THE NATIVE RESERVES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 764, 22 October 1886, Page 20

THE NATIVE RESERVES.

rrO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL Sir, —It is a mistake to suppose that the action of Te Whiti and those who act under his directions has its origin in dissatisfaction with the mode in which the Public Trustee manages the Native reserves. No management of the Native reserves, good or bad, would affect the dissatisfaction which manifested itself in the trespasses —the subject of a recent trial. What Te Whiti wants to know is Why were the Natives interested in land south of the Waingongoro River paid for the land taken by the Government, though included in the same confiscation proclamation as included the land north of the Waingongoro, and the Natives interested in the land north of the Waingongoro River so included were not in like manner paid for it ? It is to be regretted that the terms for some time offered by the Government to those Natives were not promptly accepted by them. It would have settled the matter «once for all, and would have cost the

Colony about a third of the amount which has been expended in taking the land by force. The method by which the Natives interested could have raised the question of the validity of the proclamation, namely, by an application for a writ of habeas corpus in the case of one of the prisoners imprisoned for fencing, was by the timely passing of of an Act validating the imprisonment judiciously put an end to. It is regrettable that a clause was not inserted validating the proclamation and setting that question at rest. The transfer of the management of the Native reserves from an impartial official business manager to a-Minister of the Crown, always liable to be acted on by political influence, would almost amount to a breach of trust in a case in which the circumstances demand that such trust should be specially respected. —I am, &c., Wellington, 14th October.