10 Transactions. 



one should cartoon him in that character would not affect the 

 attitude he had taken up, even if it should also be pointed out 

 what a bad bargain he had made with the tribes. He replied 

 in detail to the whole of the charges which had been levied 

 against him ; and, partly through the influence of Mr. Buller 

 and partly through a promise to allow the Act to operate over 

 the other lands of Raukawa, succeeded in reducing the tribes 

 again to a state of satisfaction, with the ultimate result that 

 the purchase was eventually allowed and ratified by the whole 

 of the tribe with certain exceptions. 



I cannot help thinking that here, as so often happens in 

 Native matters, the most active sellers were those with the least 

 personal estate. This was so even with the Raukawa, and the 

 dignified lament of Parakaia te Pouopa breathes the spirit of 

 truth : " Give heed. Thus far have I shown kindness to those 

 tribes who were spared by ourselves from slaughter by Te Rau- 

 paraha. Rangitikei, a large block of land, I graciously gave to 

 Ngatiapa ; Te Huaturanga, a large block of land, I graciously 

 gave back to Rangitane ; and now these tribes together with 

 the Government come openly to take away my piece remaining ; 

 outhouses and the cultivations whence my tribe get their living 

 are being taken away." 



But the land was sold, and the Native Land Court set up to 

 deal with the division of the money and the allocation of reserves. 

 The judgment was a lengthy and laboured statement, founded 

 upon the evidence of Ngatiapa alone. Summarised, the result 

 was a judicial apology for and vindication of Ngatiapa and 

 Rangitane, and the diversion to them of a large sum justly due 

 to Raukawa if any one. This judgment was followed by the 

 setting-aside of seventy-five reserves, about 24,000 acres in 

 extent, for non-sellers and in part for sellers. 



Such is a short and imperfect sketch of the occupation of the 

 Manawatu Block, and the transfer of that block to the Govern- 

 ment ; and if we apply to it the principles we have laid down, 

 the injustice of the Manawatu- Rangitikei acquisition stands 

 nakedly before us. The Raukawas were the real owners of the 

 block. Instead of receiving, as they did, £10,000, the whole 

 of the purchase-price should have come to them, leaving to the 

 Ngatiapa and Rangitane the limited rights over strictly defined 

 areas which they had acquired by the clemency of their con- 

 querors. This did not suit the Government. In this case, as 

 with Horowhenua — an even more monstrous injustice — their 

 whole object was to prevent trouble. The turbulent party was 

 the undeserving party, but their insistence won the day. A 

 threat of rifles and the Government of the day descended from 

 their lofty attitude and accepted the Native position, pro- 



