The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-29 00:00:00

SIT NY DECEMBER 29, 1846. Paicic SD.

our fathers went to America and took possession of the
mere hunting-grounds of the Indians—of lands on which
man had hitherto bestowed no labour—they only exer-
cised a right which God has inseparably united with in-
lustry and knowledge."
The justness of this reasoning must, I think, be gene-
rally admitted, and if so it can hardly be denied that it
is applicable to the case of New Zealand, and is fatal to
the right which has been claimed for the aboriginal in
habitants of those islands to the exclusive possession of
the vast extent of fertile but unoccupied lands which
'hey contain. It is true the New Zealanders, when
European settlement commenced among them, were not
a people of hunters; they lived in great measure, at
least, upon the produce of the soil (chiefly perhaps its
spontaneous produce), and practised to a certain extent
a rude sort of agriculture. But the extent of land so
occupied by them was absolutely insignificant when
~mpared with that of the country they inhabited; the
most trustworthy accounts agree in representing the
cultivated grounds as forming far less than one-hun-
lredth part of the available land, and in stating that mil-
lions of acres were to be found where the naturally fer-
tile soil was covered by primeval forests or wastes of
fern, in the midst of which a few patches planted with
potatoes were the only signs of human habitation and
industry. The islands of New Zealand are not much less
extensive than the British Isles, and capable probably of
supporting as large a population, while that which they
actually supported has been variously estimated, but
believe never so high as 200,000 souls. To contend
that under such circumstances civilised men had
not a right to step in and to take possession of the
vacant territory, but were bound to respect the supposed
proprietary title of the savage tribes who dwelt in, but
were utterly unable to occupy the land, is to mistake
the grounds upon which the right of property in land is
founded. To that portion of the soil, whatever it might
be, which they really occupied, the aboriginal inhabit-
ants, barbarous as they were, had a clear and undoubted
claim ; to have attempted to deprive them of their
patches of potato ground, even so to have occupied the
territory as not to leave them ample space for shifting,
as was their habit, their cultivation from one spot to an-
other, would have been in the highest degree unjust ;
but so long as this injustice was avoided, I must regard
it a vain and unfounded scruple which would have ac-
knowledged their right of property in land which re-
mained unsubdued to the uses of man. But, if the savage
inhabitants of New Zealand had themselves no right of
property in land which they did not occupy, it is obvious
that they could not convey to others what they did not
themselves possess, and:that claims to vast tracts of waste
land, founded on pretended sales from them, are altoge-
ther untenable. From the moment that British domi-
nion was proclaimed in New Zealand, all lands not
actually occupied in the sense in which alone occupation
can give a right of possession, ought to have been con-
sidered as the property of the crown, in its capacity of
trustee for the whole community, and it should
thenceforward have been regarded as the right and
at the same time the duty of those duly authorised
by the Crown, to determine in what manner, and
according to what rules, the land, hitherto waste
should be assigned and appropriated to particular indi-
viduals. _There is another consideration which leads to
the same conclusion. It has never been pretended that
the wide extent of unoccupied land, to which an exclu
sive right of property has been asserted on behalf of the
native inhabitants of New Zealand, belonged to them as
individuals; it was only as tribes that they were sup-
posed to possess it; and, granting their title as such to
have been good and valid, it was obviously a right which
the tribes enjoyed as independent communities—an at-
tribute of sovereignty, which, with the sovereignty, na-
turally and necessarily was transferred to the British
Crown. Had the New Zealanders been a civilised

leople, this would have been the case—if these islands,

. .
being inhabited by a civilised people, had been added
either by conquest or voluntary cession to the dominions
of the Queen, it is clear that, according to the well-
known principles of public law, while the property of
individuals would have been respected, all public pro-
perty, all rights of every description which had apper-
tained to the previous sovereigns, would have devolved,
as a matter of course, to the new sovereign who suc-
ceeded them. It can hardly be contended that these
tribes, as such, possessed rights which civilised commu-
nities could not have claimed.

Such are the principles upon which, if the colonization
of New Zealand were only now about to begin, it would
be my duty to instruct you to act; and though I am well
aware that in point of fact you are not in a position to
do so, and that from past transactions a state of things
has arisen i❑ which a strict application of these princi-
ples is impracticable, I have thought it right that they
should be thus explicitly stated in this dispatch (as they
are in the royal instructions to which it refers), in order
that you may clearly understand that although in many
respects you may be compelled to depart from them, still
you are to look to them as the foundation of the policy
which, so far as it is in your power, you are to pursue.
The imperfect information which alone at this dis-
tance I can hope to obtain as to the actual state of
Affairs in New Zealand renders it impossible for me to
venture to prescribe to you, how far you are to go in
attempting practically to act upon the principles I have
laid down. I should infer from your own dispatches, as
well as from those of your predecessors, that the rights
of the Crown could not now be asserted to large tracts
of waste land which particular tribes have been taught
to regard as their own. It appears that you have found
it expedient to admit these pretensions to a considerable
extent; and having done so, no apparent advantage could
be suffered to weigh against the evil of acting in a man-
ner either really or even apparently inconsistent with
good faith. While, however, you scrupulously fulfil
whatever engagements you have contracted, and main-
tain those rights on the part of the native tribes to land
which you have already recognised, you will avoid as
much as possible any further surrender of the property
of the Crown. I trust also that the evil which would
otherwise arise from the concessions already made may,
to a great degree, be neutralised by your strictly main-
taining the exclusive right of the Crown to purchase
land from the native tribes to which it has been assumed
that it belongs. 'I 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 national 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, funds can be raised for emigration, and for ex-
ecuting those public works which are 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 hops 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
corp, orate 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 demesne.
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 has 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 land, 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-
pend on the class in which it is placed, the three classes
being town, suburban, and rural allotments, the last class
being again subdivided into lands which are, and into
lends which are not, believed to contain valuable mine
ails ; that lands once offered for sale by auction, without
finding a purchaser, may afterwards be purchased with•
out auction at the upset price ; that the first application

' 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
when the exigencies of the public service may render the
application fit to other local purposes indispensable.
Such being my general views regarding the settle-
ment of the public lands in New Zealand, I return to
the kindred topic of the str.te of the aborigines there.
On the general principles by which our rein (kris to them
should be governed, I have nothing to add to Lord John
Russell's instructions to Captain Hobson, of the 9th
December, 1811, No. 1 ; but I have to call your atten-
tion to the 10th clause of the 9th and 10th of Victoria,
c. 103, in which Parliament has adopted and given their
sancio3 to the principles laid down by his Lordship in
that dispatch, that the laws and customs of the native
New Zyalandcrs, even though repugnant to our own laws,
ought, if not at variance with the general principles of
huirrnity, to be for the present maintained for their
government in all their relations to, and dezlin,e-s with,
each other ; and that particular districts should be set
apart within which such customs should be so observed.
It will be your duty to give effect to the general prin-
ciples which would separate, by well-defined lines of
demarcation, those parts of New Zealand in which the
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. The last, or pro•
vincial districts, will be entirely divided into
the various municipalities already mentioned.
With an increasing British population, and with
the advance of tht natives in the arts of civilised life, the
provincial districfs 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
magistracies, and of other institutions requisite for -the
government of civilised-men. The aboriginal districts
will be governed by such methods as are in use among
the native New Zealanders.. The chiefs or others, ac-
cording to their usages; Id be allowed to interpret
and to administer t4ei4tAcWselaws. Even beyond those
precincts the same I*k-3.M-should be followed in all
cases, whether civil' dr, ditipinal, in which the natives
alone hare any direct and: immediate interest. Difficul-
ties will of course arise in the execution of such rules,
but not, I think, any which may not be easily sur,
mounted ; for the administration of different laws to
different races of men inhabiting the same country under
one common sovereign, is a practice which has pre-
vailed so extensively, that scarcely any civilised nation
can be mentioned in which some examples of it have
not occurred. With the increase of Christian know-
ledge, of civilisation, of the use of the English tongue,
and of mutual confidence between the two races, these dis-
tinctions of law and of legal customs will, I trust, become
unnecessary and obsolete. In the meantime we must
await that consummation with every reasonable indul-
gence for the innocent habits and for the venial preju-
dices of the aboriginal race with which we have thus
been brought into contact.

I pass over in this dispatch, as in the accompanying
instruments her Majesty has passed over, in silence,
many topics of the greatest importance to the future
good government of New Zealand. Such are the ad-
ministration of justice, the management of the revenue,
the education of youth, and the provision to be made
for public Christian worship. On these and similar
questions I think it better to *await, than to anticipate
the deliberations of the legislative bodies about to be
convened in New Zealand. They will properly form the
subject of a separate and future correspondence.
The Act of Parliament which I now transmit to you,
and the instruments which have been issued in pursuance
of it, are framed in the spirit of an unreserved confi-
dence, both in the capacity and in the willingness of the
British settlers in New Zealand to regulate their own
internal affairs in such a manner as may best conduce
to the welfare of the colony and of the empire of which
it forms a part. To men to whom so high a trust
has been committed, it is fitting that the Minister of the
Crown charged with the communication to them of her
Majesty's gracious intentions should address himself
in the language of frankness and of candour. I there-
fore do not scruple to observe, that the experience of
our widely-extended empire has ascertained that the
otherwise inestimable advantages of colonial self-
government are attended with at least one serious dAn •

_ .
ger. It is the danger that the powers conferred•by
this great franchise on the representatives of the people
may be perverted into an instrument for the-oppress on
of the less civilised and less powerful race 3 of men
inhabiting the same colony. This abuse has arisen in
our colonies, not became the wealthier and better Hu-

cated classes of society there are in any respect in-
ferior in character to the corresponding classes of
society elsewhere, but because they are exposed to a
temptation from which the greater number of imperial
and independent legislatures are ex. mpt. They live in
a vicinity to which nothing parallel exists in the an-
cient states of Europe. Such a vicinity exists, and, conse-
quently. such a temptation will arise in ew Zealand.
I, therefore, acquit myself of a duty, involving no failure
of respect to the future assemblies of that colony, in
thus unreservedly pointing out to you, and through
you commending to their attention, the sacred duty
which will be incumbent on them, of watching over
the interest, protecting the persons, and, as far as
may be, cultivating the minds of the aboriginal race
among whom they and their constituents have settled.
They can render no service more acceptable to the
Queen, to Parliament, and to the people of this country
at large.

Alt-hough her Majesty has confided to your discretion
the time from which the new charter is to be promul-
gated and to take etnct, and although in the exercise of
that discretion you will of course weigh every material
circumstance, including many which it would be impos-
sible for me to foresee or to estimate aright, yet you
will understand it to be her Majesty's pleasure that no
delay should intervene which those circumstances may
not justify and require. I have, &c.

THE NEW ZEALAND CHARTER.
Victoria, by the grace of God of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the
Faith. To all to whom these presents shall come, greet-
ing.—Whereas by an Act made and passed in the Par-
liament holden in the ninth and tenth years of our
reign, entitled " An Act to make further Prevision for
the Government of the New Zealand Islands," it is
among other things enacted, that it shall be lawful for
119, in and by any letters patent to be issued after the
passing of the said Act, under .the great seal of the
United Kingdomgrom time to time to constitute and estab-
lish within any district or districts of the islands of
New Zealand, one or more municipal corporation or
corporations, and to grant to any such corporations
all or any of the powers which (in pursuance of the
statutes in that behalf made and provided) it is com-
petent to us to grant to the inhabitants of any town
or borough in England and Wales, incorporated
in virtue of such statutes, or any of them, and to
qualify and restrict the exercise of any such powers
in such and the same manner as by the statutes
last aforesaid, or any of them, we may qualify or restrict
the exercise of any such powers in England ; and it is
by the said Act further enacted, that it shall be lawful
for us, by any such letters patent as aforesaid, to make
and prescribe all such rules as to us shall seem fit for
determining the extent and boundaries of the districts to
be comprised within any such municipal corporations as
aforesaid, and for regulating the choice and election of
the various officers of any such corporations, and of the
members of the governing bodies thereof, and for ascer-
taining the qualifications of the members of any such
municipal corporations ; and it is by the said Act further
enacted, that it shall be lawful for us to execute any of
the powers thereby vested in us, by instructions under
our signet and sign manual, approved in our Privy
Council, and accompanying or referred to in letters
patent to be issued as aforesaid, and that it shall be law-
ful for us, by any such letters patent or instructions, to
delegate to the Governor-in-Chief for the time being of
the islands of New Zealand, or to the respective Gover-
nors for the time being of the respective provinces into
which the said islands may be divided, the exercise of
such of the powers by the said Act vested in us as it may
seem meet to us so to delegate, and to prescribe the man-
ner and form in which, and the conditions subject to
which, such delegated authority shall so be exercised.
Now, know ye, that in pursuance of the said recited
Act, and in exercise of the powers thereby in us vested,
and also in exercise of all and every other the powers to
us in that behalf in anywise belonging, we, of our spe-
cial grace, mere motion, and certain knowledge, have
constituted and established, and do hereby consti-
tute and establish, within the said islands of New
Zealand, such municipal corporations with such powers,
qualifications, and restrictions, as are mentioned and
directed in certain instructions by us given under our
signet and sign manual, approved in our Privy Council,
and bearing even date with and accompanying these
presents.

- 11. And, in further pursuance and exercise of the
powers aforesaid, we do hereby grant, appoint, and or•
dein, that the districts to be comprised within such mu-
nicipal corporations respectively shall be of such extent,
and shall have such boundaries, as are prescribed and
provided for in and by the said instructions, and that
the choice and election of the various officers of the said
corporations respectively, and of the members of the
governing bodies thereof, shall take place and be regu-
lated according to the rules and in the manner and form
prescribed and provided for in and by the said instruc-
tions ; and that the qualifications of the members of the
said municipal corporations shall, in like manner, be
ascertained according to the rules and in the manner
and form prescribed and provided for in and by the said
instructions.

111. And whereas it is by the said recited Act fur-
ther enacted, that it shall be lawful for us, in and by
any letters patent to be issued as aforesaid, from time to
time to divide the said islands of New Zealand into two
or more separate provinces, and to constitute and esta-
tlish within the same two or more separate assemblies ;
that is to say, one such assembly in and for each of such
separate provinces, and that each of the said assemblies
shall consist of, and be holden by, a Governor, a Legis-
lative Council, and a House of Representatives ; now,
therefore, in further pursuance of the said recided Act,
and in exercise of the powers thereby in us vested, we
ilo hereby grant, ordain, and appoint, that the said
islands of New Zealand shall be divided into two sepa•
rate provinces, to be called respectively the " Province