he must abide by the consequences.”‘5
So, Busby’s Whangarei lands remaining part of the demesne of
the Crown, in the _absence of a grant to him, the battle continued.
Despite the fact that his Waitangi grantwas now also void, he remained
there in undisturbed possession, and, with his family, continuedto farm
the land. But the N gunguru andRuakaka-Waipu blocks had by this time
been vested in the Auckland Provincial Council, which had been
established in 1853 underthe Imperial Government’ s Constitution Act '
of 1852. Some of it had been sold,” nevertheless the tenacious Busby
continued his fight to retain it, with the result that in 1867, Parliament
passed the Land Claims Arbitration Act, which conceded, in effect, that
B usby had been shabbily treated, and provided for arbitrators to assess
the recompense due to him. It also empowered the Government to issue
Crown grants consequent on the decisions of the arbitrators, and scrip
entitling him to Crown Land in the Auckland Province.
On 6 May 1868 the arbitrators duly reported thatBusby had valid
claims to 9,374 acres at the Bay of Islands, 45,000 acres at Ngunguru,
and, surprisingly, 98,000 acres at Whangarei — a total award of 155,347
acres, pursuant to his original claim of 49,605 -acres. And that having
been deprived of the use of the Ngunguru lands, and those at Ruakaka _
and Waipu, that is, the Whangarei lands, he was entitled to special
damages amounting to £36,800, which were to be awarded in scrip,
entitling him to Government land to that value. '7 Busby disputed this,
saying that all his land other than that atpWaitangi having been vested
in the Province of Auckland, itpwas not available for exchange for
Government scrip.” But he finally agreed to relinquish all claims for
these lands and to accept the £36,800 in full settlement, provided it was
paid in cash and debentures.” '
On 7 September 1872 Governor Gore Browne awarded Busby
his Crown grant for 9,374 acres at Waitangi, effective from 6 April
1868, the date of the arbitrator’s decision, but, as we have noted, he had
died in 1871, on 15 July?" And, although he had finally accepted his
£36,800 in scrip, it had a cash value of only £23 ,000.‘“ But the difference
between Busby’s estimate of the area of his Whangarei claims, de-
scribed only by metes and bounds, and the surveyed area which later
revealed the discrepancy, is indeed remarkab1e.lThat Busby may have
:5.“-‘
deliberately.unde1'estimatcd the area to make the purchases acceptable
to the Commissioners, cannot be entirely dismissed, since the Rual<aka-
Waipu claim extended over 20 miles inland to the Tangihua Range. It
was contiguous to the Ngunguru claim, and thus included the Whanga—
rei Harbour.
SOURCES
Ramsden, E., Busby of Waitangi, pp. 1-40.
Turton, H. H., Maori Deeds of Old Private Land Purchases in New Zealand,
-13. 527. A 1
Ibid.
Ramsden, op. cit., p. 201.
Wards, 1., The Shadow of the Land, p. 24.
Wards, op. cit., p. 24. -
Turton, op. cit., pp. 527-8.
Ramsden-, op. cit., pp. 223,226.
Turton, op. cit., p. 527.
Sweetman, E., The Unsigned New Zealand Treaty, p. 71.
9. New Ulster Government Gazette, 1849, Vol.2. The Whole of the Cases
Heard by the Original Commissioners, Nos. 14—24. M
10. McLintocl<, A. H., Crown Colony Government in New Zealand,
pp. 162-3.
11. New Ulster Government Gazette, op. cit., Nos. 23-4.
12. Bell, F. D., Appendix to the Report of the Land Claims Commissioner,
Schedule of Claims, Nos. 14-24, A.J.H.R., 1863, D—No.14.
13. Crown Grant, Governor Bowen to James B_usby, 7 "September 1872.
14. Anderson and Peterson, The Mair Family, pp. 5 l—2, and Mair papers made
available to the author by the late Gilbert Mair.
15. Bell, F. D., Report (on The Old Land Claims), A.].l-l.R., 1862, D-No.10,
pp. 10-11. « ' '
16. , The Land Claims Arbitration Act 1867. '
we
ween
17. The Arbitrator’s Award in the Case of Iarnes Busby, Esq., A] 1869,_
D—No.l 1.
18. Correspondence Between Mr Busby and the Government of New jgealand,
A.J.H.R., D~No.24, 1869. ' ‘
19. Ibid.
20. Ramsden, op. cit., p. 363.
21. umd,p.36L
“v/be we raw“.
{Tani /-/95¢’Back 
