THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, August 24, 1844.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 129, 24 August 1844, Page 98

THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, August 24, 1844.

Journal* become more necessity as men become more equal, and individualism more to be feared. It would be to underrate their importance to suppose that they serre only to secure liberty : they maintain civilisation. D« TOCttUXVILM. Of Democracy in America, rol . 4, p. 303.

" About the middle of the nineteenth century, impelled by the distress of her people and the energy of some private individuals, England com* menced the systematic colonization of New Zealand. A deep consciousness of the miseries accruing to aboriginal tribes from contact with the white ' man, and an eager desire to prevent them in future, had gradually grown up in the minds of a portion of the British public, and at that period had reached a height which may well be deemed excessive. The aborigines of the islands in question, long since extinct, appear to have possessed more capabilities of civilization than usually fall to the lot of savages. But the very extravagance of the feeling alluded to defeated its object. After much laborious research among the voluminous reports of the transactions of the time, laid up for the use of the antiquarian in the archives of the Colonial' Office, the only satisfactory explanation of the conduct of the Government of that day we can arrive at, is that it had adopted a notion that the natives of these islands were creatures of pure reason, superior to the ordinary temptations and failings of humanity. These savages, they seem to have thought, like kings, could do no wrong. The doctrine of passive obedience to their commands, immediate acquiescence in all their claims and encroachments, was sedulously inculcated on the European settlers. If they .massacred the latter in cold blood, no legal investigations, no ordinary forms of justice were to be gone through, to enable the Government to come to a decision. All were declared amenable to British law, but in these cases it was held to be superfluous. It was sufficient that savages were the perpetrators to prove that their victims were the criminals. And in the inquiries as to the acquisition of lands, which was to be by purchase, a manifestation of dissatisfaction on the part of these natives was sufficient to set aside the most deliberate decisions of constituted tribunals. One Robert Fitzßoy, a captain of the British navy, who for a time held the government of the infant colony, pushed these principles of the civilization of savages to their extreme limits. The consequences of his actions were such as would have been expected in more rational times. Continued oppression of the whites by their Government produced disaffection continned aggressions by the natives led to retaliation. War, which soon became war of extermination, followed, with the usual result — the disappearance of the native race."

So perhaps may some future historian of New Zealand have to write of it in days vihen the absurdity of attempting to civilize savages with a Government who3e power they arc ignorant of or despise, and by treating them with the deference paid to equals or superiors, not with the authority, consideration, and kindness needful in educating children, will be too stale a truism to need any arguments to prove it.' The act of Governor Fitzßoy most injurious to the

natives in its ultimate effects is his dismissal of the Wairau case at Waikanai ; the next is bis reversal of Mr. Spain's decision at Taranaki.

The facts of the case are briefly these :—: — The Company's Principal Agent, landing at | Taranaki, bought a portion of the district I from the occupants. These occupants belonged to the Ngatiawa tribe, and consisted of a remnant of the original inhabitants, a number of whom had been conquered and carried off as slaves by the Waikatos. All that were left, men women and children, were present at and joined in the sale. Afterwards Tewero-wero, chief of the conquering Waikatos, asserted his claim to the lands in question in right of conquest, applied to Governor Hobson for payment, and, after much negotiation, accepted £400 for his property in them. Then the lands were sold to the New Plymouth settlers, taken possession of, and partly cleared. Long afterwards the missionaries persuaded the Waikatos to manumit their slaves, the original owners, who put in a claim to the lands, which was rejected by Mr. Spain, and the Company's and Government's purchase declared valid. The defeated claimants thereupon began to annoy the settlers ; the Governor hurried down from Auckland, and, without going into the evidence, pronounced Mr. Spain's decision a mistake, which he " cannot and will not confirm."

Did Mr. Spain exceed his power in deciding? Was he wrong in his decision? If wrong, were the Governor's consequent proceedings right ?

It is true that the act passed by Sir G. Gipps and his Legislative Council in 1840 empowered that Governor to appoint commissioners to " examine and report " on claims to land in New Zealand. The commission issued by him under that act also directs the commissioners appointed to "hear, examine, and report," and " to investigate and report " on these claims. When the islands were erected into an independent colony, Governor Hobson in like manner was authorized to repeal Sir G. Gipps's ordinance and pass another for the same purposes, which he and his Council did ; and in defining the commissioners' powers used the same words — " hear, investigate, examine, report." And in the last ordinance it is provided that the Governor shall not be obliged to " make and deliver" the grants reported on " unless he shall deem it proper." All this is true.

But it is equally true that the Queen's mandate to Mr. Spain, and Governor Hobson's commission to him, directs that gentleman " to investigate and determine " all claims to land. The point was mooted before it was issued, and the words were deliberately decided upon. And if proof be needed that they were understood by the Governor as giving the amplest power, we find it in a letter to the Colonial Secretary, wherein Governor Hobson states that he has sent Mr. Spain to Wellington and Wanganui, who> he trusts, will " definitively settle this matter," — alluding to some disputed claims. The definitive settlement is stated simply as a consequence of his being sent — not of any particular power vested in him in that particular case. We cannot but conclude, from the mode in which the thing is mentioned, that Governor Hobson considered it as an ordinary exercise of the power given Mr. Spain by his commission.

But as in any case it could not be expected that the Governor was to go into all the evidence respecting every land claim, it is clear that the decision must have rested virtually with the commissioner, whatever the words of the act. That he was literally to do so, is implied by the words used in his own commission. It appears then that Mr. Spain did not exceed his power in determining the Taranaki claim. But we do not deny the Governor's power to withiiold his confirmation of that claim.

Was- Mr. Spain's decision wrong ? Nothing it better known — nothing more constantly acknowledged and acted upon by both Maories and Government:— nothing

more likely to be acquiesced in by the former, than the principle that among the natives conquest confers a right to land — defeat takes it away. We do not defend the principle, condemn it rather ; but, having been acted upon so long by the Government with regard to claims all over the islands, it would be to unsettle almost every claim, reopen almost every case, were it to be rejected now. " Hard " it may be ; then why was it ever allowed ? But if conquest does not confer a right, if defeat does not take it away, how is it Rauparatia had any claim to the Wairau, professedly gained^ by conquest, some of the original inhabitants being still alive ? And if he had no claim at all, how were the whites, as the Governor declared, so much in the wrong in their dispute with him, that their conse-* quent massacre was not to be punished, not even legally investigated ? We do no^rest his criminality in the existence of noh* existence of such a right ; but, if it do not exist, as Governor Fitzßoy argues, then Rauparaha had no shadow of an excuse for meddling with the Wairau surveyors at all. Taranaki belongs to the Company, or Captain Fitzßoy himself stultifies his Waikanai decision. Mr. Spain, we assert, could do no other than allow the validity of the Company's claim, the actual occupants having been paid by the Company, and the conquering Waikato chief by the Government. The latter may, for aught we know at present, demand the repayment of the £400 from the Company, if they please ; but this has nothing to do with the natives.

But, had the correctness of Mr. Spain's decision been less evident, such a mode of suspending it as that adopted by his Excellency would have been equally injudicious. Mr. Spain's decisions have been looked forward to and considered by both whites and Maories as conclusive. The thought of their being reversed, of the questions so closed being reopened, hardly ever entered any one's head. Why then lightly risk the overthrow of this moral power, shake the authority of a tribunal established already ! so long that habit and custom had familiarized men's minds to acquiescence in its decrees, — and this when a Government has notoriously so few other holds on the respect and obedience of the untutored people it is placed over ? Even had the decision been wrong, it should have been examined with such care, pronounced upon with such caution, that the old respect for the tribunal should have been increased rather than diminished by the act itself which set aside its decree. Compare such a mode of proceeding with that actually adopted.

Had it been thought advisable that natives who had lost their rights to sold lands should have been remunerated, why not have recommended (or enforced, if you will) the bestowal of such remuneration, not as acknowledging a right, but conferring a favour? It is evident — putting aside the Maori custom, which has acquired the force of law — that no harm would have been done these manumitted slaves by Mr. Spain's decision. The land of the settlement is an inconsiderable portion of the immense district in which it is situated. From this block about 20,000 acres were cut off by Mr. Spain, to be restored ; and of the remainder the natives will still possess the reserves. All this out of the small block for about 150 natives, 100 of whom had, according to the custom they had been familiar with from infancy, forfeited their right to any land at all, and been actually living as slaves in another district for years. How far these deserved any special relaxation in their favour of their universally acknowledged rule, may be learned from the fact that even Mr. Hatfield, the Church missionary, who takes the most interest in their welfare, whose opinion is most entitled to attention, had written to Government, strongly urging the necessity of the presence of troops to restrain them.

But for the settlers — men who have set the hopes pf their lives and exhausted

their pecuniary "means upon the cultivation of lands they have paid for, in the full and rational faith of their being secured to them by Government, and who now see the fruits of their time, labour, and money likely to be wrested away, the industry of past years rendered unavailing and worthless, their prospects of future comfort and independence clouded and withdrawn — what indignation must not have been excited in their hearts by this thoughtless reversal I Will it be lessened by the reflection that it is based on reasons so inconsistent and preposterous? And is it not mocking them iv. their misfortune, to tell them they may - take waste Government lands in exchange for those they have lost and the money they have spent, and attack the wilderness afresh, without confidence, capital, or the countenance and support of their old fellow-toilers and friends? We hope yet that they will restrain this bitter sense of injury, and give the Governor time to prevent, as far as still lies in bis f ower, some of the consequences of this rash proceeding, by reconsidering the case and confirming the original decision — as he must do, if he wish the whites and natives to live - peaceably together for any length of time. ? The mill-sawn timber taken to Launceston in the Joseph Cripps having found a market there, it is the intention of Messrs. Fell and Co. to load her with a full cargo on her return to that port. We learn by a communication we have received from Akaroa, that the whaling about Banks' Peninsula has been very successful this season. On the 20th of June, Mr. Price had caught fifteen whales, and Mr. Wood fourteen. The ship Gideon Howland caught in Akaroa harbour a whale which yielded 110 barrels. The skeleton has been prepared for the Paris museum by the surgeons of the French frigate. Mr. Spain has been engaged the whole of the present week in endeavouring to settle* the land claims in this district. The natives residing in the neighbourhood at first denied having received any payment for the land ; but, on its being satisfactorily provedAhat the late Captain Wakefield had given them goods to the amount of £900, they somewhat reluctantly admitted the fact, after a fruitless attempt to convince the Court that the goods alluded to had been received by them in exchange for pigs. They then contended that, as they had received no part of the original payment made to Rauparaha (whose right to dispose of the district they did not, however, question), a further compensation ought to be made them. Colonel Wakefield, who is anxious to see the question finally set at rest before he leaves the settlement, thereupon consented to give them a further sum of £800, with the hope of securing to the settlers undisturbed possession. Whether this amount, which has been awarded by the Commissioner, will be accepted by the natives remains to be seen. Those from Motuaka refused their share yesterday ; but as it is the practice of the New Zealander to exact the utmost farthing in all his bargains, it is not unlikely that, in a day or two, when they see nothing more is to be got, they will accept what has been offered them.