The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 1874.

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1307, 16 April 1874, Page 2

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

THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 1874.

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

Whe_jt Southern journals undertake to deal with the native question the result is almost invariably very amusing.. Of such a character is; a leading article in a recent issue of the Otago Daily Times on the kingifce meeting at Te Kuiti, from which we make the following extract :—

! The result of this division of the King party should have an important influence on the future welfare ofithe colony..; It is' the breaking up of the last great confederation of the tribes; they have found kingship has given them no cohesion; the influences of the Lind and King League that have cost the colony so dearly both in money and blood may be considered to come speedily to an end; the Government will be enabled to purchase tracts of land for settlement it has long wished to acquire, private individuals being excluded from Coiripetition'; and by'wisely expending the half million sterling voted last session for the acquisition of a landed estate for the North Island, we may hope to have heard the last of the railing of our Northern fellow colonists against the " unholy " compact of 1856. It will be interesting to watch the action of the Native Department in this new phase of Maori affaiis.

To Auckland people accustomed to the aimless nonsense of these periodical gatherings for feasting and talk their termination without arriving at any tangible conclusion' is considered much less remarkable than wpuldbe the enunciation of some important policy for the future government of Maoridom, which seems to have been expected by our k Southern contemporary. The position of Tawhiao and the Waikato tribe is well

understood.?;> They have lost nearly the whole of tiieir territory by confiscation, and arc now only, tenants at will on the Ngatimanipoto lands, and their policy is necessarily one of wailing and exclusiveness. No one knows better than Tawhiao and his advisers how futile it would Ibe to attempt to enforce his laws or to assume any active sovereignty over the territory of his friends and allies who havo afforded him an asylum. In their present mood there is no balm for the wounds of the bereaved Waikatos but the restoration of their lost lands, and this they know is beyond the power of the Government to grant now that the land has been so largely alienated from the Crown and settled upon. To come out of their shell, and accept the bounty of the Government in the form of a small slice of territory, would be to lose the semblance of authority that Tawhiao and his advisers still possess, and would not very largely benefit the tribe, who are from all accounts subsisting very comfortably at present, with no lack of the luxuries which civilization affords. That there is any danger of a renewal of hostilities for the recovery of Waikato we do not believe. The Waikato tribe feel their helplessness to undertake such a work alone, while Rewi at the head of the Ngatimanipotos has too much to lose to allow himself, with the exftmple of Waikato before him, to become embroiled in a war which would unquestionably terminate in the loss of his own valuable territory. That there is, however, any present prospect of Rewi throwing Tawhiao and hi 3 people off we do not believe, and we fear that if the dissatisfaction regarding tho land compact of 1850 is to be terminated only by the opening up and acquisition of the territory beyond the confiscation boundary, the people of the South must endure the twittings of the North for years to come. The native difficulty has resolved itself into a question of time. By more frequent intercourse with the settlers in their trips across tho lino for the disposal of produce the natives will no doubt gradually relax their present semi-hostile attitude, and more cordial . relations grow up; but that this will be effected suddenly by any decision of a native gathering we do not anticipate, and that the Government take the Bimc view is indicated by the indifference which the Native Minister displayed in relation to the proceedings of the late Te Kuiti meeting.