HISTORY OF THE CLAIM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2883, 23 June 1909, Page 61

HISTORY OF THE CLAIM.

EARLY COLONIAL ROMANCE. AUCKLAND. June 21. | In connection with tV c-'aim of ivlf a million made by the Amencan Government (<n behalf of oi:-- of its citizens against the Now Zealand Government, it is- admitted that it concerns a huge area of land in the Auckland province acquiied for i rune *nng fioni the N-ifivcs prior to 1840 by a mv mn'?'l W-b-tcr. and t history is told a-, f-jllov.p : — Whan the country wa* c«>n-t ltufe 1 there lived on tie 'ittl° strip of l.i" 1 '! i"M<to I'ie Coioma'xlel Unrbiur. an 1 known a? Hcreklno. a m<n win hn- b'"Mi d vioecl a-> a b'g. stout, jolly ind'vi'lual. loud of voice and fr-~e of m.Uir.'v, pc-- c e-*'n:r. in addition to a j fitronnr AiTori'Ti "rent, a per^on."litv th.'.t forced it? c!r,iv>',i''i!on upon all pad "iindiv with vi horn he cni" in cr.ntict. T T <* had nrrived foiic ya.r btfoje r- a c -li'])'p <"irp 3 nter upon ;>n Amn'rim \\ h. >'rr. and, '■peing i'GS.Mbiiif i;\s Wth 7jltT-ant and profitable i;i life ■■• c r I vre in Nrw Zealand that an AirKTKan \.hnlev v mild neve- offer, hp cast in hie lot among th" ?mrl! band of pakohas who v. r-re ecatleiv-'l here and thee ir. the uiV-t of tV c;>nii'bnl loHs j of ihe land. William Wpl .<-ter was l,;s j name, and very -oon. from one of t 1 c j f,imn!? "maker-: of lMticni "' ii New Zea- j I'ind. he I)"mhi° the dictalsr and ar'.titia- j tor between "V,-tivp a id Enionean over a ! widf Tancre of conntrv. includirg t'.» Hau | r.iki Gi.lf and .ill it.- nc-iThbourinir lands, j In short, without the m-edivm of William , Webster no pakeha could obtain so much j Isnd as would sui'tke to give resting room j to his tent or whare, and he was the [ bosom fr'encl of the great Coromardel j chief Hooknose, whose daughter he was I given in marriage. So Webster settled in { tl^e -Jxodj ; and-,, prospered. .^ Hi&.Jntsy4;

f mind not being content with mere idle propi letmehip oi the vast areas of I\ative ciem&snes he had either acquired or of which he had claimed jjoscession, he established trading stations all over the Gulf j and Firth of Thames, and through these | he reaped a rich profit at the time of the influx of immigration to New South Wales by buying shiploads of maize, potatoes, and other focd from the Natives and sending them across to New South Wales, and his headquarters were at this little spot of Uei-ckmo, where lip kept a boardinghouse for the convenience of the numerous adventurous spirits who came and went, and with whom money or kind was frequently pien-.iful. From the influence and power he ixeicised, both over Maori and pakeha, Webster obtained the sobriquet of "King of Waiou." When tlie commission was appointed by Governor Hobson in 1841 to inquire into and settle ihe question of tlveee land claims and grants,. Webster's claim to landed property w as found to fit with the enterprise of such a man, his possessions (or claims to possessions) including a big area in the choicest epots bordering the gulf, the Waitemata having been an apparently favourite pegging out. place of his long before the N-ew Zealand Government thought of making it the provincial capitnl, or even before any sign of European Habitation manifested itselt round its shores. He also, it is authentically stated, laid claim to tho whole of the Great J>Riri«?r Island, while the Piako country met with considerable , attention when thete various "landholders" were required to give an account of their proprietorship and its origin. Webster agreed to declare' himself a claimant as an Englishman, and not as an American citizen", and when the allotments were made his large estates dwindled down to mere backward sections by comparison. Apparently with the majority of the other ■dispossessed ones he accepted the situation as philosophically as might be, and little or nothing was heard in protest from him until in the early fifties, when lie left New Zealand for the Californian fjoldfields in search of further fortune. So'.iie time after having left the Dominion a cliim was received by the New Zealand Government from Webster, who was then in San Francisco, and either the original claimant or his heirs have at intervals been pre sing their claims against the New Zealand Government for this dispossessed property. Some few years ago, however, Sir Robert Stout was commissioned to sift the whole matter and report upon it. and the result was that Webstc-r as a claimant was ruled out of court. It is almost certain that Webster is the man referred to in the claim respecting which the Solicitor-general is going to England ; but it also seems pretty clear that there is little likelihood of tho 'claim being substantiated, fcr before the Crown settled the rights of ■claimants) to land tho Native rights were invariably extinguished first by purchase, hi that m the event of a claim being disallow ed the land, by right of purchase, went to the Crown.