WASTE LANDS ACT.

New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, Volume V, Issue 358, 21 August 1844, Page 2

WASTE LANDS ACT.

The Legislative Council closed its sittings on the 18th of July, and, after having completed its task of legislating upon all matters submitted to it by the Governor, concluded its labours by passing a series of resolutions to be submitted to Lord Stanley, as a ground for exempting New Zealand from the operation of the Act for regulating the sale of waste lands belonging to the Crown in the Australian Colonies. We have no doubt of the sincerity of the five Members of Council who supported these resolutions, but we are on that account the more pleased that the disposal of the waste lands is a matter which the Imperial Legislature has withdrawn from the control of Colonial Assemblies. For never were resolutions passed by any Assembly — thoogh this is a bold word — that displayed a more profound ignorance of the principles which should regulate the subject to which they referred, and of the facts from which those principles had been deduced. Uncomplimentary as this statement may appear, we imagine we shall have little difficulty in establishing its truth.

The object of these resolutions is stated to be, that " under certain well considered regulations," the natives, who are assumed to be entitled to about sixty millions of acres of land in this colony, should be "free to dispose of such lands as are not .'required by the Crown." The grounds for this recommendation are two-fold — first, that, as about one fortieth part of these sixty millions of acres is already held and claimed by the New Zealand Company and by private claimants, the Crown cannot enforce the price which has been fixed by the Act of Parliament regulating the sale of waste lands ; and secondly, that the right of pre-emption reserved to the Crown by the treaty of Waitangi has created great ( dissatisfaction among the natives. We shall consider each of them in its order.

We must, however, premise, that the framer of the resolutions, either ignoiantly or artfully, we know not whether, but presume the former, in stating the objects of the Wakefield system, has omitted one, and that its primary and most important object. The resolutions describe the objects of that system as being, "To provide a fund for the " introduction of labourers into the colony, " and thus to secure to the purchaser of land " the means of cultivating it — and to prevent " the labourer when so introduced into the " colony from too speedily becoming a land- " owner, and ceasing to work for hire before "he has contributed a due proportion of "labour." Undoubtedly these are among its objects, — but the Wakefield system would be better described as being a plan for preventing the evils which in all new countries have been occasioned through the acquisition of waste land in (excessive quantities, by means which would at the same time secure the objects referred to in the resolutions. Nor should it be forgotten that the plan suggested by Mr. Wakefield is only the last of a series of effects continued now through more than two centuries to prevent or to remedy these evils, — and that it was not proposed until the experience of many generations in every new country that was made the theatre of English colonization had demonstrated the utter futility of all previous plans. Without going further back than 17C3, we find in the instructions then addressed to the Governor of the Proviuce of Quebec, the existence of these evils recognized in a preamble, introductory to what were designed as measures of prevention. "Whereas" say the instructions "great inconvenience has arisen in many parts of of the colonies of America from the granting of excessive quantities of land to persons who have never cultivated the same, and have thereby prevented others, more industrious, from improving such tends."— And from that period to the time of the mission of Lord Durham to Canada every succesive Government of those colonies recognized and deplored the existence of these evils, which defied all their efforts at cure or prevention. It was to prevent the existence of such inconviences that the plan of Mr. Wakefield was originally framed, and the objects re-

ferred to in the resolutions were regarded as subordinate though necessary and beneficial results of its adoption. That the very existence of the primary purpose of the adoption of the Wakefield system should apparently be unknown to the members of the Legislative Council, augurs, we must be permitted to say, an ignorance on their part which destroys whatever claim they might otherwise be supposed to possess to be considered as authorities upon the subject. But if this omission proves that these gettlemen are not qualified by any acquaintance with the character and objects of the Wakefield theory to pronounce an opiuioa upon its merits — the reasons which they have assigned as the foundation of their conclusions would prove that they were equally unfitted to act as legislators upon any subject. For the grounds which they allege in order to induce the Government to abandon the attempt to regulate the disposal of the waste lands of the colony, are such as, if one admitted, wtuld equally apply to every possible object of legislation. These gentlemen say, that is useless to fix a price for waste lands in this colony, because, about our fortieth part of the waste lands will be exempted from its operation. On the same grounds the Government may be called upon to abandon the attempt to repress crime, for we may be quite assured that at least one

crime ia forty will escape unpunished ; or to adminster justice in civil matters, because in one case in forty Judges may mistake the law, or Juries return an erroneous verdict — or to collect a revenue, because, a portion of the articles subjected to duty will be smuggled into the country ; or in fact to perform any one of its functions, because in a small preportion of cases it must necessarily fail to accomplish its purposes. We have always been aware that all human laws were of necessity imperfect, but this we imagine is first time that men acting as legislators have attempted to deduce from this acknowledged imperfection an argument against the existence of law. We submit that it would have been, we will not say more statesman like, but more consonant to common sense, if the Council had endeavoured to devise means, and such may be found, for bringing ihe lands already alienated by the Government within the operation of the Act of Parliament, instead of recommending the abandon-^ ment of an important principle because in a few Irfstarfdes it may prove~Tn applicable. ■* If from the arguments contained in the resolution itself, we turn to those employed by the Members of Council who supported them, we shall find still more to excite our surprise ; and we can only account for the statements there made upon the supposition that not one of the speakers had read a single work in which the principles of the Wakefield system have been developed. The Colonial Secretary appears to have considered that colonizing by means of companies was a part of that system, when in fact this method of colonisation necessarily involves a departure from that principle, by diverting a portion of the price of land from its allotted object, that of providing a labour fund, and was adopted only because the Government would not itself undertake the work of founding a colony in New Zealand. Dr. Martin objected to this system, because as he asserted the emigration was not voluntary. We are not surprised that this gentleman should imagine the emigration to New Zealand to have been compulsory, because he regards the emigrants to the New England States, who were only driven out by religious persecution, to have been voluntary ; but we are curious to learn what ideas this gentleman attaches to the terms voluntary and compulsory. Mr. Brown appears to have considered that the greater the number of labourers in the colony the higher will be the price of labour, and argued that the Home Government were opposed to the interests of the colony, as they seemed to think that its only use was to make it an emporium for pauper emigrants. And the Attorney-General stated that land would not fetch 2Os. per acre, owing to the large quantity held by the natives and alienatpd by the Government. The Colonial Treasurer prudently contented himself with giving a silent vote, and in so doing he certainly was wise if he had no better reasons to urge than those which we have quoted above. And it was upon such grounds as these that the resolutions ia question were adopted ! If the honorable gentlemen had taken the precaution to make themselves in some degree, however small, acquainted with the subject, they would at least have spared themselves a needless exhibition of ignorance, and might even have found reasons for supporting the system which has been the object of their attack. The second ground of objection to the Government plan is, that the right of pre-emption claimed by the Crown, which is assumed to be an essential condition of that plan, has excited great dissatisfaction among the natives. We are quite willing to admit that upon this

subject, in which the interests of the natives are directly concerned, the operation of any system x upon those interests ought to be allowed great weight. But we cannot allow that the New Zealanders are sufficiently instructed to entitle their mere feelings upon the subject to any very serious consideration. If it can be shown that by any modification of the mode of carrying out the present system we could remove dissatisfaction, without defeating the objects of the plan, by all means let such modifications be adopted. But if not, then for the sake of the whole community, natives as well as settlers, we call upon the Governor to disregard any temporary dissatisfaction, and to persevere steadily in a cause which will secure the interests of the natives against the results of their own improvident cupidity, and will guard the colony against the innumerable evils which other British colonies have experienced from the early profusion of the Government in the disposal of the wastelands. If these lands are to be regarded as the property of the New Zealanders, then there is a rich patrimony which the Government must guard for the successors of the present generation. If they should ever be claimed as the property of the Crown, then the present Government must see that they are not squandered upon a few persons, and thus for ever closed against the thousands or millions of British subjects for whom they ought to be held in trust. In whatever light they may be viewed, every precaution should be taken against a single improvident grant ; and no dealing with this property should be sanctioned which does not, as far as possible, provide for the occupation and employment of every acre which may be alienated.

We have always regarded the recognition of the title of the natives, or, we should rather say, the grant to the natives of a title to the whole lands of New Zealand as the most serious error of Captain Hobson's Government. We admit that, in the northern part of the Island where population is more dense, the magnitu le of the error was less perceptible ; and it might have appeared that, as this measure was accompanied by an acknowledgement of an absolute right of pre-emption in the Crown, the plan pursued was the best, as it certainly was the easiest metrod of settling the questioH. But when the natives were made aware af the value which the establishment of the Colony had conferred upon particular portions j)f land, and learned the price 'which" the Government otrarmea tot atstrlcw which they had sold for a mere trifle, it was to be expected that great dissatisfactian would arise. The treaty of Waitangi was, in fact, founded upon the assumed ignorance of the natives. A concession was made to them in words, which by a subsequent provision was deprived of nearly all its value. And as there are always individuals to point out to the natives the consequences of their acts, it has followed as a necessary consequence that they consider they have been defrauded by the Government. That they are dissatisfied consequently can excite no surprise. This ought to have been foreseen and provided for, and as no such provision was made at the time, the task of remedying the errors of his predecessor has devolved upon Capt. Fitzroy. But the experience of the consequences of one error should afford a serious warning against any inconsiderate proceeding which may involve consequences incomparably more mischievous.

It is quite clear in the first place that the natives have no just cause of complaint on account of the rigid enforcement of the treaty of Waitangi. That treaty has guaranteed to them the undisturbed possession of all the land to which by the law of nature, no less than by the law of nations they could claim any title. And it has done more than this. It has secured to them the power of retaining for future use whatever portions of the vast unappropriated districts of these Islands they may desire to preserve to themselves or their posterity. But this was accompanied by a condition, necessary no less for their own welfare than for the prosperity of the colony, that they should not alienate any portion of the teritory secured to them excepting to the Crown. In this arrangement a serious error was, as we conceive, committed ; but it was an error on the side of generosity, and arising out of an anxious desire to avoid even the semblance of injustice. And now an attempt is made, not merely to perpetuate the error, but to throw away the safeguard ; to leave the natives without protection to their own weakness, tempted as they will be by men of every character, and exposed to every species of allurement which may be found efficacious in stimulating their desires for temporary gratification. If our legislators wish to read the future history of the New Zealanders under such circumstances, they have only to tnrn to the pages which jecord the fate of the lied Indians of America, and they will find it there traced with melancholy accurracy. For of all the causes to which the early degradation and

eventual destruction of that race may be attributed, none has been so efficacious as the facilities of acquiring waste land under the successive systems pursued in that country. And assuredly there is neither such an inherent superiority in the natives of New Zealand, nor in those settlers who under the proposed system would be brought into this country, over the corresponding classes in America to justify the most sanguine individual in anticipating a different result, when the circumstances of the two people should be made similar.

We are aware that it may be objected by persons who know no more of this subject than our Legislative Councillors know of the Wakefield system, that as in America the right of pre-emption has always been vested in the Government — the consequences we have attributed to the facilities of acquiring waste lands possessed in that country have no relation to the proposed measure. As, however, such an objection can only proceed from ignorance, we shall not now stop to examine it. Should it be argued, we pledge ourselves to demonstrate its futility. But looking to the bearing of this subject upon the natives, there is another consideration which ought not to be left out of sight. The present race of natives can be regarded in no other light than, if we may use the term, as tenants for life. They have not, and they ought to be regarded as having any right so to deal with the property as to deprive their successors of its enjoyment. Or they should be looked upon in the light of minors, of whom the Government by its position is bound to act as the guardian. No doubt many a minor feels great dissatisfaction when he is restrained from squandering in the years of his minority the whole estate to which he will eventually be entitled. But what wouM be thought of a guardian who regarded this dissatisfaction as an adequate ground for abandoning his trust, and for giving over to the reckless inexperience of his ward the property he was bound to protect. In the same manner is the Governor bound to protect this property for the sake of the natives, and it would assuredly hereafter form a heavy charge against any Government that it had encouraged or permitted its destruction, and left those for whose advantage it was intended to sink into a state of poverty and degradation unredeemed by any prospect of future recovery.

We had intended to hare continued the present article, and to have suggested a plan for the disposal of the waste lands of the colcny. But our remarks have already extended to such a length, that we must postpone this till our next number.