deemed to be discharged from all title interest or claim of any person. Compensation would be granted to those who claimed a title to it as long as they had not waged war or carried arms against the Crown or government forces, or given assistance or comfort to anyone who had done so. Claims for compensation would be considered by Compensation Courts established under the act, with the judges to be appointed by the Governor. The Governor would cause to be laid out a "sufficient number of towns and farms", contracts would be made with "certain persons for the granting of land to them respectively in return for Military Service", and remaining land would be surveyed and laid out as towns and suburban and rural allotments. Money raised from the sale of land would be directed towards the repayment of the expenses of "suppressing the present insurrection" as well as providing any compensation awarded. Parliamentary debate Despite Māori making up a third of New Zealand's population, the Parliament had no Māori members. In the House of Representatives, only two MPs spoke in the debate on the bill. G. Brodie supported it in a brief speech and James FitzGerald, in a lengthy attack, argued that the bill was contrary to the Treaty of Waitangi, and that confiscation would "drive every (Māori) into a state of hopeless rebellion ... be they friends or be they foes". In the Legislative Council Whitaker introduced the bill, contending that by their rebellion, Māori had violated the Treaty of Waitangi, thereby discharging the Crown "from all obligation" under the Treaty. Former Attorney-General William Swainson opposed the legislation, claiming it was in breach of both the treaty and the New Zealand Constitution Act. He said the Crown could not, "with honour and good faith, seize the land of peaceable Māori subjects (those who were not in rebellion) without their consent". Dr Daniel Pollen, a former Superintendent of Auckland and Commissioner of Crown Lands, supported the bill, but said the government should take "not one acre more" than was necessary for military settlements. He described the legislation as immoral, claiming it was "in fact a Bill for the confiscation of Native lands of the province, that object being veiled by a specious form of words". He predicted that confiscation and military settlement would lead to a war of extermination. Public debate Confiscation was promoted by the press and