Te Wananaga. Published every Saturday. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1877.

Wananga, Volume 4, Issue 51, 29 December 1877, Page 498

Te Wananaga. Published every Saturday. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1877.

In our present issue we have given a full account of the public proceedings in regard to the reception of Sir George Grey and his colleagues at Napier, and at Te Wai-o-Hiki. We are therefore unable to give our usual local and war news, and market prices. CfurTocal papers have commented on certain assertions containedin Sir G. Grey's speech to the European public of "Napier, which comments would load the reading public to believe that Sir Goerge Grey has not stated the facts of the case, when he said that ir was he -who first obta'ned land from the Hawke's Bay Natives on which to locate European settlers. One of our contemporaries has stated that the late Sir D. M'Lean made the first purchase of land in the Hawke's Bav district from the Natives, and therefore Sir George 6rev has misquoted the name of the individual purchaser of the first blocks of land from th>Maori, for the location of European settlers by the Government in the Napier district. "While we would give all honor to the late Sir D. McLean for many of his public acts ; from our knowledge of the history of the past, and of the proceedings of Sir George Grey and Sir D. McLean, ns thv two prominent workers in the days of non-responsible Government, we would be wanting in respect to the public if we withheld a short >tatement of those facts which the oldest colonists el' New Zealand can endorse as matters of the history of the two politician* named. On the first arrival of Sir George Givy as Governor of New Zealand, Mr. McLean (then called Ta:.e bv the Ngatipaoa. and protected by Patene Pahata, the chief of the tribe, with whom lie lived, and carried on a timber trade between the Island of Wailieke, in th«2 Gulf of the Thames, and Auckland i was then an active young man, who, on the disbanding of the then noted "Protection of Aboriginal Oitice " by Si;George Grey, was employed as one of jioile'force,' he (Mr. McLean) having been loeated at Taranaki, and on the attempt made by a Maori to sh .ot an European at Wlianganui, Mr. McLean was, from his active cautiousness, and muscular power, instructed to capture the would-be Maori murderer. The promptness with which Mr. McLean took the Maori introduced him to the notice of Sir George Grey, who shortly after, as a further proof of Sir (Jeorgc (J rev's confidence in Mr. McLean, gave him a temporarv commission to purchase a small block of land in the j

Taranaki district. This again brought him before Sir G. Grey, who used the knowledge which Mr. McLean now possessed of the Maori people to complete the negotiations for some land which 'Sir G. Grev had entered into with the Hawko's Bay chiefs. "Between, the time that Sir G. Grey arrived in New Zealand and that in which Mr. McLean captured the Maori culprit, Sir G. Grey had resided in the Wellington district : his so doing being consequent on the death of certain Europeans who some time before had been killed at Wairau. f?ir G. Grey, as Governor, was the only power in those days of non-responsible Government to whom, ami by whom, all Maori matters were referred and negotiated, entered into ...r completed with the Maori "tribes. Te Ilapnku and other of the Hawfce's Bay chiefs having become dissatisfied, with the price given by l>iekey Jiarrit and other purchasers of flax, wished to have European settlers in the district of Hawko's Lay. Ilence the action taken by some "f those chiefs in visiting Sir George Grey to offer land, and induce Sir George Grev to buy it. Ihe otter u! the iand. ami the acceptance of the offer of sale, with the power to buy. was all made to and completed by Sir George Grev long before Mr. McLean was all this time in the Taranaki districts had heard of such action on tlie part of the chiefs, or the purchase mad') by the Governor. And it was not tiii he (Mr. McLean. ) had received a letter of instructions fr>m the Governor ( Sir G. Grev ; to proceed to the Ilawke's Bay district to have the land jiointed •ut and surveyed, that Mr. McLean was transferred from his police duties and informed to act under >ir George Grev's instructions to purchase laud f r the Government. L p to the time that Mr. McLean was instruct* d t-j have the survey made ot the land bought bv Sir George Grey in Hawke's I>ay, there had not been anv appointment in New Zealand of anv crentleman as Land Purchase Commissioner, nor was )Ir. McLean appointed to that office f~>'* s ~me veays nft'-r the acts n': l "' spoken >•!. >;r I v'-rge Grey in all instances having receivcii all <_ ners either in ; ei's>- n or bv lette:'. by or ironi the ehieis. ami acted >■ !•-• I;i:i■ I purchaser. a -,:uty wnich devolved ~t l him in the then cxcltc-l State of the Maori mind, arw:::r from the doi;l,t< eiig.-ndered in the feeling of the tribes bv t: ''' sah-s of land made to the old 'tilers, an; the t :t!es t • which were then beinu" investigate.! by Commission-Ui.-hniond and Godfrey. and tr .'lll tiie purehas.. s made bv the Ncw Zealan-1 Company-. an>.l also by the dispr.tes which led to the death of tin who were killed at Wairau. We therefore J-,.;;, rat e what >ir C*«"• < • r<- Grev smten. that he. an 1 In- alone, in the first instan«-,\ purchased the land vu which t ■ locate Europeans in the HawkeV b»ay uistnct. At the time of which w-- speak, the pre-emptive right of the Grow:; aloue to purchase lan i trc-.m the aboriginal inhabitants of New Zealand, an I guaranteed in the Treaty of Waitaniri. had not ':-eer. delegated i.y Sir George < i-rev to anv one in New Zealand.