E—No, 1 Sec. 11.

the previous year, or longer, to induce them to join with them (AVaikato) in their Maori Bang movement. In the meantime, it had come out that one of their (Taranakis) second or third-rate Chiefs, Tamati Te Ngahuru, without consulting the principal Chiefs and the people generally of the tribe, had accepted a certain sum of Government money, wherewith to settle about and extinguish some Native claims which had been brought forward relating to a certain piece of land which had become disputed between tho Europeans and settlers, in as far as the latter maintain that it extended beyond the boundary of the European possessions as originally defined aud agreed to, and therefore trenched upon Maori territory. Both the Chiefs and the people generally considered themselves as being insulted and overreached (in their common rights and claims) by Tamati Te Ngahuru's proceeding, which, in accordance with their Maori ritenga, was regarded by them as most unjust and presumptuous. They judgeet that if that affair were quietly passed over, it would encourage all manner of irregular and underhand dealing being undertaken and carrietl on by a few individuals at the expense antl to the disadvantage of the whole tribe. They had, therefore, demanded of Te Ngahuru that he should retract the transaction which he had made, and refund the money back into the hands of the Pakeha through whom he had received, and from whom he had accepted it. This, of course, could not prove otherwise than abortive; and now it began with many to be feared that sooner or later evil might grow out of that case, so that in the first instance it might originate and bring about a collision among themselves, i. e., between the Chiefs and the majority of the tribe on the one hand, and Te Ngahuru and his party on the other ; and further, that possibly if not got well over in time by some peaceful means, it might tend to eventually involve them all in difficulties and troubles with the Europeans, with whom, above all things, they desired to continue in an uninterrupted peace and good understanding. In January 1859, and whilst the foregoing affair was still pending, a Kawhia Chief, Tapihana and party, arrived at Warea (Taranaki). They were Maori King emissaries, and as such they bail come straightway from Waikato and wore on their way to Ngatiruanui, whither they were thou going to convey their Waikato flag.* They made a stay for several days at Warea and convene'! a runanga there, at which Te Ngahuru's case was brought forward and taken into consideration. The immediate result that followed was, that the Taranaki tribe all at once and unanimously surrendered itself with all its lands, &c, to the Maori King for protection of their rights, claims, and possessions, so that henceforth all questions and disputes relating to land and claims should be referred to him and be decided by him; and that he might be the acknowledgeel and sole medium of the unanimous voice of the whole tribe, who had their confidence and on whose word at the same time the Government might safely rely as to whether and what land the tribe were and were not disposed to sell. This much appeared as quite clear and certain ; that that step taken by the Taranaki was not, then, in its early beginning, at all intended on their part to imply anything like disloyalty to Her Majesty's Government, much less any hostile feeling or disposition toward the latter or the Europeans generally. On the contrary, that step was taken at that time simply for the purpose of guarding and keeping their inherited, and universally among them, recognized tribal or communal laws and rights respecting land and claims, and which, until then, continued to be respected also by Her Majesty's Repi'eseutative from being set aside or violated at pleasure by any individual or small fraction of their own people. That something of this kind had already actually been practised by some from among them, Tamati Te Ngahuru's case was regarded a full proof of; and they were most seriously apprehensive lest before long the next consequences of such and further similar acts would be the same among themselves in Taranaki, what they (as resulting from a similar cause) had been during all the four or five previous years in Ngatiawa, an incessant and interminable interneccine feud aud shedding of each others' blood. To forefend such apprehended dangers, and further to save them from getting eventually into confusion with the Europeans, the Taranakis, upon the urgent representation of the Waikato emissaries, placed themselves with all their tribal lands under the care of the King, so that for the future it was to devolve upon him to arbitrate between parties contending about the sale of land; yet so that, as a tribe, they reserved for themselves the right to dispose of any of their lands they might choose to do hereafter, provided it was done by the concurrence aud consent of the whole tribe, f

* The Ngatiraanuis had already, some good while before, sent in their adhesion to King Potatau.

t Thus the Taranakis fell in with and joined in the Maori King movement. It was but a natural and extended sequence of their having, beforehand, all along been a party to the Taranaki land-league ; and if so, then both the former and the latter must be regarded as having resulted from one common primary cause of a general import. That cause, I conceive, to have been first of all and in the main furnished by the British Government; in having conferred (perhaps too prematurely and with too little regard to the full extent of what Sir George Grey had previously expressed as his view by way of cautioning against any hurried proceeding) upon this Colony an Act, of a distinctly twofold, viz., a positive and a negative bearing: positive as respecting Her Majesty's European subjects, negative as respecting her aboriginal subjects. It is my humble opinion (and I believe I can pretty satisfactorily substantiate it by proof) that there would have been no land-league in 1854, had there not been a Constitution Act proclaimed and put into operation in 1858. That Act, such as was and has proved to be since in its tendencies and operation, has, I have every reason to believe, by its moral effect upon the Native mind, first divided and separated from each other the two different races as such, and awakened a sense of consciousness in the aborigines, that there was a marked difference and distinction made, on the part of Her Majesty, between the Pakeha and the Maori. There was an Act for the Europeans and for them only, and exclusively uniting them all throughout thejeountry closely together, by concentrating all their combined will and power through their respective Representatives from all parts into one grand Council (Parliament) for to govern and manage themselves and their own affairs, and to make the laws for the land, requiring only the Governor's assent to pass into full effect. Was there anything of some similar kind of provision made for the Maori, with a view to unite and bring them also and likewise together for deliberation, and for consulting and being consulted about all such matters as might more especially relate to their rights, claims, their wants, and wishes of a common interest, in brief, to

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DESPATCHES FROM GOVERNOR SIR G. GREY