NATIVE LAW AND CUSTOM ON CONFISCATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 308, 7 November 1864, Page 5

NATIVE LAW AND CUSTOM ON CONFISCATION.

itojt U IC period ol the first arrival of the natives la these islands, about the middle or Cl , ul ot t! 'e thirteenth century, land has j 3 i S P , ( ,' ri cou hscati.'d wherever war has been ~5". success between native tribes, or w here any tribe had received an insult from another tribe, or when any depredation liatl been committed by one party on another. 11 would not be a hard matter to show that this has been the practice from their first coming here to the !>usent tune : but it will be enough, by showiu" cases from at least the last eight generations. About eight generations ago then, the Thames on both sides was inhabited by a tribe called IN gatihuarere. At that time the forefatheis oft he present inhabitants of the Thames lived part at \Y aikato and Matamata, and part on the upper portion of Pialco. Amongst those inhabiting the latter place, lived a man who belonged •A i * ,K illl '". larcrc 1 ribo. .He was connected with both parties : he murdered a child belousiin" to tiie party with whom lie resided. "VYlien lie saw that the murder was discovered, he at once escaped and went to llnuraki. A largo force was collected, he was pursued, and the friends of the child demanded that lie should be given up, but the natives with whom he resided refused to give him up. The consequence was that pa alter pa lell, until the whole Thames became | confiscated, and has been held by the descendants ot the conquerors up to llie'prcsent time. About two generations later another murder was committed by (lie descendants of the mnrdc*j cr of the child, who had been left in possession ot the Bay districts. AYarwas again waged against this party; this time they were nearly all killed, and most ot their land confiscated • the small number of the tribe that escaped have since mixed with the conquerors, so that at the present time you cannot find a native who is a real descendant from that tribe. In the latter part ol last century, J\ gat ilea wkana were in possession of parts of Waiknto and all Kawhia, A\ ben they were driven south by the other part of AYailcato, and tlieir land coniiscated. They then -went to Look s Straits, drove the natives away, and took possession of their lands. About the vein- 1527, AVaharoa, William Thompson s father, attacked the Thames natives at Alatamata. drove them out, and confiscated about 2(.H>.OtX) acres of their land, which is a rich and fertile district. In the year of 1829, at the IJay ol Islands, the natives in possession of what is now called Ixiissell were driven away from that place by an inland tribe, and the place was confiscated, and has since been sold by the conquerors. At a later period, 18)57, Psgatimaru of the .1 hamcs insulted the Ngatipoua tribe, the latter seized on the Island of Waiheki as payment for the ollcnce, and declared it confiscated as a payment of their expenses ; and that the same custom still prevails will be seen from the fact that the natives of the Bay of Islands still to the present moment claim '.Russell as theirs because they took it from the British troops in the year 1811: also the Taranaki natives up to the present moment claim the Tataraimaka block as theirs, because they consider it confiscated when they drove us* off in 18G0. The -Maketu natives consider the Matata as confiscated to them because they conquered its possessors a few months ago. All these places they claim as payment for having driven the late possessors awa3' from the land. 't will, therefore, be seen that from time im-

memorial it lias been both the law and the custom ol the natives ot these islands to confiscate land, and that 1 lie same law exists at the present moment, ihe lew eases where land has been taken and not eonliscated only prove the rule. These have occurred only where the land was at too great a distanee lrom their own district. and would require too threat a force to keep possession. The natives will acknowledge this as their rule, and they were quite astonished that Sir G. Grey did not insist on land being given np at the close of the war. both at the Bay, and the South. Had it been enforced then, we should not now have been plunged in war. Jhe natives would have considered that they had too much at stake, ff of the land belonging to all the natives who have engaged in the present rebellion one hall' were confiscated to the Government, and one half of the remainder set apart-to be sold to form a fund to defray all native expenses, leaving them one fourth of their land. which is niiich more than they or their descendants will ever want —if this were to be done they won Id never again break out in rebellion ; they woukl see the justice of the thing. They would* then turn their attention to the cultivation of the land, ami they might in the end become an industrious and happy people, and the colonists as a body would rejoice at the result.