E—No. 1.

THE GOVERNOR'S DESPATCH 11. THE NGATIAWA TITLE AT TARANAKI. 15. In order rightly to understand the position which the Governors of New Zealand have uniformly assumed in reference to the title of the Ngatiawa at Taranaki, it is necessary to remember that they wore a conquered, broken, and scattered tribe, and that the fairest and most fertde country in New Zealanl, their ancient inheritance, was a deserted wilderness at the time of the European colonization. 16 About 30 years ago the great Chief Te Rauparaha persuaded a large force of the Ngatiawa, Ngatiraukawa, and other tribe*, to assist him in his wars with the original inhabitants of both shores of Cook's Strait. The Waikato Natives, taking advantage of their absence, suddenly invaded the Taranaki district, and took Puksrausriora, a large pah on the Waitara river (the sams pah which there is now reason to think the insurgents intend to fortify anl try to hold); capturing or destroying nearly 2000 of the inhabitants. They then attaakel Ngamrtu, near the present site of New Plymouth, but without success, and returned to their own country. They never repeated cheir attack, though they frequently threatened to do so: and the remnant of the Ngatiawa tribe, finding themselves too weak to opposa effactutlly any renewed invasion from Waikato while their principal warriors were absent with Rauparaha, migrated with their women aud children, and rejoined their relatives at Otaki, Port Nicholson, Queen Charlotte Sound, and other places: where they took possession of and cultivated the soil, and where their title was afterwards admitted, by reason of such occupation, against Rauparaha and others who claimed the land by right of conquest (34). 17. Thus the Ngatiawa tribe had either voluntarily migrated on conquering expeditions to other lands, or had left in dread of the Waikatos, or had been driven by force out of their ancient territory, and had completely abandoned it. When the first white men went there, there were only 60 people living in the whole district north of the Sugar Loaf Islands, and for a long tima subsequent to 1840 they had not much more than 100 acres in cultivation (35). In the expressive language of two of their Chiefs, in a letter to the paople of Taranaki, " All was quite deserted ; the land, the sea, the streams and lakes, the forests, the rooks, were deserted; the food, the property, the work were deserted; the dead and the sick were deserted; the land marks were deserted." (36) 18 Now when the British Sovereignty was proclaimed in New Zealand,we found (notwithstanding the desolating wars which had taken place for years throughout the islands) certain great tribes in the full possession of thair tribal territories. Thus the Ngapuhi in the north, and the Waikato and Ngatimaniapoto in the centre and west coast, held thair ancient inheritance still : and in outdealings with them since tha Treaty of Waitangi we have generally recognised not alone their tribal right in eases of sale, but the influence of their principal men in . assenting to or preventing sales. No Government for instance would have thought of making a purchase at Ngapuhi, or at Waikato, in the teeth of tha veto of great Chiefs such as Tamati Waka Nene and Potatau Te Wherowhero. On the other hand there were a few tribes which had been so broken and scattered by conquest and otherwise, that with reference to them the British Government has from the first neither recognised the tribal right in case of alienation, nor permitted tha exercise of a veto on such alienation by tho chiefs. Of these was the Ngatiawa of Taranaki. 19. I do not propose to discuss the question whether the Government of this Colony were right or wrong in denying to the Ngatiawa tribe at Taranaki the status which they would have recognised in unconqUered tribes. It will be sufficient for me to show that they have done so in successive acti and decisions since the foundation of the Colony, and that in the course I have pursued, I have simply adhered to the principles and policy of my predecessors, Governor Hobson, Governor Fitzßoy, and Governor Sir George Grey. I shall presently establish this, I cannot doubt, to tha perfect satisfaction of Your Grace. in.—STATUS OF THE CHIEFS. 20. There can hardly be a doubt that, prior to the establishmentof British Sovereignty, the power of a Chief in his tribe depended as much on his courage and skill in war, and his ability in council, as on rank by birth, or on territorial possessions. It often happened that the most powerful Chief was a small landholder. law was the right of the strong arm. Mr. Busby, writing in 1837 to the Governor of New South Wales, tells us what kind of rank the Chiefs had in those days:— "To those unacquainted with the status of a Native Chief, it may apoear improbibie that he would give up his own proper rank and authority. But in truth the New Zaaland Chief has neither rank nor authority but what every person above the condition of a slave, and indeed the most of them, may despise or resist with impunity" (37). 21. But the kind of authority which the Chiefs exercised in reference to land may be gathered from the following extracts from the authorities whom I have already quoted:— Sir William Martin said in 1846: " There is no paramount or controlling power, either in the tribe or in the sub-tribe, to restrain or to direct the exercise of the right of appropriation [of land]. Each family or freeman may use and appropriate without leave of any" (38). The Bard of 1856 said: " The Chiefs exercise an influence in the disposal of land, but have only an individual claim like the rest of the people to particular portions" (39). Archdeacon Hadfield in 1845 said: '-'The Chief of the tribe, since ha has no absolute right over the territory of the various hapu, nor over the lands of individual freemen of his own hapu, cannot sell any lands but his own, or those belonging to the tribe, which are undoubtedly waste lands" (40). 22. I take the preceding opinions, because they were given years ago, and have nothing to do with the present state of thiags. Since the insurrection which has unhappily baoken out at Taranaki, a great effort has been made by many persons to claim for all the Chiefs, and in all circumstances, a

« , f>YItJ*NOft ,, S DBSPATCtt. 4tk Dec., 1860.

(84) Com. Spain, fiouc. Clarke, Gov. FitzKoy, In Pari. Pap., 12 June 1845, & 9 April 1846.

(»5) Ihid. (86) lhaiasTira*rau App. D 4.

(37) Busby, ~ , App, Ell.

(33) Sir W. Martin App. A 3. (89) Board, App. A 5.

(40) Hudfield, App. A 9.