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84

DESPATCHES FROM THE GOVERNOR OE NEW

plan for withdrawing from the Assembly the control over an important portion of the public business, ami over a large and even indefinite amount of public money. We may rather wonder that anything in the shape of a Native Council was accepted at all, than that the result was not of a very practical kind. The Assembly, in passing the Act of 1860, declared its belief that some special organization was needed for the successful management of Native affairs. Now circumstances are much altered. The Native problem has taken a more definite form. The political aspect of the question is giving place to the administrative and social one. AYe are now able to determine in a general way the operations which ought to be performed in Native districts, and the yearly expenses which it will be necessary to incur. But in order to tho successful accomplishment of the undertaking, there will be a necessity of determining from time to time as the work goes on, a vast number of minute and novel questions, to which the best answer will generally bo derived from the experience which has been gradually accumulated by the administrative body itself. Tho business will be not merely to administer a system, but to make it as the work goes on. Like cases have occurred again and again in England, where great changes have had to be carried out over large surfaces and under circumstances continually varying. How has Parliament dealt with such cases ? Not by Parliament itself, or the ordinary officers of Government, taking charge of the novel undertaking; but by committing the work to a special body of persons, prescribing 1 heir powers and tho extent of the resources to be at their disposal, and requiring a periodical account of their doings. Such wore the Poor Law Commission, the Tithe Commission, the Copyhold Enfranchisement Commission, and many others. The great- advantage of this mode of proceeding is obvious, and is one which would be in this case of'especial value: the question becomes severed from politics. All political parties may criticise the proceedings of the Board; no political party is committed to a necessity of defending or screening them. Moreover, whilst subject at regular intervals to a searching and thorough scrutiny, they are allowed to escape from that series of references and interferences at every step, which paralyse business. Therefore I think that the best course to be taken, with a view to the solution of the Native problem, is the constitution of some such Commission or Board. If it should be found practicable to connect with it Natives of standing and influence with their own people, as proposed by Governor Browne, a great advantage would be secured thereby. The Board, or central authority under whatsoever name, should do its work through the DistrictCommissioner as much as possible, always at any rate after communication with him, never acting behind bis back. 23. There is in the whole question no element more important than the one which remains to be noticed, the character and qualifications of the persons to bo employed as Commissioners or officers in the Native Districts. The experience of Native affairs has shown that, among the Natives, personal qualifies are especially influential for good or evil. If such affairs are committed to men whose chief or only recommendation is a knowledge of tho Maori language, they will have no fair chance of success. This is not a work to be done by hasty or over-busy or over-bearing men, by men unduly tenacious of their own dignity or unable to subordinate themselves to the object which it is their business to effect. Least of all is it to be committed to men of openly immoral lives : for such men bring on us dishonour as well as failure. 2 1. The foregoing remarks are confined to the immediate object of inquiry, namely, the working of the Native Lands Act, and the objects which we ought to aim at in working it. But in substance much of what is here said applies also to those lands which have come into our hands by surrender or by military occupation, and parts of which we have undertaken to restore on certain terms. In those cases also it will not be safe to content ourselves with simply giving a Crown Grant to each individual. If we make no provision to prepare the Natives for so sudden a change, and for the consequences of it (as above pointed out), it is to be expected that the now system, naturally unacceptable when imposed by superior power, will become more than ordinarily unpopular. Either then the issuing of grants in such cases should be postponed until proper legislative provision has been made; or if it be in any case thought necessary to issue the grants at once, yet every such grant should be made expressly subject to the provisions of an Act to be passed by the General Assembly, for defining the rules of devolution and transfer of Native land between tho Maoris themselves ; and it should be enacted, as in the Native Lands Act, that all dealings or contracts relating to such lands, entered into before the proclamation of such Act coming into operation, should be null and void. In the cases just referred to we have in our hands the means of rendering our system permanent aud self-supporting. AYe can appropriate so much land as shall bo requisite for endowment, both of the judicial system and of schools for teaching the English language. For the reasons above indicated, it is desirable that Native Reserves, whether under the Native Lands Act, or under any former law or contract, should be placed under one system of management, and under such local superintendence as might be expected to be most vigilant. It would be convenient that all the Native Reserves in the district should be brought under the control of tho Native Council of the district and the Civil Commissioner, subject to existing contracts and engagements. All questions raised under the Native Succession Act might bo decided, with the least cost and inconvenience, in the Civil Commissioner's Court. The whole Native business of the district, both as to management of property and as to administration of justice, would then be brought into one system. 25. Thus I have in some sort surveyed the whole field of the Native problem, with an earnest desire to contribute something towards its solution and towards the peace and prosperity of tho Colony. The recommendations which to me appear to be at this time of paramount importance are the following:— I. That the Native Land Courts be so constituted, especially in respect of the number and standing of the Native members, as to render the certificate entirely trustworthy. For the function of every such Court is to ascertain certain matters of fact known within certain limited districts only, and to be ascertained through the Natives of the district themselves. The efficiency of the Court,