G.—2.

(5.) The Parihaka Reserve. We iioav beg leave to call Your Excellency's attention to the reserve Ave recommended in our First Report for Te Whiti and the Parihaka people. When we made that recommendation, Ave believed that it would in substance giA re effect, at Parihaka as well as on the Plains, not only to the promises of previous Governments, but also to the wishes and intentions of the Ministry of Sir George Grey. As regards the existence of promises to the Parihaka people by previous Governments, Ave know it has been contended that none Avere ever made. But Ave cannot alloAV this for a moment. In the first place the promises in the Proclamations to those AA'ho were neA rer in arms against us, or who returned to their allegiance, must be held to be sacred. There are many at Parihaka who Avere never in arms against us. When Titokowaru fell back upon the Ngatimaru country after the second insurrection, the Ngatitupaea kept aloof from him and Trent to Parihaka, where they have bred ever since. Our Second Report teems with, evidence of promises that the people who lived in peace should not be dispossessed. No clearer promise could possibly have been giAren than the one contained in Sir Donald McLean's speech at the great meeting of the tribes in 1873 : " The Government desire to treat you well. Let us quietly make arrangements about the land. The Government Avish to see you settled in a satisfactory Avay upon it. My advice to you is to be strong in cultivating. Let your future fighting be with the soil. Return to the land, not as strangers but as children of the soil." . This is what Mr. Mackay referred to in his report presented to Parliament last year, Avhen he said that "Te Whiti and others urged the long time they had been permitted to occupy the land since the confiscation without any objection being made by the Government, and that they were promised not to be interfered Avith in any land they enclosed and occupied, in consecpience of whioh promise they had fenced in considerable areas." With regard to the good faith of the Crown being engaged by Sir George Grey's Government to the Parihaka people, Ave say there is the clearest evidence of it. Mr. Mackay was sent with Mr. Blake to Te Whiti by the Native Minister six clays after the surveyors were turned off the Plains. Te Whiti asked him Avhat Avas the object of his visit. He replied: " I haArc come to try and induce you to make a good arrangement with the Government." Te Whiti said : " Cease speaking in metaphorical language, and tell me plainly what you want." Mr. Mackay answered: " I want you and the Government to come to an amicable arrangement about all the confiscated lands. Let us deal with these lands as Parris dealt with the others. Let the Government take some portion and you have another. The Government are Avilling to give back part to you for Native use and occupation. The Government do not say they Avill take all the land." Te Whiti then asked: "Are you authorized by the Government to offer me a part of the land, and agree for them to take the other part ?" And although Mr. Mackay said he was not authorized to make any definite proposal, it is surely impossible to say that Te Whiti was not to understand what passed as a promise to make ample reserves for his own people as well as the Waimate Plains people if he came to terms; for otherwise Mr. Mackay's mission and language would only have been a trap to betray him. Nor can avc read the telegram which Mr. Sheehan immediately sent to Mr. Mackay in reply afterwards, that there were to be " reserves to the extent of 25 per cent, or even a little more over the whole area, and that special consideration Avould be shown to the chiefs in the order of their rank," as being limited to the people of Waimate Plains and intended to exclude the people of Parihaka. Moreover, in his statement in Parliament on the 23 July 1879, Mr. Sheehan spoke as follows : "It has been said that no intimation was given of our intention to make proper provision for the Natives. As to that point, I can assure the House that I myself personally informed Te Whiti and TitokoAvaru in 1877 that the Government Avas going to proceed [Avith the survey], and there is abundant evidence in Amting that there Avas every intention to make ample reserves." It would be as contrary to coiiimon sense as to good faith to say, that when such assurances as these Avere made to Te Whiti, he AA ras to take them as being made to others to the exclusion of himself; nor

Hon. Mr. Sheehan, Minute, 14 April 1879. Hon. Col. Whitmore, Speech, 24 July, 1879.

Farris, Eeport, 25 April 1872. 72/1280.

Sir ID. Mclean, Notes of Meetings at New Plymouth, 15 Feb. 1873.

Mackay, Eeport, Apnendix A. No. 14.

Maciay, Eeport of Meeting with Te Whiti, App. A, No. 10, pp. 10, 11.

Hon. Mr. Sheehan, Telegram, 5 April 1879, App. B, No. 12.

Hon. Mr. Sheehan, Speeoh, 23 July 1879, Hansard xxxi. 184.

LI