NATIVE AFFAIRS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 2, Issue 99, 13 August 1859, Page 3

NATIVE AFFAIRS.

The following important despatch appears in a General Government Gazette of the 27th ult., which has come to hand by the "Eliezer : " —

Downing Street, 18th May, 1859. Sib, — I have received your Despatches named in the margin, which transmit for the considertion of her Majesty the following Acts, passed by the Legislature of New Zealand : — No. 41 — "An Act to regulate the Local Affairs of Native Districts."

No. 42 — "An Act to make better provision for the administration of justice in .Native Districts." No. 79 — "An Act to enable the Governor to establish a Settlement for Colonization in the Bay of Islands."

- No. 80 — "An Act to enable the Native Tribes in New Zealand to have their Territorial Eights ascertained, and to authorise the issue, in certain cases, of Crown Grants to the Native Tribes."

I wish, in the first place, to acknowledge the care, ability, and sound judgment with which these Bills appear in most respects to have been adapted to the character and circumstances of the Native Tribes ; and if lam unable in some respects to give effect to the policy of your advisers, I wish them to believe that this does not arise from any want of reliance on their desire to advance the well-being of the natives, nor of their capacity to deal with the important and delicate questions on which that well being depends, but from my conviction that circumstances do not yet justify the Imperial Government in abdicating the responsibilities which at present rest on it with regard to that remarkable race. The Act No. 41 appears to me on the whole wisely framed and to bear great promise of usefulness. The second clause however is open to an objection on the grounds which I have already indicated. It not only invests the Governor in Council with the virtual power of making laws affecting in many most important respects the rights and habits of the natives, (a power which I readily concede on the understanding that the Governor will exercise a personal discretion in consenting to* them,) but it omits to secure to the Crown its customary right of disallowance. If however, that right is indispensable with regard to laws which are passed by the Representatives of the colonists, for the furtherance and protection of their own interests, much more is it necessary in regard to regulations enacted by the Governor and Council for people whom they cannot in any sense be said to represent. I have felt much doubt whether I could properly advise her Majesty to leave to its operation a law which was open to so important an objection. But believing that the Act is, on the whole, in the direction of a wise and useful legislation and that the Legislature of New Zealand will see tha justice of the view I have stated upon this single point of objection, I have been reluctant, by a disallowance in toto of the Act, to entail the public inconvenience which might occur, and the long delay which must necessarily elapse, before legislative provision could be again made to meet the objects in view. I have therefore laid the Act before her Majesty, wha has been pleased to leave it to its operation. Unless; however, the Legislature should consent to amend it by enacting that all regulations made in pursuance of the second clause, shall be subject to disallowance by her Majesty, it may be necessary to consider under what conditions your asBent could be properly given to them, and it may be necessary to require, previous to such consent, that any rules which could by possibility give occasion for dispute or discontent among the natives should contain a proviso either suspending their operation till the consent of the Home Government is obtained, (or which would probably be more convenient,) expressly empowering the Crown to disallow them.

To the Acts numbered 42 and 79, 1 see no objection. The former has therefore been left to its operation by her Majesty, and the latter (which is reserved for the signification of her Majesty's pleasure) will be confirmed by order in Council.

I much regret that I have not been able to advise the same course respecting the Act No. 80, which appears to me open to various important objections.* In the first place the proposed issue of Certificates of Native Titles under the express authority of the Colonial Government, involves important questions which are not adverted to in your Despatch. It is no doubt most desirable that the disputes of the natives respecting the right to land should no longer be settled by arms, and that the occupation of land in se'verality by the natives should be encouraged. But with regard to the plan which is submitted to me for this purpose I am bound to ask myself whether, in case the decisions of the Governor in Council on titles to land should be resisted by the natives, the British Government are prepared to promise such a military force as may be sufficient to enforce them. If any such expectation could be held but, it would : be clearly necessary that the decisions which imposed so much responsibility and expense on the Home Government, should be taken by an officer solely responsible to that Government and not to the Colonists. If (as is the case) no, such expectation could beheld out, it is more than questionable .whether the moral influence of the European Government would not suffer, by the issue of Certificates of title which the native? would be at liberty to disregard with impunity. It appears to me therefore in every respect better that the establishment of tribal and other titles, and the acquisition by individual natives of

property in severalty should be facilitated, not. by the* issue of formal documents appearing to rest on the authority and involve the guarantee of the Government Jb'ufc by the cautious enactment of rules respecting the occupation of hind, which are"; contemplated in the second section of the Act, *N0.41,

X/ I perceive, however, that the proposed scheme has a further object, that it is intended to ' furnish a means of ultimately enabling individual . colonists to purchase the landed property granted^ in severalty to individual Natives. There can be no doubt that the passing of the present Act would be very speedily followed by a change or rather revolution in the system of land purchase in the direction indicated by your advisers. But such a change I conceive to be in the highest degree unadvisable; The present system|of land purchase appears, as far as I can judge, to be understood and acquiesced in by the Natives, and to be working well for the Colony, while the pecuniary difficulty suggested by your advisers is one which it is in the power of the local legislature to pro*, vide against. On the other hand, the system of individual purchase is, to say the least, opposed to the spirit of the New Zealand Government Act (15 and 16 Yic. c. 72, s. 73), and it is open to important objections in point of policy; it offers no sufficient guarantee for the fairness of the negotiations whioh have preceded the transfer ; it invests the Government with a discretion in respect of sanctioning purchases which can scarcely be exercised without incurring the suspicion of favouritism — it will encourage speculators to anticipate (and thus obstruct) the progress of settlement by appropriating choice and commanding spots of land within the Native territory, and induce an intermixture of European with Native lands calculated to cause confusion and inconvenience. I hold it therefore far more advisable that Government, should purchase territories, than that individuals should purchase properties, so tliat the line which separates the purchased lands on which European law is to prevail, from the unpurchased on which the Native usages,will continue to subsist, though always advancing, will be broad and unequivocal.

I also ieel strongly the probability that the proposed tax of 10s. an acre on every sale may rouse the distrust of the Natives, and that the proposed mode of sale, while it encourages individual land jobbing among one class of the Natives, may irritate others who see the lands which have belonged to their tribe passing from within their reach without themselves receiving their share of the profits.

If indeed the Imperial Government were prepared to depart from the arrangements already sanctioned, and to transfer the management of Native affairs from the Governor, acting under instructions from this country and through a Stafi' of permanent officers to an officer responsible to the Colonists, and changing with the Government, it might be considered that the system of land purchase from the Natives was to be decided upon by Colonial and hot Imperial authority. But this view of the subject I am not able to accept ; Her Majesty' 8 Government wish to give the fullest effect to the system of Responsible Govern? ment, and "to leave all questions of domestic and internal interests to be decided by the Colonial Government, but they cannot either for the sake of the Colonists or for that of the Native or for Imperial interests surrender the control over Native affairs, the administration of which has been up to the present time, considering the difficulties and intricacies of the subject, crowned with a very remarkable success and is paving the way towards that complete civilization and consolidation of the Native race with the English Colonists which Her Majesty's Government not les3 than the local Government desire to see effected. And whilst Her Majesty's Government feel themselves constrained to justify to Parliament the large expense which every year is incurred for the maintenance of a Military force in New Zealand for the defence of the Colony, and for the better control and regulation of the Native race, they must retain in their hands the administration of those affairs which at any moment may involve the employment of those troops and the consequences of an expensive conflict. So long as the Colony for this purpose enjoys the advantage of Military and Naval protection, Her Majesty's Government cannot consent to yield a point which in their opinion is so intimately connected with the security of the Colony, the justice due to Native claims, and the issues of Peace or War itself.

Convinced, therefore, that the proposed Act is calculated to effect hazardous alterations in a system, the working of which does not at present appear open to any practical objection, I have been unable to recommend that this Act should be confirmed by Her Majesty, and it will accordingly remain inoperative. I have, &0., (Signed) Cabxarvon, In the absence of Sir E. B. Lytton.