Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

An Epitome of Official Documents Relative to Native Affairs and Land Purchases in the North Island of New Zealand

[No. 11.]

No. 11.

J. Flight, Esq., and Others, New Plymouth, to His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief.

On Depressed State of the Settlement.

Sir,—

New Plymouth, 18th July 1849.

The undersigned, landowners and settlers, beg most respectfully to bring under the notice of your Excellency the present depressed state of New Plymouth, which, we feel assured, it is only page 132necessary to lay before you to induce your Excellency's adopting such measures as may tend to our relief.

On the departure of your Excellency from New Plymouth in March, 1848, we were, under the expectation that you would, within two or three months, return and complete by your presence the negotiations which had been commenced by your direction, namely, the purchasing from the Natives such portions of the land in this district awarded to the New Zealand Company by. Mr. Spain as they were disposed from time to time to sell, it being, in the opinion of your Excellency, impracticable to enforce the award. Your Excellency will readily understand us when we say that we have been seriously disappointed in not seeing you for fifteen months, and, since your Excellency has been unable to revisit Taranaki, we expected that at least Mr. McLean, the officer appointed to negotiate with the Natives for the purchase of land, would be kept on the spot; and the more particularly that Wiremu Kingi and his large body of followers so soon after arrived in the district, in a way that rendered some understanding with them, for their future bearing towards the Government, indispensable; but that officer was ordered to Whanganui immediately following your Excellency's departure in March, 1848, and returned in July of that year, only again to be ordered to the southward, when in the midst of an important negotiation with the Natives of Waitara. Procrastination in the all-important question, the purchase of land, has increased among the Natives a habitual disregard for us and our promises, whilst its effect upon ourselves has been still more serious.

Two purchases of land were, it is true, by permission of your Excellency, made by the New Zealand Company's Agent in 1848, and ratified by Mr. McLean in that year, but the largest of them contains only 1,500 acres. The remaining land at the disposal of the Company is unsuited to our wants, being, for the most part, heavily timbered and without roads. The demand for additional land, more accessible and easy of cultivation, will be apparent to your Excellency, when we add that to the forest land we are driven for re-selection in all cases wherein our original choices are not included in the Crown purchases, as well as for upwards of 7,000 acres compensation land, recently awarded to resident purchasers.

We trust that the foregoing observations will induce your Excellency to speedily visit Taranaki, or at least to direct that Mr. McLean be kept among us; so that, henceforth, strenuous efforts may be made, both by the Government and the New Zealand Company, to repurchase lands in this district, and more particularly between Waiwakaiho (the boundary of Governor Fitzroy's block) and Waitara.

This accomplished, we shall have little doubt for the future. A settlement that has survived such an ordeal as New Plymouth, unsupported from without and opposed by various internal difficulties, may, under a new and vigorous policy, yet realize our hopes, and cause us to forget the anxiety and troubles we have for years experienced on its account.

We have, &c.,

Josiah Elight.
G. Cutfield.
John George Cooke.
Thomas King.
Edwin Davy.
Richd. Chilman.
P. Wilson.
John Hursthouse.
Edward Dorset.

His Excellency the Governor in Chief, Auckland.

Reply.
The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, Auckland, to J. Flight, Esq., New Plymouth.

Gentlemen,—

Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland, 30th August 1849.

In reply to your memorial, dated the 18th ultimo, praying that Government would purchase lands at Taranaki, and that "His Excellency would speedily visit Taranaki, or, at least, direct that' Mr. McLean be kept among "you, I have the honour to inform you that it is with very great regret His Excellency has found himself prevented, by duties of the most pressing kind, from visiting New Plymouth so frequently as he would have desired. If no unforeseen event, however, occurs, the Governor will be able to visit Taranaki at a very early period in the summer, and will feel great pleasure in attending, as far as lies in his power, to the wants of the memorialists.

His Excellency will direct that Mr. McLean return to New Plymouth immediately the land purchases in which he is now engaged are completed, and for the future he will be kept at Taranaki as much as possible, but his services are found so valuable that it is feared it will yet be necessary to employ him occasionally in important negotiations in other parts of the colony.

I have, &c.,

Andrew Sinclair.
Colonial Secretary.

J. Flight and G. Cutfield, Esqs., and other gentlemen signing the memorial.