33

1.-8

But I am bound to add—though possibly you will think that I am going beyond iny duty—that it would be becoming the dignity and honour of the Crown not to inquire too minutely into the abstract rights of these persons, but to deal with them in a parental and liberal spirit. That they have not taken this ground themselves, I submit, should not be used to their disadvantage. They represent the small remnant of a nation, our predecessors in the country ; and if any error is made on our part in our relations with them I think it should be on the side of liberality. Nothing would be so dishonouring to our name as the fact that these people were living in want. As you will see by the extract from my notes which I annex, I felt myself bound by Mr. Mackay's estimate of fourteen acres, for that question rested entirely with the Government. But then I acted as a Judge. I should gladly have heard a much larger quantity stated, and I should certainly have sanctioned it. Ido not think that I can, without presumption, make a more specific statement than this. I annex (1) a copy of one of the orders of Court; (2) extracts from my minutes, containing principally Mr. Mantell's evidence; and (3) Mr. Kemp's remarks on the allegations of the petition affecting him. F. D. Fenton. P.S. —It should be added that the orders of Court have not in all cases been carried out, but the Natives have not apparently complained of this.—F.D.F. "Native Lands Act, 1865," and "Native Lands Act, 1867." Province of Canterbury. At a sitting of the Native Land Court of New Zealand held at Christchurch, in the Province of Canterbury, on the seventh day of May, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, before Francis Dart Fenton, Esquire, Chief Judge of the said Court, and Henare Pukuatua, Assessor. Upon reading a certain Order of Eeference made by the Governor to the Court under the authority of "The Native Lands Act, 1867," and "The Native Lands Act, 1865," in the following words—that is to say, " Whereas, by ' The Native Lands Act, 1867,' it is, among other things, provided that all lands referred to in section 83 of ' The Native Lands Act, 1865,' shall, unless the Governor shall otherwise direct from time to time in respect to any such land, be excluded from the operation of the said ' Native Lands Act, 1865,' and of the first-mentioned Act, until the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, provided that every such agreement between the owners of any such land or other person interested therein on the one part and officers duly • authorised to enter into the same on behalf of Her Majesty on the other part, may be referred by the Governor to the Court, and the Court shall thereupon investigate the title to and the interest in such land in the manner prescribed in the aforementioned Acts, and shall make such orders as it is by the said 83rd section of ' The Native Lands Act, 1865,' empowered to make : And whereas in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight a certain agreement was made between certain persons owning land in the Middle Island of the one part and duly-authorised officers of the Government on the other part, purporting to extinguish the Native title to land comprised in the plan hereto annexed, save over such lands as were thereby stipulated should remain the property of such Native settlers : And whereas such reserved lands have never hitherto been effectually defined, and there are doubts whether the said agreement has been absolutely effectuated in law by written instruments : And whereas it is expedient to determine all such questions and finally to conclude the agreement for the purchase of the lands comprised in the said plan : Now, therefore, the said agreement is hereby referred, in accordance with the above-mentioned Acts, to the Native Land Court. By command—John Hall, a member of the Executive Council of the Colony of New Zealand. Christchurch, 28th April, 1868." And upon hearing the parties, and upon evidence taken, it is ordered that the agreement referred to the Court as aforesaid shall be forthwith completed according to the terms thereof as appearing in a certain deed-poll bearing date the twelfth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, under the hands of the chiefs of the Ngaitahu Tribe of aboriginal natives, and a plan thereto annexed, and that the reservation and stipulation in the said deed-poll contained in the words following—that is to say, " Ko o matou Kainga Nohoanga ko o matou mahinga kai me waiho marie mo matou mo a matou tamariki mo muri iho i a matou ; a ma te Kawana e whakarite mai hoki tetehi wahi mo matou a mua ake nei a te wahi e ata ruritia ai te whenua a nga Kai Ruri"—shall be forthwith observed, performed, and satisfied in the manner following : by granting to Horomona Pohio, Tamati Tarawhata, Wiremu Takitahi, and Maiharoa, of Arowhenua, aboriginal natives, of the Ngaitahu Tribe, the pieces or parcels of land, rights, and easements described in the schedule hereto. And the several persons above named shall hold the said lands and hereditaments in trust for the several persons whose names are written in the minute-book of this Court as owners of the Native reserve known as the Arowhenua Reserve, their heirs and successors appointed under " The Native Lands Act, 1865," and subject to the same restrictions as to alienating as the said reserve of Arowhenua aforesaid is subject, provided that the sections and easements being the several parcels of land distinguished in the schedule hereto by being marked Class 2, may be sold and conveyed to Her Majesty, her heirs and successors. And it is further ordered that the several Crown grants of the weirs and easements shall contain a provision saving the rights of the owners of land to the undisturbed flow of water in the several streams running through the said parcels of land. And it is further ordered that on performance by the Crown of the before-mentioned orders, all claims and demands of the aboriginal natives before named or referred to, including therein all persons whose names are written as aforesaid in the minute-book of the Court under or by virtue of the said deed-poll, against Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, shall be absolutely and the same are hereby released, discharged, and extinguished ; and this Court doth order and decree the same accordingly. Witness the hand of Francis Dart Fenton, Esquire, Chief Judge, and the seal of this Court, this eighth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight. (1.5.) Fras. D. Fenton, Chief Judge. s—l. 8.