NEW ZEALAND'S JUBILEE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8615, 29 October 1889, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND'S JUBILEE.

NARRATIVE OF EVENTS FIFTY YEARS AGO. [Compiled by W. H. J. Seffebn.] COLONEL WAKEFIELD'S INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING LAND • PURCHASES. I Sunday, October 27, 1839.—Writing in his journal on Sunday, October 27th, Colonel 1 Wakefield says he had an interview with the Ngatiawa tribe at Waikanae, and found that they wanted " nothing but firearms" from him, which ho refused. The Ngatiawa natives were willing to sell their land for the coveted weapons, but i would listen to no other offer. In tho : instructions given by the New Zealand Company to Colonel Wakefield the follow- ' ing passages appear :—": —" In one respect i you will not fail to establish a very impor - i tant difference between the purchases of I the company and those which had hitherto i been made by every class of buyers. ' Wilderness land, it is true, is worth noth- ■ ing to its native owners, or nothing more > than the trifle they can obtain for it; but ■ at the same time it may be doubted : whether the native ownere have ever been entirely aware of the consequences that would result from such cessions as have been already made to a great extent of the whole lands of a tribe. The danger to [ which they are exposed, and which they l oannot well foresee, is that of finding them.- . selves without any landed property, and therefore without any consideration in the , midst of the society,when, through immigration and settlement, land has become a valuj able property. If the advantage of the natives ' alone were consulted, it would be better, perhaps, that they should remain for ever t the savages they are. This consideration ; appears never to have occurred to any of . those who have purchased lands from the natives of New Zealand. It was first suggested by the Naw Zealand Association in 1837, and has great weight with the present company. In accordance with a plan by which the Association of 1837 was desirous that a legislative enactment should extend to every purchaser of land from the natives, as well past as future, you will take care to mention that in everypukapuka i or contract for land that a proportion of the territory ceded, equal to one-tenth of . the whole, will be reserved by the company, and held in trust by them for the future benefit of the chiefs of the tribes. The company intend to sell in England to persons intending to settle in New Zealand, and others, a certain number of orders for equal quantities of land, which orders will entitle each holder thereof, or his agent, to select according to priority of choice, to bo determined by lot from the whole territory laid open for settlement; the quantity of land named in the order including a certain portion of the site of the first town, and one-tenth of these land orders will be reserved for the chief families of the tribe by whom the laud was originally sold, in the same way as if the land had been purchased on behalf of the natives, the priority of choice for the native allotments being determined by lot as in the case of actual purchasers. The selection will bo made by an officer of the company, expressly charged with that duty, and made publicly responsible for its performance. The intended reserves of land art regarded as far more important to the natives than anything they will have to receive in the shape of purchase money. At the same time, we are desirous that the purchase money shall not be less inadequate according to tho Englibh notion of the value of land than has been generally the case in the purchase of territory from the New Zealanders." Evidence in abundance can be accumulated to show that the directions of the company were carried out by Colonel Wakeiield in the first purchases, and that the company maintained in subsequent contracts the same condition in their purchases, though not specifically mentioned in the deeds of sale ; while, on the other hand, evidence equally strong and abundant can be given that the Imperial authorities considered the covenant of " the tenth " binding on the company, and that any departure therefrom deserved to bo characterised, in the phraseology- of Mr Under Secretary Hope, " as a breach of trust." When the settlement of Wellington was founded there were many Maori dwellings and cultivations within its defined area which the natives naturally wished to retain in their possession, and did so for some time, causing, in this manner, the complaint from Mr Somes to Lord Stanley, in December, 1842, " that whenever, as ia tho case of Wellington, those parties have insisted on retaining possession of spots in their actual' possession of oujoyment' over and above the portions set apart for them, as above mentioned, they necessarily enjoy more than one-eleventh, and the Europeans less than ten-elevenths of the whole area, which the original scheme proposed to lay out in the proportion mentioned." In the month following 1 find the same gentleman, wheu writing to Lord Stanley, stating tb*t tlie native tenth! is Wellington, wero