THE LAND CLAIMS.

New Zealand Herald and Auckland Gazette, Volume I, Issue 25, 13 November 1841, Page 2

THE LAND CLAIMS.

To the Editor of the New Zealand Herald and Auchldnd Gazette. Auckland, Nov. 6,1841. Mr. Editor, $i r> —I learn with great pleasure that the Manukao Settlers have been permitted by his Excellency to obtain possession of their land—at least, so far as it is in the power of this Government to allow. This is only but justice to these settlers, while, at the Same time, it will be of incalculable service to this Colony. Indeed, to have denied these settlers their right of occupancy, would not merely have ruined these individuals themselves, but would have gone far to have ruined this settlement also. On the following day after his Excellency’s decision was obtained, the Company’s chief officer, Capt. \V, C. Symonds, started off, prepared to lay out a Township without a moment’s delay; and a mail cart for the conveyance of passengers and letters is immediately to commence running between the two settlements, by which our correspondence will be regularly kept up:—in fact, the satisfactory arrangement with Government regarding the land, and the activity displayed by the Company themselves have already wonderfully raised the spirits of the people, dispelling a portion of the gloomy anxiety which has overshadowed us for some time past. While we are not only not jealous of the prosperity of Manukao, but positively congratulate the settlers on their good fortune, we cannot avoid drawing a contrast between the favored position in which they stand compared with our own situation. They are the first settlers at Manukao, in the same way that we were the first settlers here. We haye already undergone—and they must yet undergo —the various privations and sufferings of a first settling : but these, however absolutely painful, are thought nothing of by light hearts with a proper equivalent in prospect before them This equivalent with us, poor emigrants, may be summed up in one word —money —or money's worth ; and it is here whe/e our Manukao friends have obtained the advantage over us. It is true they have emigrated here under the auspices of a money-making Company; but that Company have acted liberally towards them, and they have obtained country land of the richest soil at the rate of £1 per acre,and will obtain one acre in the township at the same rate, which latter will itself be a small fortune in the course of a single year or so. We in Auckland, on the other hand, came here under the fostering and phternal care of Government to effect a settlement in the wilds of New Zealand : we waited with unexampled patience for nearly a whole year for a sale of Government Land, in order to effect a legal settlement, and have to wil foi a ltTciihood. At long last the sale came, but instead ot obtaining our Town allotments like the Manukao settlers tor £1 per acre, we were forced to pay, some £3OO, and. others £I6OO per acre, and hundreds never had a chance of obtaining allotment at all, and were compelled to purchase from private individuals at second hand, at a rate varying from £l to £io per foot frontage. If money making was our object, it is certain we have been mortally disappointed. It would take the wealth of a Croesus to obtain a footing in Auckland ; and if anyihing on earth will frighten new comers from it, surely £lO per foot frontage will be that thing. Seriously—we, the first settlers here, have been most grossly injured, and our prospects ruined, whilst the settlement itself totters on the brink of destruction, and can only be saved by the sacrificing of us, who ought to have had a most decided advantage over those who may come after us. To save this settlement we must have town allotments to sell for £IOO per acre, in order to induce emigrants to come here, which will make us and our £I6OO acres look very foolish—our means exhausted, and therefore unable to participate in the advantages which then may be obtained. In order to repair, in some measure, the injury which the first settlers have sustained, the Government ought to allow them—that is, all the bona fide purchasers and settlers at the first sale, if they purchase at the next sale, and if this sale be made so extensive as to reduce the value of the present allotments —the Government, under these circumstances, ought to allow them one whole year s,credit in paying, for such allotments, which, after all, would be but a small recompense for the great loss which they have already sustained. I had almost forgot the object I had in view in commencing this letter—the claims of the old settlers, but really, Mr. Editor/it is so natuial Jpr one to talk of one’s own misfortunes that I could not resist the opportunity afforded me. The favorable settlement of the claims of the Manukao emigrants is not more advantageous to them, than the principle involved in that settlement is valuable to the “ old settlers. ’’ It is now clear (if it ever was in doubt) that His Excel - lency has the good of the country at heart; tuid the arrangement referred to proi'es that he hfe the power of going beyond the orders of the Home Government, when the justice and the exigency of the case demand it. But if the Manukao emigrants had any claim for the favor which |has been shewn to them, the old settlers possess a claim a thousand degrees stronger. Let us think for one moment of the condition in which the old settlers were, when the government took possession of this country. We found them in the acknowledged and peaceful possession of considerable tracts of land : they cai-

on a large trade with the other colonies, and possessed extensive credit on the faith of these possessions.* The Bay of Islands —their principal settlement —was a most flourishing town, and trade of various kinds carried on with an energy and spirit of enterprise that would have done honor to an old settlement. Such is the picture of the old settlers in New Zealand and the Bay of Islands, as they were. Let us now look at them as they are. Since the kindly protection of Government and the laws of England have been attempted to be thrown around them, the Bay of Islands, once so flourishing, is now like a deserted village—even the shipping Kas been in a great measure driven from the place, and the old settlers are—ruined to a man. There is, positively, not one of them perhaps able to pay their debts. How could it be otherwise ?

All the money which years of industry, peril and privation, had enabled them to acquire had been invested upon land, and the first act of Government on taking possession of the country was to throw doubt and discredit on the validity of their titles to every inch of it, and from that day to this their land has been rendered totally while they, in the meantime are struggling on under an overwhelming load of pecuniary obligations tho’ in point of fact and in justice the owners of princely possesions. If any one has a Claim upon the favor of Government, it is surely the old settlers who have that claim. They have made New Zealand as well as civilized the New Zealanders; and, but for them, the one would, to this day, have been utterly unknown, and the other savage Cannibals as they once were. The old settlers have therefore been the > means of introducing us to a lovely country, and thereby opening a fertile field of industry, wealth and happiness to thousands of our starving countrymen, and it is the grossest injustice that they should now be made victims of. The Manukao Emigrants derive any right which they may have, through a native title acquired to Land before the Government came here and are in exactly the same situation as regards title as the old settlers, and it is therefore confidently hoped that equal justice will be done to both parties, and a settlement of the Claims to Land adjusted with all possible expedition. To afford present relief to many of these settlers a measure should, at once, be passed in Council, allowing all those whose Claims have gone before the Commissioners and who may have aprima facie title to Land, a right to dispose of a part of it. This though only an instalment ofjustice, would be hailed as a great boon by them; and the throwing their land into the market would give at once such an impetus to emigration here, as would enable us to take an important position among the rival settlements around us. It is clear that justice to the old settlers imperatively demands some measure of this sort; and should this reason prove insufficient, it--1 may safely be added, that the welfare of this settlement itself demands it. The measures of Government have, hitherto, like the deadly nightshade, blasted every thing within their influence; and it is now full time that Government make the people feel it to le an inestimable privilege to live under established authority and laws, instead of finding as heretofore, their best efforts and energies thereby paralized. “ Fiat justitia ruat Ccalum.’’ I remain, Yours, &c, “ DELTA.”