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Petitions Presented to The House of Representatives

[No. 13. Petition of Horomona Pohio.]

No. 13.
Petition of Horomona Pohio.

Ki te Runanga Nui o Niu Tireni kei Poneke e hui ana.

Poneke, Hurae 30, 1867.

He tangi atu tenei naku na Horomona Pohio, ho tangata Maori no Niu Tireni. Te take ko taku whenua i hokoa, ai e nga tangata o tenei mote ki nga tangata o te Kawanatanga, na Ngatitoa i hoko ki nga tangata o te Kawanatanga, kaore, ko nga utu o taua whenua i tangohia ai e taua iwi, hei utu mo page 13o ratou tupapaku, e he ana tenei ki au; no te mea na taua iwi i tiki ake i patu oku tangata, o Ngaitahu, no kona hoki matou nga tangata o Ngaitahu i patu ai i o ratou hei utu mo o ku tupapaku; na kia ronge te mai koutou ko taua whenua kei Waiautoa te rohe ki te tonga te rohe ki te Rawhititi kei te taha o te a awa o Wairau, haere tonu ki runga ki ona maunga, haere tonu ki runga o Waiautoa: ko tenei whenua kahore he utu i a hau, ara i nga tangata o Ngaitahu; no te mea noku taua whenua i mua a tae noa ki te takiwa i takohia ai nga utu e taua iwi e Ngatitoa, no te mea i au te Parekura whakamutunga o ta maua mahi whawhai, no konei ahau i mea ai kei au ano toku whenua; na, he tangi atu tenei naku ki a koutou kia Kimihia e koutou te tika i whakaritea aa ma Ngatitoa anake e kai nga utu mo to matou whenua, te tukua mai ai ki a matou ano te ritenga mo te hoko i to matou ake whenua. Ka mutu taku tangi atu kia koutou katoa na to koutou hoa aroha.

[Translation.]
To the General Assembly of New Zealand in Session at Wellington.

Wellington, 30th July, 1867.

This is the petition of me, Horomona Pohio, an aboriginal Native of New Zealand, which I now make to you, because of my land sold by the Natives of this island to the Government: that is to say, it was sold to the Government by the Ngatitoa, which tribe took the payment for those lands, as an equivalent for such of them as had been killed by us. To my mind this was wrong: as that tribe went across of their own accord, and attacked my people, the Ngaitahu. Therefore we, the Ngaitahu, had killed some of them by way of reprisal.

Now give heed! The boundary of the land in question on the south is at Waiautoa, toward the east along the course of the Wairau, thence up to its mountains, thence to the mountains above Waiautoa. For this land I, or rather the people of Ngaitahu, have received no payment. That land belonged to me, and was mine up to the time when Ngatitoa received the payment for it. The last battle fought was won by us; and so I think the land still belonged to us.

Now this is my petition, that the whole question be investigated, in order that it may be seen in how far it was right that the Ngatitoa alone should receive payment for land which was our own, and how it was the disposal of our own lands by sale was not left to ourselves.

My petition to you ends.