The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 1874.

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1305, 14 April 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News

TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 1874.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And tht, good that we can do

It has invariably been the case from the time of Governor Hobson to the present that the advent of a new Governor has been invested in the minds of the natives with a special importance which is not attached to it by Europeans familiar with the" working of Responsible Government. The natives now understand more clearly than they have ever done before that it is to the Ministry and Parliament, and not to the Governor, they must look for the redress of their grievances, the granting of their petitions, and the settlement of other questions affecting their welfare. Nevertheless they are still apt to apply the rules of Maori etiquette to the great pakeha chief ; and as the essence of greatness to a Maori ruind is the preservation of a becoming dignity, the Governor who treats them superciliously is much more likely to secure their respect than one who wait s on them with favours. From Maori sources we know that the natives, from what they have heard of his character andcareer, orfromsomo other cause, have been led to regard Sir James Fergusson with great awe. To th' B feeling may probably be traced tho marked absence of the customary Maori demonstration at Government House on the arrival of His Excellency, and the omission of the U3ual presentation of mats, &c. The form which this fooling takes in the native mind is often very ludicrous. We may give as an instance the substance of a conversation with a notable Maori recently in town. Speaking of His Excellency this native said :—

"AYe hear that this Governor is a severe man, and we Maoris are afraid to go near him. The other Governors were old women, and if a Maori asked them for a shilling he would get it. But if a Maori took a paper to this Governor he would be put away by a policeman, and tho Governor would not look at liim. And not only is it the Maoris whom he treats in this way but we hear that he would not receive a deputation of Jewesses, and that he turned the screeching old band headlong out of the Go. vernment grounds into tho street. He is a great man, and we are afraid of him.' r

The notions of His Excellency's greatness, expressed by the loquacious waiter on a paternal Government, whose views we have just quoted, are in substance Jwhat is talke of by the firo in their whares, and on their fishing smacks ; and there is'no doubt that Sir James rises wonderfully in their estimation in proportion tothedee^ee to which he is removed from the "old womanism," which only too faithfully describes the course of procedure, followed by some of his predecessors in office. In view of the proposed visit of tho Governor to Waikato it is desirable that those feelings of respect should not be weakened. The Maoris are too apt to misinterpret into a token of undignified and truckling deference the act of a Governor going to see them in place of the tribes being required to come and see him if they desire an interview ; and although in the case of the friendlies this may not so much matter, it might, with natives who do not acknowledge the authority of the Queen, have a very injurious effect, and is» at least, very lowering to the dignity of the Vice-regal office. The demand made by Rewi for the stoppage of roads indicates the feeling that still exists—Ministerial assurances to the contrary notwithstanding—in the minds of the natives living beyond the confiscation boundary, and we feel convinced that if his Excellency met Tawhiao to-morrow, by the Governor's request, demands would be made by the Maori King which it would be beyond the power of the Governor to grant, and would even be lowering for the Crown to tolerate from an assumed subject, who has maintained an attitude of hostility and defiance towards the Queen's authority for so many years. Of such a character were many of the Maori speeches at Governor Bowen's farewell to the natives at Ngaruawahia, which were suppressed by request of the Government; and we hope that a similar suing by the Governor for an interview with semi-rebel chiefs, and the permission of treasonable utterances in the presence of the very representative of royalty, will not be repeated. From the known character of Sir James Fergusson we believe there is no likelihood of this being done during his term of office ; but there is no extreme to which the pusillanimous and pandering native policy of the Government might not lead a Governor ' unacquainted with the customs and opinions of the native race. It is for this reason that we raise the | voice of warning. j