No. 72.
Petition of John Topi Patuki to Her Majesty the Queen.

To Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, the Petition of John Topi Patuki, of Ruapuke, in New Zealand, Chief of the Ngaitahu and Ngatimamoe, humbly showeth,—

That in the year 1844, with the sanction of your Majesty, the Government of this Colony directed negotiations to be entered into with the representative chiefs of the Ngaitahu and Ngatimamoe Tribes for the sale to the New Zealand Company of a portion of their hereditary possessions, since known as the Otago Block, and containing 400,000 acres, for the consideration of £2,400.

That from the lands comprised within the general boundaries of that block, certain portions at Otakou, at Taieri, and at Karoro, were withheld from sale by those chiefs, as dwelling-places and possessions for themselves and their descendants.

That the said chiefs further demanded that there should be made at that time, and guaranteed to them, certain small reserves, including two at Otepoti, now known as Dunedin,—namely, one near the stream which crosses Princes Street, near Rattray Street, and the other fronting a small sandy cove to the eastward of the site afterwards occupied by the manse and the land adjoining.

That, on the refusal of the Agent or the New Zealand Company and the Agent representing your Majesty's Government to accede to these moderate demands, the said chiefs declined to proceed further in the matter, and departed; but, after the lapse of some days, on being assured that the above reserves would be made for them, the said chiefs returned, and the purchase was concluded.

That during the existence of the New Zealand Company your petitioner and his tribe were not molested in such occupation as they desired of the above spots; but, on the demise of that body, unable to find written record of the making of any special town reserves, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, at the request of the chiefs aforesaid, laid their application before the Governor of the Colony, who thereupon set apart for your petitioner and his tribe a reserve in the Town of Dunedin, and one in that of Port Chalmers, from hinds which your petitioner is advised were freely at the disposal of the Crown for that purpose.

That it must be borne in mind that your petitioner and his tribe were at the time of the above sale a people little accustomed to scrutinize narrowly such deeds as might be submitted to them for signature, and ready to regard as equally sacred and binding any parole, promises, or assurances which an officer of Government might make to them in your Majesty's name.

That your petitioner was also entitled, under the arrangements then existing between your Majesty's Government and the said Company, to one-eleventh of the sections into which their lauds might after their cession be divided, and that although, at the request of the Agent of the said Company, the officer acting for the Government made no express stipulation to that effect in the deed, it yet appears from later correspondence of the said Agent that your petitioner's claim was not repudiated by the New Zealand Company.

That your petitioner is not aware that at any subsequent period this claim was waived, and is confident that such waiving of this claim was never assented to by those for whose interest it existed.

That it was set aside (as he trusts by inadvertence) in your Majesty's grant of the Otago Block to the New Zealand Company in 1846 your petitioner is aware, but that grant having subsequently reverted to the Crown, can no longer, he submits, prejudice the equity of claims ignored therein.

That in the year 1862 the Government of the Colony permitted the said reserve to be let for occupation, and the rents accruing therefrom were paid into a separate fund, and by successive Ministries regarded as funds to be expended for the benefit of your petitioner's tribe.

That in the year 1865 your Majesty's representative the Governor in Council again formally recognized the ownership of the Dunedin Native Reserve as still vesting in your petitioner's tribe.

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That notwithstanding the previous action of the Governor in Council, and the Order in Council aforesaid not having been revoked or cancelled, the Governor did, on the 11th January, 1866, sign in Council a grant purporting to convey the said reserve to the Superintendent of Otago.

That it appears that of the rents accruing as above there was in the hands of the Colonial Treasurer, at the time of the signature of the said grant, a sum exceeding £6,000.

That doubts having naturally arisen as to the validity of the said grant, your petitioner, urged thereto by the Government of the Colony, encouraged by the promise that every facility would be afforded to him to assert in your Majesty's Supreme Court the cliam of his tribe to the above reserved, in the manner which he is advised is that provided by the laws of the realm for the fair investigation and remedy of such wrongs as those which he suffers, relying upon the good faith and honor of your Majesty's Government in this Colony, and believing that the above named ample funds were fully available for covering the costs of litigation, has, by petition to your Majesty's representative, and by himself giving a bond for costs to a very large amount, obtained the issue of a writ of scire facia with a view to the repeal of the said grant to the Superintendent of Otago.

That your petitioner learns that a Bill is now before the General Assembly of New Zealand, whose effect, if it become law, would be to deprive his tribe of the funds which have accrued from the letting of their said reserve in Dunedin, and probably to render nugatory any effort which he, on their behalf, is making, or may hereafter make, in the Supreme Court of the Colony, or elsewhere, to recover possession of the land itself.

Your most gracious Majesty's humble Petitioner further showeth,—

That your petitioner's tribe has ever been loyal and faithful to your Majesty.

That by the Treaty of Waitangi your Majesty entered into certain honorable engagements with the Maori race, which he humbly submits were of a nature not safely to be devolved upon any body of your Majesty's subjects without strict reservation to your Majesty of sufficient power to enforce their fulfilment.

That, however, in the Legislature of this Colony your petitioner's race have no representative, and their interests are thereby subjected to the control of a popularly elected body, not only not representing their interests but in many respects having interests altogether opposed to theirs; whose deliberations are conducted in a language of which very few Maoris have any knowledge, and whose laws, affecting, as they do, all races of your Majesty's subjects in the Colony, are rarely published in the only language known to the Maori.

That therefore your petitioner submits that, in all cases where interests or supposed interests of the Native race are at stake, those interests should be traced with scrupulous honor and justice, and that questions affecting their rights should upon no account be submitted to a political body wherein they are not represented, but, on the contrary, referred to and left to the decision of your Majesty's courts of law and equity.

That, in consideration of the constant loyalty of his tribe, of the immense possessions which they have peaceably ceded to your Majesty for most trifling payments, and on the faith of promise to them of benefits not even yet fulfilled, to the deprivation, now probably past recovery, of that proportion of their lands sold which the New Zealand Company was at the time bound to reserve for them, and of the doubt which may reasonably exist whether any legislative body, especially one in which one party to the cause is unrepresented, can, however high its character and pure its motives, deal so impartially and conclusively with a contested claim to property as a judicial tribunal:

Your petitioner humbly prays that your Majesty would be graciously pleased to instruct the Governor of this Colony, in the event of the Bill above referred to, or any Bill whose object may be to decide by legislation on rights which are capable of being tested judicially, being submitted to His Excellency for the Royal assent, to withhold that assent. And farther prays, in the event of His Excellency forwarding any such Bill or Bills to your Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, that your Majesty will be graciously pleased, in consideration of the injustice and wrong which might thereby be done to your unrepresented subjects, to signify your pleasure that the same be disallowed.