f. PABATA.]

31

I. —3b.

Governor had agreed to appoint Judge Williams to inquire into the question of the claim of the Ngaitahu Tribe. The Maoris still remain waiting, and nothing has yet been done. At that time meeting after meeting was held by them to discuss the position and endeavour to arrive at some satisfactory solution. They sent up petition after petition. Taiaroa was member of Parliament at the time. The Native Affairs Committee of this House which dealt with these petitions were unanimous in upholding the contention that the Ngaitahu people had a just and rightful claim. Now, a select parliamentary Committee was set up in the year 1872, when Taiaroa was a member of the House, and in the parliamentary papers of that date will be found all that 1 have said. The Government made no definite reply in the year 1873 nor in the year 1874. So in the year 1874 another meeting of the Maori people was held at Kaiapoi on this same matter. They then asked the Government to send the Native Minister or some responsible Government official to listen to the grievances as expressed by the Maoris, and the Government sent Wiremu Katene, who was then the member for. the Northern Maori Electoral District, and who was a member of the Executive at that time. And he had with him as his interpreter Mr. James Carroll, who is now Native Minister. I was at Kaiapoi myself at that time. As I have already told you, there was not a single meeting of leading Maori chiefs ever held in connection with this matter at which I was not present. And I have the clearest recollection of the events about which I am speaking as though they had been transmitted to me by my ancestors. Now, I have said that Wiremu Katene was sent down to Kaiapoi. Being a member of the Executive, he was sent down to smooth things over and soften the hearts of the Maori people. He told them that the Ngaitahu claim had been already settled by the Native Land Court in the year 1868. The Ngaitahu chiefs replied to him, saying, "Nonsense! We deny your statement. We refuse to listen to what you say. We will petition the House." Accordingly they petitioned the House in the year 1874. The petition was signed by the principal men of the Ngaitahu people. I was selected by the Ngaitahu Tribe to come to Wellington and bring this petition to Taiaroa to present to the House. That will show the Committee that I am correct in saying that I was a responsible person in the confidence of the Ngaitahu people. The old people deputed me to act in this matter, and I went to Wellington on that mission. In 1875 another meeting was held at Otago about this same matter. They prepared another petition that year in support of the previous petition on the same subject. In every report of every select parliamentary Committee which has dealt with this subject these petitions urging the Ngaitahu claim have been consistently supported. The request then made was that the Government set up a Royal Commission composed of persons other than Government officials. That request was granted, and the Commission of Messrs. Smith and Nairn was in consequence set up. There were four separate petitions before the House at that time, notwithstanding the fact that it was asserted thai the matter had been finally settled by the passing of the Ngaitahu Validation Act, 1868, which Act the Maoris had refused to accept. The Chairman: I think we should now adjourn. Mr. Parata: I was going on to deal with the question of schools and hospitals. I think I will finish my statement to-morrow. The Chairman,: You wish the Committee to adjourn now? Mr. Parata: I am in the hands of the Committee. The Committee then adjourned until next day.

Friday, 14th October, 1910. Mr. T. Parata further addressed the Committee. (No. 4.) Mr. Parata: I regret very much, Mr. Chairman, that, this being such a serious matter, T should be compelled to delay the Committee more than to them seem to be necessary, and that the great length of my statement may perhaps weary them. But I throw myself upon the generosity of the Committee, and I am sure the Committee, will see that if I do not devote due time and careful attention to the case I cannot hope to do justice to those I am representing. I have now, sir, got to the heading in my notes entitled " Hospitals and School Reserves and Endowments," and I want the Committee t"o understand that not until a period of twenty years had elapsed after Mr. Mantell made the promise was the first Native school established in the South Island. That is to say, in 1868 Governor Grey authorized the establishment of a school at Ruapuke Island, in 1869 lie authorized the establishment of another school at Otago, in 1870 he authorized the establishment of a school at Riverton, and not until 1876 did he authorize the establishment of a school at Waikouaiti. That school at Waikouaiti was authorized by the late Sir when Native Minister, and that was the result of my importunity. I represented to the Government that there were a number of children at Waikouaiti who had not up to that time received any educational benefit, that there was no school and no opportunity for education, and, as the result of that effort of mine, a school was eventually authorized by Sir Donald McLean at Waikouaiti. Prior to that time the parents had to pay for the education of their children : the}- engaged and paid for the services of a school-teacher. I wish it to be understood by the Committee that up to the year 1876 the Government had not provided free education for the Maori children of Waikouaiti, and I desire to point out, Mr. Chairman, that I was in a very peculiar position then. I had to represent to Sir Donald McLean that the promise in regard to education had not been carried out, and I had at one and the same time to fight against the prejudices of the older generation of Maoris, who thought that the establishment of a school would operate against the Ngaitahu land claim. I had to deal with some of the actual people who had signed Mr. Kemp's deed of sale at Akaroa in 1848. Through my pertinacity and persistence I eventually