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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Rare Volume

Memorandum on New Zealand Affairs

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Memorandum on New Zealand Affairs.

The prevalence in New Zealand, of a "tribal tenure" of land, in virtue of which "individual title does not exist, except in rare cases," has been affirmed by competent authority; it is secured to the natives by the treaty of Waitangi, under which the sovereignty of the Islands was ceded to Great Britain, and its nature and consequences are now generally understood in the colony and at home.* The system having in certain cases pressed heavily upon the settlers, the policy of the Colonial Government has been directed to the modification of it, with a view to the individualization of native titles; while the more recent proceedings of the Government of New Zealand have raised serious apprehensions of a forcible interference with the tribal right : for the Maories are a people peculiarly sensitive as to their landed possessions, and jealous of their nationality. The Maori King movement § again has greatly increased the difficulty of dealing with disputed land questions, from its tendency to embolden resistance on the part of the natives, and to embarrass the page 2 authorities by the uncertainty created as to the true grounds of opposition, and as to how far the ramifications of it may extend. But the existing war has arisen, in the first instance, out of a disputed claim to land, and not out of the Maori King movement; in fact the leading man of the war party at Taranaki has steadily kept aloof from that movement, nor did the supporters of it, as such, Gome to his assistance when the war broke out, although solicited to do so by special deputation. It is not necessary to determine how far the two questions have since become entangled.

The present review of the subject embraces the following heads:—
  • I. Wiremu Kingi's Tribal Right in the Waitara a Matter for Judicial Inquiry.
  • II. Te Teira's Title Alleged to be Incomplete.
  • III. The Precipitate Declaration of War.

* Appendix A.

Appendix B.

Appendix C.

§ Appendix D.