The Anglo-Maori Warder. TUESDAY, JULY 18, 1848.

Anglo-Maori Warder, Volume 1, Issue 13, 18 July 1848, Page 2

The Anglo-Maori Warder. TUESDAY, JULY 18, 1848.

-Let me see wherein My tongue hath wronged him: if it do him right, Then he hath wronged himself; if he be fred, Why, then my taxing like a wild UNKNOWN flies, Unclaimed ot any man.- As gnu like il. Wr. are about to touch upon a subject with which we do not well know how to deal; to undertake a delicate, even an invidious task, in an endeavour to search out the true causes of the extreme dislike entertained towards a man of such ability as Governor Grey. That it does not spring "from any ill-grained peculiarity of disposition in the New Zealand settlers, or even from any local infringement of private interests, as he would willingly have taught many to believe, is made cleai by the manifestation of a similar feeling at Adelaide, where It endures against him even to the piesent day. The grounds of it, whatever they may be, are common to both colonies alike. And in New Zealand niatleis have now come to such a pass —lo the extreme injury of the c jlony, to the ruin of the temper and kindly feelings of the colonists themselves, that the present attempt is forced upon us, as a sole remaining chance to remedy the evil; to heal a gangrened wound by probing it to the core. It is possible that blame may attach to both sides ; perhaps to one alone : at all events, let inquiry lie faithfully made; and then, if the fault be seen to lie with the governed, in the name of justice let them be courageous enough to acknowledge and amend it ; if uith the Governor, let him make a manly effort to redeem the past. It is a wrong state of things, and a painful state of things. Painful, vie say, not from any affected yearnings of sympathy towards himself; but because it breaks m upon those old English feelings of loyalty, which it has been our pride to bear out to this extreme world's end ;—upon the respect that is due to the office, whatever may be thought of the man: and wrong, because it engenders that acrid tone of feeling, that habitual discontent, that involuntary instinct of contention with any authority whatever, which is now beginning to strike deep root amongst us. It must be admitted, that the Governor of an English colony has a hard card to play. He arrives fiom home, a stranger to those whom he i 3 appointed lo rule, with no local feelings or ideas in common with them, but with a sort of quarter-deck authority conferred upon him, uusoftened by those associations of hereditary claim, which go so far towards reconciling our countrymen to rule, and influence their minds even when they think it least. He arrives, a stranger, and is not even allow ed the chance of becoming an intimate. Confessedly a bird of passage, his tenure of office restricted to a few short years, to a time not more tlir.n sufficient towards making himselfacquainted with the country,.he is never reallv domiciled among the colonists, but is looked upon as sojourner, the mere temporary occupant of a vice-regal caravansera. The Saxon gorge instinctively rises ttgainst any such hart-hazard assumption of dominion. And the peculiar characteristics of those whom he is sent to rule combine with the unsatisfactory nature of his own power to render the task more difficult. A young colony,—and of such a one we are speaking more particularly—is filled by an active minded, resolute class of men ; made up almost entirely of emigrants from the mother country, of men that for the most part have been unsuccessful at home; but whose energies that want of succeis was unable to overcome. No man, -without a certain force of character, without full measure of selfreliance in h s composition, is likely to have taken such a marked and dt.isive step in life. And this natural spirit independence is doubled in him by the discover), »o soon as he sets foot upon the'se shores, thai'the prestige of lank is gone. At home, every man occupies Ins own niche in the temple of societ) : his place is marked nut for lum, and his neighbours will not suffer him to fill another than his own. Kut in a new colon}. all men are travellers, and mostly give themselves the airs of travellers. No oii« knows, or they fancy that no one knows, from vvhe.e they unne. and the attempt to their forcgj-ie is too gie.u to be easily withstood. Addtotlus.tli.it domain ties—l!.e tiue mot of con.ervative feelings —with ie,pect W gie.it unlabels, have been comple„U seveud, and weakened with almost all and we shall then perceive why independence si ou'.J so ulieu deepen into the mini iiiageable smliiiess ot seltcsteem. In a body uf eima-aiit.- too nun)

are unscrupulous; some would have been fit tenants of Adullam ; but nearly all rank far above tlie average in intellect. These are tbe natural obstacles to the quiet management of a colony, which many a well meaning anil able man has failed to o\ercoine. And for the frequent instances of ill success, the home government has itself to blame. It has entirely misapprehended the st} le of men best suited to the station. English ministers have always seemed to think, that by taking care to choose aman of talent,they have secured in lum ever) qualification for the office. Never was a more mischievous error. Mere ability does not of itself constitute the fitness required: that quality is only perhaps of secondary importance, for the want of it can be supplied by an able staff of officers. It is not necessary that a Governor should dazzle and astonish the colonists with genius; enough is gamed if he can acquire their respect. He is not expected even to be his own Colonial Secretary ; his part is rather that of a fly-wheel in an engine, to regulate and steady the workings of the machine. It is strong good sense, and the natural gift of command, that the Queen's advisers had rather need to seek. Agamemnon was not the greatest warrior in the Grecian camp, nor the cunniugest plotter; but he was called emphatically, the ruler of men ; one endowed with that indefinable power, which swayed them at will to his own wishes and moods. Let them at least make sure that they have j fixed upon a gentleman; one possessed of a heart as well as a head; with generosity of feeling enough freely to acknowledge a slight mistake, rather than to brave it out in vain assumption of infallibility; devoid of egotism, th.it most dangerous of failings, sure to breed mischief when met by self esteem—the besetting sin of colonies ; and abo\e all, free from all taint of that imperious tone, which is laughed at by those who are not under controul, but silently resented by those who are. Manner w ill often do more than mind ; the winning iiuile and affable address, the fascination of habitual small courtesies, will go further on occasion, than much superiority of talent. Few Governors seem to perceive in what their true exercise of power should lie. It is not in manceuvrmg, in petty tricks of short lived policy ; but in that legitimate influence which the very station confers upon any one able to sustain it. And that personal influence, of all motive forces in government, the easiest and the pleasantest to use, in a small community might Le rendered almost paramount. It is easily even too easily acquired ; the most rigid republicanism will thaw and soften under the beam • ing smile of power. It is to this point, that the prime caie of a Governor from the'first moment of his arrival, should be directed; to generating sympathy and genial warmth of feeling between himself and his charge; to be trusted; to win the confidence of all around him ; to enlist a body' guard of friends ready to serve him, not alone as abanen point of duty, but for very love of the man. In many a difficulty, his own private adherents would turn the fortune of the day. May we now be suffered to inquire how it is that Captain Gitr.v, having come down here amongst us anxiously expected, and with popularity yet unearned awaiting him, how he should have so soon suffered it to slip through his hands ; how it is that his own personal influence should have fallen away from him day by day ; that the colonists should now stand arrayed against hiin, almost to a man ; that their bitterness of animosity should be directed not so much against the measures, as against the mover of them. Where are the failings ; where are the mistakes. To one that has closely watched him from the commencement of his New Zealand career, they are apparent enough. We have never begrudged him free acknowledgment of ability. He stands high among the secondrate order of minds -. one of the Dii ninorum qenlium ; but still his intellect is one sided—his power of perception incomplete. An excellent man of business—with great, facility of acquiring knowledge, and accurate mastery of detail—with remarkable power of managing affairs, so far as affaus can be distinguished from the actors in them, he is utterly unsuccessful in his management of men. His fatal defect is want of tact. Devoid of all sympathy with others , too much engrossed with contemplation of himself to be able to enter into the feelings, or perceive the inmost thoughts of those around him, he is almost certain to mistake his man. With an unlucky knack of making personal enemies—in spile of some occasional gleams of good nature—ignorant of the pleasure of converting an enemy into a friend—his rare attemps at conciliation marred by the invariable awkwardness of the attempt —by slights toil a ds some, by rough using others, b) mdulg- j lriL' in assumption, without possessing that dig- ! i, it v. of be.mug vi Inch alone can cany it off, he j is :icciiiiiuLrtui_r, ll'ipopularil) on ever) side. And vvh.it lie vv .riH in tact, he ries to make up in Mibtl.ty. His lust of working up to even eiiil bi .i cmmiflii loursc i, imquench,.!,l,.; Wlui vi.ii but .in inclm.'ii...., has now „-.1,.J djvui '.. .i pi.qvim'v. ii.. 1 ..,.;. r to be L.ntiolleil His ll.i'ul.tl U.l.lit for llileadlilg the lllaioul toltuouj [olliv. Lis de.V.i.il) 1U

wielding ail unsafe and oldfishioncd weapon, is allowed by all; neither can the general!) successful issue of his stratagems be denied. Still we conceive, that his activity is altogether misdirected ; that he must have been sent out here to t;overn the colonists,not to outwit them. It is a netty triumph, after nil, the triumph of ruse; of little north.even to a congenial spirit; a poor ovation atlhebest. With Odysseus we could rest content ; he is cast at least in heroic mould; but for the VirgilHan Ulysses—! He may have enjoyed some success as yet, but will suvely lose at this game in the long run. For it is impossible to blench the fact, that lie is no longer trusted. Whether deservedly so or unjustly, it is not for us to say ; but either way. he is almost equally to blame. There must be some mismanagement when every one that has to do with him expects to be played a trick. And whether such expectation be well or ill grounded, the very existence of it is abundant pi oof of his unfitness for the office that has been entrusted to him. Eiery one has begun to question his motives, and to put the worst construction upon all that be says or does. And it may be laid down as , almost a rule in moral science, that the man .whose motives are habitually misconstrued deserves no pity ; that he has but himself to blame. He lias committed the grave error of supposing that the Governor and the Go* erned are natural enemies; that he came out here to do battle for the mastery. Filled with this idea he has gathered himself up, armed at all points with poners almost unlimited from home; he has looked with Ishmnelitish suspicion upon all around him, forgetting, or having never known, that trust is a sympathetic feeling, of reciprocal and interchangeable force. And, as if that were not enough, he must needs make it more glaring than it would othern ise have been by affectation of secrecy—by ostentatious parade of mystery —placarding, as it were, his avowed resolve to confide in no man. How else would ■be have gone to work to govern a convict colony ? , What a chance has this spoiled child of Fortune thrown away. A man in whose favor happy accidents liave hitherto combined; successor to a recalled Governor; the errors of a predecessor, by a common process of false reasoning, placed to his onn credit; rinding a colony, ulnch had been sunk to the lowest pitch of depression, already beginning to recover itself, with an upward impetus, of long standing enough to be depended upon for continuance, yet new enough to be attributable in Kuglaud to his own improved system of management ; with men and money lavished on the country, by inverse ratio to the former stmt; supplied with a staff of officers that had woiked offthcir errois of apprenticeship at HobsoVs and at FirzKov's expense: the labours of the Missionaries at last beginning to tell effectually upon the native race ; the fullest confidence of the home Government, coupled with the overhasty good will of the colonists, which he had nothing to do but keep ; and that which to our mind was the greatest luck of all—the chance such as occurs but once in a life, of taking his stand with dignity, independence, and even safety—though we blush to name the last as an inducement —against the breach of faith towards the Maories which be was instructed to enforce. A high minded man would have -el all at rest, as a matter of course : a bad man. if a bold one, would have jumped at the oppo - tunity of affecting high principle, wheie it was almost a ceitainty that he would lose nothing by the assertion of it. It was the most glorious of chances; to win the love and confidence of the whole Native population, to earn respect from the colonists, to compel respect and adhesion to his acts from home; and this, we will not say from timidity, but from sheer paference of shifty evasion, he has failed in turning to account. He has missed his points throughout, distracted from them by an over eager appetite of snatching at small advantages. Is it too late to recover himself ? We very much fear thatit is; that nothing can reinstate him in the position he has sacrificed ; but it is not too late to make the attempt. Let him strive to demean himself for his short remaining term of office, as if he were heie for life, and not force upon us the clullmg conviction that he is here only for a while, an! for the mere furtherance of his own ends and fortunes; to make a steppiug-slone of New Zealand —to cast his shoe over Edom. Let him eschew all displays of temper, real or affected, and put off that repulsive tone of manner, which, by checking all confidence of communication, keeps him in much real ignorance of what is going on. Let him disabuse himself of the idea that all is to be done by head. Calculation promises well hi the closet, but is woefully at fault when it comes to be tested among men. Let him hear in mind above all things, tint the history of tins colony has vet to be written , that the infl.iteddespatches which buoy hun up at home for a wluU'. can be only a temporary support, but will suiely tall aw a) to nothing when once the time shall haw been given to collate tin-in c.uefullv With the locallCCOld, ol the da v ! ' Ab.u i.mdia u:U

His Kvcellcncy is minded in affect royally; "the in}.ill)," at lea-l, "of rc|>.iirmp wrong by persisting in H." His perseverance in perserut'iig the Missionaries stands in strange contrast i.i Ins habitual iiiclccisiuu,yt-t still is easily lo !>.■ explained. Vacillating, infirm of purpose, ulicn let alone, H needs only the most lulling opposition to confirm in liis mind the rashest ami most immatuie resolves, as the papci kite is supported in the air. only through resistance of the string that cheeks" it. Let the restraint hut fail, and your toy conies tumbling to the ground. Sooner than lie thwailed, he has not hesitated to pit his on ii law against that of the two judges, and appeal to the privy council against the late decision of the Supreme Court'-, by way of staling off the cul moment —the confession of complete defeat. It is to be hoped that his Honor does not very severely feel the blow. " For the box on the ear the prince gave you"—says Falstalf to the Chief Justice, "lie gave it like a rude prince, and you took it like a sensible lord. I have checked him lor it; and the young lion repents : marry, not in ashes, f.nd sackcloth , but in new silk, and old sack." We certainly have cheeked him for it, and somewhat sharply ; yet are sorry to perceive that our royal pupil shews no signs of mending ; and therefore turn to another quarter, where there is better chance of a patient hearing. There is little ground to anticipate a reversal of the judgment: still, we would warn the Misskmancs against being lulled into a false securit) ; for they cannot know w hat representations may Hank the appeal. Let them see that the Privy Council be forearmed; let them provide, not only against every statement that owgWtobe made, but against every statement that tnigh-' he made. For the New Zealand Government is not infallible; its means of acquiring infoimatiorr are by no means so complete as they could have been tendered ; mistakes ha\e been ficquent in despatches, which have aheady beeu the mp„ns of leading the Home Government into serious error. And it should be home in mind, that assertions which might be passed over in this country, as hardly worth the trouble of refuting, become of grave importance m Kngland, when supported by official vouchers. Let us urge them to lose notiinein compiling the fullest possible statement of their case, its whole history,fiomthe beginning to the end; ti> let their friends at home know every thiug.ami to moke them feelsecuretli.it they dokuoiv every thing ; so that they may take theii measures boldly, without fear olcommitting themselves, or being met by taunts of imperfect itifuimalion as to facts. But let vis once again impress upon them they will pardon the rcniirk—the necessity of a temperate and guarded, as well as of a copious representation of their claims. The caution is not mightseem; I'm flip most conscieiicious men,smarting under a scn.e of injustice, and of ciml misrcprescnlatioi",, might easily and unwittingly overstate a case, to their own signal discomfiture and loss. Let them watchfully guaid against all expression of impatience under wrong, lest they be leproaclied with following the example of M.ulin Luther, who, when he found himself unable to scale away the Devil with his p-n, adopted the more summary pioceeding of hurling the inkstand at his head.