Objections to Native Territorial Rights Bill discussed.

It now becomes necessary to advert specially to certain objections which have been raised to the Bill under consideration. The first is that the power of issuing grants to Natives is vested in the Governor in Council, instead of in the Governor solely, thereby necessitating the concurrence of the Responsible Ministry of the day. This is alleged to be a departure from the terms of His Excellency's memorandum of the 15th April, 1856, establishing Responsible Government. By the memorandum of the 15th April, 1856, the Governor reserves to himself the right of acting upon his own responsibility, in opposition to the advice of Ministers, upon Imperial questions, including questions affecting the relations of Government with the Native tribes. Obviously the memorandum could only affect the existing powers and prerogatives of the Crown. It was not competent to the Governor to stipulate as to the conditions under which new and extraordinary powers should be conferred by the General Assembly upon the Executive, nor did His Excellency attempt to do so.

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Looking at the question as one of abstract constitutional principle, no Ministry could propose to intrust a power vitally affecting the relations of the settlers and Natives, and the pecuniary resources of the colony, to the discretion of a single individual, however elevated his position, who must commonly possess only a limited experience and a transitory interest in the affairs of the country. Even in a Crown colony acts of so high a nature are often required to be done with the advice of the Executive Council. It appears surprising that the General Assembly could by any person be expected to make over, without any guarantee for its exercise in accordance with public opinion, a power greater than was ever intrusted by the Imperial Government to the Governors of this colony; but a power which, it is not forgotten, was by one of those officers illegally assumed, and employed in a manner of which the evil effects have not, after a lapse of fourteen years, entirely passed away. Ministers feel assured that the Colonial Legislature could never be brought to sanction the concession of such an unlimited discretion, more especially considering the effect of its possible abuse upon the future produce of the territorial revenue, and the heavy liabilities of the colony to the Home Government and the public creditor. The power is virtually a power over the public purse, which, to a limited extent and under due guarantees, the General Assembly has shown itself willing to concede to the Executive for the good of the Natives, but which it is in vain to expect it will ever absolutely alienate.

The second objection taken to the Bill, which it seems requisite to notice, is that the imposition of of payment upon alienation to Europeans is an unjust exaction from the Native donee. To this it is answered that no Native is obliged to take a grant, or, having obtained one, to sell it to a European. By accepting the grant the Native's position is vastly improved, even though the power of alienation should be altogether withheld. But there is another sufficiently obvious fallacy in the objection. It is assumed that the acreage-tax reduces, pro tanto, the purchase-money. It is overlooked that the tax is applicable to the improvement of the land sold, and thereby increases its value in most cases to a greater amount. The sum payable into the Treasury is no part of the price of the land. It is the price of the improvements. But what really lies at the root of this objection is a doctrine so mischievous and unfounded that it requires special notice. It is asserted that the Native is really entitled to an absolute grant in fee-simple of whatever territory his tribe may think fit to make over to him in severalty, however extensive, and that to refuse such a grant—at least to impose any condition which does not operate for the sole and exclusive benefit of the Natives—is unfair. To make the Crown's right of pre-emption productive of a Land Fund—either in the way in which it is now made productive, viz., by means of sales of land ceded to the Crown at a low rate and disposed of at an increased price, or by the proposed tax on alienation—is regarded as essentially unjust to the Natives, who, it is thought, ought fairly to receive the whole purchase-money. In accordance with this view, the difference between the price paid to the Natives and the selling price of land has sometimes been represented to be a contribution by the Natives to the revenue of the colony, entitling them (if justice were done) to the expenditure, for purely Native purposes, of a largely-increased proportion of the colonial funds. And, as to the present system of purchases, it is regarded as nothing less than a systematic fraud practised by a civilized Power upon its ignorant subjects. This doctrine, it will be seen, reduces the Crown from the possession of a substantial power over the whole territory of New Zealand—which power it is bound to employ for the benefit of all its subjects—to the condition of a bare trustee for the Maoris. But the Crown's right of pre-emption (which no officer of the Crown, at least, will venture to question) was reserved avowedly for colonizing objects—i.e., to enable the Government to promote and systematize the settlement of the country. The exercise of the power for these objects, even if inconsistent with the pecuniary interest of the Natives, could not be reasonably objected to on their behalf. The Natives have always fully understood and acknowledged the right of the Crown to impose such terms as it pleases upon its own European subjects who seek to settle the country. But it has already been demonstrated that it is altogether a mistake to suppose that any pecuniary interest of the Natives is interfered with by the employment of the Crown's right for the purpose of raising a revenue in the way proposed. The enhanced price received by the Government is really the price, not of the land, but of the improvements which the Government undertake to execute out of what are improperly called its profits. This is strictly true as to the country as a whole, though it may not be so of every hundred acres of land sold. The enhanced value of the land is due to the immigration and public works which the Colonial Land Fund has been the means of carrying on.

The notions above combated arise from a narrow view of Native interests which those who devote an exclusive attention to Maori questions appear, unfortunately, somewhat apt to contract. The affairs of New Zealand can only be successfully administered on the basis of a hearty belief in the real identity of the interests of the two races. In a large view it is quite as important to the Native as to the European that the resources of the colony should not be crippled by the destruction of its Land Fund. And, if the possibility of diverting the territorial revenue of the Northern Island into the pockets of the Natives were a reality, instead of a glaring economical fallacy, it is certain that such an accession of wealth to men only partially emerged from complete barbarism would speedily prove their ruin. The real effect of acting upon such doctrines would be to hand over large tracts of country to a class of land-jobbers, destitute of the means of rendering their purchases available. The traffic in the lands would fall into the hands of a set of middle-men, whose transactions and connections with the Natives—not always of a lawful or reputable character—gave them special influence. Intending immigrants, learning that land was no longer attainable except through private hands, and that the country lay unimproved, would be deterred, and the hope of a regular colonization would be not merely deferred, but destroyed. In short, it will appear that the proposition of the objectors to the Bill to confer on the Governor an unlimited power of granting lands to the Natives, which shall be alienable to Europeans without any payment into the Colonial Treasury, is simply asking the Colonial Legislature to authorize and invite a renewal of Governor Fitzroy's proceedings on the issue of the well-known "penny-an-acre Proclamation" of 1844, and thereby to endanger at once the peace and public credit of the colony, and the prosperity of all Her Majesty's subjects within its limits.

To avoid a tedious detail of minor objections to the Bill, Ministers transmit herewith copies ofpage 10 memoranda by two of the permanent officers of the Native Department who disapprove of the measure, and suggest one of the character which has already been indicated. The few comments which Ministers feel it necessary to make on these memoranda appear in the margin of the copies. Ministers would regret that Her Majesty should be advised to withhold assent to this Bill, chiefly because that course would deprive the Executive of the colony of a useful engine for the civilization of the Natives; but they conceive that the absence for a time of any legislation on the subject, though prejudicial, would be infinitely preferable to the highly dangerous and unconstitutional measure which it has been proposed to substitute for the Ministerial Bill.