Witness tells of duress in Peninsula sales

Press, 25 February 1988, Page 3

Witness tells of duress in Peninsula sales

By

JANE ENGLAND,

Maori affairs reporter

Fresh evidence presented before the Waitangi Tribunal yesterday was said to have strengthened ciaims that the Crown used deceit and threats in the “purchase” of Banks Peninsula, and failed to acquire Akaroa rightfully.

In presenting the evidence, a Christchurch historian, Mr Harry Evison, produced documents on French and British dealings with the Ngai Tahu over land on the Peninsula.

Mr Evison said the additional evidence did not change the conclusions he had drawn at earlier hearings on Ngai Tahu claims in the area. It reinforced them, he said.

Crown dealings with the French Nanto-Bordelaise Company and the Britishbased New Zealand Company in the acquisition of land for European settlement proved detrimental to the tribe, he said. “The evidence shows, in my opinion, that the socalled Ngai Tahu sale of Banks Peninsula to the French never occurred,” said Mr Evison. The French did not complete the purchases and the tribe did not agree to sell the whole Peninsula. It was clear from a report by the British representative at Akaroa, Charles Robinson, that

transactions in March, 1845, by the French company’s agent were not “further sales.” Counsel for the claimants, Mr Paul Temm, Q.C., reinforced this point, saying that the transactions involved “bogus documents.” At Akaroa, Port Levy and Pigeon Bay, both the companies sold to settlers expensive land which had never been purchased from the tribe. “The Crown did the same with the Akaroa, North Canterbury, and Kaikoura blocks. “Ngai Tahu were stripped of their lands in the interests of profitability and in all cases the Crown was at pains to provide the cloak of legality.” The companies acting under the Crown bought Ngai Tahu land cheaply and sold it expensively. "Indeed, in some instances they sold it dearly without having bought it at all.” “In the case of the French company, its dealings were actually illegal

but were condoned by the Crown and even used by the Crown to its “own advantage.” Mr Evison produced further documents to show that the Crown Land Purchase Commissioner, Walter Mantell, “browbeat” and “overrode” the tribe’s wish to retain the extensive lands it had not sold. Mantell was commissioned to buy land on Banks Peninsula in 1849. The Crown’s assertion that Ngai Tahu lost all their land rights on the Peninsula through a deal with the French was a lie, Mr Evison said. A deed purported to register the sale by the Ngai Tahu of all tribal land in the South Island from coast to coast. But Frenchmen later testified that goods had only been paid towards the Banks Peninsula purchase.

“Further, the Crown at Port Cooper and Port Levy sought to go through the formalities of a deed of sale, when by its own definition there was no

sale involved — only an award,” said Mr Evison. When Britain was negotiating an agreement with the French it was agreed that the company’s expenses in sending colonists to the area would be taken as being part of the purchase price of the 30,000 acre block. Mr Temm said this meant the tribe was made to “foot the bill” for French settlement. In 1843, the New Zealand Company encouraged English settlers who had been promised land unavailable in the North Island to settle on Maori land on the Peninsula which had not been sold. Mantell’s commission had been set up when the company attempted to purchase the Peninsula from the French. “The Crown embarked knowingly on the fiction that Ngai Tahu had already sold all their Banks Peninsula purchases to the French,” said Mr Evison.

In seeking to impose a lie and create dissension within the tribe, Mantell

breached article 2 of the Treaty of Waitangi which guaranteed Maori “rangatiratanga” (chieftainship) over all lands.

Mr Evison produced documents of the SmithNairn Commission (18791885) for the hearing to substantiate his claim of duress against the tribe. Transcripts from chiefs present at the “purchase” corroborated evidence that threats of “sending in soldiers” and giving money to tribal members in another area were used to obtain the land.

Of the purported deed of sale, Mr Evison said, “Given the wording of this deed and the subsequent testimony to the SmithNairn Commission, it appears that the Maori title to the Akaroa block left in 1849 was not purchased by Hamilton (Captain William Hamilton) in 1856 and has not been purchased by the Crown to this day.” Promises made during negotiations for the purchase of land between Kaikoura and Otago were shown to have been Crown policy.