The Fate of the Land Ko nga Akinga a nga Rangatira by Danny Keenan

Author:Danny Keenan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Massey University Press
Published: 2023-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Hōne Heke Ngāpua, c.1893. Incisive and resolute, Ngāpua represented Northern Māori in Parliament from 1893–1909. Gaining the support of Te Kotahitanga, he introduced his Native Rights Bill in 1894, calling on the Pākehā government to grant political independence to Te Kotahitanga. ALEXANDER TURNBULL LIBRARY, 35MM-00188-A-F

On 28 September 1894, two weeks after Ngāpua’s bill had lapsed in the House for want of a quorum, Seddon introduced the consolidating Native Land Court Bill, which aimed to clarify and streamline the court’s processes, offering greater security of titles. As recently stated in the Supreme Court, he said, it was ‘almost impossible to understand the existing law’.

Seddon reminded the House, and Pākehā electors, of his resolve to ‘bring about friendly relations’ with Māori, thereby doing ‘justice to our Native brethren’. Māori had been losing confidence in the government, but if Parliament performed its tasks well, ‘then I say we have for the last time heard of discord between Pākehā and Māori’. Seddon spoke at some length about his recent tour, which had been needed because ‘the Native mind’ could not be ascertained ‘by remaining in Wellington’. He had discerned that Ngāti Maniapoto were not the same as Ngāti Kahungunu, nor Ngāti Whātua, nor Tūhoe. Throughout the Kīngitanga region, Māori favoured individual dealing with land. But the rates of land loss were very high, especially following the confiscations, a matter that must be addressed by the House. Māori in the Far North were ‘entirely opposed to dealing with the Government’; they wished to establish their own parliament and govern themselves. East Coast Māori favoured ‘trusts being established and dealing by committees with the Government as corporate bodies’. He had ‘very firmly’ told Tūhoe that the surveys they were resisting were not intended to be detailed and they had been ‘quite prepared to agree to that’.21

Not surprisingly, James Carroll supported Seddon during the Native Land Court Bill debate. Although ‘a perfect Bill to meet all details and all conditions satisfactorily’ was not possible, this legislation would ameliorate the restrictions and limitations in the law concerning Māori land dealings, which were problematical for both Māori and Pākeha. The cost of individualising Māori blocks ‘would be an impossibility and in most instances would prove ruinous to the owners’. Carroll therefore supported the bill’s proposed provision for tribal committees or corporate bodies. He concluded by speaking of landless Māori in the King Country, who had ‘asked for land to be given to them so that they might settle upon it’. There were other Māori in Waikato, however, ‘very well advanced in education, who [were] in daily communication with Europeans, who own land individually’. They had prospered by separating themselves from the King Movement ‘because it was to their advantage to do so’.22

The 134-section Native Land Court Bill became law on 23 October. Just a few days before, on the 18th, the Lands Improvement and Native Lands Acquisition Act was also passed. Its aim was ‘to make better provision for the preparation of lands for settlement and the acquisition of native lands’.

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