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A compendium of official documents relative to native affairs in the South Island, Volume One.

At Pigeon Bay, Port Levy, and Port Cooper

At Pigeon Bay, Port Levy, and Port Cooper.

Portions called Pohue, Kokakongatungatu, and Kohaihope; contents unknown, but the boundaries of these tracts can be pointed out by the Natives.

These Natives state that they sold these portions of land to Captain Langlois, upon his second arrival in the Peninsula, when accompanied by the immigrants, which appears from the evidence of Messrs. S. de Beligny, J. M. Cebert, and George Fleuret, to have been at Pigeon Bay on the 9th August, 1840, and at Akaroa upon the 16th August, 1840.

They admit to have received, as payment for these lands, the goods, &c., stated in the deed of sale, amounting in value to £234 sterling.

This payment is proved to have been made a few days after the above-mentioned dates by the evidence of J. M. Cebert and G. Fleuret, the latter of whom deposes also to having seen Captain Langlois give some clothing to a Native named Chigary, and others, at Pigeon Bay, in the year 1838.

The said Natives have likewise declared that they consented, in August, 1840, to sell their interests in larger tracts of land in Banks Peninsula, to Captain Langlois, for a further consideration of cattle and goods promised to them by him, but which they have not received, and they expressed their readiness still to dispose of any lands not required for themselves.

It has been admitted by the same Natives, that a chief named Taiaroa possesses a common right with them in portions of Banks Peninsula.

Tuha Waike, a Native chief, opposes this claim on the part of himself and the chiefs Patuki, Taiaroa, and Karetai, on the grounds that they did not consent to the sale, or receive any payment; at the same time, he states their willingness to alienate their rights for a consideration.

Statements to the following effect have been exhibited to the Court by Mons. S. de Beligny, the agent of the claimants:

1.Setting forth the claimants' engagement with sixty-three French emigrants.
2.The clearing and cultivation of 107[gap — reason: damage] acres by the said persons.
3.The expenditure by the claimants in the transport and maintenance of these emigrants sent out by them have been strictly performed, and the Court has also been satisfied of a considerable outlay in making roads, bridges, and improvements.

This claim having been referred for special examination by His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government, and the copy of a letter from the Right Honorable the Earl of Aberdeen, Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, dated 28th July, 1842, having been exhibited to the Court, in which it is declared that Her Majesty's Government purpose that the claim should be dealt with similarly to those of a British Company; the Commissioners do not adjudicate upon it according to the practice hitherto adopted towards individual claimants, who have made or completed their purchases of land after the Proclamation issued upon the 14th January, 1840, by His Excellency Sir George Gipps, forbidding the acquirement of lands from the Natives of New Zealand after that date; and consequently, in the opinion of the Commissioners, rendering the completion of all such contracts null and void. But considering the peculiar circumstances of the case, the Commissioners, without offering a decided or specific recommendation upon it, have confined themselves to a recapitulation of all the evidence they could obtain relating to it.

Dated at Wellington, this 21st day of October, 1843. Edward L. Godfrey.
M. Richmond.