EARLY WAIRARAPA HISTORY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 6 July 1925, Page 5

EARLY WAIRARAPA HISTORY.

(To The Editor.)

-Sir, —Your esteemed correspondent, Mr. Oleums, is, I think unduly severe on. the New Zealand Company; and were it not that lie is quoting Fox 'Bourne, 1'3<35, 1 should fully expect to find him wearing, a red tie. I have the. pamphlet of -instructions, given by the New Zealand Land Company to their agent, Colonel Wakefield.: They contain the following statements, inter alia, . . “As all tke world is free to purchase lands in New Zealand upon the same terms as the Company; it should be your especial business to purchase spots, which enjoy some peculiar natural advantage, lands which would bestow on the Company .... some valuable superiority over the. owners of ordinary lands.M There follows four pages of comment upon Port Hardy and Port. Nicholson; then “Wilderness Jand, it is true, is worth nothing to its jnative owners; or worth nothing more than the trifle they can obtain for it. We arc not, therefore, to make much account of the utter inadequacy of the purchase,-money according .to the English notions of the value of land. Tlu* iand is really of no value, and can become valuable only by means of a great outlay of capital on emigration and settlement.” The instructions emphasise the necessity of full justice and protection for the natives, and “you will take, care to mention in every ‘puka-puka ’ 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 tjie chief families of • tlu tribe. Instead of a barren possession

. . . . they will have property in land, intermixed with the property of civilised and industrious settlers, and njnde- really l '-valuable by that circumstance. I . . ' The intended reserves of lauds are regarded as fat more important to the natives as anything which you will have to pay in the Shape of purchase^moneyJou will consider any act of aggression or affront from any olhjthe. ;Copipany-’S, servgjtts towards aiiy native of New Zealand as. a sufficient reason'-for immediate dismis-

sal from the company’s service.” The;.transactions, of : the Company throughout have been tempered with consideration and a justice which I venture to suggest would not have beeraccorded from, any other nation than the British. Yet how was this Company treated? (Extract Blue Book, 26th May, 1841). Governor Hobson: MI design shortly to visit Forth Nicholson when I will require the agents 'of the Company to submit their claims 'to the examination of the Land Com'riiissioncr. More than one tribe has called on me to remove the-intruders, threatening to dislodge them by force if Tdo not afford redress.” A dangerous threat when we find an estimate in the Wellington Spectator, JanuaTy 17th, 1844, ,'pf there' being 11,650 natives' capable of bearing arms' around Cook Strait—tribes and chiefs therein named. My own grandfather complains,'in a letter, that lie, as a tenant of <lT;inson and Alsdorf, finds that the land cleared by him is awarded by ■Hobson, ‘back to the. natives.. i : It'was the company’s action in undertaking the settlement and colonisation to Cook's traits which forced the British Government to formally control the. whole administration of New-Zealand, and criticism of the company, originating in Auckland, must be accepted with -considerable reservation. The -New Zealand Land Company must not bo confounded with the New Zealand Company of 1825, nor the New Zealand Association of 1837. It was formed in 1839, and a full statement of ’ts proposals and status, placed before Lord Normanby, who, on behalf of the British Government, strongly denounced and discouraged the whole undertaking. . The Tory, with Wakefield, sailed unknown to the authorities, with this result (Kennedy’s “New Zealand,- _ 18731: Prior to the" Treaty of Wait.angi, February 7, 1840, the N.Z. Company ship had arrived at Port Nicholson” (flag raised and saluted with 21 guns, September 30th, 1839 —see Shrimpton and Mulgan, page 76), “landed her immigrants, wlio, under the auspices of the company’s agent, took possession .of certain blocks of land alleged to have been purchased from the natives, and after the manner of their Saxon ancestors, established a provisional local self-government.” In' this manner was New Zealand annexed to the British crown, and not a day too soon, for a ship of war had already been dispatched from France to take*possession of the country.” They settled at Akaroa, losing New Zealand. When my esteemed friend criticises. the 'company in its payments and actions .with the natives, will he kindly tell us what compensation the Maoris paid the Motion,’ or wfiat the latter paid to the legendary Maruiw.i:-in their respective invasions? >Vhat Pizarro paid to ,tlie Peruvians? Or Cortes to the Aztecs? The Belgians to-the- Congo natives, etc., etc., ad lib?—l am, etc., ’ , R. J. BARTON.