Page:The Tarankaki question.pdf/6

 6 and he do u lectively possess. & ighlı" Whij beforbok from him all his amour and divided his spoils : and there is war-wpubble was no redress.?? de fruta edellistat have not a copy of the Treaty of Waitangi before me, but nn- Mee full kofepis less my memory fails me, the word "rights” does not once occur in mopenlos bei sion of their property in land which they may individually or col- I believe it is in acccordance with the rule of malo kold We international law, as well as with the customs of the New Zea- "Left le tilft m landers, that the obligations created by this guarantee could only ich of the extend to the actual possession at that time existing, and that no more fatal error could be committed than that which was com- firele elatluk mitted by Governor Fitzroy when he admitted a right to land as the right existing in such of the Taranaki tribes as had been driven from their possessions at Taranaki by the more powerful tribes of Wai- kato, and had located themselves on the coasts of Cook's Straits. This was assuming an obligation on the part of the British Govern- ment which was not created by the Treaty of Waitangi-an obli- gation which implied the duty of investigating not only the title by which those tribes who had been driven from their land claimed to possess it, but the title of the tribes who miglit have possessed it before and had becn driven from it by those tribes who were now fugitives and exiles in their turn; and so on, in an endless series. I do not make this observation as applying to Wi Kingi and his party, who appear to have migrated to the south before the Waikatos swept those who remained from their homes. Of the difficulties of my position when holding the office of British Resident, which were neither few nor small, not the least Jode ne vecchus , my own countryinen, of questions and disputes respecting the treh okea felis title to land. One result of these difficulties, however, was to bring me acquainted with the ideas held by the natives on this andre subject, before such rules existed as those laid down by Sir W. Martin, and of which it is affirmed by him that “ It is established by a singular concurrence of the best evidence that the rules above stated were generally accepted and acted upon by the natives." Adopting the cloquont words of Sir W. Martin (page 82), that 6 The compact” (created by the Treaty of Waitangi) "is binding irro- vocably," that "we cannot repudiate it so long as we retain the benefit which we obtained by it," and " that it is the clcar duty of every officer of the Crown and of every loyal citizen to do his utmost, by deed and word, to fulfil this national undertaking," T, in fulfilment of this duty, which rests upon me, not only as a loyal citizen but as an agent in creating this national obligation, am bound to say that Sir W. Martin ascribes to the natives rights