Land sold for under 0.1 p.c. of asking price

Press, 23 September 1987, Page 9

Land sold for under 0.1 p.c. of asking price

By

Jane England,

Maori affairs reporter

The Crown’s record of bad faith, breaches of promise, and threats was yesterday revealed through documents released for the first time in the Ngai Tahu land claim hearing.

At the second hearing of the Ngai Tahu land claims at Tuahiwi marae, the Waitangi Tribunal was told that the tribe had originally asked for £5 million to be paid in exchange for lands contained in Kemp’s Deed. The Tribe only agreed to drop the price to £2OOO in exchange for the Crown’s promise to grant the Ngai Tahu lands they wished to retain and maintain their right to natural food resources. Through the evidence and findings of the Smith and Naim Royal Commission it was revealed that those rights were later denied. The documentation gathered by the commission had not been presented publicly for more than 100 years. The Government which had appointed the commission in 1879 to investigate the Ngai Tahu land claim quashed it two years later when its interim findings showed that the commission favoured the Ngai Tahu. Kemp’s Deed, which encompassed land in Canterbury, North Otago, and Central Otago, had in 1848 been made out to the New Zealand Company which had a policy of reserving for the Maoris one-tenth of the land surveyed.

The commission found that the Ngai Tahu were entitled to that land which they had never received. Mr Harry Evison, a historian, unearthed the commission’s findings from National Archives. He is giving evidence in support of the Ngai Tahu claim. The thrust of the Ngai Tahu evidence yesterday was to show that

the Crown through its actions after the Kemp’s Deed transaction had breached the Treaty of Waitangi. Soon after the transaction the Crown committed a series of acts and omissions which deprived the Ngai Tahu of the mahinga kai (natural food resources) and lands to which they were entitled under the treaty. According to their evidence to the Smith and Nairn commission, neither Governor George Grey nor the land purchase commissioner, H. Tacy Kemp, foresaw the turn of events. On August 25, 1879, Kemp signed a statement for the commission that in addition to receiving the sum of £2OOO annually, or places of residence and mahinga kai, the Ngai Tahu were to receive ample reserves, “..from which in the course of time, they might derive considerable rents as a means towards their securing permanently the comforts and necessaries of civilised life,” Kemp’s statement said. Sir George Grey said: “I think I am also bound to say that without these promises the cession of the land would have been delayed, if not withheld, for an indefinite period of

time.” He testified that he considered “ample reserves” for the Ngai Tahu as much larger than the four hectares a head which they were awarded at a time when the European level for subsistence was considered 20 hectares of arable land. “I think I should have been no party to the pur-

chase if I believed that was all they were to get,” Grey said. He said he wanted each chief to have enough land to enable him to live as a “European gentleman” and every Maori farmer to have a farm kept for him, with sufficient land to run stock. If there was ever a race that deserved to be generously treated, it was the Ngai Tahu, Grey said. “But I go further and say this: that I hope such a stain will never be left upon our name as not to do them justice.”

Chief Natanahira Waruwarutu on May 8, 1879, at Kaiapoi told the commission that the original price the Ngai Tahu asked for the land was £5 million.

A Ngai Tahu chief, John Tikao, had asked Kemp what he was prepared to offer for the land. “Kemp said £2OOO was the price of the land. Tikao told Kemp he would not get the land then.”

The argument had continued with Tikao saying: “You must pay me sum £5,000,000 of money, and I will give you the land then.”

The Ngai Tahu only agreed to accept £2OOO when Kemp said they could keep “the eel weirs, the mahinga kai, the settlements of each hapu, the landing places, and also that a large portion of the land would be returned to them.”

Another argument ensued when it was later found that Kemp was only going to pay £5OO as an instalment. When Tikao objected, Kemp threatened him.

“If you don’t take this money, I will give it to the Ngatitoa, and if you don’t give up the land, I will bring soldiers to take it from you,” Kemp said.

Mr Evison told the tribunal that Ngai Tahu signatories to Kemp’s Deed consistently testified to the commission that they believed they were selling the land only as far inland as Maungatere (Mount Grey) and along the foothills to the Otakou (Otago) boundary at Maungatua and Kaihiku. Through the actions of the Government’s commissioner for the extinguishment of native claims, Walter Mantell, the Crown later failed in its duty under the treaty to ensure that the Ngai Tahu rights were maintained, Mr Evison testified.

It did not ensure that the Ngai Tahu kept the lands and mahinga kai which in the terms of Article II of the treaty it was “their wish and desire” to retain, and failed under the terms of Article 111 to ensure that the Ngai Tahu were protected, he said.

On August 2, 1848, Lieu-tenant-Governor Edward John Eyre had instructed Mantell to give preferential treatment to Europeans and induce the Maori to consolidate their communal lands in as few holdings as possible. Mantell was given complete discretion as to the reserves he was to provide for the Ngai Tahu. On October 4, 1848, at the request of Governor Grey, Eyre instructed Mantell to provide only reserves which would be necessary for resident na-

tives and inform the Maoris that the Crown would later mark out additional reserves for their future wants.

Mr Evison said, in reading the evidence, that the Crown wanted to keep the reserves to a bare minimum. The Ngai Tahu were given not more than their residences and gardens, and then only to the extent that they would not interfere with European settlement.

At Kaiapoi, amid bitter opposition from the Ngai Tahu, Mantell had awarded a reserve of 1036 hectares for a population whicg he estimated as 229.

In all, he had reserved only 2573 hectares for the 637 people he estimated to be living at the settlements visited in Kemp’s block.

The Ngai Tahu immediately objected to the amount of land which had been reserved and questioned the promises he had "made many times” of schools, hospitals and a large payment of land after it was surveyed.

Mantell testified before the commission on May 7, 1879, that he reserved lands on the basis of getting the Ngai Tahu to accept as little as they possibly could.

“The Maoris never failed to impress upon me most energetically that the area was too small...

“They would not have parted with the land unless they imagined they would have large reserves and the other advantages also promised them,” Mantell said. Mr Evison will continue his evidence today.