MR SHEEHAN AT PAKIPAKI, PROVINCE OF HAWKE'S BAY.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3819, 31 May 1873, Page 3

MR SHEEHAN AT PAKIPAKI, PROVINCE OF HAWKE'S BAY.

The following is an abstract of the English translation of Mr Sheehan's address to the natives present at the meeting held at Pakipaki on Tuesday, the 15th of April, 1873, as published by MrT. B. Harding :— He had been both grieved and astonished to find so many of the native people complaining of the manner in which their lands had been taken from them by the Europeans. Among the people from whom , he came, namely, Ngapuhi, Ngaliwhatua, and Ngatipaoa, such complain is were unknown, and the pakeha and ihe Maori were good friends. He could not believe that the complaints he heard on every side were groundless, and he thought that they would not be asking for the return of their lands unless there was something very wrong in the dealings of the Europeans. Referring to two petitions which he had drawn, he said : — " lam glad that you are pleased with the statements contained in the two petitions which I have drawn. The first one is about the Commission. "What you now wish to ask the Parliament is to appoini another Commission, and to give to that Commision a power to decide at once all cases which come before it. The report of the present Commissioners will show many wrong dealings of the Europeans, and if you are strong to ask the Parliament, they will concede, that to you which the justice of your demand requires. The other petition is for the making of a new law for your lands which still remains. This is a matter of great importance to you, for as the law now stands you cannot be strong to keep your lands, or to save yourselves from trouble. The old lawis a bad law, and has been worked by bad Europeans and by bad Maoris in such a way as to do you a great injury. The Government are very much to blame about this. They have known for many years the evils which the law was working upon you, and they have promised many times to give you a better law, but these promises have not been kept, and the evils have continued to increase. That which the Governmont have up to this time refused or neglected to give you, you must now ask for at the hands of Parliament. The Government is the servant of Parliament, and if Parliament tells them to do it they must do it. Be strong, therefore, to ask for this new law, that there may be an end to mortgages and to secret sales, and to the bad work of the lawyers and interpreters. I have seen many of these evil works since. I have been here, and will help you in my place in the Parliament to put an end to them. Now, to ensure the success of these petitions, and to obtain theconsent of Parliament, there are many things which must be done by yourselves. Firstly, you must be united. All your differences amongst each other must be buried, and for the present you must act as one people. If you are distracted by quarrels amongst yourselves — if you will not act together, but go man his own way, full of jealousy or hatred of his neighbor — then assuredly you will fail. But if you follow my advice and be united, then as surely will you succeed. When the Government and the Europeans see that you are united, and that you have buried all quarrels, they will know that what you are asking is the wish of the whole people. Secondly, you must get all your people to sign these petitions. They must be sent to every district and kainga, that all may sign Thirdly, let

a good number of your principal chiefs take these petitions to Parliament at Wellington. Let them be at Wellington while Parliament is sitting, and they may watch what goes on, and that they be as a tuara for Karaitiana and your other friends.." He told them there were other things they would have to do to be saved. Firstly, when a European wished them to sell or lease land they must go to their own lawyers a»d their own interpreters, instead of going as lit present to the lawyers and interpreters of the pakeha. Secondly, they must give up the drinking of waipirau. Only Europeans of low rank drank spirits as they did, and they must have noticed that those Europeans were always poor and worked for other people. Thirdly, they must give up the practice of getting into debt. From the drink and from the nama had arisen all their evils. They went into debt with the Europeans to get grog, and then they gave mortgages over their lands to pay for their drinking. If they did not abandon those two evil things their lands would all go, and they would become mere laborers for the Europeans. He concluded as follows : — " If you follow this advice of mine I will be willing to help you. We will get a lawyer and .an interpreter who shall act for the Maori only, and they will see that you are not cheated nor misled. Something has been .'aid about the confiscated lands. We must deal with them. Our canoe is full already, and if we overload her she will sink, and all will be lost. We are only dealing with the lands which have been unfairly taken by the Europeans, and with those lands which still remain to you. As those lauds which have not yet gone through the Court, my advice to you is, let them be until you see the nesv law. The present law is a bail law and it will be better to have no Land Courts at all than the Courts which you have now. Therefore the lands must remain until we have a good law. Finally, and over and above all things, this must be borne in mmd — you have suffered great injury and have been patient. You have gone about the redressing of your grievances in a lawful and orderly manner. All that we do must be under the law, and if any man take the law into his own hands that man must cease to be one of you, or my work for you will be at an end. Be assured that by going about this matter lawfully and moderately you will do better than in any other way — for you are not without friends who will stand by you, and also will bring your injuries before the Courts and before Parliament."

As the foregoing is what is called the "authorised" version of the speech, our readers may be interested in what the " unauthorised" version of this celebrated speech was like. Both were published in the "H. B. Herald." According to that journal the authorised translation is a " diluted version," and " conveys a very different impression throughout from that which would be conveyed by a true and literal translation of the Maori." The unauthorised translation, the same paper states, is " by a gentleman whose competence is beyond all question." It contains the following choice passage, which does not appear in the authorised translation : — " Did I say that all the Europeans in Hawke's Bay cheated the Maoris, I should not have said all. There was one exception. You have heard of Sodom and Gomorrah, and how even in them there was one righteous man, Lot. So, in Hawke'B Bay there was one righteous man, Henry Russell, and now that 1 have come here, there are two ! Friends, I have a word to say to you about myself. lam a great lawyer, and I have already myself foretold in Parliament that I will some day be AttorneyGeneral. Yet the people of my province do not, I think, sufficiently appreciate my value ; and thus it was that when you sent for me I was so willing to come to you. Another reason why I came so readily was that 1 have a very tender heart, and I always prefer to take the weaker side. In Auckland, as those who know me will tell you, lam always the willing champion of woman, and the weaker and more unfortunate she is, the more she enlists my sympathies, but, as you may suppose, that line of business is not particularly profitable, and in consequence of this I have devoted part of my time to politics, lolrich lias proved fairly remunerative." The concluding words of the address are equally good. They are — "And now farewell. Agitate for the Commission ; petition for the Commission, and collect large funds for your loving friend Johnny Sheehan."