PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
T
Reference :-
C.O. 885
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
1 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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REPORTS EXHIBITING THE PAST AND PRESENT
NEW ZEALAND. for the adjustment of the French claim in that neighbourhood. The fact of the natives of the Ahuriri having voluntarily come forward and offered to sell their land, and the steps I proposed taking in consequence, are stated in my Despatch, No. 61, 21st June, 1849.
Opening addies. Lieut-Gov. Exte, May 1, 1919
Within the same period of time grants have also been issued to the New Zealand Company for the districts of Wellington, Ponrica, and Nelson, and the grant for Whanganui is ready for signature.
10. With regard to the general prospects of the province, I am happy to say they never were more promising. Your Excellency is aware that after the serious calamity which befel the province in the earthquakes of October, 1848, considerable depression existed, and the revenue of Wellington was materially affected for the quarter in which they occurred; that depression, however, existed but for a short period; the energy and perseverance of the colonists seemed but to increase with the occasion for their exertion, and the ruined dwellings in the town were soon replaced by new buildings of wood, better calculated to resist the shocks of earthquake should such again unhappily take place.
In other respects, also, the province bears a most cheering aspect. Its climate is most healthy and the necessaries of life are both abundant and cheap; the great drawbacks to its rapid progress being the want of emigration, and of easy and quick communication between its various isolated settlements: these drawbacks to its rapid progress can only be removed by the adoption of such regulations as, by permitting the sale of land within the colony itself, may enable each settlement to have its land-fund applicable to the purposes of emigration, and by the establishment of steam communication.
11. The establishment of a local Legislature on the close of 1848 has opened out a new era for the province, by bestowing upon it the power of enacting any laws necessary for the regulation of its local affairs. Through the channel also of the Legislature, the colonists are provided with a proper and legitimate means of expressing their opinions or making known their wishes upon all questions of importance, whether such questions be local or general.
The first session of the provincial Legislature of New Munster assembled for the dispatch of public business on the 1st May, 1849, but they had pre- viously been called together for a day or two in December 1848, by your Excellency, for the purpose of laying before them an exposition of your Excellency's policy and views with regard to certain questions affecting the general welfare.
During this first session now nearly closed, the local Legislature have enacted various laws of considerable importance in reference to local matters, and they have expressed their opinions on one or two subjects of general interest to the whole of New Zealand; but as it will be my duty to communicate with your Excellency on many of these subjects separately, I refrain from entering upon the questions involved in them now; I take the opportunity, however, of enclosing a copy of the opening address.
12. In concluding this hasty and cursory review of the general state and prospects of the colony, I cannot but regret that the pressure of other business has prevented me from devoting the time I could have wished to so important and interesting a discussion, and that I have therefore necessarily been obliged to leave untouched many points which, if more leisure had been afforded sne, I should gladly have referred to.
His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief,
&c.
Sub-Enel in No 1. (Translation.)
FRIEND GOVERNOR,
&c.
&c.
Sub-Enclosures in No. 1.
I have, &c., (Signed)
E. EYRE.
Takapuahia, May 8, 1849. GREETING: I have come over for the purpose of asking you to send a surveyor to survey the land at ** Takapuahia," the site proposed by us as a village, that we may com- mence to build better houses for ourselves, and to erect a place of worship, and a house in which to try those persons who behave improperly. This place has been selected by us as a spot where the natives may collect together, and not become scattered; that we may follow the example of the white man, and that it may be said that we are one people, united together in
:
STATE OF HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.
(Signed)
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love to the Queen and in love toward God, and that the law of God may be obeyed by us both NEW ZEALAND. alike.
RAWNI KINGI PUAHA, WIREMU TE Kawan, Mom TE HUA, RAWNI PIHAMA, TE WATARANKI, HOROPAPERA,
His Excellency Governor Eyre.
(Translation.)
FRIEND DOCTOR,
And many others.
May 8, 1849. Te Aro Pah. This is my address to you and the Governor Eyre, viz., to send a surveyor to lay down this place or residence of ours, that we may not continue to live in this state. I have well con- sitlered these things, which are right and proper, and of a good tendency; therefore have I made this request for a surveyor to come now at once, before we leave this to go to the Hutt to plant our food. We are the more anxious that this should be done, because the white people are acting wrong with regard to this place; they are surveying the Pab. It now, therefore, rests with you and the Governor to consider and arrange this matter, and concerning also the stream of water that it may come within the boundary of the natives. We are the more anxious that the water should be permanently included, because it is our only resource when the heat or middle of summer comes. Friend Governor Eyre and Colonel M'Cleverty, greeting
Dr. Fitz-Gerald,
&c.
&c.
(Signed)
HEMI PARAI.
EXTRACT from Major RICHMOND'S REPORT, dated 20th January, 1849. WITH regard to crime in the settlement, the relation between the races, and other matters I am required to report upon, they are in the same satisfactory state as at the date of the communication before referred to (3rd July, 1848).
EXTRACT from Major WYATT'S REPORT, dated January 3rd, 18-19.
THE relations between Europeans and natives continue satisfactory, and the native trade is beginning to thrive again.
The tribes lately at war with us no longer fear to come down to the settlement, and their grain patches in the neighbourhood have increased in size and number since the same period Last year, and the natives in general appear to be directing their attention to keeping stock.
The better class of natives and the chiefs are taking to wear European clothing, and I am firmly convinced that their dislike to the military occupation of Wanganui (the original cause of the war) is fast disappearing and subsiding.
EXTRACT from Major DURIE'S REPORT, dated January 25th, 1849.
THE natives continue faithful in the discharge of their duties, and I discern that their desire for being connected with the service is increasing.
SIR,
Resident Magistrates' Court, Wellington, April 26, 1849.
I Have the honour to forward abstracts of all cases disposed of at the Resident Magis- trates' Court at Wellington, for the quarter ending 31st December, 1848. I regret that this return should have been so long delayed; but the preparation of the annual Blue Book returns, and an extreme pressure of the duties which have of late been required at my hands, have unavoidably retarded its transmission.
At the period that the civil clauses of the Resident Magistrates Court Ordinance were brought into operation in this district, I expressed an opinion that much benefit would be the result to the community from the facilities by those provisions of the Ordinance which affected the recovery of small debts; and, at the same time, I stated that I entertained a confident and well-founded impression that the natives within the limits of my jurisdiction would lend their zealous assistance and cordial co-operation towards the support of those enactments which immediately appertained to their common interests; and I based this decision upon the expe- rience which I have gained from their reliance on the impartial and unprejudicial administration of the law, and their prompt and ready acquiescence in every suggestion that I had hitherto made for the adjustment of differences, whether among themselves or between them and the Europeans.
It is with much satisfaction that I have now to observe, that the opinion I then hazarded has been justified by the practical effects which have been produced by the Ordinance in question during the past year. On reference to the monthly returns of cases it will be found that several matters of grave import between native and natives have been decided on in this Court with
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