Alexander Gillespie: New law promises Parihaka amends

The 1880s Māori settlement and people of Parihaka Pā. Photo / Alexander Turnbull Library

Opinion

COMMENT

We, as a country, are finally starting to make amends for the terrible acts of the New Zealand Government at Parihaka in the 1880s.

These actions were a low point of civil liberties, biculturalism and tolerance. The amends offered have been in legislation from 2003, 2016, and this month with the freshly passed Te Pire Haeata ki Parihaka/Parihaka Reconciliation Act.

The core of this work has been a succession of recent governments acknowledging, apologising and compensating for the unconscionable actions of their predecessors. These included wrongfully invading the Parihaka settlement, dismantling their community, destroying their ability to sustain themselves, suspending the ordinary course of law and imprisoning people without trial for participating in a justified act of non-violent resistance.

Although it is important that we apologise, it is equally important that we do not forget so it is never repeated.

Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi established a settlement in 1866 at Parihaka, Taranaki, which lay on land officially confiscated in the 1860s. They began to develop a community that adopted non-violent measures to resist further land loss and promote Māori independence.

The community quickly attracted more than 2000 inhabitants, living in a healthy and industrious setting. Matters started to come to a head when Governor Grey's government began opening up the area for European settlement in 1878. Te Whiti resisted, rightly claiming that Māori land reserves, promised in 1865 in the confiscations process, had not been set aside. After surveyors failed to mark out reserves promised to Māori in southern Taranaki, in March 1879 Te Whiti ordered the surveyors to be peacefully evicted.

In May 1879, followers began to plough land across the disputed areas, as an assertion of their rights to the land. By the end of July, 182 ploughmen had been arrested.

The Government responded with the Māori Prisoner Trials Acts of 1879. This provided for the continuing imprisonment "for offences against public order and for other offences dangerous to the peace of the country", until a trial date was set by the Governor-General.

The crime of removing survey pegs or ploughing was liable for up to two years in jail. The date for trial was continually postponed.

Between July and September 1880, 223 more Māori were arrested for placing fences across the road to protect the cultivations. Only 59 fencers received a trial, but all were sent to South Island prisons.

In late July, the Māori Prisoners Act of 1880 deemed all of those awaiting trial or held in custody to have been done so lawfully. This meant that none could be brought before a court and discharged.

The West Coast Settlement Act 1880 allowed any member of the armed constables, to arrest without warrant (over the next three years), anyone committing an offence, or "reasonably suspected" of being able to commit an offence, such as interfering with surveys, unlawful ploughing, or fencing, or obstructing a road. In addition, the Governor in Council was now explicitly empowered to take such steps as were necessary for the "final settlement of the difficulties that exist on the west coast of the North Island".

The problem for the Government was that although ministers were convinced Parihaka was being led by delusional fanatics with no basis in claim, in 1881, the West Coast Commission (created to examine the matter), came to the opposite conclusion — that the Crown had failed to fulfil promises about Māori reserves and recommended that some reserves be granted.

In acknowledgement of this failure, the Government started to create new reserves. However, they were not returned to Māori outright, but placed under the administration of the Public Trustee, many of which were in time sold or leased in perpetuity to European farmers.

As the new law did not solve the situation, and people from Parihaka continued to erect fences, the Government decided to use direct action.

Fearing the non-violent resistance was a prelude to armed conflict, the Government called up 33 units of the Volunteer Militia from Nelson to Thames. They, with five companies of the Armed Constabulary and a Naval Brigade (655 troops and nearly 1000 settler volunteers) led by the Native Minister, entered the site on November 5, 1881.

These forces found the road blocked by 200 small children singing, and groups of older girls, skipping, who had to be carried off the road.

After reading the Riot Act they told those gathered in the centre of the marae to disperse. Although a few notables were detained, 1600 inhabitants were dispersed throughout Taranaki without food or shelter.The remaining 600 residents were issued with government passes to control their movement.

Soldiers then destroyed most of the buildings. Te Whiti and Tohu were charged with seditionand held without trial for 16 months. In 1883, with little publicity, a political amnesty was issued for all Māori related to this matter — as if they were at fault.

Alexander Gillespie is Professor of Law at University of Waikato.