The Treaty of Waitangi itself was not safe in their feeble

The Treaty of Waitangi itself was not safe in their feeble hands. It was essential if the Treaty was to achieve its real object that the needs of settlement should be met by the purchase from time to time, by the Government, of native lands and the use of those lands for the purpose of colonization. But the Treasury was pursuing towards New Zealand its characteristic policy of economy at any price; and Shortland spoke ofland purchase by the Government as impolitic, if not impossible. It would weaken the influence and lower the dignity of the Government, even if the natives were ready-which they were not-to sell large continuous tracts of good land.! FitzRoy, who assumed control in December 1843, had mooted before he went out a scheme for allowing the natives, on certain conditions, to sell their lands at £1 an acre to private persons, and Stanley was so far favourable as to toy with the idea of allowing them to sell at 5s. an acre, purchasers paying an additional ISS. to the Government.2 FitzRoy had been some three months in the colony, discovering reasons for his preconceived opinions, when he issued a proclamation announcing his willingness, on certain conditions, to waive the pre-emptive right of the Crown. Written application was to be made: one-tenth of each purchase was to be reserved for the benefit of the natives or for other public purposes: and a fee of lOS. an acre was to be paid for the Crown grant. The natives, he said, had been clamouring to sell their lands, and the Government had not the money to buy them: even ifit had, it could never compete with private sellers.3 But if this concession could be had by clamouring for it, why not others? The poor Governor was bullied into issuing, on 10 October 1844, another proclamation reducing the fee payable to the Government to one penny. The natives' desire to sell land, he explained, had been industriously stimulated by settlers who had taunted them with being no better than slaves while the provisions of the Treaty of Waitangi remained unexecuted. And so, to keep the peace, he had given in to them.4 The Port