LAND CLAIMS BILLS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume I, Issue 26, 14 October 1843, Page 2

LAND CLAIMS BILLS.

4'They stabbed them in the back and sneered. — A. slave Who Btood behind the throne, those corpses diew f Each to its bloody., dark, and secret grave ; And one more during, raised his steel anew To pierce the strangers." With me do what yon will, I am your foe. Copld we place any faith in the actions of the Government, we should feel induced in despair to abandon $he Land Claims struggle, seeing that by the last notice published, in the Gazette, Lord. Stanley had consigned the claimants to the homicidal act of Sir Georgo Gipps. But the despatch by means of which Mr. Shortland has been instructed on this point, was dated some time before the news of the death of the late Governor .was heard of at home. Mr. Shortland has had no later instructions on this subject, or on any other, as far as we can ascertain ; and, as we are informed on good authority, that new arrangements were being made at the Colonial Office for the final settlement of the claims, we are led to believe that all the present doings of Mr. Shortland, are like his former ones, mere works of supererogation. Mr. Shortland is not disposed to

remain idle, and if he can do no good, he will even feel it his duty to do mischief itself, rather 1 than do nothing, Mischief, and irretrievable mischief, he has ever done sinco he came to this colony, and the good, even that he would, he cannot do. He appears from home in every thing, nothing comes io him the right way, even the plainest instructions of Lord Stanley, must be twisted, perverted, and misconstrued, But Mr. Shoruand likes to shew the people that he is a legislator, and he takes peculiar pleasure in making the unfortunate land claimants feel that, to the last, he is their enemy. He hated them from the first, with a pure hatred, and his heart has never warmed towards thorn. But, supposing that the land claimants are again flung back upon the infamous Bill of Sir Georgo Gipps, what are the effects, as far as they, and the colony are concerned? The small claimants, under either Bill, get the whole ©f their lands : they suffer from the delay alone. The larger claimants, on the other hand, are by this Bill reduced to nothing ; the majority of "them hav.e/bought in 1839 and 1840, and the majority of them have also paid largely for their latitds, but they are all confined to the magic number 2560 acres. JNo matter what they have paid over the amount that would entitle to this, the 2560 acre justice is dealt to all. Thero is a magic in the numbers which renders them a fit representative of any amount of money. It is truly lamentable in a moral point of view, to see the infamous and unblushing disregard of justice which is manifested by men in authority. A man, while acting as Colonial Secretary, or in any other public capacity, will venture to commit the most scandalous, the most unjust, and the most wicked deeds, and not be thought much the worse of on this account. The nation in truth, recognises two systems of morality, a public and a private one, and the one is in principle opposed to the other. Lord Stanley and Mr. Shortland are permitted, as public men, to injure and to rob the settlers of this country of their lands and proporties without sustaining much loss of reputation and character ; whereas, if either | of them in his private capacity, were to perpetrate the same crime, he would be publicly disgraced and punished by law. This is no less lamentable than it is disgraceful to our country, and until public deeds are measured by the same rule as private actions, injustice, oppression, tyranny, and cruelty must prevail. As far as the settlers of this country are concerned, it would have been muoh more merciful to have taken the high hand with them at the first, and to have deprived them at once of their lands, than to have tortured them with the cruel mockery of justice. It matters little to them now, whether thoir titles are allowed or disallowed, they are nearly all ruined, and the change from the Bill of Revenge to the despotic Aot of Sir George Gipps, cannot now affect them much. But the effects of this limitation, will prove extremely injurious to the interests of the colony generally. The settlement of that question, and the expectation of obtaining cheap land from the claimants, was the hinge upon which the hopes of the people turned. This afforded the only prospect of obtaining land for cultivation. The upset price of one pound per acre, has completely stopped the sale of Government land, and the prohibition against purchasing land from the natives, prevents for the present at least, the possibility of obtaining it in any other way ; and the only remaining chance, that of purchasing from the claimants, is now removed. The effects of this measure, as far as the Government itself is concerned, will be no less calamitous. L.ord Stanley requires them to allow all the claimants to exchange their lands for Government allotments near Auckland, but where are the lands near Auckland belonging to this Government ? The natives are settled on. the host lands in this district, and nothing whatever will induce them now to sell thorn ; or, if they were disposed to sell, they would moat assuredly expect such enormous prices for their lands, as would almost drain the exchequer of England itself. The Government are, however, bound to afford the Land Claimants the means of exchanging their lands, and. they must, in order to do this, purchase from the natives at any price. There cannot be a questiou that nearly all the claimants in the Middle Island, and in tho north and south ends of this Island, will at onco avail themselves of the opportunity of getting rid of their 2500 acres of swamps and rocks for the fertile lands of Auckland and the Manukau, but how is Mr. Shortland, or rather the new Governor, to obtain lands for them in this, or in any other district, now that tho natives will not sell? Every new step which this | unfortunate Government take, appears to be destined to plunge them deeper and deeper into the mire, and proves most satisfactorily that, as with an individual, so with a Gov-~ ! eminent, one false step leads to another. ' A bad commencement must have a bad end. Injustice and deception were the fatuous

lights of this Government from the first, and they will, and must lead them to inevitable confusion and ruin. Nothing can, or will, now save them, but the one simple act of justice : the acknowledgement of the rights of the natives. Let them mystify, twist, pervert, hide, cloak, and conceal their measures how they will, the effects of one crying sin will cling to, bind, fasten, and -weigh them down in all their measures. This is the demon that follows them wherever they go. As the ghost of the murdered man will haunt the murderer, and mar his peace and happiness, so will the cruel and unjust treatment of the native of New Zealand, throw its blight, and its curse upon all the deeds of this Government. As far as wo are ourselves connected with lands, we care not a pin for Mr. Shortland's, or oven Lord Stanley's schemes about the settlement of Land Claims ; we shall never be satisfied with a single acre less than we bought from the natives, and we are perfectly satisfied that wo shall sooner or later obtain the whole. Wo rest our title upon that of the native ; we have bought from the native when he waa a froo man, and had his right to his lands acknowledged and undoubted. He is now attempted to be made a slave, in order to rob him, and those who purchased from him, of their lands. But he must, and shall be restored to his freedom, and the moment that this shall happen, the Land Claimants will be in their original position. In the mean time, seeing that their lands are their own, they ought of course, to accept of even the miserable award under tho Bill of Sir George Gipps ; at the same time protesting against the right of the Government to sell, or to occupy tho remainder. We are aware that some of the claimants may feel perplexed how to act at present, they will, perhaps, hesitate whether to accept or to reject Mr. Shortland's Papakura scheme. But we seriously advise them all to have nothing whatever to do with the Papakura scheme. It is an illegal proceeding. It is neither in accordance with the Bill of Sir George Gipps, nor is there any colonial Act to warrant Mr. Shortland or even Lord Stanley, in thus appropriating tho lands of the colony. Such a measure would require to be sanctioned by the Legislative Council, or rather by tho Imperial Parliament itself ; it is a contravention of the Act for the regulation of the sale of Crown lands in the Australian colonies. It may be competont for Mr. Shortland to give the claimants land orders, as the value, or purchase price of their claims, but he cannot settle them, in spite of themselves, in his Papakura. There is not a word about Papakura in the Land Claims Bill, or in Lord Stanley's instructions. Let tho claimants wait the arrival of the new Governor. They will then have something like fair play ; they have nothing to expect from Mr. Shortland. He would doubtless, like much to recommend, himself to the new Governor by tho display- of his tact in driving such a profitable bargain with the miserable claimants ; but we trust that the new Governor will be a little moro enlightened, and a little more conversant with general good policy, than to seek to ruin the colony by taking such a huckster advantage of tho poor claimants as the ohampion of Papakura would like to do. There is another point in connexion with this question, which must occasion not a small amount of trouble and expenco to the Government. Thoso of our readers who have tho patience to read the infamous Act of Sir George Gipps, will perceive that all the claims must be heard before, at least, two Commissioners. By the hocus pocus system of Mr. Shortland, they were smug- j gled through before one Commissioner. The most of the claims in this part, were heard and reported upon by the smooth and pliable Mathew Richmond, Esq., others were examined by the valiant Colonel Godfrey, and j the claims to the southward were heard by Her Majesty's one Commissioner, Mr. Spain. Such being the case, it will be necessary to have a re-hearing of all the claims, and as a matter of right, the Government must ! pay the expense of th.e native witnesses, and all other expenses incurred by the claimants ; they will also have to bribe the natives, to induce them to acknowledge the sale, for otherwise they will not do so. It may be said, that the omnipotent Mr. Shortland, (and we have heard one of his creatures hint so much) will issue an Act of indemnity. A Bulletin declaring that tho Government are satisfied with the report of one Commissioner, but Sir George Gipps 1 Act is not satisfied with one Commissioner, neither are tho claimants. To procure even half justice, it would require at least the com-i bination of all the good qualities of the pliable Richmond, and the valiant Godfrey, with one of them, as a matter of course, and fair calculation, one fourth has only been obtained. The claimants have a right to half. Tho natives have had, and are to have none, and the Government must not claim more than the other half. This is something lik,e fair play.

The position of this Government is at tlie present moment, ludicrously contemptible both in the eyes of the natives and Euro'. peans. Tho Home Government fling all their Acts in their face ; the labours of years and days are all lost ; their Gazettes, j n which they publish forth Manifestos and Bulletins, end in smoke. Claims to land appear in to-day's Gazette \ to-SBgrow the report is said to be incorrect, liraividualj are promised land orders to-day ; to-morrot they may purchase land on the faith of these, and they will discover that no faith is to }% placed in the word of Kings, or evon Goy' ernors. All, all is one interminable maze of Confusion, error, mischief, ignorance anj folly.