THE HALF-MILLION CLAIM.

West Coast Times, 24 June 1909, Page 4

THE HALF-MILLION CLAIM.

HALF A MILLION ASKED FOR. AN EARLY SETTLER FROM AMERICA. AUCKLAND, June 21.— In connection wih the claim for half a million made by the American Government on behalf of one of its citizens against the New Zealand Government, it is admitted that it concerns a large area of land in Auckland province acquired for a mere song from the natives prior to 1849 by a man named Webster, and the story is told as follows : — When the country was constituted there lived on a little strip of land inside the Coromandel Harbour, known as Herekino, a man who has been described as a big stout, jolly individual, loud of voice and free of manner, possessing in addition to a strong American accent, a personality that forced its domination upon all and sundry with whom he came in contact. He had arrived some years before as a ship's carpenter upon an Ameiican whaler, and seeking possibilities both pleasant and profitable in life ashore in New Zealand that an American whaler would never offer, he cast in his lot with the small bands of pakehas that were scattered here and there in the midst of the cannibal loai-ds of the lani. William Webster was bis name and very soon, from one of the simple "makers of naions" in N.ew Zealand, he became the dictator and arbitrator between native and European over a wide range of country including the Hauraki Gulf and all its neighbouring lands. In short without the medium of William Webster, no pakeha could obtain so much land as would suffice to give resting room to his tent or Avhare and the American was the bosom friend of the great Coromandel chief Hooknose, whose daughter he was given in marriage. So Webster settled en the land and prospered. His busy mind not being content with mere idle proprietorship of the vast areas of native demesnes he had acquired, or of which he had claimed possession, he established trading stations all over the gulf 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 food from the natives, and sending them across to New South Wales. His ■ headquarters were at this little spot of Herekino, where he kept a boarding-house for the convenience of the numerous adventurous spirits who came and went, and with them money or kind was frequently plentiful. From the influence and power exercised pve^ both Maori and pakeha, Webster obtained the sobriqueb of "King of Waiou." When the Coirmission was appointed by Governor Hobson in 1841 to enquire into and settle the question of these land claims and grants, Webster's claim to landed property was found to fit with the enterprise of such a man, his possessions or claims of possessions, includ fng big areas in the choicest spots bordering the -gulf, the Waitemata having been an apparently favourite pegging out place of his long before the New Zealand Government thought of making it the provincial capital or even before any sign of European habi- ' tetion manifested itself round its shores. He also, it is authentically stated, laid claim to the whole of Great Barrier Island, and the Piako Cotfntry also met with considerable attention. When these 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 backyard sections. By comparison, apparently, wjith the majority of the other dispossesed 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 he left New Zealand for the Califrirnian goldfields in search of further fortunes. Some time after he had left the colony a claim was received by the New Zealand Government for this dispossessed property Some few years ago, however, Sir Robert Stout was, commissioned to sift the whole mater and report upon it, and the result was that Webster, as claimant, was ruls-l out of court. It is almost certain that Webster is the man referred to in the claim respecting which the SolicitorGeneral is going to England, but it also seems pretty clear that there is little likelihood of the claim being substantiated, for before the Crown settled the rights of claimants to land, the native rights were invariably extinguished first by purchase, so that in the event of a claim being disallowed the land by right of purchase went to the crown.