TARANAKI.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVII, Issue 1836, 28 February 1863, Page 5

TARANAKI.

MEMORIAL TO THE QUEEN.

The following Memorial to the Queen is in course of signature : — The Memorial of the undersigned inhabitants of the Province of Taranaki, Humbly sheweth— That the settlement of New Plymouth (now comprised in the Province of Taranaki) was founded in the year 1841 by the Plymouth Company of New Zealand on land purchased by the New Zealand Company from the Aboriginal Natives, and that to this purchase the assent was obtained not only of those few Natives then resident on the spot, but likewise of owners who had fled to distant parts. t t . , , That Mr Spain, the Commissioner appointed by Your Majesty to preside over the New Zealand Land Claims Court pronounced that the 00,000 acres of country forming the settlement of New Plymouth was fairly purchased by tho New Zealand Company. That the land so purchased was offered for selection, and a considerable portion taken up and cultivated by settlers. That in the year 1844 Governor Fitzßoy, R.N. reversed the Commissioner's award, and gave back the whole of this land to the Natives, repurchasing at the same time a small block of -3,500 acres, to which the settlers were confined for upwards of three years. That since Governor Pitzßoy's act few purchases have been effected, the whole in twenty years amounting to no more than seventy thousand acres, and excluding the most valuable portion of the original purchase. That in or about the year 1854 a League was formed amongst the Natives for the purpose of prohibiting, under pain of death, the sale to Your Majesty of any more land within certain defined limits, which include the remaining lands of the Province comprising upwards of two millions of acres. The main and avowed object of this .League was to prevent the spread of the European population which already equalled in numbers the Native population of the Province. In accord, ance with this determination] of the League, Rawiri Waiaua, a Native Magistrate, and several followers, were shot down whilst pointing out the boundaries of a block of land they had offered to the Government. That feuds in which many lives were lost ensued on the death of the Assessor Rawiri, and that these feuds were carried on within the limits of the settlement without any attempt , on the part of the authorities to bring the offenders I to justice, the Natives being in a state of complete ! anarchy. That in the year 1856. several tribes combined to form, a kingdom, and shortly after elected a King from amongst themselves. That in March 1859, a small block of land on the river Waitara was publicly offered for sale to Colonel Gore Browne, C.8., Governor of New Zealand, and that the offer was accepted by his Excellency, subject to the condition that the sellers' claim to ownership was undisputed. That on the occassion referred to, Wiretnu Kingi, a chief of tho Ngatiawa tribe, without claiming any proprietary right, or- disputing the sellers' title, forbade the sale, declaring that he would never allow the land to be sold.

That the investigation into the title of the land continued for the space of nine months that Wiremu Kingi continued to forbid tins sale, though admitting the title of Teira and t'.e other sellers to the land, and that ultimately tlie purchase was effected. Tbat in the first instance a portion of the Ngatiawa, headed by Wiremu Kingi, and afterwards other tribes, resisted the occupation of the purchased land by force of arms, some of them fighting with the avowed object 'of exterminating the ■white population of Taranaki. That the war which resulted from the purchase at the Waitara was clearly and avowedly a resistance against the supreme authority of Your Majesty, and that in the opinion of Your Memorialists the condition of the Native race wan at that time such that a struggle must have occurred •whenever any attempt was made to maintain that authority in opposition to the will of the section of the Natives by whom it was not acknowledged. That the settlers of Taranaki have not shrunk from the dangers and hardships of that war, but that for nearly two years almost all the ablebodied male population were under arms and on actual service. That the settlers have suffered the ordinary calamities of war, some have been killed in the field, and many have died from disease brought on by the war*; the mortality suddenly increasing to many times its usual average — and that some have been barbarously murdered by the Natives in cold blood. That Your Memorialists have sustained heavy losses of property, their farms being laid waste, their houses burned, and their flocks and herds killed or driven off by the rebel natives. That only were the settlers not allowed to defend their property, but were positively forbidden to do so by the military authorities, and that in some instances they were compelled to be passive spectators whilst their houses were being burnt, and their flocks and herds driven off. That their losses were aggravated by a Military Proclamation forbidding the export of articles of food whereby their principal trade was stopped, and thus valuable property fell into the hands of the rebels which might otherwise have been placed beyond the reach of danger. i That the industry of the settlement has been I paralysed, the. value of the exports of the past year having fallen off to less than one-sixth of that of the year which preceeded the war ; whilst the value of the imports is largely increased by the necessity that exists for importing the immediate necessaries of life which in ordinary times were produced in excess of the consumption, That the liberal sum voted by the Colonial Legislature as compensation will very inadequately reimburse the settlers for the losses sustained through their long continued absence from their farms. That Your Memorialists have waited patiently in the hope that the authority of Your Majesty would be asserted, and they have been encouraged to entertain this hope by a Despatch of Your Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies to His Excellency Sir George Grey, dated 22nd September, U6l, in which great stress is laid on the necessity of maintaining Your Majesty's supremacy. At the end of three years, however, Your jftlemoralists see no reasonable prospect of the immediate fulfilment of those hopes. That the , wrongs of Your Memoralists are not being yet redressed, the plunder still remaining in the hands of the and no serious efforts having been made to bring the murderers to justice. That the so-called-Maori King, although posseseing little real power to enforce law and to maintain order, affects to exercise the functions of an independent monarch, and that in his name soldiers are trained, a revenue levied, cases tried at indiscriminatemeetingsof natives, the authority of Your Majesty's Courts repudiated, and an asylum afforded to malefactors guilty of crimes committed on territory purchased by Your Majesty. The old mail roads are closed against the transit of Your Majesty's mails and agaiust the passage of Your Majesty's subjects ; and that on the occasion of the wreck of the mail steamer Lord Wonley within forty miles of New Plymouth, the Natives pillaged the vessel, seized one of the mail boxes, and forbade euecour from being Bent from New Plymouth to the relief of the passengers and crew. That a portion of the territory which has been purchased from the Natives, iB held l>y Your Memorialists under Grants fiom the Crown, and was occupied and cultivated by them at the commencement of the war, is now claimed by the Natives as conquered land, the owners of it being prohibited by them from re-occupying, except on condition of becoming subjects of the so-called Maori King, and bein& at the same time prohibited by Your Majesty's Representative from exer-

•ising any right of ownership over it, with the view of avoiding a renewal of hostilities. That not only are Your Memorialists prohibited from occupying their own lands as above stated, but Your Majesty's Representative is forbidden under a threat of immediate renewal of hostilities to construct roads over lands long since ceded to the Crown, on the ground that those lands have been reconquered. That after the lapse of nearly two year from the cessation of hostilities, the settlers are still crowded together in the Town of New Plymouth, depending in a great measure for subsistence on rations issued by the Colonial government whilst the Natives who have been in arms against Your Majesty are not only unpunished, but are allowed all the advantages of free intercourse with the settlement. That as the events recorded in this Memorial have occurred, and Your Memorialists have been reduced to their present condition during a period in which the entire control of Native affairs has been in the hands of Your Majesty's officers, Your Moraoralists lay before Your Majesty this statement in full confidence that when their unfortunate position is known, and fully considered, Your Majesty will not allow it to be indefinitely prolonged. - . ' Your Memorialists pray that Your Majesty may be graciously pleased to cause such steps to be taken as may seem meet for redressing the wrongs under which they suffer. And Your Memorialists, as in duty bound, will . ever pray.