a.—i

14

In reply to a question from Mr. E. Buller as to what security there was that the Natives would have the benefit of it, Mr. Wakefield said, — " There is no security at present, because the Government has hitherto refused to let law be established in New Zealand, so that it is impossible to execute a trust. The Company are very desirous of placing this land in trust for the benefit of the Natives. If it placed the property at once at their disposal, they would sell it for a trifle. It became, therefore, necessary to create a permanent trust. That the Company will do as soon as they possibly can, and in the meantime they have appointed a Commissioner, whom they have sent out for the purpose of preserving, letting, and taking care of these lands." The witness, being asked to define the form of land order issued by the Company to purchasers, stated — " It was an order by the Company upon its Surveyor-General to award to the holders of that land order so many acres of land, signed by three directors and the secretary. The priority of choice was determined by lot, and the Natives' sections were drawn for like others ; and, as they were not present, an officer of the Company drew for them. The first number drawn for the Natives was No. 7, consequently the officer of the Company in the colony would have the seventh choice as respects both the town and country lands for the Natives." Mr. Ward, the Secretary of the Company, in reply to a question from the Committee, said, — " It was not proposed that the Natives should take possession of the tenth reserved for them on the land being surveyed, but that trustees would be appointed to hold it for the inalienable use of the Natives, the proceeds to be applied for the benefit of those Natives who had surrendered the lands. The Company had already appointed a gentleman to go out and take upon himself the management and. control of those lands ; to secure the land, and to do what may be necessary for clearing and looking after it, and managing it for the benefit of the Natives."(') The gentleman appointed to the office of Commissioner for the management of the lands reserved in the New Zealand Company's settlement was Mr. Edmund Storr Halswell, a member of the English Bar, and a Magistrate of Middlesex. He was described as " a gentleman of great benevolence, who had taken an active interest in the systematic colonization of New Zealand from the first starting of the plan in 1837."( 2 ) Mr. Halswell sailed, by the " Lady Nugent." The Company in its instructions dated the 13th October, 1840, drew his attention to the objects which it had in view in making the reserves : — " It is the aim of the New Zealand Company to civilize the Native race by means of a deliberate plan, which, though confessedly experimental, is believed to be the only systematic attempt ever made to improve a savage people through the medium of colonization. It is a lamentable fact that in every instance of European colonization which history has recorded, whether in America or in the East, or more recently in Australia, the aboriginal inhabitants of the newly settled countries have been degraded, oppressed, and finally exterminated by coming into contact with a more advanced, more energetic, and more powerful people. Some professions of a desire to instruct and humanize barbarous races have indeed been made, but such professions do not appear to have led to any real improvement, and have too often been used as pretexts for cruelty and oppression. Looking at the past, the aboriginal races throughout the British colonies would seem in a state of hopeless decay and to be gradually disappearing before the presence of European settlers. " The wilderness lands purchased by the Company from the Natives were valueless to them, and acquired value entirely from the capital expended in emigration and settlement. But the Natives could neither foresee nor prevent the dangers to which colonization exposed them, of finding themselves denuded of all landed property, and therefore deprived of territorial consideration in the midst of a new society, in which the land had for the first time become a valuable possession. To rescue the Natives from this impending danger was one of the first and leading purposes of the Company. From the very commencement of its proceedings the Company determined to reserve out of every purchase of land from the Natives a proportion of the territory ceded, equal to a tenth of the whole, and to hold the same in trust for the future benefit of the chief families of the ceding tribes. " Such being the objects of the Company, the directors do not find it in their power to do more than to preserve the property by appointing a special officer to overlook it, as if it were the private property of the Company, but who will, of course, have no power whatever to alienate the same or any part of it. " In managing the reserves you are to take into consideration the existing wants of the Native race, and to point out those objects to which in your judgment the revenues of the reserves may be most fitly appropriated to the end of promoting the moral and physical well-being of the Native chiefs, their families and followers, to the utmost extent that these means will admit, and as the appropriation of land to purchasers proceeds it will become your specific duty to select an eleventh, or a quantity equal to one-tenth of the land appropriated from time to time to purchasers, as Native reserves. The directors desire to impress on you the importance of taking care, on such occasions, that the lands you may choose for the Natives are the most valuable then open to appropriation."( 3 )

(*) House of Commons Report on New Zealand, 1840. ( 3 ) App. IV, 3rd Rep. ( 2 ) Colonial Gazette, October, 1840.