21

C—No. 3,

The original Commissioners, however, declined entering into the case, the purchase having been made subsequent to the Proclamation prohibiting the purchase of land from the Natives. When it was afterwards desired to have the question settled, the Agent for the Nanto Bordelaise Company could not be found, and Lord Stanley when Secretary of State for the Colonies, taking into consideration the amount expended on emigration by that Company, ordered a Grant to be made out for them of thirty thousand acres. The New Zealand Company purchased the claims of the Nanto Bordelaise Company, and, in virtue of other subsequent arrangements, whatever lands the New Zealand Company possessed, have reverted to the Crown, but, through all these proceedings, the original question as to what extent the Native Title has been extinguished by the French Company has never been decided ; and, as I am directed to let the Natives understand that there is no desire on the part of the Government to act otherwise than with the strictest justice towards them, I am not in a position to point out to them that the Government possess lands in virtue of a sale to the French Company, the validity of which has always been denied by them, and has, moreover, never been established by any competent authority to have existed. These Natives have pointed out certain portions of land which they acknowledge having sold to the French, and this is the block on both sides of the harbour now occupied by the settlers, chiefly under the Nanto Bordelaise Company's Title ; the remaining parts, those at present in dispute, were, they state, by a mutual understanding between them and Mr. Belligmy, the French Company's Agent, to be left for their use, or in other words, not to be considered as having been sold to the French. The Natives of Akaroa have furnished me with a nominal return of their numbers by which they count 140 souls, and possess 48 head of cattle, besides horses, and unless an annual decrease in their numbers takes place, the land offered to them will scarcely be sufficient for the subsistence of themselves and their cattle ; but, the greatest hardship they complain of, is compelling two distinct tribes who have hitherto resided on opposite sides of the harbour, to live together, the tribe on the South side being unwilling to come over to the North and reside on the reserve there, which, they conceive, belongs to the party on the North side—and who would view them as intruders ? However unreasonable this objection may appear, it is a repugnance which all Natives have to interfere with each other, and in other parts of the Islands of New Zealand, the system of laying out reserves without considering the local circumstances has been found not to answer. On the formation of the Canterbury settlement, when the possession of Banks' Peninsula became necessary tor the purposes of colonization, Mr. Commissioner Mantell, finding that the incomplete nature of the French purchase had not by any means fdlly satisfied the Native owners of the soil, extinguished their claims over the district around Port Cooper for a sum of two hundred .pounds, and secured to them an adequate reserve for their wants ; Port Levy was also purchased by the same gentleman for a like sum, with a similar reserve, and had the same liberal policy been at that time extended to Akaroa, the Natives say that all differences on the subject would have been avoided, and that they merely wish the same treatment to be measured to them as was granted to the other tribes inhabiting the Peninsula. I am not aware of Mr. Mantell's reasons for deviating in the case of Akaroa, from the policy carried out in other parts of the Province, with which the Natives are so well satisfied, and can only attribute it to the fact which appears in his correspondence that, being " anxious to terminate a temporary commission" in which he had accomplished all which was of importance regarding the extinction of the Native Title to the Colony about to be founded, he did not devote the time necessary to thoroughly examine the complaints of the Natives on the subject of their reserves, and being limited in his expenditure to the sum of £150 which they would not accept; he left the matter in the state in which it now lies; but had the duty devolved upon him of specially investigating the question again, I have no doubt but that he would have taken the same view of the case as that which I have endeavoured to explain to you. The Natives have now offered to make considerable concessions, and to give up the whole of the disputed land on the South side of the harbour, except a portion of the part on which they now reside, about 400 acres in extent, which is covered by their cultivations, and contains the burial places of their dead. They have been born on that side of the harbour, have always lived there, and cannot be induced to remove to the North side, and if compelled to leave that place they will cross the mountains on the South side of the harbour to the " Little Eiver," a locality also much desired by the European settlers, which the Natives offer to abandon in the event of their obtaiaing the reserve they wish, so that in fact nothing will be gained by withholding it from them. In the event of this being granted to them, the proposed reserve on the North side at Onuku can be curtailed in extent, to meet the requirements of the small tribe, these numbering about 40, and lam not certain whether the pecuniary consideration which I am authorised to pay will be required at all, as they have not entered into a discussion with me on that subject, the matter at issue being the position and extent of reserves for their actual use and subsistence. It is not in my power to report, except in a general way, the terms which the Natives will agree to, as I have confined myself to investigation bearing on the facts of the case, and have not made them aware that I have taken a different view to that which they suppose is entertained, so that should the Government decide on other measures, I have been careful that it should not be compromised by any admission on my part which the Natives might afterwards misconstrue into a breach of faith on the part of a public servant.