77

A.—No 1.

ZEALAND TO THE SECRETARY OE STATE.

proprietors of the land for which it is issued. The Court should then be so constituted as to give the ■utmost attainable security for the correctness and trustworthiness of the certificate. It is essential that the Government shall be able to entertain a well grounded assurance that it will be safe and right to act on tho certificate. The constitution and procedure of the Court should be such as to exclude, as far as possible, all deception or collusion. If the Court consists of too few members, the certificate may be simply a snare to the Government. The safest mode appears to be, to form a panel of the leading men of the ■district, and out of them to select not fewer than six as a jury, either by ballot, subject to challenge, •or by a process similar to that of striking a special jury. They should receive a payment for their work, so much a day; the regulation of the sittings, both as to their length and frequency, resting with the President of the Court. The utmost care should be taken to secure the due circulation of notice of the sitting of the Land Court, and ample time for attendance should be allowed. Applicants for certificates should be required to have the boundaries of the land surveyed, and actually marked -out upon the ground, before the application is made. One System for Land Buyers. 6. It appears to me essential to our success that the system to be established should apply to all purchasers equally, and that the 34th section of the Act should be repealed. A trustworthy Land Court being ouce constituted, let all transactions pass through the Court on the same footing. Let all purchases be subject to one and the same course of procedure, and let the efforts of the Government be confined to the establishment and working of a sound system for the use and benefit of all. Any regulation which is needed for the guidance and protection of the buyer on his own account, must be equally needed for the guidance and protection of the buyer on behalf of Government. Reserves. 7. All lands to be reserved for Native cultivation or occupation, under the 9th section of the Act, should be separated by natural boundaries from lands to be settled by the Pakeha. This is to be desired, not only for the sake of avoiding strife between the Native and the European neighbours, but also to enable tho Natives to cultivate within a ring fence, and to spare them the cost of a fence for each separate holding ; which cost will sometimes equal, or even exceed, the value of the land to be included within such fence. Endowments. 8. By " The Native Lands Act," sections 21 and 23, it is provided that the Governor may, at the •request of the owners, mako regulations and plans for settlement of Native lands : and that in such regulations reserves may be mado for public roads and highways, or for schools, hospitals, churches, &c, and for the endowment of such institutions, or for any other purposes of public or common utility to the Native proprietors. On our success in providing in every Native District an adequate endowment in land for the purposes of law and education, must depend in large measure our success in attaining our great end. In no other way can success, if attained, be rendered permanent. No doubt, grants of money made by the Assembly may be depended on to meet the cost of introducing whatever isystem may be thought the best, and of sustaining it for a time; but such grants can hardly be depended on for upholding it through a series of years. AYe must look elsewhere for the means of fully establishing and permanently supporting the system, so that it may have time to do its work ; ■which, in the nature of things, cannot be done rapidly. Wherever the new Native Lands Act shall be brought into operation, let it be made, as far as possible, a condition that a liberal endowment be first made for the support of the administration of law, as well as for schools where the English language shall be taught. There is nothing unreasonable in urging strongly, at the commencement of our undertaking, such terms as are in themselves necessary and essential to =cpu™ for it a successful issue. The attractiveness of the Act, so far at any rate as the power of Jetting land is concerned, gives us an opening for effecting our purpose. So soon, then, as any district shall show a desire to receive this Act, that desire should be met by a readiness to confer the boon, ou a pledge being given by the people of the district, after a public meeting, that the Pakeha settlers who may be introduced into the district under the operation of the Act will be secured from disturbance and lawlessness; and for that end, that the Natives of the district will concur in establishing law in the district. The best evidence of the assent and co-operation of the Natives will be the appropriation of land as an endowment for the permanent maintenance of the administration of law and of instruction in the English language. If, we allow them, what they may reasonably claim, a fair voice in the management of the properties •so appropriated for endowment, and in tho application or apportionment of the income derived from them, we may count on their hearty co-operation. There are especial reasons at this time why we should endeavour to build on a foundation of endowments voluntarily furnished by the Natives themselves. It is well known that Government contributions in money are regarded by many of the best and ablest of tho race with much suspicion, as a sort of bribery from which they count it a point of honor to stand aloof. Nor could anything be less wise than to pauperize the people, and to destroy the self-relance of the Native character, a point in which it greatly resembles our own. It may be comparatively easy to produce an outside show of order ; but if there be on the part of the Natives no sacrifice or effort to maintain fhe system, no contribution of money or labour towards it, there will be in it little of reality or of permanence. There is in the Native population a readiness to make efforts and sacrifices for the support of institutions which they clearly see to be beneficial, and in the working of which they have a practical share. Of this a striking example is furnished by the conduct of some of the tribes of the district between the East Cape and Poverty Bay. Within a period of five years, from 1859 to 1863, and that a period of distrust, trouble, and war, there were contributed for the endowment of Native clergymen more than £1300, and for the endowment of the Bishopric of Waiapu (after the decease or resignation of the present Bishop), fhe sum of £589 lis. 9|d. Every one of these sums of money represents a large amount of effort and co-operation, for the Maoris are rich in land, poor in money. We need not