Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Early Wellington

Land Claims

Land Claims.

Mr. Spain, Commissioner of Land Claims, opened his Court on the 16th May, 1842. The investigation became at once a matter of length and intricacy. One question which promised to encumber the inquiry, was that of whether Wharepouri and the other chiefs who had agreed to sell the district of Port Nicholson, in 1839, had a right to do so. Numerous natives from Te Aro and Pipitea now claimed an equal ownership.

Wakefield writes:—

“The scene gave one more the idea of the progress of a long nurtured, vindictive family law-suit, than that of a fair investigation into the real merits of a treaty between a colonizing body and the aborigines. The public got weary listenting to the same dull questions and answers. During the first week the Court had been crowded with spectators, both native and European, but after that, scarcely anyone attended, except the people who were paid for their attendance.

“Dull rumours sometimes reached the public that Moihi (“Moses”), or Aperahama (“Abraham”) had been giving evidence for three days, and people wondered what their evidence could have to do with the affair.

“By the middle of July the public ceased to take any more interest in the progress of the claims, the Court was almost deserted and the affair was treated as a burlesque by the Counsel and spectators.”

On New Year's day, 1843, the concluding selection of preliminary country sections took place. These were of the Upper Hutt villages, near Porirua and Manawatu. The different maps were laid on a long table in the open air outside the survey office, and the crowd of bustling agents and tormented surveyors' assistants formed a gay scene