G.—lc

3

Eemarking on the evil effects of the system inaugurated by the Act of 1873, the Commission goes on to say, — " The tendency in the Act to individualise Native tenure was too strong to admit of any prudential check. The desire to purchase Native estates overruled all other considerations. The alienation-of Native land under this law took its very worst form and its most disastrous tendency. It was obtained from a helpless people. The crowds of owners in a memorial of ownership were like a flock of sheep without a shepherd, a watch-dog, or a leader. Mostly ignorant barbarians, they became suddenly possessed of a title to land which was a marketable commodity. The right to occupy and cultivate possessed by their fathers became in their hands an estate which could be sold. The strength which lies in union was taken from them. The authority of their natural leaders was destroyed. They were surrounded by temptations. Eager for money wherewith to buy food, clothes, and rum, they welcomed the paid agents, who plied them always with cash, and often with spirit?. Such alienations were generally against the public interest, so far as regards settlement of the people upon the lands. In most of the leases and purchases effected the land was obtained in large areas by capitalists. The possession of wealth, or that credit which obtained it from financial institutions, was absolutely necessary to provide for Native agents, interpreters, and lawyers, as well as to distribute money broadcast among the Native proprietary. Not only was this contrary to public policy, it was very often done in defiance of the law. " Of all the purchase-money paid for the millions of acres sold by the Maoris not one sixpence is left. Their remaining lands are rapidly passing away. A few more years of the Native Land Court under the present system, and a few amended laws for free trade in Native lands, and the Maoris will be a landless people. " But it was not only in the alienation of their lands that the Maoris suffered. In its occupation also they found themselves in a galling and anomalous position. As every single person in a list of owners comprising perhaps over a hundred names had as much right to occupy as any one else, personal occupation for improvement or tillage was encompassed with uncertainty. If a man sowed a crop, others might allege an equal right to the produce. If a few fenced in a paddock or small run for sheep or cattle, their co-owners were sure to turn their stock or horses into the pasture. The apprehension of results which paralyses industry cast its shadow over the whole Maori people. In the old days the influence of the chiefs and the common customs of the tribe afforded a sufficient guarantee to the thrifty and provident; but when our law enforced upon them a new state of things, then the lazy, the careless, and prodigal not only wasted their own substance, but fed upon the labours of their more industrious kinsmen. " The pernicious consequences of Native-land legislation have not been confined to the Natives, nor to the Europeans more immediately concerned in dealing with them for land. The disputes then arising have compelled the attention of the public at large, they have filled the Courts of the colony with litigation, they have flooded Parliament with petitions, given rise to continual debates of very great bitterness, engrossed the time of Committees, and, while entailing very heavy annual expenses upon the colony, have invariably produced an uneasy public feeling." So far the policy followed by Parliament was to permit direct negotiation for the sale, lease, or mortgage of Native lands, subject to ascertainment of title and complying with certain formalities. The Crown had waived the right of pre-emption. This was the heyday of the free-trade policy. In 1884 we have the first signs of another change. The Crown resumed its pre-emptive right in the King-country by " The Native Land Alienation Restriction Act, 1884," and absolutely prohibited on penalty of fine and imprisonment the sale or lease of any portion of that territory to private individuals. In 1886 the Native Land Administration Act was passed. It was an effort to stay the individual dealings with Native lands. The Act was inoperative owing to two reasons, the first of these being that the control of their lands was taken away from the Maoris and placed in the hands of persons not in any way responsible to them; the second, that the Act was made optional, not impera-