MINUTES

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIV, Issue 1059, 21 August 1857, Page 4

MINUTES

Of the Proceedings of Committee of the "AhunnSittlert Association," at Napier, todAvgurt, 1857, and-topy of a Letter addressed to His JToiun- the Superintendent on the subject of hi* Reply to an Address presented him on the 12nd April. •At the usual monthly meeting of the Committee 01 the "Ahuriei Settlers Association" held at Napier oa Monday the 3rd of August, 1857,— It wa& moved by Mr. Munn, and seconded by Donald Gollan, Esq., J.P., that Mr. Sealy take the chair in the absence of Captain Carter. The Sub-Committee, appointed at the last meetingsubmitted a draft of a leply to the memorandum of his Honor the Superintendent, which, after being revised by the Committee, was unanimously agreed to. The attention of the ■ ommktee having been called to a speech of his Honor the Superintendent, delivered at a dinner at Wanganui, and containing the following words, as reported in the -Wellington Independent ol 4th July: — " Would they permit him here to mention a circumstance which occurred to him the other day, while visiting the Ahuriri f He was then present at a numerous meeting of the settlers, Where opinions surh as he had adverted to had been put forth S where in fact the croakers had full sway, where they wanted him to guarantee that they should be called upon to pay no more than the amount actually expended in their part ot the Province; but he quickly pointed out to them that they possessed the means of re-payment within them-selves-thai by simply putting up for sale a tew ot their runs at 6*. an acre he would speedily be enabled to liquidate the amount of their debt ; now, it was most amusing to see them come quietly up. one after the o her as soon as the meeting was o\er, and saying, you ujn't, you really can't, intend to put up our runs by auction- it is impossible you can mean it ; he said to them, why not ? You have all along been charging me with violating the land regulations by not doing so. and »urely when he was willing to act m accordance with those regulations, they could not but support him. It was moved by Charles Nairn, Esq., seconded by Alexander McLean, Esq., . _ m \, nn \A " That this Committee regrets that his Honor should have so unfairly made use of expressions as those of the settlers of the District, which, if used at all could only have emanated from one or two mdiuduals and they consider the tone of his Honor's remarks, at the dinner in question, to be quite at vaiinnce with the professions hi* Honor made during his visit to this District ami his expressed desire to remedy at least a portion ot tne .grievances of which we complained." Carried unanimously. (Signed) H. B Seai,t, Acting Chairman

To his Honor the Superintendent of the Province of Wellington. Napier, Ahuriri, August 3, 1857. Sir -We bee to acknowledge receipt of the written reply,' promised bv Your Honor, to the address presented Jo voJ.on the 22nd of April last, on your visit to Napier\ by the deputation of the Ahurin settlers. Our tb«nks would have accompanied this acknowledgment if your Honor had performed the very important part of your promise, namely, that we should have the reply within a few days after the meeting; your onusaion in which respect'is very apparent by the period that you suffered to elapse, from the 22nd of April to the 16th June, the date on which we received your reply. The importance that this point of time was to us, and has proved to your Honor, has been clearly manifested by the opportunity it has afforded you to print and dis•eminarV your reply, without the refutations which would otherwise have accompanied it. But whilst your Honor has gained over us this advantage, which we forbear to comment on, the legitimate conclusion remains to us, from your not having hesitated to produce and avail yourself of this advantage, that your Honor was conscious of the refutation that awaited your statements, and therefoie adopted effectual measures to prevent il. In this, our answeY, wo shall pass over those statements in your reply, which of themsehes are sufficient to enable the public to form an opinion We therefore ome at once to the statements by which your Honor endeavoured to bring this district m debt to the Wellington Province to the extent of £19,377. Your Honor's figures exhibiting this result are as follows :—

To this account we have the following statement and to oppose. The returns of Customs Receipts, quoted by your Honor, gives merely the amount of the duties on wines, spirits, and tobacco, and for the period only that Napier had been a port of entry, that is for 18 months; but surely we are justified in including My four times this amount, on account of duties paid in Weilington. on articles consumed in Ahuriri. This would give, cay, £5000, instead of the -amount stated by your Honor. In regard to the amount from the Land Sales, up to the 3lst March last, a reference to the Gazettes on this head has enabled us to change the amount stated by your Honor to the much larger one ot £22,000. And whilst we are enabled thus to augment the sums on the Ahuriri side of the account, we are also able to reduce those with which your Honor has debited us; for we find that your Honor has apparently included the sum of £4570 on account of Tautanae and Castle Point. These not belonging to the Ahuriri district, we are justified in excluding that sum from the account; deducting also £400, the second instalment on the Okawa purchase, which has never been paid, the account will stand thus:

So that instead of this district being in debt to the Province, it would be * creditor for about two thousand poundß to the 31st M*rch last. But, your Honor, we have as yet been examining the various items of your account against us, apart from the consideration of that circumstance which impugns it altogether, with the exception of an insignificant item of £150 or so. This circumstance is, that the General Government had, previous to July 1, 1856, provided from the General Treasury the amounts paid for the lands that had been purchased from the Natives, and ere handing over the management of the Waste Lands to the Provinces had provided for the liquidation of all existing liabilities up to that date. Therefore, the Provincial Governments received their charge free from all pecuniary claims on previous accounts. The account, therefore, by which your Honor would bring us in debt directly to Wellington Province, betides its great inaccuracy, is completely nullified by the fact of its having already been defrayed, not by the Provincial Government, but by the General GovernWent, out of the funds of the whole colony. Your Honor eayt that some persons " imagined that the lands obtained from the Natives Here purchased by the General Government without cost to the Province ; but in resriWevery farthing expended in the purchase of lands was provided by the Province. It was true that the oost^f extinguishing the native title was, by the Constitution Act. up to the Ist of la«t July, a charge upon the hmd revenue, not of any particular Province, but of the whole colony. But, ii they took into Consideration th* amount of revenue paid to the General Government by th* Province ot Wellington out of its Land and Customs revenue, it would be found that the Province had, •yen previous to the Ist July last, provided out of its oprnjfund* (wifh the exception perhaps of a very trifling aaount) fox the purchase of all land* acquired from the aatirt*." *^vTet would call your attention to the- ' Blue Book, l«s»,^oiT-2, A No. 1> where 70U will find a return of •ams expended in the purchase of lands, from the *r»tivee in fht Colony of New Zealand, and of the MAMUrta wntribnted f#r<sbt was o&t ef &• *rtitoml

revenue of each Province, between the Ist of January 1853 and 19th July 185b, by which it appears that the amount expended during that period by the General Government on account of Wellington for the purchase 6f lands from the Natives was £43,800, and the amount contributed by Wellington out ot its territorial revenue was £14,579, whilst for the snmo period the Provinces of Nelson and Canterbury contributed respectively the sums of £16,604 and £1fi,932. The land purchases from the Names in the latter Provinces for the same period amounted only to £7614. Judging from this leturn, we may fairly assume that your Honor i» mistaken in asserting that the Province of Wellington had, with very trifling exception, provided out of its own funds for the purchase of all lands acquired from the Natives in the Province. In conclusion, we would only remark, in reference to a clause in your Honor's reply, that the " bub Land Commissioner had been invested with all the powers exercised by Mr. Domett, subject only to the superintendence of the Chief Commissioner," that we -observe in the • Provincial Gazette,' ot June 9, a notice addressed to various run-holders in this district, datod June 5, notifying that their licenses are ready for issue at the office of the Chief Commissioner, Wellington. We observed also in a Gazette of June 23, the usual notice of runs in this district, which is signed by the Chief Commissioner at "Wellington, and requires objections to be lodged with the Chief Land Commissioner. Faots which we are unable to reconcile with your Honor's statement. We remain, Your Honor's most obedient servants. Signed on behalf of the Committee, H. B. SEALY, Acting Chairman

Customs receipts, say *0000 0 U Proceeds of Land Sales, and Deposits paid in Cash at Napier, exclusive of Castle Point, Akitio, and Tautanae 5300 0 0 Ditto paid in Scrip (Town and Suburban), about 4300 0 0 Ditto Rural Land, in Scrip, about 2200 acres U OO ° ° Land in this district purchased in Wellington, about 20,000 acres . . 10000 0 0 £25700 0 0 Cost of Land and Survey Department £5332 6 0 ElP^..^.^hM^o^^E l P^..^.^ hM^ 0^^- c 18380 0 0 £23712 6 0

Cost of Ltnd and Survey Department, for the same period -5332 6 1 Expended, up to the same date, for the landi we occupy 23300 0 0 £28682 6 1 Deduct 9305 8 10 In debt to the Province £19376 17 3

EXPSNIMTtJR!!.

"olal Customs Receipts, at Napier, up to 31st March last £1369 18 10 'roceeds of Land Sales for the same period 7935 10 0 £9305 8 10