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

No. 1. — Despatch from His Excellency Governor Grey to the Right Hon. Earl Grey

page 208

No. 1.
Despatch from His Excellency Governor Grey to the Right Hon. Earl Grey.

Government House, Wellington, 25th August, 1848.

My Lord,—

Upon my recent visit to the Middle Island, the results of which were reported in my Despatch No. 20, of 17th March, 1848, I found, upon conversing with the principal chiefs of that Island, that they all acquiesced in the propriety of an immediate settlement of their claims to land upon the following basis: that the requisite reserves for their present and reasonable future wants should be set apart for themselves and their descendants, and should be registered as reserves for such purposes, and that they should then relinquish all other claims whatever to any lands lying between the Nelson and Otago Blocks, receiving for so doing such sums as might be arranged, in four annual payment.

Upon considering the number of Natives between whom the payment agreed upon was to be divided, it appeared to me that a total sum of £2,000, in four annual payments of £500 each, would be as large an amount as they could profitably spend, or as was likely to be of any real benefit to them.

Upon thinking over the subject, an arrangement of this kind appeared to me very desirable, as effecting an almost complete adjustment of land claims in the Middle Island, and as leaving so vast an extent of fertile territory, an unfettered field for the purposes of colonization, that I determined to adopt it.

On my return to Wellington from the Middle Island, I gave therefore the Lieutenant-Governor the necessary verbal directions upon the subject, and promised, if possible, to send down the Surveyor-General to conduct the purchase; but when I reached Auckland, I found that I could not possibly dispense with the services of that officer. I therefore addressed to Lieutenant-Governor Eyre a Despatch, a copy of which I have the honor to enclose, requesting him to lose no time in carrying out the arrangements I was anxious to have adopted.

Lieutenant-Governor Eyre despatched Mr. Kemp to the Middle Island to execute this service, and I have now the honor to enclose copies of the following documents, which were addressed by Mr. Kemp to the Lieutenant-Governor, detailing the results of his visit to that Island.

I have also the honor to transmit the copy of a Despatch which Lieutenant-Governor Eyre has addressed to me upon the subject.

Unfortunately the Lieutenant-Governor was absent when I arrived at Wellington. I cannot, therefore, procure copies of the enclosures to this Despatch. It may, however, be sufficient for me to say, that although I regret Mr. Kemp should have departed from his instructions, I still do not view his proceedings in so unfavourable a light as the Lieutenant-Governor does; and I entertain no doubt that the transaction has been fairly and properly completed, and that the arrangements since adopted by the Lieutenant-Governor will satisfactorily dispose of any questions which might have resulted from any informalities in Mr. Kemp's proceedings. I speak with the more confidence on this subject from my personal knowledge of the Natives concerned, and from my acquaintance with their views and wishes.

I think, therefore, that Her Majesty's Government may, for all practical purposes, regard all Native claims to land in the Middle Island as now conclusively set at rest, with the exception of the portion of that Island in the immediate neighbourhood of Foveaux Straits, and I do not apprehend that any difficulties will arise in respect to that portion of the country.

I think that your Lordship will find that the arrangement detailed in this Despatch fully bears out my views as stated in my Despatch No. 45, of the 15th May last.

I have, &c.,

G. Grey.

The Right Hon. Earl Grey.