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An Epitome of Official Documents Relative to Native Affairs and Land Purchases in the North Island of New Zealand

No. 12. — His Honour the Superintendent, Taranaki, to Mr. Commissioner McLean

No. 12.
His Honour the Superintendent, Taranaki, to Mr. Commissioner McLean.

New Plymouth.Further Acquisition of Land, expedient.

Sir,—

Superintendent's Office, New Plymouth, 7th February, 1854.

On your arrival in this province allow me to call your attention to the important nature of the questions now pending with the Natives, and on which depend the further acquisition of land for the European inhabitants of the province.

Many of these questions, if not the whole of them, Mr.—informs me, he is precluded from settling without your concurrence; some have been open for a considerable time, some are recent, and others are arising from the fact of your presence here. The confidence the Natives feel in one they know and respect so well as yourself, gives them every hope that you will effect satisfactory arrangements which will dismiss the agitation of the land question from their minds. The interest of the page 133European population in the land question is equal to that of the Natives on the subject; and, as the views of the two races are concurrent, the present course of events, if assisted by yourself, will but further tend to increase the amity and unity of the two races, which, in this province, have never received any serious check. Besides the good effects which would accrue to the two races by the prolongation of your stay, I would suggest for your consideration that some of the best and oldest settlers have left and are leaving this province, from the limited quantity of land. At present the province practically extends only to the land acquired by the Crown from the aborigines, of about fifty square miles: your prolonged stay would render almost certain its extension to double that area by the happy termination of existing negotiations.

In conclusion, I am led to hope that the representations I make, and the assurances which the feeling of the Provincial Council and inhabitants of the province enable me to give you of every support and means which the officers or treasury of the province can place at your disposal, will have their weight on your consideration, and that your stay will be prolonged till, at any rate, some of the more important questions affecting land are settled.

I have, &c.,

Charles Brown,
Superintendent.

D. McLean, Esq., Chief Commissioner.