As discussed in the previous chapter, one of the Liberal administration’s first undertakings was the appointment of a commission to investigate the history of native land law and its impact on Maori. The commission, another example of an
‘official’ privilege imparted to Maori, was highly critical of past governments’ native policy and made a number of recommendations intended to bring order to a situation it described as ‘chaotic’. What was meant by ‘chaotic’, however, was simply that the situation as it existed impeded the transference of land from Maori to settler. Between 1887 and 1890 the Atkinson administration had ‘only’ managed to acquire 865,000 acres of Maori land.5 To overcome this impasse parliament passed and amended legislation so that, in Brooking’s words, they ‘locked together like pieces of a meccano set’; and, ‘in combination… accelerated noticeably’ the rate of alienation.6
Four pieces of legislation that helped streamline the process of alienation are worth noting. The Liberals, in order to fund the purchase of land that was soon to be made available for settlement, enacted the Native Lands Purchase Act 1892;7 the Native Land (Validation of Titles) Act 1892 (and 1893) which allowed for the investigation of incomplete land transactions;8 and its amendment, which established a Validation Court to ‘hear, settle, and determine’ title and/or rights to disputed lands.9 The purpose of the Native Land Purchase and Acquisition Act 1893 is made plain in the title; the rationale is contained in the preamble:
Whereas at least seven million acres of land, principally situated in the North Island of the colony, owned by Natives, are lying waste and unproductive, and, in the interest of the Natives and of Her Majesty’s other subjects in the colony, and more especially for the extension of settlement, it is necessary that such
land should be made available for disposal under the land laws of the colony.10
5 Tom Brooking, ‘Busting Up’ The Greatest Estate of All’, NZJH, 26:1, 1992, p. 82. 6
Brooking, ‘Busting up’ The Greatest Estate of All’, p. 83.
7 Native Land Purchases Act 1892.
8 Native Land (Validation of Titles) Act 1892. 9 Native Land (Validation of Titles) Act 1893. 10 Native Land Purchase and Acquisition Act 1893.
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The intended acquisition of Maori land was facilitated by the resumption of pre- emption, which was framed as protecting Maori. This official privilege was included in the Native Land Court Act 1894, section 117 of which restored full pre-emption across the colony.11 A recommendation of the Rees-Carroll Commission, the resumption of Crown pre-emption, was central to Liberal’s Maori land policy. When arguing the need for such a measure, Seddon declared:
We must protect the Natives against fraud where they have not received fair
value…I say myself that we shall not be doing what is just to the Native race or right to the colony if we do not resume the pre-emptive right.12
Significantly, all of these pieces of legislation were framed as protective measures and politicians often drew on the ‘rhetoric of benevolence’ when debating their passage through the House. During the second reading of the Native Lands Purchase Bill, Native Minister Cadman stated that:
Provision is made in this Bill by which the Natives shall not become paupers by squandering their money and it is proposed to put a certain amount of this money, when the land is acquired, in the hands of the Public Trustee as an investment or an endowment for the Natives. This will prevent them from squandering their money as they have done in the past; and, although the Natives may make demur to this, it is really for their benefit.13
The Native Land Purchase and Acquisition Act was also enacted for the ‘benefit’ of Maori. According to Seddon, Maori were ‘rich in lands, but otherwise, wherever you
meet them, poor, and…in some cases living in a state of semi-starvation’. The cause of this situation, argued Seddon, was that:
No sufficient attempts have been made, to give the Natives an opportunity of disposing of their lands to Europeans through the Government in such a way that their rights would be preserved, and that they should get the fair value for their land.14
11 Native Land Court Act 1894. 12 NZPD, 1894, volume 86, p. 374. 13 NZPD, 1892, volume 77, p. 221. 14 NZPD, 1893, volume 81, p. 518.
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A pervading view throughout the nineteenth-century was that Maori could not possibly bring all of their lands into production, and that the retention of such lands was detrimental to Maori advancement. Thus, legislation that enabled the transference of ‘waste’ or ‘idle’ lands from Maori to settler was seen to be of benefit to all. If the success of the Liberal government’s legislative programme can be measured, then it must be in the amount of acres acquired. According to Brooking it amounted to 4.4 million acres, of which Maori contributed 3.1 million acres.15
Other legislative measures, passed primarily under the guidance of John McKenzie, further assisted the settlers in taking up Crown land.16 A graduated land tax, introduced as part of Ballance’s 1891 Land and Income Assessment Act, bore fruit in the break-up of the Cheviot Hills estate.17 The Land Act 1892 made provision for a variety of land alienation options: purchase, a 25-year lease with a right of purchase, and a 999-year lease.18 Joseph Ward’s 1894 Advances to Settler Act established an Office empowered to provide both leaseholders and freeholders with cheap loans to develop their lands.19 According to Oliver this was ‘possibly the most significant of all the reforms affecting the farmer; it gave him the help he most needed’.20 Maori, however, while not excluded on the basis of race, were unable to take advantage of the scheme because the Crown would not accept as security multiple-owned Maori freehold land.21 This is to say, Maori were in fact impeded in their access to development finance by the very title system they were encouraged to adopt.