The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-30 00:00:00

land rrotu the native tribes to which it has been assumed

,hat it belongs.

'1 his right, resting as it does, not only

upon what has been called the -Treaty of Waitangi,
but also upon the general and long-recognised prin.

ciples of notional law, is one so important, that it
ought almost at all hazards to be strictly enforced. To
suffer it to be set aside would be to acquiesce in the
ruin of the colony, since it would be fatal to the pro-
gressive and systematic settlement of the country. It is
by the sale of land at mere than a nominal price that its
appropriation to individuals in allotments proportioned to
their power of making use of it can alone be secured. It

is the mode by which, with least inconvenience and dif-

ficulty, finds can be raised for emigration, and for ex-

ecutiiig those public works which aie necessary for the
profitable occupation of the soil; in short, it is the very
foundation upon which systematic colonization must be
based. But if the native tribes are permitted to sell
large tracts of land to individuals for a mere nominal
consideration, it is obvious that so much land will be
thrown upon the market as entirely to defeat the at-
tempt to sell such lands as the Crown may still retain, at
a price sufficient to answer the objects of the policy I
have described. _

It has indeed been asserted that the natives of New
Zealand will never consent, unless compelled by force of
arms, to the adoption of a system by which land bought
from them at a nominal, or at all events at a low price,
by the servants of the Crown, is to be resold at a much
higher rate to actual settlers. I fear it may be more dif-
ficult than it would have been formerly to reconcile
them to this practice, nevertheless the attempt must be
made; and I still hope it may not be impossible to con-
vince them that the Crown receives the money so paid
for land only as trustees for the public, and that it is
applied for their benefit as forming part of the commu-
nity; that the price obtained for land which is sold to
settlers affords the means of constructing roads and
bridges, of building churches and schools, and of intro-
ducing an additional European population; thus really
conducing far more to their advantage than the paltry
supply of goods which, if they sold the land for them-
selves, they would obtain for it.
These remarks apply to lands held by the aboriginal
inhabitants as tribes, and by a title not resting upon
actual occupation and improvement; as individuals, they
should be as free as any of the other inhabitants of New
Zealand to acquire and to dispose of property in land.
The first and most important step which you will have
to take with the view of introducing a regular system
with respect to the disposal of land will be to ascertain
distinctly the ownership of all the land in the colony.
The extent and limits of all which is to be considered as
the property either of individuals, of bodies politic or
corporate, or of the native tribes, must, in the first in-
stance, be determined, and the whole of the remainder of
the territory will then be declared to be the royal desnesne.
The results of this inquiry must be carefully registered,
and a regular record henceforth preserved, showing to
whom all the lands of New Zealand belong. This
measure has been repeatedly and earnestly inculcated on
your predecessors, and I cannot too strongly repeat the
same injunction.

It ha; been with the single object of ensuring in the
management of the waste lands of New Zealand the
adoption of a system calculated, as the confidential
servants of her Majesty believe, to promote the true in-
terests of all her subjects, that the instructions which
accompany this dispatch have been framed. I do not
pause to recapitulate their details; but the princi-
ples of them are, that the power of the Crown
over these lands should never be employed for
any purpose of patronage, influence, or favouritism;
that the Crown shall not be at liberty to make a gra-
tuitous alienation of any extent of land, however small,
except with a view to public works, in which the whole
society may have a more or less immediate interest ;
that the alienation of such lands to any private persons,
or for any private purposes, shall always be preceded by
a careful survey of the laud, and followed by an imme-
diate registration of the grant ; that no such alienation
shall be made without a previous public auction ; that
at all such auctions all lands shall be offered for sale at
a certain upset price ; that the selection of the lands so
to be put up to auction shall be made exclusively by the
Government ; that the upset price of each lot shall de-
pendpallalocetmd,etnhtes,tthbreeelasctlacslasesss
being town, su u
believed to contain valuable ibna nw hai ne dh tu
ri as I
being again subdivided into lands which are, and into
lands which are not, i
on the clabssr
mine-
rals ; that lands once offered for sale by auction, without
finding a purchaser,
that the first application
may afterwards be purchased with-
out auction at the upset price ;
of the land revenue must be towards defraying the ex-
penses incident to the administration of the Crown land
department in all its branches ; and that the surplus or
net land revenue should be applied towards the intro-
duction of manual labourers from this country, unless
theoef general
then eral public
principles
when the exigencies of the public service may render the
application of it to other local purposes indispensable.
general New views regarding the settle-
ment
the kindred topic of the
by
state
which
of the aborigines there.
On h
our relations to them
should be governed, I have nothing to add to Lord John
Russell's instructions toCaptainHobson, of the 9th
December, 1841, No. 1 but I have to call your atten-
tion to the 10th clause of the 9th and 10th of Victoria,
sanctiontha t dispatch,
to the
that the
c. 103, in which Parliament has adopted and given their
principlese
laws
laidw
s and
dwn b,
customshi s
of Lordshiptbenative
in
New Zealanders, even though repugnant to our own laws,
ought, if not at variance with the general principles of
humanity, to be for the present
,maanindtadineedr for
apart
il
cl
ht such customs
relationsustom s
shouldgeanwith,enrals.bet
each
l willother
be
e;
yourand duty that ptoargtiicrueleaffrooditsttoricthtse
tsohould be so observed.
l their
s e
prin-
ciples which would separate. by well-defined
demarcation, those parts of New Zealand in whienhesthee
native customs are to be maintained, from those in which
they are to be superseded. For the sake of distinct-
ness, the one may. be called the aboriginal, and the
other the provincial districts. Tne last, or pro
vincial districts, will be entirely divided into
the various municipalities already m, ntioned.,
With an increasing British population, and with
the advance of the natives in the arts of civilised life, the
provincial districts will progressively extend into the
aboriginal, until at length the distinction shall have en-
tirely disappeared. In the meantime the provincial dis-
tricts, and they alone, will be the seats of courts and
mag,straci.s, and of other institutions requisite for the
ermnent of civilised men. The aboriginal di,tricts
will be governed by such methods as are in use among
the native New Zealanders. The chiefs or others, ac-