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

No. 9. — The Hon. the Colonial Secretary to the Chief Protector

No. 9.
The Hon. the Colonial Secretary to the Chief Protector.

Respecting the Reserves of the New Zealand Company. Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland, 26th July, 1842.

Sir,—

In the formation of the settlements at Port Nicholson, Nelson, and New Plymouth, the New Zealand Company reserved one-eleventh of their town, suburban, and country allotments, for the benefit of the Natives, chiefly with a view to their preservation, civilization, and social advancement. Her Majesty's Government has also directed that, as often as any sale shall be effected in the colony of lands acquired by purchase from the aborigines, there must be carried to the credit of the department of the Protector of Aborigines a sum amounting to not less than 15 nor more than 20 per cent on the purchase-money, to constitute a fund for defraying the expenses of that department, and any other charges that may be recommended by the Protector and approved by the Executive Government for promoting the health, civilization, education, and spiritual care of the aborigines.

With a view to the most efficient administration of this property for the benefit of the Native race, it appears desirable that all the reserves so made, or to be made, by the New Zealand Company, and any moneys which may prove from time to time to be disposable out of funds so to be set apart, after defraying the expenses of your establishment, should be vested in one set of trustees possessing the confidence of Government and the New Zealand Company. I am therefore commanded by the Governor to acquaint you that His Excellency proposes, when the reserves made by the Company shall have become legally vested in the Crown, to submit to the Legislative Council a Bill for vesting them, and the surplus fund from time to time to arise from land sales, in three trustees—namely, the Bishop, Chief Justice, and Chief Protector of Aborigines for the time being—to be applied by them in the establishment of schools for the education of Youth among the aborigines, and in furtherance of page 4such other measures as may be most conducive to the spiritual care of the Native race, and to their advancement in the scale of social and political existence.

It is intended to provide that the funds arising from the Company's reserves shall be expended in the promotion of these objects in the settlements and districts from which they may respectively arise. Such an application of these funds under a board of management so constituted will, His Excellency has reason to believe, meet with general approval.

Until these objects can be carried into effect under the authority of a legislative enactment, the Governor requests that you will avail yourself of the opportunity afforded by your periodical visits to the Company's settlements to direct from time to time the disposal of any funds that may have arisen from the reserves, and to collect any information respecting them that may be desirable with reference to the proposed enactments. The gentlemen who have hitherto had the management of the reserves at Port Nicholson will be directed to give up the trust into your hands; and they will, His Excellency feels assured, give you all the assistance and information in their power, with a view to its efficient execution.

I have, &c.,

Willoughby Shortland.

George Clarke, Esq., Chief Protector.