Enclosure 10, in No. 44.

Memorandum on the Petitions of Parakaia, Paranihi, and Rawiri Te Wamu, to the Queen.

"The history of the Manawatu-Rangitikei land dispute is far from a singular one in New Zealand. An invading tribe—the Ngatiraukawa—took possession, in about 1830, of a large tract of country between Wanganui and Wellington, driving out the tribes which before inhabited it. After some years of slaughter and violence, the expelled tribes, the Ngatiapa and Rangitane, were suffered by the conquerors to return. They came back as slaves, but gradually resumed more and more of equality with the conquerors, inter-[unclear: ferried] with them, and cultivated the land. After the colonization of the [unclear: slands] land purchases were made within the district by the Crown, and leases of an irregular kind were given by the native occupants to private Europeans.

In these transactions, the Ngatiapa and Rangitane took a part. The conquering tribe received but a small share of the proceeds of the first important sales. The leases were chiefly granted by them; but the Ngatiapa and Rangitane received an increasing share of the rents.

On the death of Nepia Taratoa, a Ngatiraukawa chief of great influence, who seems to have acted as Moderator, differences as to their shares of the rents grew violent. The Ngatiapa, fortified by the alliance of their powerful neighbours, the Wanganui, claimed the whole of the rents for themselves and the Rangitane.

The Ngatiraukawa, on their side, ignored all but their own claims, [unclear: tisting] on their right of conquest, and further alleging that an understanding had been arrived at previous to the former sales; that the unsold land was theirs exclusively. The quarrel was rapidly approaching a climax, and the tribes were in arms to ascertain their rights, when in 1863, Dr. Featherston was requested by the Colonial Government to endeavour to effect some compromise. After some time spent in negotiotions, and a fruitless offer of [unclear: tration], a sale to the Crown of the whole disputed land, the money paid to be distributed equitably among the tribes, was proposed by the Ngatiapa and Rangitane.

For a long time the Ngatiraukawa held back from the proposed arrangement. Peace was in the mean time preserved; and at last a majority of the Ngatiraukawa including Ihakara, a leading man among them, accepted the terms. A portion of the tribe still refused to accede, among them the petitioners. The purchase money was fixed at £25,000, two-fifths to be given to each of the large tribes, and one-fifth to Rangitane. This money has been paid.

The petitioners have been repeatedly assured by the Government of full justice. Surveys have not as yet been made, except to define certain reserves for the sellers; a share of the purchase money is reserved for the non-contents, and large allotments of land will in any case be set aside for them. It has, however, been thought advisable to allow considerable delay in winding up the transaction, that as many as possible of the non-contents may come in. It is doubtful whether the quarrel might not be renewed an extensive part of the block proportioned to their numbers were at present laid off for them.

It must be understood that the exact definition of a Maori land claim is rarely, perhaps never, possible. It would be impracticable to make any award to the non-contents in this case which would not be challenged by the sellers, who, though they have parted with their own interests in the land, might view its occupation by the other natives with great bitterness.

The case is one, in short, of compromising an insoluble quarrel between half civilized men, whose titles all rest on violence of a comparatively recent date, and who are only half weaned from regarding violence, even now, as the ultimate appeal.

One side alleges conquest as its ground, the other the power to reconquer. Both appeal to Christianity, one to clinch the status quo at the time of its introduction, the other to claim the restoration of territory then newly take from them.

The non-contents are about a tenth of the claimants. After a time their claims may be allowed and dealt with on some simple arithmetical basis, having regard to their relative numbers. No other mode of estimating their claims will approach nearer to justice.