ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. THE GOVERNMENT, THE LAND CLAIMANTS, AND THE NATIVES.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 8, 10 June 1843, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. THE GOVERNMENT, THE LA ND CLAIMANTS, AND THE NATIVES.

To the Editor of t7ie Sout7icrn Cross. Sir, — It gives me some pleasure to find that you are strenuously advocating the rignts of the Native population in your valuable paper. This subject has been kept in abeyance for a long period, for want of an honest, independent journal, to expose the conduct of the government towards them. In a late number of your paper you have very powerfu'ly shown the great irju&iioe practised towards the Natives in attempting to take from them the lands claimed by 'Europeans ; but to which the government have found them not entitled in consequence of the smallness of the payments made therelor. On this subject I wculd, with your permission, wish to add a tew observations to ihose *hich you have already made, as I think you have still overlooked many good arguments in favor of the rights of the Natives ; and you have still left unexposed several fallacies, under cover of which the government are alternately deceiving the Natives, the Land Claimants, and also the Public. When the British Government had determined on colonizing this country, an investigation into titles was deemed necessary, wiih the view of ascertaining what lands had been conveyed by the Natives to Europeans. This ended in appointing the present Commission to make a formal investigation of these titles ; the object of which the good people at home were led to believe was for the sole purpose of discovering whether or not the Natives had been fairly dealt with, and whether they had received a fair equivalent for the lands which they had sold, because if they had not, it was felt that these claims ought not to be allowed, and consequently the Natives protected from th« injury which they had received. With this view based upon such high pretentions to justice and humanity, the proposal for this investigation was most favorably received, and the friends of the Natives were most active in lending it all their assistance. But they have been most grossly deceived. The government have made most unfair use of this [ sympathy for the Natives, as the are merely turning it into an engine of oppression towards the first settlers of the country, without conferring the smallest beneiit upon the Natives. This investigation is of a most anomalous description, and is remarkable for the various and contradictory interests which it attempts to protect. First, the Natives appear in opposition to the settlers, and the government. Second, the government and the Natives turn pgainst the settlers ; and, Third, the government try to obtain the lion's share of the spoil ■ by cposing both the Natives and the Bettlers. The first part of the investigation is of course to prc/e whether the Natives have sold the land or not; Vcause, if not sold, it remains the property of the Natives : to establish this point therefore, the claimant and the government do all they can to prove it His been sold, in order to obtain the land ; and to this end the government allows the claimant every facility for bribing the Native witnesses, &c, for it is well knawn that the Natives will not appear on 6uch occasions without being liberally paid. The claimant, in order to prove his purchase, leaves no stone un» turneji. He pays the Natives large sums for their evidence —pays the Commissioners as judges, large •sums to hear it, and after spending every farthing of Ws money, he is then given to understand that he has succeeded in proviug that the Natives have fairly sold the land. When the government thus find thai the land has been fairly sold, their interest and that of the claimant is new quite different, and they irnn-ediately

turn round upon him, join with the Natives, and proceed 'o the second point of the investigation ; viz i The sum of money paid for the land J which the government for obvious reasons, exert their influence in conjunction with the Natives, to prove as smalt as possible. 'J'he government now play off the Natives apainst the settlers in the same manner as in the first part of the investigation, they played off 1 the settlers! against the NaLives. The poor Natives are of course) equally bind to the fruitless trouble which they are about to take, and they proceed with alacrity to prove the sum paid as unall as possible, im-gining, in their simplicity, that any shortcoming in this respect, will be raade up to them, but no additional payment hts ever been recommended, however small the original purchase money may have been. It is therefore, abundantlyobvious that it is not the interests of the Natives in. this vexatious and expensive investigation, thit the government seek to protect ; it is well kn< wn that the Natives require no such protection, for, if either the settlers or the government attempt to set a foot upon any land, not duly sold and paid for, tbe Natives will lose not a moment in asserting their own rights. Tnere might be some fairness in instituting the investigation into titles, if the protection of the Natives was the object sought for, but the Natives derive not one solitary advantage from the enquiry beyond the large bribes which the clairmnts are compelled to pay them for their evidence, and it is very questionable" if the moral deterioration to which they miy thus be exposed, doss not completely counterbalance any othftr advantage. In the investigation of titles to land, the ■ government have thus a most unfair advantage under the pretence of its being intended to serve the Natives, while, in reality, the only object accomplished, is the wresting the land from the claimants, without thff smallest consideration whether the sums they have paid for the land be either large or small ; sinre no - land once purchased from the Natives is ever returned to them, however small the payment may have been, it is obvious that it is not for behoof of the Natives, thit the investigation is made, and no particular sum, has been fixed upon that the Natives must receive for their land ; and such being the case, it might have been expected that the government would, after this, have made the qu stion of payment lie between themselves and the settlers ; and, on being satisfied that the person in possession of the land had paid a reasonable sum for ii, that it would have been at once confirmed to him ; but this did not suit the views of government, they wanted only t<> fiaA.out reason* for coi flscating all the land to themsefves, and the [expedient was tesorted to of fixing a certain rate per ftpre, as the value that the claimants ought to have mb& for their land ; forcing the first purchasers from Tne Natives to have paid this sum. If A purchased land from the Natives at Id, per acre, the government held the sale good ; bat tupposeing A. to hay© sold to B this land for .£lO per acre, the government entertain B's right to claim, but only admit the Id. per acre, and allow to him a part of the. land at the rate of ss. per acre. Now this would be a fair and honest arrangement perhaps, if the government were to give back the land to the Natives which had been thus too cheaply bought from them ; but not doing so, it must be quite immaterial to government whether the land is possessed by A or B ; and if B has paid £lft per acre for it to A, it is in effect the same as if A bad also paid that sum to the Natives. But this is actually the case wi h-ail the secondary purchasers, and to many ot them the land will actually cost upwards of 20s. per acre ; many instances of which, I could point ont among the list of those ta whom. grants have been recommended. The gross injustice of this proceeding is so obvious, that I cannot believe i hat the Home Government will confirm it. The truth is, that the Commission for the investigation of titles, is a perfect farce, and will yet be the one ins of endless confusion and disputes, between the Europeans and the Natives, and the grants tff such are ever issued) may turn out nothing belter than wdste pap r. A Crown grant may be good as far as Europeans are concerned ; that is, a grant made out in favor of Mr. A, of a ceria.in poition of land, will exclude every other European claimant. But, suppose the case (and there are many such) where claims are investigated, and no native is present, or is aware ot the proceeding, other than those natives who sign the deed under question, it is quite likely that these Natives will acknowledge that they sold the land, and the Commissioners will report accordingly, upon which the government may actually issue a grant ; but it may so happen that those Na'ives had no right whatever to the land, and that the proper owners never heard of the investigation. In such a case, it is quite obvious that the Crown grant would be utterly worthless against the rightful owners of the land, whenever they may choose to claim it, which at once proves that the Commissioner's investigation, even followed by a Crown grant, will be of no avail ; nor can there be any other way of proving a title to be. valid, but by actual occupation of the land, which tbe Natives will never permit, unless they have actually sold it. So that the present tedious, and most expensive investigation, in many cases, will be of no use, even with a Government grant. The sooner this Commission is put an end to the better. The land claimants have now paid the Commissioner's handsome incomes for nearly three years, which ought to satisfy them, and let their useless labors cease. We want no Commissioners to discover if the | land has, or has not been purchased ; this the Natives will best do themselves. This country will never be worth any thing, until the Natives have their full rights as British subjects fairly recognised, and allowed to sell their land to whom they choose ; without this being allowed, the civilization of the Natives will stand still, as the government are not prepared to purchase land-from the Natives in the interior of the country, aid i^-they did so, they could not make any use of it. The country round the town must be first settled on, but the land for this purpose will not now be easily obtained from the Natives. They have progressed in knowledge too rapidly for the government, and have become too well aware of the high value of the land, seein| the use which they themselves can now make of it, both by cultivation, and selling of the timber, and will not therefore now sell it to government at the price which they can give, and the same thing will extend itself all over tbe country, until the government are fairly compiled to abandon the absurd scheme of forcing the Natives to sell a. I the land to them. It is utterly impossible that the government can long carry on this fruitless attempt, and the sooner it is given up the better." It never would have been attempted here, if -the local government had possessed sufficient knowledge of the Native character. Were the Natives in the exercise, again of their legitimate right of selling t th«ir land to whom they please, a magic change would speedily take place. lhe extensive internal trcde carried oa xntix tbe

Natives would »gain revive ; and so would the extensive commerce formerly carried on at Hokianga and the Bay of Islands in particular, bat which at preient Jiai ceased to exist, to the utter ruin of the enterprising settlers, as well as the Natives also. I an,, Sir, &*., -June 7th, 1843. ~~'