A DICTATOR FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 55, 4 July 1887, Page 5

A DICTATOR FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Extraordinary Proposal !>y Sir Bartle Frerc.

Among the unpublished documents presented to the Auckland Free Library by Sir Georgo Grey appears tho following remarkable scheme, which waa submitted to the English Government by Sir 11. Bartlo Prero :— India Office, November 8, 1809. We received last week particulars of the military reductions contemplated by the Government of India. They involve tho immediafco discontinuance of active employment to a great number of European officers and men, all in the prime of life and efficiency, and also the reduction of a great number of efficient native officers and soldiers. Many of thesn officers and men havo been specially trained in frontier service against semi-barbarous and active enemies in very difficult country. I odor here no opinion as to tho wisdom of any reduction. I merely regard it for tho moment as inevitable. At tho same time wo havo in tho newspapers an admirable letter from Lord Carnarvon, {Minting out that England is risking a mull itudo of lives of innocont people, the ruin of a flourishing colony, permanent antagonism of two races of British mibjccts, and groat loss of national credit and honour for want of a few thousand men who will servo as soldiers for a few years in New Zealand. India, in fact, wants to dispenso with exactly what New Zealand wants to acquire. Would it not be possible to arrange so that both parties should attain their object ? All that scema requisite is that both parties should act in concert. L Let India say to tho officers and soldiers she does not require— Officers and soldiers are wanted for service in New Zealand. Tho Government of India desire now to dispense with the immediate services of —' officers'and — men of 11.M.. English nnd Indian armies, as shown in tho Government notification of tho , and up-to that number offers the following terms to all who ai'Q willing to engage with tho British Government to serve in New Zealand for periods of say two, three, five, or more years:— .]. A free passage to Now Zealand. 2. Indian pay and allowances at the rates drawn last month by each man, during voyage, and for threo months after landing in New Zealand. 3. Service under these engagements to count as service in India for pension, etc., to all entitled to it by their existing engagements with the British or Indian Governments. 4. Officers or men accepting sorvice in New Zealand ou these conditions will not be entitled to any return passage from New Zealand to India or England at tho expense of the Indian Government. 11. Tho British Government Bhould engage:— 1. i'o make the agreements for service in New Zealand in conjunction with the Indian anil Now Zealand Governments. 2. To pay officers and men received from the Indian Government from tho expiration of tho three months' term after landing, debiting the amount as a loun to New Zealand. 3. To appoint, in conjunction with tho New Zealand Government, a Military Dictator, with full military and civil authority under commission from tho Crown to settle the Northern Island. 111. The New Zealand Government should engage:— 1. To repay the loan advanced by the British Government, and to respect tho engagements made with officers and men. '2. To offer, free or at reduced rates, grants of land, in proportions varying according to rank, to all officers and men, natives ot India or China as well as Europeans, who after completing not less than two years' .service under these engagements, may take their discharge from Her Majesty's service, and agree to settlo in. New Zealand. By some such plan the Government of India would get rid of tho burden of officers and men it does not need in less than six months, and moro completely than by any other plan,consistent with the contentment of the men and observance of existing ongagertcnts. Tho British Government would eflcct reductions in a manner which woidd secure a colony, and ultimately settle a considerable number of officers and men in positions where they would be a source of strength to the colony and empire in time to come, and this without ultimate cost to tho British taxpayer. New Zealand would settlo tho Northern Island, and render it a peaceable division of a great dominion ; and having reduced the turbulent natives to obedience, instead of exterminating them (the inevitable alternative), might not only secure them as a contented and loyal portion of tho population in future, but add to them a number of valuable English colonists, with possibly a sprinkling of natives of India, China, and Polynesia. If peace and good order were restored to the Northern Island, its land and other resources would, under a reasonably good government, speedily repay any outlay really necessary to cli'cct the pacification. But. permanent pacification and good government must be preceded by a clear enforcement of somebody's; supremacy ; and unless that supremacy is Queen Victoria's it must, .in the long run, be that of some other power, of European origin, and will be enforced by a process of gradual fillibustering, alternate massacre of whites and Maoris, and ultimate extermination of the latter.

Under Queen Victoria's supremacy, permanent pacification jmd good government aro not only compatible with, but will bo promoted by,a duo regard for native rights, and by everything which can conduce to the permanent benefit of the native population. ' What is now required is such a moderated estimate of native rights and possibilities as may be consistent with tho fact that if things are loft alone to drift uncontrolled, the speedy extermination of the whole race, with their rights and capabilities, is, humanly speaking, inevitable. I believe a Military Dictator to be essential to the perfect success of any such scheme, because absolute authority for a time, and responsibility—ultimately to tho Crown and the British nation, but, during the progress of events, only to God and his own conscience—is essential. I know that Her Majesty possesses many such officers, capable, with a moderate allowance of men and money, of reducing to obedience the whole Northern Island, and of giving reasonable security of life and property to all who live there — officers who may be safely entrusted with the necessary amount of authority.and who.Her Majesty may be assured, will exercise it with regard for the lives, property and rights of the poorest of her subjects, natives as D well as Europeans. Such a Dictator will not be found among men who rely habitually on an Algerine policy of reprisals and village burning—of setting tribe against tribe, and of driving out the devil of war by the Beelzebub of bribery and bad faith. But there are many accomplished soldiers who have served in India and China, and there learnt the art of civilising barbarous races in place of destroying them—an art in which which Englishmen employed in India, from the days of Cleveland to our own, have rarely been deficient.

The officer employed should have ample means given him to make roads and to secure communications, as well as to fight. A corps or two of Indian and Chinese pioneers, trained to work as well as to defend themselves, would do much in this way. Every road, wisely planned and properly made, ought to pay for itself by tho land it would open oub. H. B. E. Frere.