against the more open, violent, and bloodthirsty of the Natives in rebellion, it was necessary to have recourse to come prompt measure which should serve to check the progress of rebellion, and remove for a time, from their Bphere of action, the restless and troublesome Bpirits who persisted in disturbing the peace of the colony. The arrival at the seat of Government at the moment of the Resident Magistrate and come of the leading chiefs of the Chatham Islands enabled mc to make arrangements by which about 120 prisoners, taken in rebellion, have been sent to those islands. I lay upon the table of the Council " Chatham Island Papers," winch will afford tho fullest information to hon. | members of the steps which I have taken. It I will be seen that nothing has been omitted to divest the measure of unnecessary severity— that the prisoners' wives and children have been allowed to accompany them—that ample rations have been provided—that land has been allotted for their cultivation, and the hope of return held out to them as soon as the suppression of rebellion and their own good conduct seem to justify the Government in restoring them to homes ; but I may here remark that my latest information leaves them so satisfied with their new abode that it seems unlikely they will desire tj return. I have detained the Council too long, but will now bring my remarks to a close, with a brief outline of the measures which I desire to see adopted iv the future government of the Natives, but I state these rather as an indicaI tion of my own views of the direction in which we ahould move than as a deliberate design to be immediately acted on, for I have been so much away from the seat of Government, aud the pressure upon my time has been so great since my return, that I have not yet been able to either mature any plans or to lay them before my colleagues. Ist. It appears to mc that the time ha 3 arrived when it has become necessary that the Natives should be heard in the General Assembly. I desire, therefore, to call to the Legislative Council three of the leading chiefs of New Zealand, men who have been distinguished by their unswerving loyalty, their marked friendship for Europeans, and the high estimation in which they are held by their native ' brethren. I further desire to introduce a Bill for granting to the Natives six representatives in the other House, viz., two for the Province of Auckland, one for each of the provinces of Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, and Wellington, and one for the Middle Islaud. I may here mention that, taking the Native population at 40,000, and my latest information places it at that number, the proportion would be one representative to every 6,600 eouls. Whereas the European

representation is one to every 3,300 souls, it cannot thorefore bo said that the number proposed is excessive. I do not of course propose there should bo any restriction as to the race of the representatives, but I imagine they would at first be Europeans. I will not dwell further on this subject at present, as I shall have an opportunity for doing so should it be thought right to introduce such a Bill as I hare alluded to in the course o( this session. The second measure I desire to see adopted is the gradual and careful repeal of restrictive law 3, including the Spirit Selling Ordinance. I approach this subject with great anxiety, but with strong conviction of its necessity. It niu*t have long been apparent to the most unobservant, that tho existing law is a dead letter in most parts of the colony—provoking only irritation, evasion, and contempt of the law which the Nutivos sea continually and openly broken. My own observation leads mc to believe that it augments rather than prevents drunkenness, inasmuch as that Natives find no difficulty whatever in getting spirits in large quantities even where there is some show of not selling it to them in small. I have sought the opinion of the Natives themselves on this subject, as on all others where I havo desired to legislate in their interests in all parts of the country, and have found as a rale that they feel irritated *by the exceptional legislation, while they scoff at the idea of its restraining them. Upon the subject of Native reserves, I will not detain you at present ; it is a very important subject, and will require more than the j passing notice which I could now give it. The education of the Natives is a subject which lias occupied much of my thoughts, and requires the most careful consideration, inasmuch as that our efforts up to the present moment have been very far from producing the result which we have desired. At present these efforts are in a state of paralysis, and it is absolutely necessary that renewed attempts should be made, for the present generation is growing up in utter neglect and ignorance. I propose, therefore, at a later period of tho session, to bring this eubject again under notice. The last subject to which I allude is that of opening communication through native lands. I have found on visiting native districts a keen apprehension of the advantages, and, indeed, the necessity for thus opening the interior of the country to communication with tho coast; and I have taken tho opportunity of pointing out the justice and propriety of their setting aside for sale blocks of land at present nearly worthless to them to aid in the development of that which adjoins it, and I have always been met with an apparent readiness to adopt my advice. To this subject it will also be my duty to call attention at a later period of the session. I will now conclude by stating my conviction, that if the native affairs of this island be in future conducted with ordinary prudence and design, having for ultimate object the fusion of the two races, which can alone save the Natives from extinction, the department over which I have the honor to preside will cease to be necessary before tho expiry of the present Parliament, the ordinary machinery of government will be sufficient for both races, and the Queen will reign over a united people.