HC Deb 19 June 1882 vol 270 cc1585-6
MR. CROPPER

asked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether the Government have received any recent information as to the intentions of the New Zealand authorities with regard to Te Whiti, the Maori Chief, who has been lying in prison for several months past on a charge of sedition; and, whether they have considered the expediency of offering their good offices to the Colonial Government to settle the land disputes with the Natives of the West Coast?

MR. BROGDEN

also asked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, If he will furnish to the House the Papers relating to the late proceedings with the Native Maori Tribes at Parihaki, in New Zealand, and the arrest of Te Whiti and others; and, if the speech of the Governor, Sir Arthur Gordon, at the opening of the Assembly in May last, announced the fact that an Act would be applied for to enable the Government of New Zealand to continue to detain him without his being tried or convicted of any offence?

MR. EVELYN ASHLEY

Sir, the Colonial Office has received no official information as to the dealings of the New Zealand Government with the Maori Chief, Te Whiti, later than the Report which informed them that he had been committed to gaol on a charge of sedition in last December. Her Majesty's Government do not think it advisable to offer any intervention in the land disputes with the Natives of the West Coast. Those questions lie entirely within the province of the Colonial Parliament and the Colonial Government. In reply to the Question of the hon. Member for Wednesbury (Mr. Brogden), I have to say that we have not received the text of the Governor's speech; but the Press telegram, which is all that has arrived, indicates that the course contemplated is not continued detention of Te Whiti in prison, but only prohibition to visit and agitate a particular district. Papers will be given, if the hon. Mem- ber presses for them; but there must be some delay till the arrival of the documents from New Zealand, which will make the action of the New Zealand Government fully understood, and the Government would rather wait until that information comes to hand.