The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 10

[Discussion around settling disputes between tribes by arbitration]

On the 14th April, 1866, the Land Purchase Commissioner, Her Majesty's agent, after ridiculing alike the idea of attempting to settle the dispute between the tribes by arbitration, by a division of the land, or by having the claims of the various tribes investigated in the Native Lands Court, says, "He now gathered that the six tribes assembled before him were all but unanimous in scouting every one of these proposals, and were more than ever convinced that the only possible solution of the dispute was, to use their own words, an absolute sale of the whole of the land in dispute to the Crown, and after having for many days patiently heard all they had to say, he had no hesitation in expressing his entire concurrence in that conviction." He concludes by telling the Natives "he had no difficulty in publicly announcing his public acceptance of the block." (See Appendix.)

It must be very satisfactory to the British tax-payers to be told by Dr. Featherston, the New Zealand Land Purchase Commissioner, that, after ten regiments of British soldiers have been sent to New Zealand at their expense, after the expenditure of a vast amount of "British blood and treasure," after His Excellency Sir George Grey's government had succeeded in desolating the homes of the Maori, decimating their tribes, confiscating their lands to the Crown, inflicting a vast amount of misery upon the Maori race, compelling them (as the Whanganui Chronicle hath it) "naked and famine-stricken to submit to the force of circumstances," inflicting upon a large section of Her Majesty's subjects of the high spirited Maori race, that dull depression, that gloom, that taedium vita which slays with the hand of death,—after having trampled under foot the work of British Societies in this country, driving the Natives to Hau-hauism, to debauchery and to crime—all for the avowed purpose of asserting in this land the supremacy of law, "the grand desire of the British colonists in respect of the Natives," is now as far as ever from being realized. It must be very satisfactory to that modern colonial representative of British heroism, by name called Charles Heaphy, to learn that he has fought and that he has bled (query did he bleed) in vain, that the V.C. that has been bestowed upon him by his Sovereign, and which he wears with so much pride, so far from being an honour, is, all things considered, a disgrace alike to the Colony, to his fellow colonists, and to himself. Yea and verily is not the Native chief Ihakara now, as ever, justified in saying, "you Pakehas are a set of humbugs."

The following will show a marked contrast between the sellers and non-sellers. Dr. Featherston reports thus (see Appendix) of what passed at a meeting held on 28th March:—"Governor Hunia mode a still more violent speech against the other tribes, openly boasted that they (the Ngatiapas) had now plenty of arms and ammunition, and could easily drive off their opponents, and that they would now prefer an appeal to arms to any other course. He almost hinted that they had, during the West Coast campaign, reserved their ammunition for that purpose." On the 14th April, "Ihakara and the leading selling chiefs were more earnest than before in pressing the sale of the block, while Hunia to Hakeke openly declared that if the meeting should break up without the sale having been effected, he would return at once to pa building, and would decide the question of title by a trial of strength with the Ngatiraukawa."

"Parakaia (a non-seller) again brought forward his scheme for a settlement of the question (by a reference to the Land Court) which was scouted by the Ngatiapa."

The following letter, written by a Ngatiraukawa chief, was published in the Wellington Advertiser:—

"To the Colonists of New Zealand.

"Manawatu,

" Our Elder Brothers,—

We wish to ask you why you thus treat us, who are dwelling in peace and quietness? For now seven-and-twenty years we have lived peaceably under the protection of the Queen and under the law. We have been guilty of no wrong, and have always upheld the right. For what reason is justice now withheld? Your constant cry has been— 'Let the law investigate.' That investigation you have now denied to us. You cast the law—the protector—on one side, and you 'jump upon the land.'

"Is it right that an innocent man should be condemned unheard? Does not the same law apply to the land? Or is it just to treat as naught what is generally admitted to be right according to the common custom of mankind?—to send a man guiltless to prison, there to dwell in darkness? Is it just that a man who has been guilty of no fault, should be driven to dwell in sadness—denied the right of inquiry?

"We know that you claim Waikato and all the land that you have conquered; you claim it by right of conquest; that conquest is but of recent date. It was thus that we got possession, many years since, of Rangitikei and of the country down this coast. Now you say that it is not right that Maori usages should become law.

"Our elder brothers, there is no injustice with the law; the law is impartial; man is insolent and unjust. Witness your springing, regardless alike of law and justice, upon Rangitikei. The saying is your's—' Let the law decide.'

"Te Waharoa came to you, he asked you to give him back Waikato. You replied, 'That cannot be, it would not be just.' Now why do you take Rangitikei out of our hands, and give it back to Ngatiapa? Here is a Maori proverb, 'Well done, thou parent with the double tongue!'

"Here is another of your precepts which we are carefully laying to heart. You have always assured us that the land of those who dwell in peace shall be protected to them by the law. Permit us to ask you where are those laws; are they asleep; whatever can have become of them?

"Our elder brothers, we wish you to explain to us what you mean by living quietly—by dwelling in peace. You have told us to live peaceably: we have done so, we are now found fault with. What sort of living in peace is it that you require of us? It is but just that they who disturb the peace should perish by the sword, and that their land should be forfeited. In our case, to those who have been guilty of no fault—who ore dwelling peaceably under the law, you have denied the protection of law. Why are love and mercy withheld from those who are peaceably inclined, and who are always ready to submit to the law?

"Look you in our opinion. On the first occasion, at Wairau, the enlightened guide was the first to fall, after him the blind. Likewise at the Waitara, the enlightened guide first fell, the blind followed. On the third occasion, at the Waikato, for the first time, they both fell together into the deep. Our elder brothers, is this burden to be constantly borne? It is well sometimes to reflect: reflect then on your own conduct; be not too hard upon that of your younger brother; he is but a poor ignorant fellow.

"As the matter now stands, you have hidden away the law lest by it your treatment of innocent men, who are constant in their respect for that which is right, should be brought to light; and you have lowered the name of the Queen by using it as a menace to a loyal and unoffending people, who are striving to obey the law, and keep the peace.

"Our elder brothers, it rests with you to set this matter right. Permit the eye of the law to look into these wrongs of innocent and peaceable men. Cease from withholding the law.

"From your younger brothers,

"From

Ngatiraukawa."