THE WAITARA QUESTION.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 7, Issue 433, 31 October 1863, Page 3

THE WAITARA QUESTION.

COPY OF A DESPATCH FROM HIS EXCELLENCY SIR GEORGE GREY TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. Taranaki, New Zealand, 24th April, 1863. My LORD Duke,— l am sorry to be compelled to trouble you once more on the subject of the land at the Waitara. Your Grace was originally informed, January 25th, 1860, that the title of Te Teira ai id .other proprietors of this land had been proved and extinguished, and that you were only ■ troubled with a reference to this subject as a mat- ■ ter of information, and that it wa's trusted that it. might not be necessary to allude to it again. Your Grace was subsequently informed, B^ebruary 27th, 1800, that there was no expectation of any serious difficulty arising from this affair, and that there was little doubt the natives would acquiesce in the course the Government had adopted, j After, however, twelve months of a disastrous war, such difficulties had arisen, that the matter i was left exactly as it originally stood before any disturbances had arisen, the Government having then notified " that the investigation of thetitleand survey of the land at Waitara was to be continued and completed." 2. It is now my duty to report io Your Grace, that since I have been in New Zealand I have made, every effort in my power, and I have exhausted every argument and influence I ""could bring to bear upon the Native race, to induce them to acquiesce. in this decision of the Go.vernmeut. But I have altogether failed to shake their dogged determination on this subject.' They say generally, that the title to. the land is quite ' clear and well known, and that what they regard themselves entitled to is, an open enquiry into the whole subject, in order that it may be ascertained who is to blame for the evils which have befallen themselves and the whole country. 3. A great; part of the native race may be stated to be at the present moment in arms, in a state of chronic discontent, watching our proceedings in reference to this Waitara question. Large numbers of them have renounced the Queen's, authority, and many of them declare openly they have been so wronged^ that they will never , return under it. Other most influential men state j that they will not aid the- Government >.iri any ' war that may arise out of this Waitara, : question. t The great majority of them declare that if a:;vr»rf arises from this cause, they will rise and make a : simultaneous attack upon the several European settlements in the Northern Island.. . ; \'\ 4. The reasons they urge for such proceedings,, are, that they did not take ; up arms to prohibit the alienation of territory to the crown or to-, maintain any seignorial rights, but that the peo-,, pie of the Waitara, without having been guilty. of .eny. crime, were driven at the point of the sword from villages, houses and- homes, which they had occupied for years. That a great crime I

has been committed against them. That through all future generations it will be told, that their lands-have been forcibly, and unlawfully taken from them by officers appointed by Ihe Queen of ; Englaud. That they have striven to find a way |in which their laniid may be restored to them j and reparation made ; that they have bought this in vain from the Queen, and find that Her ! E'aws do not rectify wrongs. They also affirm that the most important statements contained in the manifesto iasued by the Government in February 18G0, setting forth thecause of war against the native race, are not correct, although promulgated with the authority they were, and circulated throughout her Majesty's possessions without the possibility of the natives replying to it, or of their reply being heard, whereby a grpfit prejudice has been created against them. For ail these reasons they argue that they have no hope of obtaiuing justice : that their eventual extermination is determined on : that all that is loft to them is to die like men, after a long and desperate struggle ; and that che sooner they can bring that on, before our preparations are further matured, and our numbers increased the greater is their chance of success. 5. It cannot be said that there are no grounds ipweyer unreasonable these may be, . for these suspicions being excited in their minds. For other persons have entertained them, and this is known to the Natives. My predecessor reported to your Grace, in a despatch which was made public and is often quoted. " That the Europeans covet the lands of the Natives, and were determined to enter in and possess them, ' rectiti possint, id 'twn quoeuiuiue modi/,' that this determination became daily more apparent, and that neither law nor equity will prevent the occupation of Native lands by Europeans when the latter are strong enough to defy both the Native owners and the Government." 6. My belief is that the Natives have made up their minds to act on the policy I have above stated : and that they will do so, unless the greatest care is taken on our part. 7. Your Grace must be well aware that this "Waitara question was from the first made a party regarding which the most violent controversy raged, aud mens' passions were much '.excited. Like all other questions between races in a state of hostility, it was by many taken up as a question, of Race, and it will, I fear, even now be difficult for any European to allege that the Natives are, in the main, right in their answers to the allegations made against them regarding the Wuiiara purchase, without raising a fediug of violent hostility in the minds of many people. Leaving apart, however, those far higher considerations which influence your Grace ; 1 know that we are both to stand at the bar of History, when our conduct to the Native race of this country will be judged by impartial historians and that it is our duty to set a good example for all time, in such a most impertant affair. I ought therefore to advise your Grace, without thinking of the personal consequences which may result to myself, that my settled conviction is, that the Natives are in the main right in their allegations regarding the Waitara purchase, and that it ought not to be gone on with. I have given the same opinion to . ruy Responsible Advisers, as your Grace will find from one of the enclosures to this despatch.' "I hope they may adopt my opinion and act speedily upon it. I shall probably before the mail closes be able to report what has been done upon this subject. 8. 1 shall not encumber my despatch with the I grounds of the opinion I have formed on the Waitara question. These will be found in the j enclosures sent herewith. From these your Grace i can judge whether my opinion is ajust one. But this much I must add. that although I have been eighteen months in the Colony, the. most impor- '■ ' tant facts connected with this Waitara purchase were unknown to me until a few days since, aud must have remained so, had it not been from persona! enquiries, made by himself and the Native Minister on the spot ; that, from accident, ".[oversight, or some other cause, these facts have 'riot been made public or reported to your Grace, and that I have seen nothing to make me think ' that my predecessor knew them * 9. On grounds of public policy, the following questions connected with this purchase of laud at the Waitara should be considered with as little delay as possible. It does not involve a new acquisition of territory for her Majesty or the Empire. It is simply a purchase of land, houses, and gardens, the private property of some of the Quuen's subjects, which are to pass from them in order they may be given as private property to other of her Majesty's subjects. To -hold posession of this private property Great Britain maintains and has maintained for three years at a considerable cost, two separate detachments of Troops, one on.it, one near it, in addition to a force at New Plymouth as a support for these detachments ; and none of the Queen's subjects, but a few Natives, deriye any benefit from the land. Her Majesty has at present no legal title to the land. It seems more than doubtful if such a title can ever be given to Her, and it has never been paid for. The original orfcupants of the land are likely soon to return there, and quietly to occupy it. If ,they do . so, we must either turn them off by force, or leave them in possession, they having taken repossession of the land against the will of the Government. If the first of these events occurs, a general war will probably take place If the second of them occurs, the Government will be placed in a position which will weaken its authority and iniluence. If neither of these events take place, from the Natives being withheld from occupying the land by those who are ■ well disposed to the Government, then.we must continue to hold possession of it by a military force, _ and those of the Native race who are now hostile i to us, will remain so, watching, with arms in their f hands our, course in reference to this Waitara ; question. If we, on our part, attempt to put those Europeans , upon it who will claim it in , virtue of rights of selection of land which they , hpld, my opinion is that the Natives will instantly try to turn them off, and bring on a general war ; s ; to be commenced at a point which, from itsphysi- , cal features, and that of the country beyond it, is so ill-suited for such a straggle that I believe that military operations in it, however skilfully" conducted, and however prolonged, can .reputl in up decisive success. I feel sure that Lieutenant-

General Cameron, who is returning to England, will confirm my opinion in this respect. I have the honor to be &c, G. Geky. Hfs Grace the Duke of Newcastle, K.G. &c., &c, &c. LA voluminous mass of enclosures follow this despatch. The important facts referred to are embodied in the following extract from enclosure 8 — " Memorandum by His Excellency stating reasons for abandoning Waitara purchase."] IS. Since the Governor has arrived at Turauuki, from inquiries made by the Native Minister :\nd himself, the following facts have come to light in reference to this piece of land, which have hitherto (if known) never been rtspuited to Lor Majesty's Government, or in any way made public, which are of the most important nature. — and, in the Governor's belief, alter the whole character of the transaction.^They are as follows : — " The block of land of 980 acres, said to have been bought from Te Teira, has never been paid for : a deposit of £100 lias been paid. The block was originally to have consisted of GOO acres, for which £600 was to be paid. Teira expects therefore to receive £980 for the present block. By the arrangements made with Mm, he would be entitled to this sum." " This block of 1)80 acres of land now appears to have been inhabited at the time Teira undertook to sell it, by William King and between two hundred and three hundred of his people. They had been in occupation for twelve yearn ; had village?, cultivations, houses, and other buildings on it, — their homes for years." "Teira now states that William King and these people occupied this land under a valid tribal arrangement, which would appear from his statement to be of such a nature that no person could sell the land without William King and these people being consenting parties to the sale.". "Teira also now admits that there are other legitimate claimants to various portions of this block of land." "Teira further states, that he had never intended to sell the sites of the native villages, although these were what the Government especially wanted ; to form n town site on the river." "Finally, Teira alleges that it was arranged that he was to have a reserve of two hundred acres for native purposes kept on the block of land, and that this reserve has not yet bueu. settled." COPY OF DESPATCH FROM HIS GRA.CE THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. K.G., TO GOVERNOR SIR GEOKGE GREY, K.C.B. Downing Street, 25th August, 1863. Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge your despatch No. 56, of the 27th May, enclosing a Proclamation by which you announced the abandonment of the purchase of land at the Waitara, which was offered for sale to the Government in 1850, aud conditionally accepted by your-prede-cessor. I thought it my duty to convey to you at once by the last mail my approval of the course which you had then resolved to take ; and I now proceed to address you more fully upon the .subject, with reference especially to your Despatch, No. 39, of the 2ith April, and the communications between yourself aud your Ministers which it enclosed. The facts upon which you mainly ground the important decision at which you have arrived, and which, strange to say, have only now been discovered by 3'our personal enquiries, aud by Teira's admissions to the Native Minister (Mr. Dillon Bell) appear to be these : — l. That W. King's residence on the disputed land upon the South bank of the Waitara was, not merely as had been always represented by the sellers, by permission of Teira's father, but in virtue of an arrangement made by all that section of the Ngatiawa Tribe for the sake of defence against the Waikatos. 2. That a large number of natives, between 200 and 300, were living upon the block at the time when it was offered for sale, whose dwellings and cultivations were destroyed when possession was taken by the Military. 3. That Teira, as he now asserts, never intended to sell the pahs, one of which was in his own occupation, and did intend to except from sale a reserve of 200 acres, although no such reserve was named ■ in the deed of sale, as ought to have been done. I proceed to explain to you the effect which, these statements have produced upon my mind, ■ both with respect to the transactions of 1859-02, ! aud the measure whicli you have now adopted. If it be true that a number of families were ; residing upon and cultivating portions of the ' laud offered for sale (variously estimated at from < 10 to 120 acres out of the 980 acres which formed ! the " Block,") I have no doubt but that Governor i Gore Browne and his Ministers, upon discovering 1 the fact, would have carefully reserved and respected such portions, in accordance with the invariable practice of the New Zealand Govern- • inent, or even have refused to have any further : dealings with parties' who, like Teira and the ■ other sellers, had been guilty of concealing from. ; the Governor so important a circumstance. If [ again they had been aware that W.King had 1 established his residence on the South bank of the Waitara in virtue of a general tribal arrange* : ment for purposes of defence, this fact might i have formed an important element in their dccii sion, as to whether the purchase could properly and safely be proceeded with. On the whole, I ! agree with you that your predecessor, if he had. ; been in possession of these facts, would not have. , committed himself to the purchase, and I am. i clearly of opinion that he would not have beta, • ' justified in doing so. The information, indeed,,. . which you now supply converts into a certainty, : the doubts which I expressed in nay Despatch of" November 27th, 1860, and upon other occasions as to' the prudence of the policy pursued by Go-. vernor Browne and his Ministers, with an evident •h ant of sufficient knowledge of the case,.as. well as of foresight of the consequences, though^with .fair, and upright intentions, while it-lessens the serious. difficulty of abandoning, a publioly declared de-. termin ation in the face of armed opposition. . , ■ J have said so much as to the propriety and: . [Continued in sixth page. J

prudence of the Waitara purchase. But I, must add, on the other hand, that my view of the justice of exerting military force againi-it" W. King and his allies remains unchanged. That Chief's con;duct, from' first to last, still seems to me to have been inconsistent with "any "degree of submission to" the Qu^n's sovereignty over' New Z aland. In February, 1859, before the Waitara question arose," he had given notice to the Governor that he would allow no land to be sold within a district extending forty miles North of the European boundary at Taranaki,an interdict of a rebellious character, to which the reasons now or formerly ■alleged against the Waitara sale, can of course, have no application. In the same way, at the public meeting where Teira offered the land/ and during the 'many months which elapsed before the survey, he gave no reasons for his opposition, lie afforded no explanations of it, either such as were provided for him by others at the time, or sucftas might have been drawn from the statements which you have now conveyed to me. In «hort, he never assumed any attitude towards the Governor but one of defiance, and, to use the language of Chief Justice Arney in the Legislative Council, never made " any intelligible claim of Tight to the load, or any other declaration than a •declaration of war." No one can <$oubtthat, had he entered into any peaceable and loyal explanations, they would "have been attended to, or that if the Government Purvey had been allowed to proceed, the pahs and cultivations would not have been interfered wjth, or anything done by Government Officers inconsistent with the notice given by Governor Browne some months before — " that if auy man •could prove bis claim to any piece of land, within the boundary described, such claim would be respected." I dissent, therefore, from the view of the matter conveyed by the language which, in your Despatch of the,24th April, you place in the mouth of the Natives, viz. :—" That the people of the Waitara, without having been guilty' of any crime, were driven at the point of the sword from villages, houses, and homes, which they had occapied for years." The truth being that W. King an.'i his followers brought these consequences upon themselves by their own conduct, and that the latter, far from being evicted (as it were) for the purpose of taking possession of the purchased land, themselves, ia the consciousness of hostility, abandoned their pas, which were only destroyed after hostile acts had been committed by W. Kmsfs parry, and military operations had actually commenced. Again, with respect to the assertion which you attribute to the Natives, that they fought in the late war simnly "for their hearths and homes!," and not at all for the maintenance of ''Tribal Right,"' or the "Mana" of the Maori King, or to prohibit the sale of land to the Ci;own, even by owners desirous to sell, I can only say that the great body of evidence before me, including that of the ardent and able defenders of W. Kin<r, to whom the allegations now made seem to have been unknown, mates it impossible for me to accept them as worthy of credit. I hold, therefore, that no injustice— and it is -with the question of justice only that I am now dealing— was either in tended, or done to W. King and his followers by the employment of military force to carry into effect the survey of the Waitara land, for the purpose of ascertaining how much or how little of it was owned by Teira and the others who joined with, him in the sale to the Crown. I also believe, that in the then state of mifld of a portion of the New Zealand •natives, especially those of Taranaki, collision between them and the Government was not to be avoided without great difficulty, rare forbearance, and even tolerance of conduct which, under ordinary circumstances, would be incompatible with the dignity of the Crown. These convictions, however, do not prevent me from deeply regretting the evils of the late war, and especially so. if any of the Natives are under .the impression that it arose out of an act of injustice committed arainst them by the Government. I heartily share your anxiety to remove, so far as lies in our power, any such belief for the future, and it was with that hope that I at once signified to you my approval of the course you Imve taken in relinquishing the completion of the Waitara purchase, without further investigation, even though that course goes b«yond what I believe strict justice to require, and is exposed to the dangers pointed out by your Responsible Advisers. Those dangers are, of course, increased l>y the unfortunate chance by which the massacre of Lieutenant Tragett and his men took place, before the announcement of the decision which you had already formed. I am far, however for blaming you for the delay caused by the discussions between your Ministers and yourself upon 60 difficult a question, — although it would Tiave been better if the re-occupafclon of the Tataraimaka block and the abandonment of the "Waitara had been effected at one and the same time.— and I entirely concur in your opinion that the subsequent outrage committed by the natives fo the South, unconnected, apparently, with W. King and the Ngatiawae, is not a sufficient reason for not'doinsc what you had decided ought to be done afc the Waitara. In conclusion. I have only to express tny earnest hope that the decisive success gained by ■General Cameron and the troops, together with a firm attitude on your part, supported by your Ministers, wHlmakeifc impossible for the natives to mistake the nature of a policy dictated by the <lesire to root out a belief in wrong done, and a Suspicion of wrong intended against them, which might form an obstacle" in the way of their re.concilemenfe with their European fellow-subjects, and with their Sovereign. I have. &c.. . Newcastle. Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B. :