No. 9.
Copy of a Despatch from Governor Grey to Earl Grey.

In order to illustrate the disposition of the Natives now inhabiting this place to impose upon the Government and settlers, I think it right to state the following occurrence, whick took place in an interview I had with a large body of them yesterday.

About twelve months since, the chief of a small body of Natives who inhabit a pa called "Waiwhetu Pa," a few miles from Wellington, came to me when I was arranging the land claims in that settlement, and complained that no adequate portion of land had been reserved for himself and his people. Upon inquiring of the Superintendent of the Southern Division whether he considered this complaint to be a just one, he informed me that he considered the interests of the inhabitants of this particular pa had been overlooked, and that the Government ought to procure more land for them.

The chief, a young man, was therefore directed to choose a section of land (containing about 125 acres) in the vicinity of the pa, and he was informed that I would then endeavour to purchase it for them from the owner (the Government at that time having no land in the vicinity of Port Nicholson which was applicable to the wants of these people). A section of land was accordingly selected by the Waiwhetu Natives, which I was informed was one of the finest in the district. The Government had to pay the sum of £350 for it, and it was then made over to these Natives, who were delighted with the unexpected liberality which had been shown to them, and admitted that their claims to land had been settled by a most just and liberal arrangement. Yesterday, however, at the interview I had with the Natives, a young Native got up and addressed me, requesting to be informed whether it was my intention, in the arrangement I was making here, to act so unjustly as to leave him and his people without lands or the means of subsistence. As the face of this young man was familiar to me, I stopped him until I had made inquiries about him, and found to my surprise that it was the young chief with whom so liberal an arrangement had been made at the Waiwhetu twelve months previously. It appeared that this chief, having acquired all he could from the Government at Port Nicholson, and finding that the land question at this place had been again opened up by my predecessor, had come on here (not expecting to be recognized) to try what he could obtain from the Government at New Plymouth. I at once taxed him, in the presence of the assembled Natives, with his ingratitude in adopting such a line of conduct towards me, after my having previously treated him so generously. He was evidently very much ashamed and abashed at the discovery I had made, and after a few moments' thought he publicly and candidly admitted that he had acted very wrongly; that my treatment of him had been most liberal and kind, and that he was much ashamed of what he had done. He then sat down again.

This instance—and there are many others of a worse nature—will show that if once the cupidity of the Natives is excited it is impossibly to satisfy them: indeed, I have never seen the Native character under so bad a point of view as at Taranaki.