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That, notwithstanding the deep regard which the settlers of Taranaki naturally feel for the beautiful and fertile region which they have improved and adorned, by the care and industry of many years, and their consequent disinclination to abandon it, a continual stream of emigration has nevertheless, for some years past, carried away to other parts of the Colony, and to Australia, a large number of people, who, had they been able to find room for their enterprise, would have remained to augment the resources of the Province, and the wealth of the Colony. That the present settlers can no longer find within the Province, a field for future enterprise, and the employment of their increasing families, and that they cannot now seek new homes, in the other Provinces, without first abandoning the accumulated property of many years of toil. That, in the opinion of your Memorialists, the colonists of Taranaki have a special claim to the consideration of the Government, and of their fellow-colonists,, inasmuch as nearly the whole of the Natives now located in the neighbourhood of the settlement, were, a few years since, dwelling in the present Provinces of Wellington and Nelson, and that the purchase of the lands held by Taranaki Natives, by right of conquest, at Waikanae and other places, has been most prejudicial to New Plymouth, by accumulating in one spot the scattered remains of the tribes which had formerly resided here, and most advantageous to the Provinces in which such purchased lands are situated. That the difficulties under which both races are now labouring can only be removed by an entire change in the policy of the Government, which shall enforco law and order among the Natives, and give support and aid. to such of them as are willing to sell land. That the system heretofore adopted by the Government, of requiring the assent of every claimant to any piece of land, before a purchase is made, has been found to operate most injuriously in this Province, on account of the conflicting interests of the claimants ; and that the sufferers by this system are invariably the men who are most advanced in civilisation, and who possess the largest share in the common property. Your Memorialists are therefore of opinion that such of the Natives as are willing to dispose of their proportion of any common land to the Government, should be permitted to do so, whether such Natives form a majority or only a large minority of the claimants ; and that the Government should compel an equitable division of such common land among the respective claimants, on the petition of a certain proportion of them. That, in the opinion of your Memorialists, no danger of a war between the Government and the Natives need be apprehended from the prosecution of a vigorous policy, inasmuch as a large proportion of the Natives themselves would cordially support it, and the remainder would, from the smallness of their number, be incapable of offering any effectual resistance. Your Memorialists therefore pray, that your Honorable House will be pleased to institute an enquiry into the present condition of the Native inhabitants of this Province, and into the causes which have led to the present difficulties ; with a view to establish peace, order, and good Government among the Natives, and to encourage and assist them, to dispose of the common lands they now hold, to the injury alike of themselves, the settlers, and the Colony at large, and your Memorialists will ever pray. E. L. HUMPHRIES, Speaker. New Plymouth, 19th May, 1858.

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