THE WEBSTER CLAIMS

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVIII, Issue 70, 24 March 1914, Page 2

THE WEBSTER CLAIMS

A LONGSTANDING DISPUTE.

In a_ few days we ought to hear something more of the Webster claims, [ winch, are amongst the important oases to be decided by the international Tribunal of Arbitration, a treaty-created Commission now sitting a/c Washington (says the Lyttelton limes). The Webster case is one of the most interesting of the numerous longstanding disputes awaiting settlement by the Tribunal. It soes back seventy-five-years, to the days when JSew Zealand was No Man's -'Land and when the enterprising pakeha trader acquired huge tracts of land tor considerations which, though no doubt very good value in those days, seem extremely small in the light of present land prices. William Web*t6n'o4 oitizen; °£■• the'-United States, in 18/8 claimed from the British Gov.ernment compensation in respect of lands m the North Island of New 'Zealand, purchased by. him from the original owners, and, as'he alleged, *r«gmgfully taken by the Crown . and afterwards disposed of in violation of preexisting rights. Webster has long been dead, but his heirs are carrying on the fight, with some prospect of obtaining a favorable award at last. ci-P^f late Sir Jolm Campbell, the "Father of Auckland," lived for a while at William Webster's tradingstation at Waiau, now known as Coromandel, on the shores of the Hauraki Gulf, in the early part of 1840. In his book "Poenamo" a very readable record of the early days of Auckland, he gives a description of Webster and of the Herekino beach at) Waiau, where on the day he landed he saw a knot of. young fellows playing pitch-and-toss with sovereigns. "Big Webster," as the Europeans called him, was widely known as the 'King of Waiau." The Maoris called him .Waipeha, and in 1839-40 w aipeha . reigned supreme along the whole shore of the Hauraki. "Waipeha was a big man," wrote Sir John Campbell; "he was, though a Yankee, as burly as a veritable John Bull. He was not only big in body, but also in brain, whence came the retaining o f the power he wielded, though not the power itself. Waipeha had taken a wile—lSiative fashion and without the benefit of clergy—from the .tribe of the great chief Taniwha. Of his antecedents it. matters not; the only thing I ever heard whispered against him was that he had run-away from his whaleship. Whether a friendly mate lowered his tool-chest into the boat he escaped in he best knows but he first wielded his axe in the forest before he developed into the King of Waiau. I speak of him as I found lum—a fine, righWiearted, easy-go-ing fend fellow, with plenty of brains and knowing how to use them." That was the man as the future "Father of Auckland" knew him, and he made a not unpleasant picture. By the time Campbell, a youno- doctor, fresh from Scotland, set foot on the Hauraki shore ''Big Webster" had worked up a large trade with Australia preparing cargoes of kauri ■ spars, and buying pigs, potatoes, and maize from the Natives and shipping them to Sydney. His "wharehoko" must have been well stooked in 1836, a copy of the deed of conveyance of the eighty thousand acres of Coromandel lands which he purchased showing that the consideration paid rnJ th<?* er I n, iioi'y waa valued at£ll9s. Ihe trade" was certainly varied enough, ranging from gunpowder to raz?™-. °"* of the thatched store on the beach the trader served to the Maori chiefs and people seventy muskets, ntty-four casks of powder, a hundred and forty blankets, forty shawls, forty pair of trousers, eight dozen shirts, four hundred razors eighty spades, eighty-two iron pots' and a thousand fishhooks. There is no mention «f sealing-wax, which was

-one of the trade treasures paid: for , the site of Wellington's city in the . same year. The only oaah which j passed in the transaction was £35 I ; sovereigns. Now, this block, con- ' . taining Crown kauri forest land arid i a number of goldmining properties, is : of enormous value. The original claim was for £224,624, but on" account of increasing values the bill now stands at half a million sterling. !