34

After this the assent of the whole body of Natives was given to the Deed of Sale. Twenty principal men were named to be receivers of the money, and to execute the Deed, viz,,— PaoraTaki, Tukaha, Paora Tan, Iloani Timaru, Hakopa, Ihaia Tainui, Hone Paratene, Kaikoura (Whakatau), Pita, Henere Tawiri, * Arapata, Horomona Pohio, Te Aika, Matiu, Horomona Haukeke, Ilopa Kaukau Wiremu te Uki, Tamati Tikao, Ihaia Taihoa, Hone Pere. After their signatures or marks were attached to the Deed, £10 were counted out to each of the above named Maores for distribution. (Signed) J. W. Hamilton. In reference to the foregoing minutes, I should remark that the country ceded has been for several years past almost entirely occupied by ourselves as freehold or sheepwaik. By reserving- any new tract for the Maories, serious complications might be created, and the necessity for reference to the Land Office would delay the purchase greatly. This was my chief reason (not made known to them) for declining their proposal to accept £150 and a Reserve, which otherwise I should have at once agreed to. But, under existing circumstances, it seemed absolutely indispensable to pay a large purchase money and make no Reserve. I trust that His Excellency the Governor will see good reason to grant me the necessary warrant for payment of the additional £50. I enclose copy of the guarantee given by me, and I beg to state that I should have named o£3oo instead of £200 ; but I feared, Ist, lest, notwithstanding all that had been said, the larger sum should really influence the Maories in giving their signatures, as it were, on speculation. 2ndly lest the Kaikoura Natives should recall their offer, and raise their demands extravagantly. ( I beg to urge on His Excellency the Governor, in the strongest possible manner, the justice an d reasonableness of the first demand for £500. I venture to hope that weight will be given to my guarantee, on the following considerations. I firmly believe that the delay of six years or more in obtaining a hearing of thier case was the real reason why the Maories accepted so small a sum as £200, instead of insisting on receiving £500 ; because they grasped at what was within , their reach, fearing further delay. For, when I asked why if they denied the right of the Ngatitoa to sell the land as they pretended to do some six years apx> they had not (as is their custom) turned Europeans off, who came to occupy. They replied, the Governor had asked them not to disturb the Europeans. lam aware however, though they did not mention the facts, that Mr. Torlesse was obstructed in about 1849 when he first crossed the Ashley to survey for the Canterbury Association. And that Kaikoura was exceedingly troublesome when Messrs Ifanmer and Wortley, in 1851 or 1852, first settled near Amuri. This was done to keep up the assertion of their rights of ownership. Had I been sent to treat for their land, with power to pay any sum under £1000, I should have been glad to close inbtantly with their offer for =£500. According to the average scale of payment, before our settlement of this part of Middle Island had created anew value for their land, £150 paid at Kaikoura, <£ 200 paid at Kaiapoi, and £300 distributed afterwards, in all £650, appears to me the lowest sum for which we could have expected 6 years ago to have obtained the surrender of the country extending from Kaiapoi to Waiau-toa (the Clarence river.) About 2 years ago, one block of this land between the Waipaoa and the Ilurunui, containing 30 000 acres, was sold by the Government for £15,000, besides several other smaller pieces. Recollecting this fact, I should feel that I had made myself party to a gross fraud practised upon the Maories in agreeing now to give only £200 for their land which we have already sold at such a very different price, were it not for the following considerations. Ist. I hardly doubted that the Government could refuse to act generously ; and in the same spirit as the Maories, in the matter of the guarantee they sought for. * 2nd. Having neither the means nor the knowledge to turn the land to account, it may be considered almost useless and valueless to themselves. 3rd. It is greatly to their advantage that it should be in profitable occupation by ourselves • and that all questions about it should be closed at once. 4th. Our arrival among them has given such a value to their Reserves that they may be considered to have been handsomely compensated for the surrender of what they could not use. Not less than £40,000 now represents the value of the Kaiapoi reserve alone ; —when we first came it would barely have been valued at £500. This reserve consists of 2,640 acres, of which about 1000 acres are forest land. The timber alone is now selling to sawyers at £35 per acre, and represents a value of £35,000 ; while the land itself cannot be worth less than the Government price of £2. Much of it however has positive value of £4, £5 up to £10 per acre, if not higher. At the lowest value of £4 the land itself is worth roughly £10,000. This value given to the Kaiapoi reserve is quite as much attributable to our profitable occupation of the fine country to the North of it, which we had not purchased, as of that part of the plains we were rightfully occupying.