LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 196, 21 June 1860, Page 2

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,- — I think .the .time is now arrived, if ever we are to bestir ourselves, when we ought to do something, to restore confidence' to the outsettlerS., -Rumours are rife that the rebel natives are coming to' invade our territory.; and j think the course we are pursuing is the proper method to make them . do. so. When any report, however vague, and sometimes without any foundation at all, -reaches us, the settlers pour into town; with their wives and families, and thus leave the cpast clear for the Maqries to ransack and plunder their hoiises. I do riot mean to blame the settlers for, this

line of conduct, for no one would like, to remain in the country unprotected, to be butchered by “ gentlemen savages,” or any other gentlemen j but I would direct your attention, and that of the. public, to the propriety of at once erecting on our frontiers some means of defence; say that we build three stockades somewhere on our boundaries near to the Kaiiwi stream, and garrison them with twenty men each, the settlers then would have some confidence in remaining at their homes, and prosecuting their usual employments.. The question naturally arises^—where are the means to come from for carrying this out? . My answer is, that if the authorities here think they are warranted, from the hostile reports they receive, in warning the settlers to come into town, they are justified in drawing on the government for the funds to render them temporary protection. If we are .to continue in the same state of , uncertainty that the town has been in for the last week, we might as well be at open war at once; all country work wili-bo-etoppod, and our labouring population will be thrown out of employment, and they may be engaged in erecting the proposed defences ; this will be a temporary relief to the workmen, and to the settlers. I call it only temporary; for if the natives are to be conquered—and I do not see any way of this country going ahead until they are so—-we must take far more energetic measures than have hitherto been adopted; for it is admitted by all that the natives have been made top much of; and I would suggest, for the future, that all native rumours which reach us be looked upon with suspicion, and hot be treated as of so much consequence that we think it necessary to despatch bishops, missionaries, and native ministers, to advise with and pray and beg of them not to be naughty, and that they must be good children, and stay at home, /iistead of thus pampering them, I would turn over a new leaf, and allow them to,understand’ we would treat them and their, reports with the same silent contempt they do us ; at the same time we should keep a good look out upon their movements.

It is now upwards of thirty years since the missionaries .came amongst the natives, and I think five-sixths of them will agree with me, that their labours have nearly,, if not altogether, been in vain,'that the bulk of the natives are as far from being Christians as ever they were. It is true that a great many of them, parrot-like, rhyme over their prayers night and morning, and pretend' to be very religious ; if they are so, I would put them .to the test by withdrawing all the missionaries from them at once ; or if any missionary wanted to. remain, and the natives wished his services, let them be on the same principles ,as our Europeans, pay their own clergymen. It must be admitted rckio to i jo' stt tban we are, and I-see no use of draining the prickets of the charitably inclined in England to pay.a number of men who, if they speak the truth, must say that their services have been thrown away. , country, after all our twenty years* hard labour and a great deal of - privation, to be given up to the rule of these misled and barbarous Maories ?- Is New Zealand worth keeping by the British Government ? I say, British Government, because we, the inhabitants of this colony, have had no voice whatever m this war that is now endangering our safety ; it is a matter entirely between ' the Queen’s representative and the Maories. By our constitution the Governor has the sole management of . native affairs, and as far as I'know hehas most rigidly carried* out his prerogative to the letter. If it is worth-England’s while to keep these islands, and to, plant the Queen’s supremacy, through the; .Whole - length and breadth o£. them-, let- the Government be nolonger penny wise and pound foolish. The Waitangi treaty has been broken by the natives, and the most scrupulous can no longer sympathise- with them in their right, to the land. The- Government should therefore at once declare- its intention of;' taking possession of the lands of the rebels., and for. this purpose commence operations by opening up the country in making a through line of r.oad twixt this, and Taranaki,.beginning at both ends simultaneously, and' as- the line of road is made erect stockades sufficiently garrisoned - to hold the country; if this, were carried out, or even intimated tb -1 the natives by. those.in power, the probability is, that the war would soon be at an end. ' '

If you think these remarks worth publishing, I would further suggest, that a public meeting, might be called, at. which Mr. Fox should be invited to attend,.to memorialise theiGovernor on the subject. Yours,. A. F.

; .-June; 16? 1860, Sir,— lf 1 notice any part of Mr. Treweek’s letter, it is not from thinking him entitled to such courtesy from me, but because I hold that every one who, like myself, has for years been watching the course of those events, which have resulted in the present crisis, ought to state the results of his observation and inquiries fearlessly, in order to, guide others in averting, if possible, the impending dangers The Maori land “ tikanga ” is little understood by settlers, and and mistakes, in understapding the precise .grounds of thepresent struggle. Though the land of each tribe is so subdivided among the various families that, on j the sale of any portion,, the* whole price, or- nearly so, goes to; certain in-' dividuals, yet every member of the ( tribe, and all natives connected with it, ..are. regarded ashaving sych a possible.reversionary interest in the portion, as to render, their consent necessary to its alienation. Thus, though 999; members of a tribe, including; all the owners, consent to a. sale, the thousandth can still pre- ; vent-it. It seems incredible, that such a sys-^

tem should have been allowed to continue so long unchecked > yet> so far as I can learn, no attempt has been made by Government to induce a singlef 'tribS to adopt a less obstructive tenure; on the contrary, it seems to have been fostered in order to prevent settlers from buying native land. In the Waitara case, Wirimu Kingi, prior to his flight to fFaikanae, had a full right to forbid' the sale of Teira’s land.

The only question;is, how far this right, then passing to the Waikato Conquerors, revived on liis return. The case seems not to have arisen (before, and the natives differ in opinion about frjftribes deciding for or against him according : ’at'"their consisting (like the . Ngatiruanui) mainly of returned slaves, or their having (like our own tribes) kept their independence, gives’fhem aii ; Interested bias. The Government’s hesitation to conclude the purchase, and •doing it at last only under pressure from the ‘settlers, and Parris’s interview with Kingi, jshow the difficulty was known, and is one reason why I say the'war could -and ought to have been avoidedV ‘ The 1- Government must have known oar defenceless state, with the king movement before them, I consider the purchase ough( to have been declined until the question of title had been decided. The inconvenience to the Taranaki settlers would Hiave been as nothing compared with what they

lhave already lost, and it was and is impossible fto see how far a war would spread.. As to the king movement. If the Governor, instead of letting Mr. Treweek make the most, of his wheat, were to compel him either to let it rot in the stack, or sell it to the Crown for a tithe •of its value, on the understanding that another tenth should be laid out for Mr.. Treweek’s own benefit, and, the balance "spent in salaries •or on works for J/aori useand if; on the plea that they had more than they could use, ' and were hard to 1 deal with, Mr. T. and his neighbours were treated thus year after year till they resisted 4 bojv_^pldjtlm-..quarrel. Jie fairly said to be' bf their; seeking ? This is, however, precisely the‘course which has been •pursued byGovCrnment for nearly twenty years as regards - Maori land; and if is this, and this alone, which has caused the . king movement, 1 I have talked with scores of natives on this subject, and every one.,has given this as main reason for the move; and I have been for years aware of the deep sense of wrong felt by the Maoriea in the Government dealing with them in this matter: When, as now, the system is virtually, and will probably, in a few clays, be formally,defunct, it is not' worth while to dispute Whether it is according to ; the Waitangi arrangement. The natives say, no; and; while some assert '■the CrownVnghti as understood by them, to have amounted merely to a refusal at the same price they could obtain elsewhere; others maintain it was merely to. have ; a first offer, without prejudice to tbeifrigHtto self to others if the Government declined to buy or the price could not be agreed on. The bishop, and missionaries, too, who'acted as agents, and interpreters, say they , clid not understand the ar-. raugement in the sense afterwards acted on by Government., ! Any how, every' sixpence of profit the.;Government has made by the traffic has been, pro tarito, a, wrong to the native owner, and it matters little whether the ad: vantage was taken of them iu the treaty, or in its interpretation. The monopoly of purchase lias produced, its natural fruits—*ruin, on all sides. It lias kept the natives poor, and therefore savage ; made them dissatisfied,'and unwilling to sell; and at length we see the various tribes, laying aside the feuds of centuries, and combining in an organised resistance, which is now largely leavened witlj. the, to us, more dangerous feeling of patriotism-—* of “ New Zealand for the Maori.” us, it 3ms kept capital from the colony—made us feel cramped for room, till, with millions of acres (99 per cent, of the island), upstocked around ’us, we . are compelled to slaughter •calves and spay breeding’ cattle by thousands to keep down the increase—-has taught us to ‘look to the' land profits for what, should be more properly met by ‘ local taxation,, till,, on the native refusal to sell, all J our public works •are brought to a stand, and we are compelled to feel shame at our dependence on the savage. It has sown ill-feeling between the races, and 'between settlers and missionaries, till, we stand -on the brink, of a war between thefew, red and ’white inhabitants of an island which could -support millions. it is an enormous blunder; for no sane person can doubt that the imported articles which a better system would have’ caused the natives to consume, ••would have produced a far larger, and Witlial permanent, revenue than has yet been,got by. ;this pitiful huckstering. In short, it, disgraces -us as Englishmen and civilized beings. It has •been persisted in in spite of repeated warnings. I think it was Martin, who, in his work 'published more than 15 years ago, exposed 4he whole of it: Nine years ago the ‘ Southern ‘Cross ’ attacked it week after* week, maintaining that the only arguments that, could have •been urged in extenuation of it had, ceased , to be valid,-and predicting nearly everything that -has since resulted from itand the only reply -the Government organs, could make was insinuations of interested mol ives. Bishop Sehvyn ; lias urged on successive Governments the adoption of the sound policy of inducing the natives to parcel out the land, and accept Crown grants each man for his own /Shulers, in self-defence, have had -to,break ■theTaw, and rent of natives ; ; and the Government has had to-fall back from prosecution,to empty threats,- and lately has discontinued . -even these It has had to concede the power •to lease native f reserves, and even to buy ! land, though it has coupled this last ; with the condition-of paying lOs; an acre to -the Crown, and-so-rendered the act-worthless. , This last act seems, to, prove that the colony j

has been sacrificed for the sake of the paltry profit, yhe 2nd of July will be a most momentous day. If the Government will have the sense to take Bishop Selwyn’s advice,-and can prevail on the Maories to accept such an arrangement in the teeth of the king movement; the latter will fall to pieces of itself, from its becoming,the interest of every Maori in want of casli to detach himself from it. Failing this, I. can see no way of saving the [colony but an unconditional surrender of the Government monopoly. Talking of drubbing the Maories is absurd. Let any man look at the former contests —-at the present aspect of affairs at Taranaki —at our own confessed inability to do more than defend the town, in the event of the threatened attack from a force smaller and worse armed than ourselves—and then say where is our strength for aggression ? In the event of the war becoming a struggle

between the races* we should no doubt be able to gain a few thousand acres , along the coast at the cost of ten times its value in blood and treasure. it _at,.r.isk of. our lives;, bnt when .the Maories .got to the bush and hills,. I do, not believe the whole- British army could crush them. The only natives that I can feel deserve drubbing are the Taranaki and Ngatiruanui murderers, and I thick we ought to strain every nerve to prevent the war spreading, if only in .order that we may have a chance of being able, to inflict it. I daresay much of this letter will be unpalatable to the war party, but I hope that your readers generally will feel the truths contained'in it, and be careful not to provoke - needless illfeeling by thoughtless churlishness towards Maories.. A white skin does not make a man always right, or a red one wrong. Sympathy of race, and sense of a common injustice, must naturally incline the Maories to the hostile side. They, are a most excitable people, and popular movements are contagious. We cannot expect—more -than neutrality from them, and must he content if.we can get that-;- and while prepared to fight to the last if obliged to do so, we ought to strive by all means in our power to avoid the necessity. If we are to fight let us individually- enter on the contest with a clear conscience; at all events I feel I .have discharged my duty in writing this*, and remain,

Your obdt. servant, 11. C. Field. June. 19th, IB6o* Sib,—Last night I attended, a meeting which was convened, it seems, for the purpose of considering the expediency of providing funds for the erection of stockades to the north-west of the.town.

It was supposed by some that suggestions as to the best sites would be made and discussed a,fc t.hp. once pronounced that that matter was not for the consideration of the meeting, but for the decision of the Colonel commanding .the troops in Wanganui.

I am not a believer in amateur military engineers, nor would I wish- for a moment that any other than the highest of her Majesty’s officers in this pTaqe should decide in the matter j; but I think that gentlemen who have been perhaps only once or twice over the country, would be none the . worse of advice, or rather I should say.suggestions, from those who know every corner of bush, every turn of the gullies, and every path of the Maories. I am confirmed in this notion., by a sketch of a line of defence, .with the .stockades marked thereon, which was exhibited at the.meeting, in which the most likely of all the routes by which the rebels may attack the settlement is left totally unguarded. I will describe the route I' allude to. It is well known that .there are two roads from-the Waitotara- to the Kaiiwh The inland road leads, to cultivations on the height above the Kai-iwi, on-the Waitotara side, about two miles west of Mr. Hewett’s farm. These cultivations are owned by Arapeta’s party—a party well known as the worst and most disaffected in the district—the horror of McLean and the detestat ion of the surchief, it is said, the other day at the Waitotara, cut down the Queen’s flag, as a sort of a sequel, / suppose, to the covenant they niadeat.Putiki, with the “ beautifally Embroidered’mat, with the Bible in'the centre.” From-thence the track leads past Mr. Hewett’s through the Mutuho reserve, where plenty of potatoes are-at present growing, owned by the same Maories* A very short distance from thence, on the same track, is the Waipuna reserve, owned cultivated by--Katina, a 2\%a tiruanui Maori, who has just returned from a three weeks’ visit to his kindred. The track continues from thence through my farm until it strikes the Brunswick road, when it diverges to Kai-wike. This inland road from Waitotara to Kai-wike is in almost constant use, and is a tolerable road for footmen or horses throughout.

Now, if the Maories were making a descent on the town, is there any road in the place they are so likely to take as the one in question ? They could collect their forces and hold their committees at Arapeta’s, without the slightest risk of discovery. They could move to the Mutuho, take a feed of potatoes there; go to Waipuna, rub noses with and get intelligence from Katina; pass through my farm ; and then a .variety of roads would be open for itheir choice ;• there is a. rogij tp Kaiwike, another to Kairara, a.third, and a. short distance, wpuld bring, them-to. the river hauk by Dr. Rees’ and Mr. Kells’, a fourth leads.direct to .Aratno, and then there is the Brunswick road, down which any ' number of Maories might •■pnrsue .their quiet way without, coming within sight or hearing of any of the stockades marked on .the sketch submitted to the .meeting- Tire point at which these .roads diverge is eminently fitted, in my opinion, for, the site of a,stockade ; it i$ a round hill, with a gra-

dual ascent, and is the highest point of land between Mount Trafford anil the sea; it is in full view of. Kairara. and.B.wxker, telegraph signals might, easily- he conveyed, to town. Messrs.. Hewett-j-and • Musson’s- road t and the road from Brunswick station, join at this point./ There is a pretty direct road ,for horses to Mr. Wicksteed’s 1 without crossing a gully ; do. to Messrs. .Peake’s ; Messrs. Taylor and Watt’s* farm, north of the Goat.valley, is* within a very short distance; and there is : a good road, which also leads across the Goat valley, to Mr.,Harper’s and the Mission station. The hill could he easily fortified, timber being near; troops crossing the country could fall back upon it from almost any .part; and having such a command of the country, protection could be afforded to the property of a large number of settlers.

Being convinced myself of the very great importance of this line in a military point of view, notwithstanding m.y wish toj,avoid publicity, I have felt bound to call attention to,it, through youpiColUmri3.,.i|?_ ‘h I am,' sir,, your ol)ilt. servant ' ' '* " John Br-yce.