Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 24

VI.—Areas

VI.—Areas.

Excluding transactions completed previously.

The lands surveyed this year (as nearly as I can ascertain them) are 263,185 acres
Surveys requisitioned 57,000 acres
Will be requisitioned next Spring 70,000 acres
390,185 acres
page 18
Also
There are of negotiations in abeyance 30,000 acres
Suspended negotiations resumed 54,000 acres
Negotiations suspended 48,000 acres
Total 522,185 acres

The surveys performed show that the areas of the lands had been slightly under-estimated; 226,000 acres estimated were found by survey to contain 230,926 acres.

VII.—The total area I have purchased and leased in this district, the same having been surveyed, or about to be surveyed during the ensuing summer, is 594,882 acres.

VIII.—Opposition and intrigues of Europeans who have interfered with my negotiations.

This has formed the most prominent feature of the conditions against which I have deemed it my duty to contend.

I had to advert to this subject in my annual report last year and I find myself compelled to mention it again.

The evil has not diminished, although its organisation and ramifications may have become more apparent.

And, first I would say, that where settlers have had prior transactions, and possessed prior claims, that I have made it my rule to abstain from interfering with those transactions, but at the same time I have requested them to refrain in like manner from interfering with the negotiations I have entered into on behalf of the Government.

More than this on part of Government would not be acceptable to Europeans, and less than this on part of the latter would not be just to the Government.

It seemed necessary, therefore, to draw a line somewhere, and I have endeavoured to draw it where the equitable and legal rights of the public should be protected from the efforts of individuals—be they who they may—who may seek to interfere and deprive the public of those rights.

The necessity of such a rule appears to be in proportion to the means of the individual either by ability, wealth, influence &c.; a rule is necessary too, to meet that class of persons who jump claims to be bought out.

Now it has been my lot until quite lately, i.e., until the land was gazetted under the Immigration and Public Works Acts, to be compelled to struggle single-handed more than twelve months with a very powerful and a very remarkable European opposition. An opposition that I feel sure has spent directly and indirectly (their expenditure in public-houses alone is enormous) far more, perhaps five times as much, money as I have paid, but whose page 19 utmost effort has proved quite inadequate to create more than a passing European difficulty.

The persons instigating this opposition have possessed means and influence so large, that had I been less firm or less assured of the justice of the cause represented, I should not have been able to prevail hitherto, as I have.

The stake they have in view being, as I conceive, not merely the land interfered with, but the supremacy in land purchasing, and the power to filibuster with impunity, and to dictate to Government in all future land transactions.

I have characterized this opposition as remarkable, and in doing so I may say that it is remarkable in itself; it is remarkable also in the unusual facilities and protection it has received from the Judge, and the District Officer, separately and combined.

In itself it is remarkable in the unscrupulous character of the means employed, in the nature and extent of its schemes, its extraordinary avenues of official information, and its hitherto reckless and largely secret expenditure.

While in unusual facilities and protection received, it is noticeable in the District Officer, Mr Locke, having granted permission to execute surveys in favor of Europeans over extensive tracts of country, at a time when he knew that I was negotiating the same, and had paid considerable sums upon them.

It is noticeable in, that on the 7th July last the District Officer brought Captain Read, one of the Europeans interested, to me, and asked me to give him, Captain Read, money upon these lands, with which request I refused to comply, on the ground that the land belonged by agreement to the public, and that I would not pay over again for it.

Further Mr Locke, supported by Judge Rogan, by representations based upon an imaginary Native difficulty, did defeat an attempt of mine, supported by Mr Clarke, to obtain a proclamation under the Immigration and Public Works Acts, whereby for many months they became the means of shielding from the operations of the law the proceedings and actions of the Europeans who had interfered with the purchases and leases of the Government.

Now that the land is proclaimed, opposition will be futile where judgments are given and title is established.

Opposition has been very strong, however; in illustration of it and of the spirit abroad among those who have considered themselves specially exempt, I may instance the case of Mr Campbell, Resident Magistrate at Waiapu, who, under cover of an authority from Mr Locke, caused land to be surveyed that I had leased before him, that I had advanced rent upon, and was surveying.

page 20

The Natives of his survey party seized my surveyors' instruments twice, stopping the party. The cost to the country by these seizures in pay to the survey party during detention, in expenses of interpreters, &c., was about £100.

Mr Locke knew that I had acquired the land for Government before he granted the permission to Mr Campbell's surveyor, and when I asked afterwards for an explanation, he made a statement that I do not deem expedient to repeat here.

Mr Campbell, junior, as the agent or partner of his father, the Resident Magistrate, had been informed in writing before he treated for the land, or had paid money upon it, of the prior right of the Government, yet a higher bid was made, and Natives who had taken money from me were induced to go over to him, excusing themselves on the plea that we both were Government men.

I have mentioned this matter somewhat fully to show the nature of the spirit, against which I have been compelled to contend, as well as the unexpected quarters from which it has emanated, not from any desire to attach particular value to the opposition as raised on this occasion.

The case is quite different, however, in the Blocks called Waingaromia, Nos. 1, 2, and 3, otherwise known as Arakihi, Parariki, Tauwhareparae, and Waihora, where Messrs Read and Cooper have interfered. In these my difficulties are increased by the forced and unprecedented action of the Native Land Court in this district.

On the 7th of July last I refused to pay money on Mr Locke and Mr Read's request.

On the 9th the Judge and Read drove to the country house of the latter, where they were accustomed frequently to reside together.

On the 11th I was informed that the Judge was trying to get Read and Cooper's surveys at Waingaromia placed upon a special Gazette by telegram.

On the 12th they returned to town, and by that time the lands had been telegraphed and hurriedly notified at the head office at Auckland, not on the usual printed form under seal of the Court, but with the seal of the Court on a manuscript.

I venture to affirm that this was an exceedingly improper proceeding, and an abuse of power. It was a violent action, the effect of which was to displace the cause of the public, and to injure it by giving Read's interests priority. It was to make claimants of the Opposition, and to give them the right to reply. It was to take the hearing of our lands upon their hasty and in- page 21 discriminately—I had almost said promiscuously—made surveys and plans. It was to impart prestige to one side, and humiliate those who had sold to the Government. It was to diminish in the eyes of the people the respect due to the Government in its business transactions, by rendering those transactions subordinate to the interests of Europeans who were known to have interfered with them.

Suitors in all cases in the Native Land Court are required to comply with the forms of the Court. They are required to make their claims to the Court in writing, and have, in point of fact, to fill an elaborate form of application for hearing with scrupulous exactness, failing which, their applications are returned to them for correction. But the Natives with whom Messrs Bead and Cooper were in treaty were excused delay where time was an object, and were granted a special advantage.

And here I may say, that, had the Court and District Officer permitted business to flow in the ordinary channel, and had surveyors been furnished in March, April, and May, 1875, when I applied for them; and further, had a Judge of the Native Land Court presided here, who could have taken Government business sometimes, instead of cases in which Mr Bead is interested always (I believe one solitary case excepted), that the time of the Court in my district during the year under report has been entirely engrossed in adjudicating where Bead requires titles, while not a single case has been adjudicated in which Natives claim who have parted with their land to Government. Had these conditions been permitted to obtain, then the Government would have had its deeds, and the Natives their money long ago.

But to return, on the 29th of July the Session of the Court specially convened to hear cases in which Messrs Read and Cooper were interested was opened in this district, and sat and took evidence without having caused due notice to be given in the district in the manner prescribed by the letter—or even in compliance with the spirit—of 36th section of the "Native Land Act 1873."

On the same day the Court closed, or rather adjourned—it was alleged—upon application. An application was certainly made by a Native at the request of Mr Locke, but he had been put up merely to cover the retreat of the Court. The real cause was of another kind. I had taken an unusual step, and had almost rendered myself liable to censure from yourself.

On the 6th of the following month some of the notifications of the sitting of the Court arrived by mail at Gisborne. The Court had opened, and taken evidence eight days before pre- page 22 liminary documents required by law were received in the district.

It is not for me to say what the legality of such unprecedented proceedings may be worth, but if that Court was ultra vires, its adjourned sittings and proceedings are ultra vires also.

After this the Government surveys of this land were prosecuted and completed, and Arakihi and Parariki portions of them were gazetted for hearing on the 10th March last at Waiapu, a place three days' journey from Gisborne on horseback.

Many of the Natives went to Waiapu to attend the Court on the 10th, but the Judge did not go. He remained at Gisborne, and sent an agent, who adjourned the Court.

On the 14th the Judge suddenly advertised a Court for the same land under the name Waingaromia, to sit at Makareka, Gisborne, on the 16th.

Thus a notice of 48 hours was allowed for Natives who were away at Waiapu, and this while Read and Cooper's supporters who had not gone to Waiapu, were near the Court House, at Makaraka.

To this impracticable proceeding I again objected on various grounds, among others that the Governor had called for further information prior to deciding whether he would exercise his pre-emptive right over the land, and that the present precipitate action of the Court might prejudice and forestall that right.

Notwithstanding this, however, the judgment of the Court was given upon one Block, Waingraromia No 3. A rehearing was immediately asked for by the Natives with whom I had dealt.

The Governor's proclamation was issued over this and the other Blocks six weeks after the judgment of the Court had been given.

The other Waingaromia Blocks Nos. 1 and 2 were adjourned to Tologa for the 3rd April, where they were heard with judgment reserved.

The proceedings the first day were very painful on both sides.

On the one hand the Judge was irascible, impracticable, and threatening to the Natives who had dealt with me; on the other their spokesman openly accused him in Court, and the Natives out of Court, in a manner which I refrain from repeating.

The scene had lasted too long, when the Court broke up in confusion.

On the following day the Judge conceded the reasonable request of the Natives, and evidence was thereupon given.

I do not wish to comment on the way the evidence was taken, nor have I space to do so here. Suffice to say, that as I watched page 23 I became convinced, I say it emphatically, that it would be necessary to hear the cases over again before another Judge.

Here I wish to note, that I reserve a point arising out of something said by the other side that may be required at another stage.

I believe the Aotangahauiti Natives are only waiting for judgments to be given to appeal against them.

I stated, in an early part of this section of my report, that I had been compelled to contend against a very remarkable opposition. I have not given all my reasons for making that statement—space does not permit—but I have adduced a number of circumstances in support of the position, that it has received unusual facilities and protection from the Judge and District Officers, separately and combined.

I have to add another matter, however, in reference to the remarkable character of the opposition itself.

I hold evidence from several respectable European witnesses, showing on his own statement, that Mr Cooper, a principal and manager, did deliberately frame his arrangements upon an assumed and asserted partiality of the Court for Read.

In conclusion, I will say for myself that, in the absence of the District Officer from the Court at Tologa, the sudden and unexpected introduction by the Court of a third party, Captain Porter, between my clients and the Court, was injurious to the interests of this department. My line of action was departed from, a foreign claim upon Parariki was set up by Natives, among whom, I believe, Mrs Porter is interested. I do not state this in any spirit unfavourable to Captain Porter. His position was unofficial and anomalous (he characterized it as improper), he was dissatisfied at it, and offered to abandon it, should I request.

Captain Porter is Land Purchase Officer and District Officer in his own district, where his experience in one capacity serves him in the other; but in my district briefs are made up, and it is injurious to thrust a stranger among them, and especially where money has been paid, it is undesirable to disturb existing arrangements.

A Land Purchase Officer in one district ought not to interfere with the clients of an officer in another district, nor do I think that a Judge should ask him to do so, on any pretext whatever.

If the officer so interfering has work elsewhere, he is precluded from knowing the conditions amongst which he places himself, and to appear suddenly upon the scene where a European opposition is interested, an opposition part of which asserted its page 24 reliance among other things of the doubt being given in its favour, and to call clients together in the Court-house, at the opening of the Court, to tell them what should be done, and how the case should be taken, is neither just to the Land Purchase Officer of the district, nor to the public interests that he represents.

I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

(Signed) J. A. Wilson,

Land Purchase Officer.