FURTHER PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE WAITARA.

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been hunted with evil. Oh, mother ! do not listen to fabrications, which are probably being written to you, to the effect that the Maoris are fighting against your sovereignty ; it is a fabrication. Understand that this is really a quarrel about land." " They were loving subjects of yours. Their object was not to trample upon the law ; but rather to retain possession of the land which was handed down to them by their ancestors and father. They did not wish to sell that land. This unwarrantable proceeding has occasioned grief and confusion to all of us, because we know that this system is not vours—this taking awav, without cause, of the land of other people, and of the orphan and widow." " The Queen's sovereignty has been acknowledged long ago. Had it been a fight for supremacy, every man in this island would have been up in arms. But in the present case the fighting is confined to the land which is being taken possession of." They also universally contended, not only that they had committed no crime against the Queen but that some of them had previously rendered Her Majesty valuable services, which they had done. In regard to the statement made in the Secretary of State's Despatch, " that, far from William King's followers being evicted, as it were, for the purpose of taking possession of the purchased land, they themselves in the consciousness of hostility abandoned their j)as." It should be borne in mind that the troops did not take possession of the land until the 5th of March, and on the 22nd February the Government had issued a notice to the Natives warning them that from that date the law of fighting was about to commence in the district of Taranaki : the Europeans were on the same day informed that active military operations were about to be undertaken against the Natives. This notice, followed by the march of armed troojss, ordered to maintain occupation on behalf of the Crown of a block of laud purchased by the Crown from Te Teira, would probably not make the Natives think that in abandoning their villages they did so in the consciousness of hostility. Their own statement is that they were forcibly driven from it. In the Secretary of State's Despatch, No. 88, of the 25th of August, the following paragraph occurs :— " I hold therefore that no injustice —and it is with justice only that I am dealing—was either intended or done to William King and his followers by the employment of military force to carry into effect the survey of the Waitara land, for the purpose of ascertaining how much or how little of it was owned by Teira and the others who joined with him in the sale to the Crown." It is presumed that no one will for a moment contend that the Governor intended to do an injustice to the Natives, but this much should be said in their defence. A reference to Governor Browne's Despatch, No. 27, of the 22nd March, will clearly show that the military force was sent to the Waitara, not for the purpose of carrying into effect the survey of the Waitara land, for the object of ascertaining how much and how little of it was owned by Teira and others who joined with him in the sale of it. The enclosure to that Despatch distinctly explains as follows :— "Previously to the march of the troops, a manifesto had been published in the Maori language, and widely circulated by special agents amongst all the tribes in the Northern Island." That manifesto declared as follows :— " The Governor accepted Te Teira's offer conditionally, on its being shown that he had an undisputed title." Te Teira's title has been " carefully investigated and found to be good. It is Hot disputed by anyone. The Governor therefore cannot allow William King to interfere with Te Teira in the sale of his own land." "Payment for the land has been received by Te Teira. It now belongs to the Queen." "William King has interfered to prevent the survey of the Queen's land by her own surveyors. This interference will not be permitted." What the natives are here told appears to be that William King has interfered to prevent the survey of the Queen's land, which had been acquired by purchase from Te Teira, whose title to it had been investigated and found to be good, and was not disputed by any one, not that he interfered to prevent a survey to ascertain the ownership of the laud in dispute. Again, the Secretary of State's despatch, No. 88, of the 25th August, 1863, states :— "In February, 1859, before the Waitara question arose, he, William King, had given notice to the Governor that he would allow no land to be sold within a district extending forty miles North of the European boundary at Taranaki, an interdict of a rebellious character to which the reasons now, or formerly alleged against the Waitara sale, can of course have no application." By the treaty of Waitangi, the chiefs and tribes of New Zealand, and the respective families and individuals thereof, were guaranteed the full, exclusive, and undisturbed possession of their lands and estates, forests, fisheries, and other properties, which they may collectively or individually possess, so long as it is their wish and desire to retain the same in their possession. At the date of William King's letter, which is regarded as an interdict of a rebellious character the natives of Taranaki and its neighbourhood were, and had been for some years, engaged in a series of blood feuds, in which the Government had frequently been earnestly solicited by the natives to interfere, to prevent the loss of life which was going on, but the Government declined to do so. And these feuds had all originated in disputes regarding portions of land which the Government wished to purchase from various native claimants. It was under these circumstances that an assemblage of land-