Gold factor in land deal

Press, 3 December 1987, Page 3

Gold factor in land deal

By

JANE ENGLAND

in Greymouth Government land dealings with the Poutini Ngai-Tahu were tarnished by devious acts of the “greatest bad faith,” the Waitangi Tribunal sitting in Greymouth was told in evidence yesterday. The alleged breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi suffered by Ngai-Tahu tribespeople on the West Coast were detailed by a Christchurch historian, Mr James McAloon.

He told the tribunal that the Crown, in 1857, had attempted to grab land before the Maori owners became aware of its mineral potential, concealing the real amount of the Crown’s offer for the land, and finally offering the derisory sum of £l5O for an area that the people wanted to sell for £2500. A letter from the Crown’s purchase agent in Kaiapoi, J. W. Hamilton, in August, 1857, revealed that the Government was

concerned that gold discoveries would raise the value of the land and decided to act quickly in making purchases. When tribespeople assembled at Mawhera to discuss a possible sale they were unanimous that they would not part with the country within Mawhera, Kotukuwakaho and Okitika (Grey, Arnold and Hokitika rivers). According to the commissioner for native land purchases and reserves, James Mackay, this was because the “highly prized greenstone is procured from the Arahura River.” He later received further instructions to purchase the 7.5 million acres of land — not including 6000 acres to be reserved for individual native allotment and 4000 acres to be brought under the Native Reserves Act — for £4OOO. But the tribe remained firm in its desire to retain

the 200,000 acres of “valuable” country which contained the rivers.

After “days of discussion” however, the tribespeople mysteriously agreed to sell all the land for £3OO except that set aside as reserves for their benefit. It was more than suspicious that they dropped their demand for the river block, Mr McAloon said.

“Why would they talk of a price of £2500 in 1857, clearly demand to keep ■ the land in 1859, repeat ■> that in 1860, and then drop it for £3OO and 10,000 acres?” he said.

Evidence that the area was the source of greenstone, site of large permanent villages and a crossroads made the deal even more mysterious.

Mr McAloon said it was possible that the Government threatened to take the land by force. But it was more likely, in light of the tactics used in

other purchases, that the Government promised the tribespeople they could keep the block or a substantial part of it and possibly guaranteed their right to pounamu (greenstone) within the area. Mr McAloon then produced evidence which revealed that reservations in the Arahura River, Arawata, Okarito, Whataroa, Waimea and Watarakau, had not been properly allocated. In many cases as much as half the land that was to have been reserved for the Maoris never was.

In particular, the failure of the Crown to respect the reservation of the whole riverbed of the Arahura River as stipulated by Mackay represented a breach of the Treaty, he said.

An annotation in Mackay’s own handwriting said that the “whole of the riverbed of the Arahura belongs to the natives.”