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An Epitome of Official Documents Relative to Native Affairs and Land Purchases in the North Island of New Zealand

Notes. on the Best Mode of Introducing and Working the Native Lands Act

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Notes. on the Best Mode of Introducing and Working the Native Lands Act.

In compliance with requests made to me by the Hon. the Native Minister and the Hon. the Attorney- General, I have put together the following notes on the best mode of introducing and working the Native Lands Act so as to render the Act most effective for its purpose, and most conducive in its effects to the peaceable settlement of this Island:

Though I have done my best to keep these remarks within compass, yet they have unavoidably run to some length. In fact, by the course of events and by repeated discussion during the last few years, the several parts of the Native problem, and their mutual relations and connections, have become more manifest, and the order in which they may be attempted with best prospect of success more apparent. This has rendered it necessary for me to touch on nearly every part of the work to be done, in order that each part may be seen in its proper place and its due proportions. If some of the proposals herein made appear at first sight inadmissible, I only ask for a patient hearing and serious consideration. For the views here expressed have been formed not lightly or rapidly, but after long-continued observation, and by the aid of light drawn from every available source, and after much conference with persons of various classes and of different ways of thinking on these subjects.

I regard this Act as the turning-point in our work. If it can be brought into smooth and safe operation, and be made acceptable at the outset of our proceedings, it will powerfully attract the Natives to our system, and give us the means of gradually and quietly introducing that system into all parts of the country.

  • 1. For this end the greatest care and forethought are required, not only because the work is in itself complicated and difficult, but also because we have to overcome great obstacles. We have to commend our measures to a population in which there exists a wide-spread and deep distrust of the Government. There are, it is true, many amongst the Natives who are attached to us, and who are convinced that in union with us and conformity to our usages lies the only hope of their race. Yet even these are perplexed and harassed by the contrarieties of our so-called policies, by the divisions of our political parties, and by the language of our newspapers. We do not readily estimate the effect of these things on the minds of men keen and shrewd, yet ignorant and ill-informed, and at the same time well aware how vitally their own interests may be affected by them. Another large portion of the population is demoralized, sore of heart and almost desperate, driven half mad by losses and sufferings, by uncertainties and fears. Everywhere the land needs rest.

    Time is needed not only for the settling-down of men's minds, but also for the preparation and revision of our own plans; for the success of this measure must depend entirely on the manner of working it. It might be so worked as even to complicate our difficulties and diminish our influence. The solicitations and the keen competition of land-buyers, working secretly and sometimes unscrupulously against each other, might, unless checked by proper regulations, raise up again, even in an aggravated form, a general irritation and opposition, such as were produced by the old system. Our one hope of success lies in our proceeding on a very limited scale and in a very measured way in the outset, and in our mode of proceeding being so framed as to exclude to the utmost all sources of irritation, and to produce by the most facile mode a clearly advantageous result. Considering that' we have to construct and test our mode of proceeding as we go on, and to ascertain by experience many things which no forethought can suggest or devise; considering also the extreme difficulty of finding agents fit for this work, it is evidently necessary to begin our work on a very limited scale and in some district which is well prepared to receive our operations. We may be quite sure that, in working in such a district and in appearance for that district only, we shall be really working under the eyes of all. Our operations will be keenly watched by the Natives in all parts, and the benefits or disadvantages carefully noted and discussed everywhere. On the other hand, to keep a number of operations going on at the same time, and that with inferior instruments, would be to increase unnecessarily the chances of error and failure. If our work shall be successful in a single district, and our system be seen to yield real and substantial benefit to those who come within it, that system will readily find acceptance elsewhere, and in due time spread itself through the country.