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

Native Districts

Native Districts.

  • 10. In the first place I assume it as settled that, for this purpose, the country is to be divided into districts, in each of which districts a Civil Commissioner is to be placed. It appears essential that the district should be no larger than such as can be effectually supervised by one man, subject only to such amount of control from the seat of Government as may be absolutely necessary, and even that control exercised as far as possible through the Commissioner himself.

    The district of the Civil Commissioner should not be merely a geographical division of the country, but rather its extent and boundaries should be determined by considerations of relationship and intercommunication subsisting between the Native inhabitants. It should comprise tribes or divisions which have a common sentiment and generally act together, already feeling themselves to be naturally one, and which are thereby in a certain degree prepared for union of administration under our system.

    In the following remarks it will be desirable to sketch a district fully organized, with all such subordinate officers as may be needed in any case; but I do not mean that we ought at once in every district to seek to set up such complete organization. On the contrary, I should prefer to set it up nowhere, except on the requisition, or at least with the assent, of the population. In a large part of the country our objects might for some time to come be best advanced by the appointment of a single officer, who should be rather a resident than a Magistrate, ready to advise and guide whenever there should be an opening, but claiming no coercive jurisdiction whatever. Such an officer would be the page 7root out of which the full system might grow in due time. I return now to a sketch of the system, as it should be completed and established, whenever the course of time and circumstances may allow. A completely organized district would have for its officers a Civil Commissioner, Resident Magistrates, and Native Magistrates. Out of the number of the Resident Magistrates the more experienced and able would be selected to fill vacant Commissionerships. The several places and functions of these officers should be so clearly defined as to prevent clashing. A multiplication of officers either coordinate with one another, or in an ill-defined subordination, is sure to be a source of weakness and inefficiency. Starting, then, from these principles, we shall consider first the relations of the several parts of the proposed system, and next the rules by which the several parts are to be ordered, with a view throughout to the utmost simplicity in the organization of the district, and to its completeness, as far as possible, within itself.