(No. 3.)
Mr. Field to Mr. Cooper.

I have the honour to acknowledge, with thanks, the receipt of your letter of the 17th instant, enclosing schedules showing state of grants for Native lands at Patiki. The schedule of 26th August, 1870, came duly to hand, and its receipt was acknowledged by me at the time. It however did not show whether the grants referred to in it had actually been executed or were lying in the Crown Lands Office unexecuted; and as some of the Natives who paid me, on my stating to them on its authority that their grants were ready, have since repeatedly asserted that they nevertheless could not get their grants, others naturally objected to pay, and I had reason to doubt whether the documents had actually been complete at the time I told the Maoris they were so.

I think it would be well if some machinery were devised whereby the Natives could have their grants delivered to them in their several districts. If, for instance, the grants, together with a memorandum of the amounts due on them, were forwarded, on their execution, to the Native Resident Magistrate of the locality, and he were authorized to receive and account for the money, it would obviate a good deal of the delay at present arising in the delivery of the grants, and remove a fertile source of unpleasantness between Maoris and surveyors, and of dissatisfaction with the working of the Court in the minds of the former.

As I understand an amended Native Lauds Act is being prepared, and as you may not improbably have something to do with its preparation, it perhaps may not be amiss to call your attention to the present unsatisfactory state of the law as regards the payment of survey fees. The fact that, on the establishment of the Native Land Court, a number of wandering surveyors undertook surveys at low rates, and, after being paid, disappeared without attending to prove the plans in Court, led to the issue of a circular Gazette intimating to Natives that they had better not pay till the work was proved in Court. This not only operated as an injustice to surveyors who might have executed surveys for Natives who on investigation turned out not to be the owners of the surveyed land, in which case the surveyor could get no lien on the land, and had merely an apparent remedy against people whom it would be a waste of time and money to sue, but it had a direct tendency to impede the action of the Court by increasing the cost of surveys, and, by compelling surveyors to apply for liens on the grants, to delay their issue. It moreover emboldened Maoris to employ persons to survey lands to which they had doubtful claims, by making the recovery of his money by the surveyor practically contingent on the success of the claim. If they got the land the surveyor might get paid some time or other if not, they would have sustained no loss and incurred no actual expense, beyond their own time, by prosecuting an unjust claim.

Of late, the Court has evinced an unwillingness to authorize liens on grants unless in special cases, and surveyors did not care to press for them, because lawyers held that such liens were of the nature of securities, which would bar suits for the recovery of the survey fees; and quite recently a further difficulty has arisen, in the shape of a ruling by our Resident Magistrate, to the effect that survey fees, not secured by lien, were nevertheless irrecoverable in his Court, as being claims arising but of transactions in a superior Court. The whole question is thus, as you will see, in a considerable muddle. It seems to me that one of two courses should be adopted: either the circular should be withdrawn and the surveyors be left free to make their own terms with the Natives; or the amount of the surveyor's claim for his work, and attending in Court to prove it, should be marked on the map, and lodged in Court by the claimant as a preliminary to the investigation of his claim. The only objection to the latter course is the impecuniosity of the Natives generally; but this difficulty might be to a great extent removed if a less expensive style of survey were accepted as sufficient for the mere investigation of title. At present the Court actually insists on a far more elaborate and expensive survey for Native lands than the Provincial Government undertakes ill completion of the title to lands sold by it. This appears hardly fair to the Natives, and it has, besides, an obvious tendency to increase the difficulty of obtaining payment.

It has always seemed to me that, for the mere investigation of title, a sketch-map prepared by a surveyor (Native sketches being very unreliable, and often actually showing everything turned end for end), showing the boundaries of the laud, with its approximate area, and its position as fixed by a few prismatic bearings in reference to any neighbouring prominent natural features of the country, and which would cost but a trifle, should suffice; but that a proper correct survey should be required as a preliminary to the issue of the Crown grant. By this course any serious expense prior to the investigation of title would be saved, and, on the title being determined, those in whose favour the certificate was issued would have no difficulty in obtaining funds either from intending lessees or purchasers, or by means of such a mortgage as is at present allowed, to defray the cost of the grant survey. This course would in the long run add little, if anything, to the total cost of survey, as the surveyor, in running over the ground to prepare the sketch-map, would get such a general knowledge of it as would greatly facilitate the subsequent work.

Anything tending to promote the successful working of the Native Land Court is of such page 61importance to the extension of settlement and furtherance of the interests of the colony generally, that I feel sure you will excuse me for noting the above matters.