THE MANAWATU PURCHASE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1686, 12 May 1866, Page 2

THE MANAWATU PURCHASE.

The following are the further comments of the Wellington Advertiser, May 4 : _ We have said, however, that we were willing to accept the letters as genuine, and doing so it becomes necessary to consider their value. In the first place the more important of tlie two—that which is signed by such men as Matene Te Whiwhi and Aperahama Te Huru—is dated] April 5-14, or the two days on which important meetings took place, but prior to the final meeting at which the price was fixed, and when, as we are assured ! on authority certainly as good as any the Press can bring forward, all dissent to the sale had ceased. There can be only one inference drawn from this fact, and that is, that the chiefs who signed this letter changed their minds afterwards and agreed to the sale. As the strongest proof of this, we may say that we are assured that .Matene Te Whiwhi lias signed the agreement of sale, in the face of which his appeal to a law court is mere nonsense, and that Aperahama has been from the beginning one of the most urgent to sell. Paralalia is the "big mouth ,wlio wrote another letter on thesame day to the same person on behalf of eleven tribes, and if both his epistles are genuine he must be as wady with his pen as with his tongue—his opinion is considered of very little worth. The others signing the present letter have all been in favour of the sale from the beginning, from what we learn, There is, therefore, something very strange in this letter—on the one side it is said that those who signed it did so as a protest against the sale; whilst, on the other, we have the assertion that all, with the exception of one sorry fellow whose word is worth nothing, have agreed to it. With regard to the other letter, we can say no more than we have already done; Henare Te Herekau kept up a nominal objection to the sale, hut really was in favour of it, and as for Hore Henei Talmrape, he is supposed to have signed the agreement by this time. Distinct information on this subject is, however, difficult to obtain, as the work of obtaining signatures is one of great difficulty, having to be done through a I large extent of country, and natives being proverbially most troublesome to deal with where documents are concerned-except, perhaps, when they write to the Press, at which time they seem ready enough. From the above facts, we infer that these letters are of no value ; but, as our readers will observe, we cannot produce proof positive of our assertions any more than the Press can of the authenticity of the letters. We cannot lay before them the written agreement of the sale, nor can we, as yet, give them the words spoken at the meetings, though that we hope to be able to do; they must, therefore judge for themselves, between the value of the two.

We treated the first letter which the Press published, with contempt, because it was so glaringly tlie work o£ some mischief-maker, as it did not ut nil relate to the block under negotiation, although it professed to do so j we tele that little weight was to be attached to the second, because the supposed writers of it were men of no consequence, and we anBwered it by a simple statement of facts, but these two productions, which we publish to day, call for far more serious consideration, There is something beyond the mere protest in them ; there is an indication of something wrong that we cannot conceal from ourselves The question must naturally arise, how is it that these letters are written at the very time when the public of Wellington has been led to believe that all was going on well. His Honor the Superintendent must look to it that he disproves these more than rumours; it will not do to pass them over in silence for the people of Wellington will not stand another Waitotara. The Provincial Council must institute a searching inquiry into the

whole matter the moment it meets, and not rest satisfied until it is clearly proved to them that the Manawatu block has been fairly and honestly acquired, with no possible chance of- future trouble 1 , and with a certainty that settlers can go and take up their abode upon it without delay, as peaceful colonists living on friendly terms with those from whom their lands have been purchased. The Press and Times may spare us their taunts, and threats of nonassistance in case of war over this matter: Wellington wants no appeal to force. She wants this Jand, not for herself alone, but for the benefit of the whole Colony ; but she will not bear out a Land Purchase Commissioner if ho has bungled the business he has undertaken, andjDr. Featherston will have to prove very clearly that there is no dissatisfied claimant, or the money for the purchase will not be forthcoming. The South may rest assured of this, and withold their paltry insinuations, which we regret to see in a journal whose views are generally so liberal as those of the LyUelton Times.

The Independent of May 3, has also another article upon this subject, in which it is stated thatMateneTe Whiwhi signed the memorandum of agreement for sale on the lGtli April.

We take the following letter from the Press, of May 7.

April 30,18G6. To Mr. FitzGerald, greeting-I have seen our letter of the 14th of April, I saw it in a Wellington newspaper of the 28th April. That newspaper says my voice was loud for withholding the land, but that my hand signed the paper for the sale of land. This statement of the Wellington newspaper is quite false. lam still determined not to sell the land; my hand did not touch the pen; it did not sign, nor did I ever see the document.

Another assertion of that newspaper states that our letter of the 14th of April was written before the meeting was concluded. This statement of the newspaper is quite false. It was the Saturday evening of the 14th of April, this was the day on which Featherston replied to what we had said (saying), " Let those who withhold the lam] hold their tongues and speak no more." The only subject left open for discussion by Featherston on that evening was, the discussion of the selling party as to the amount of money, whether it should be greater or less; there wag nothing else to be talked about. Possibly, he and those who were engaged with him, the selling party, on Sunday, had some talk; we the christian party knew nothing of their proceedings; we took no interest in what they were talking about—the settling the amount of money—that we should take any part in that. On the morning of the 16th all the people dispersed. This is all. (Signed) Henrt Te Herekau.