a dish or two of wash and by so doing proved that gold was existent everywhere. This being so, it was held that “Mackay did not play the game with the natives,” going as far as to give £100 less than he was authorised to, even though he had the money with him.
On the other hand it was contended the explorer had no knowledge of the gold. Brunner had reported that Westland “was worthless,” and Mackay had accepted this statement. Apart from this it was pointed out that Governor Gore Browne had laid it down that reserves amounting to ten thousand acres were to be set aside, holding that the territory (comprising seven and a half million acres) was of no use to the few natives who then occupied it, and that it would be better to make good reserves which would, by the profitable occupation of the remainder of the land by Europeans, be of more ultimate value than the whole waste untenanted district then was. It was also considered that if the natives had been paid a large sum in cash they would soon have been penniless. No, it was better to set aside adequate reserves and so conserve the Maori interest, and time has proved this to be correct, for when the rentals were finally fixed it was found that the natives were to receive £5,300 annually, and as eighty years will have elapsed from the date of the sale until Centenary Year, 1940, the sum of £424,000 will
