OLD MAORI LAND SALE

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22274, 13 December 1937, Page 8

OLD MAORI LAND SALE

HOPE OP SETTLEMENT AFTER 90 YEARS £354,000 COMPENSATION CLAIMED i »- 1 V. PAKEHA POLICY OF “TAIHOA” ALLEGED After 90 years of disappointed hopes, members of the Ngaitahu tribe of South Island Maoris are looking forward to the settlement of the Kemp land claim, which they have been pressing since 1848, when a large strip of land of 12,500,000 acres on the east coast of the South Island was bought from the natives for £2OOO by an agent of the New Zealand Company. As the purchaser of the company, the New Zealand Government inherits the liability, and the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, Minister for Native Affairs, has agreed to receive three representatives of the tribe soon at a round-table conference in Wellington. The Maoris’ claim is for £354,000. which a Royal Commission of 1920 recommended the Government should pay them. Already, it is said, the endeavours of the Maoris to obtain satisfaction of the claim have cost them more than £354,000. A recent meeting of the Christchurch runanga (Maori community) appointed Mr J. H. Kingi, of Christchurch, to represent it at a conference of delegates of the pas of the Ngaitahu tribe throughout the South Island, to be held in Christchurch to select the three members of the deputation to meet Mr Savage. About 20 delegates are expected to attend. Mr Kingi, who is regarded among Maoris as their leading genealogical student, is a direct descendant of the noted Ngaitahu chief Turakautahi. His runanga has instructed him, whether he is chosen as a member of the delegation or not, to go to Wellington to urge the claim, and he intends to do so. The reason for calling the conference Mr Kingi is at a loss to understand; for, he says, every party that has sat on the Treasury benches in recent years, as well as every party in opposition, is fully acquainted with the facts of the case. Demands for the settlement of the claim have met with constant postponement and evasion from successive governments, he contends. “Taihoa” (by and by) was the word he used to describe this policy. Policy of “Taihoa” In the days when Sir James Carroll was Native Minister in the Seddon Cabinet, Mr Kingi said, Maori chiefs used to troop into Wellington from the north to negotiate for the sale of their land, but when they approached the Native Minister, they would be waved away with the word “taihoa." This wise procrastination was appreciated at the time by thinking Maoris, because it prevented the reckless alienation of native lands. Now, however, the pakeha’s “taihoa” had become the bugbear of the Maori. Mr Kingi estimates that there are between 300 and 400 direct descendants of the Ngaitahu tribe who may claim benefits from the £354,000, which they say is due to them. Members of the tribe, the chief pa of which is at Kaiapohia, have scattered throughout the South Island, from Kaikoura to Southland, and some have migrated to the North Island. One man is still alive who can give a contemporary’s account of the actual sale in 1848. He is Mr Hoani Matiu, of Puketeraki, near Waikouaiti, who was, of course, only a boy at the time of Kemp’s purchase; but, Mr Kingi says, the boys of those days, having only one language to learn, soon shared the discourse of their elders and were fully aware of the events going on around them. Since the claim was first made, large sums, raised by voluntary subscription among the Maoris of the South Island, have been spent on keeping the claim legally alive. This expense, added to the outlay of prospective beneficiaries in proving before the Native Land Court their direct descent from members of the tribe, and the cost of feting Ministers, to whom the circumstances of the case have been explained, and of the huis and other tribal gatherings held to discuss the claim have already exhausted the £354,000, it is said. It is therefore regarded as repayment. History of the Claim It was at a meeting of South Island chiefs at Akaroa in 1848 that one of Ihe most fertile areas in the island was bartered away for the trifling sum of £2OOO. The agent of the New Zealand Company and of the Governor, Henry Tracy Kemp, who was on board H.M.S. Fly in Akaroa Harbour, came ashore to negotiate with the chiefs. He offered them £2OOO for the 12.500,000 acres. When one Maori, wiser than the rest, demurred, exclaiming that the land was worth £5,000,000, Kemp threatened that, it the offer were not accepted, he would pay the money to Te Rauparaha, who had defeated the Ngaitahu in battle at Akaroa, and who might therefore be considered to hold the land by right of conquest. So the offer was accepted. The transaction cost Kemp his office, for he was immediately dismissed when the Governor (Sir George Grey) heard of the sale.

According to the deed of sale, “some portion” of the land was to be set aside as a native reserve. This has never been done. The present claim is based not on this omission, but on the allegation that the price of £2OOO, which was paid in four instalments, was grievously insufficient. Seventy-five years have been spent in pursuing a settlement. During the Seddon regime, Mr (later Sir John) Hosking successfully defended the claim before a commission of inquiry, and the Government of the day admitted that the claim was just. It is from this event that Mr Kingi dates the era of unfulfilled promises. When Mr Hosking was appointed to the judiciary, the matter fell into abeyance, and no further progress was made until after the Great War. Largely through the work of the late Mr J. H. W. Uru, an Indenendent Maori member of Parliament, a Royal Commission sat in 1920 to hear the natives’ claim for £1,000,000 compensation. Basing its assessment on a standard of id an acre, it recommended the payment of £354,000. The recommendation of the Royal Commission has not been put into