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NATIVE LANDS AND THEIR INCIDENTS.

[BY E. G. B. moss, BARRISTER, tauranga.] No. 111. GOVERNMENT PURCHASES AND DEALINGS. I have shown how the natives suffer by the system under which private land purchases are conducted. The wrongs they have suffered by Government land purchasing are, lam bound to say, tenfold greater. The law permits an agent of the Government to make an advance upon land to any single native who may represent himself as an owner, before the investigation of his claim by the Land Court. It matters not whether the advance made to him has been £5 or £500, or whether the land in which he claims to be interested is worth £100 or £50,000, the result is the same. A Gazette notice is issued, and no private individual can afterwards negotiate in any way for any of that land. The law formerly forbade negotiation, but until 1884 no penalty was provided. Therefore the risk was run, but only by rich companies or powerful syndicates. They could afford to defy the Government and to risk continuing the struggle till a change of Ministry, or some other conjuncture, enabled them to get their way. Numerous and well known are the cases in which, after a long and arduous struggle, the Government has withdrawn proclamations, or abandoned its right of purchase, and allowed its opponents to complete their purchases in the end. Through this and many other difficulties thrown in the way of purchasers, native land buying became a monopoly of the unscrupulously wealthy and politically powerful, who alone cared to face the delays and expense with which such transactions were attended. Their profit, and the low price obtained by the native seller, are of course commensurate.

During the Grey administration unusually large blocks were gazetted as under negotiation, and for a time earnest attempts were made by Government to complete the titles. When the Grey Ministry went out of office, native land purchasing by the Government languished, and seemed to be dying a natural death. Owing partly to want of money, and partly to the objection to deal with the Government, which the natives have learned from experience, the Government was unable to complete purchases. In this dilemma, it allowed some of the powerful companies to complete the negotiations which they had for years previously been carrying on in defiance of the Government and against the law. In other cases, where the influence was less powerful, the Government persisted, and negotiations could not be completed, however desirous the natives were to do so. Great wrong was done in many cases where natives had incurred debt on the strength of soiling their lands. Worse still, they were taught to think lightly of their obligations, anol to defy creditors whose claims were morally good, but who had no legal means of recovery. Further, as Government could not or would not buy, and as private persons were not allowed to do so, large tracts of fine country were locked up, and have continued unimproved and useless ever since.

Another class is that in which the Government, after making advances to some claimant which shut out all competition for the whole block, offet-ed the natives a price leas than that which they knew private purchasers were willing to give, and which they therefore refused to take. Sometimes their necessities compiled them to sell, but with the firm belief that the Government was swindling them all the time. This belief is now deep-rooted, and their distrust of the Government as land-buyers, or in any way acting as their agents, is too profound to be readily shaken. Numerous instances might be quoted to justify their mistrust, but a few will suffice. The Te Puke Block, near Tauranga, consisted of 24,191 acres. The land is excellent, and was bought by the Government from the natives at 4s 2d per acre. Soon afterwards the natives saw it sold by Government to Mr. Vesey Stewart at more than six times that price, and again by him sold to sj>ecial settlers at £3 per acre. The Rangiuru Block cost the Government lis per acre, and of this, I believe, little more than half was paid to the natives. The remainder was absorbed by expenses. The Rangiuru land was generally considered worth also £3 per acre. There is land absurdly and unjustly locked up under the Thermal Springs Act, for which the natives have several times been offered £1 an acre by private purchasers. The Government, for the same land, offers them 6s. Some of the native owners complained of this to Mr. Ballance when Native Minister, and asked that they might sell to private purchasers. They stated that if they soldtheland at6sthe proceeds would not enable them even to pay the debts which the tribe had incurred, and which they were anxious to meet. The paternal reply from the Native Minister is said to have been that their beine so indebted was a good reason for not acceding to their request, and that as neither their bodies nor their land could be seized for debt, they had nothing to fear. Can the natives be expected to have much faith in the Government? Has anything more demoralising ever been done by the most biting of private speculators ? Be it remembered that the whole of this land was under proclamation, so that no one but Government could buy. The native sellers were made powerless to protect their own credit and their own property. Their necessities compelled them to sell, and they were forced to take what the only buyer they were allowed to deal with chose to give, and leave unpaid the debts they would gladly have met. This buyer, be it also remembered, was one against whom they could, when wronged by its agents, have no redress. Even in matters of account the seller was helpless. The Government give to no individuals an account showing how and to whom the purchase money has been paid. To petition Parliament is the only chance, and the stereotyped reply must be that the dispute was not one for Parliament to Settle, and should be taken to the Law Courts in the usual way. Thus, too, has the Government led the van in establishing the convenient practice of making one native pay another's debt because it is supposed to be according to native custom. Native Ministers have loudly deplored the fact that native trustees have sometimes sold trust property and embezzled the proceeds. '' Are the hands of Government itself quite clean in such matters ? The natives say not, and they mention many striking cases. I can speak of one in which I was professionally concerned—viz., lot 39, in the parish of Matata. This block contained 13,675 acres, and was to have been granted to ten natives in trust for the Ngatituwharetoa tribe. Through some mistake no mention was made of the trust in the grant. This, however, should have been known, and must have been known to the Government, or its agents. The interests of five out of the ten grantees were bought by the Government, which in due course (June, 1883) took half the land. The five sellers were, of course, trustees as well as part owners. They embezzled the proceeds, or, as Mr. Ballance once euphoniously described such transactions, "wronged the other owners." The representatives of the defrauded tribe petitioned Government for redress, and for compensation for their loss. The petition was peremptorily rejected, and Government contentedly profited by the wrong done.to those whom it was bound, as a Government, to protect. While on this subject, let me add that the cases in which land has been acquired by certain natives in trust for other natives or for tribes, and afterwards Crown-granted to these natives without mention ol the trust, are so numerous that it is extraordinary a commissioner has not long since been appointed to inquire into them, In dealing with the natives the Government has many other unfair advantages. In the Land Court it has a simple and summary means of cutting off by subdivision any land it has bought from any portion of a tribe, however opposed the rest may have been to the sale. It could also, as has been said, make advances to anyone alleging that he had the smallest interest in the block, before his claim had been investigated by the Court. So well did the natives at last understand this, that it became a practice among the more cunning, to obtain an advance from the Government agents before their title had been submitted. They considered the advance to be a virtual acknowledgment of ownership, and believed that it increased the chance of getting their claim admitted when it came before the Court. In 1883 an Act was passed prohibiting anyone, under very severe penalties, negotiating for native land until three months after the title had been ascer-

tamed and gazetted. The Government agents were, however, specially exempted from this prohibition. The Rotorua-Patetere block is a curious case presenting an instance of the ill effects of this exemption. It presents also many other features of interest. A valuable section of 6000 acres formed part of this block. By sharp practice and by the free bribery of a few natives the title was obtained in the name of onl\ one native when the land passed through the Court. This was managed by boldly alleging that there were no dissentients, and that all the interested parties had come to a "voluntary agreement" upon the matter. None of the owners excepting the wrongdoers were present, and the Court finding no dissent, confirmed and recorded the so-called agreement. The grantee, a native woman, came to Tauranga a few days after the decision, and concluded her sale to the Government. Excepting her five or six colleagues no others in the large tribe which really owned the land received a farthing of the money. Had the purchaser been a private person a rehearing would assuredly have been obtained, but the purchaser being the Government the natives felt and found that the chance of redress was hopeless. All they could get was a tardy payment of the small balance of £45, which was paid to them by the Government after much trouble and expense. Even this small remnant was embezzled by the two natives into whose hands it was paid by the Government agents. It may be asked, why does the Maori submit to these wrongs from his fellowMaori ! The answer is that their ways are not as our ways ; their thoughts are not our thoughts. Those who are defrauded or wronged rarely take the view that Europeans would take of the transactions. They regard the act as mean and shabby, and unworthy a rangatira. To seek redress at law against their brother of the tribe for doing such things would be considered more shabby still. That is why they allow themselves to be quietly cheated by one of their own people, when they would rise to a man against similar conduct in a European. The thing may seem strange, but it is a great fact, and one to be taken into account in any provision for dealing with Maori land.

Many and grave have been the muddles and blunders of successive Governments in dealing with native land, but none surpass the hideous mess of their transactions at Ohinemutu. It is surprising that an inquiry has not been ordered by the Legislature into the history and present position of these transactions, before allowing a further waste of public money under the Thermal Springs Act, which has been so grossly perverted and abused. The inquiry would exhibit in a strong light the unfitness of a Government to act as agents for Maoris, the corruption which such agency breeds, and the injustice done to the Europeans whose interests are also in its keeping. Numerous acts of injustice nave been done to the natives under this Act. About four years ago a Maori of some note in his tribe was accused by a European of perjury, and was duly committed to take his trial in Auckland. He attended the Court there, with five witnesses for his defence, but the prosecution broke down, and the Judge ordered his immediate discharge. On landing in Auckland he and those with him had only 15s to pay their expenses in Auckland and their return passage to Ohinemutu. He was a large owner in the land locked up under the Thermal Springs Act, and his case was mentioned to Mr. Bryce, then Native Minister, and a very just one, too, as a rule, but his reply was, What have Ito do with it?" Mr. Bryce forgot that this man, with hundreds of others like him, were his compulsory wards, forced by the Government against their will to put their property into its hands and to employ it as their agents. It is wonderful that cases like this, and there are many, should have created a disinclination in the Maori mind to have the Government dealing in any way with their lands ? Of all Government absurdities, however, the Tongariro National Park is the most wonderful. It consists of sixty thousand acres of land, a large portion of which is above the perpetual snow line, and the rest under snow for half the year. Nothing has or ever will grow on it, for soil it has none, • and Ido not think any man in his senses would pay the coat of survey if the freehold were given him for nothing. Yet Government readily pays 5e an acre besides commissions to its purchasing agents for this land, and a Board of Governors, with a native whose salary is £300 a-year at its head, has been appointed to manage this valuable national institution, or for some other purpose in connection with it. Despite such prizes as Rangiruru and Te Puke the Government native land dealings show a very great balance on the wrong side. . Each Native Minister has striven to outdo his predecessor in buying in a given time a larger area at a less average price. The quality is of small moment, as witness one of the latest purchases, the Waimarino Block of 400,000 acres, a fitting appendage to the National Park of Tongariro, but not likely to find a buyer for use at a third of what the Government lias just given for it. Is the present muddle to continue, and can our legislators not see that every step they have taken, or possibly can take, in needless interference, is injurious to the colony, and ruinous to the Maori, in whose interest they profess to act ? SUGGESTIONS. I have pointed out some of the gravest and most palpable defects in the present system of dealing with native lands. The remedy is simple. Let each native make his own bargain for his own interest in the land. Refuse to acknowledge bargains with, and disallow all payments hereafter made to, tribes or bodies of natives. Let the deeds be in Maori as well as in English. Compel the interpreter to give to each native a copy of the document he has signed. Also, a memo, in Maori stating the price agreed upon, how much of it has been paid, and how much he is still to receive and when. All chance of misunderstanding would then be obviated. Nearly all the troubles (which land speculators call " repudiation ") have arisen from misunderstanding as to what has been signed, and as to the terms of sale. The Natives are too thoughtless to care about deeds. The only way is to compel the European under heavy penalties to give them copies of what they have signed, and full memoranda as to the terms.

It would be easy to provide fairly for their future. Let all lands that they could possibly use be rendered inalienable, and, while making part of it a common, as in the Old English times, let the remainder be individualised, so that each Native may have a piece of land of his own, and be encouraged to live as we do. Let the natives be allowed to do as they please with the rest of their lands, either to sell or lease without restrictions, which only diminish the price they receive. Individualise these lands also as far as possible so that each owner can be independent of the rest. If the purchaser be compelled to deal with each native separately the natural acutenees of the native in making a bargain will save him from selling at too low a price. Any one who has tried to purchase a kit of potatoes from a native will know his power of bargaining, which is quite as keen in land.

The great immediate reform would be to change the Land Courts into Commissions, and to send the Commissioners among the natives to seek information, instead of deciding merely on the information the natives bring before them. For the rest, whatever may happen, the less the Government mix themselves up with Maori lands the better for the Maori, the better for the European, and the better for itself and the country. _____________

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH18880524.2.46

Bibliographic details

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9062, 24 May 1888, Page 6

Word Count
2,860

NATIVE LANDS AND THEIR INCIDENTS. New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9062, 24 May 1888, Page 6

NATIVE LANDS AND THEIR INCIDENTS. New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9062, 24 May 1888, Page 6