FORTY YEARS AFTER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 76, 28 March 1908, Page 12

FORTY YEARS AFTER.

SIB JOHN GORST'S NEW ZEALAND MEMORIES. (From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, February -14. , I have been dipping into Sir John I Gorst's new book, entitled "New Zealand Revisited: Recollections of the Days of My Youth," which Sir Isaac Pitman | and Sons published a few days ago. In this volume Sir John has revived many memories of New Zealand as he knew it in the early sixties, when he acted as Civil Commissioner in the Waikato, on the eve of the Maori war. Mingled with his stories of the early days are his impressions of New Zealand as he saw it again in 1906, when, after an absence of over forty years, he went out from England as British Commissioner to the International Exhibition at Christchurch. He makes some interesting contrasts between then and now. He found Auckland grown out of all recognition—-"the old picturesque city, with its wooded bluffs and green hills and- scattered dwellings, was gone, and a grand new city presented itself, extending to both sides of the harbour, in which none of the old landmarks were discernible." Waiting on tbe wharf at Auckland when Sir John arrived was a tatooed old Maori, who turned out to be no other than Patara Te Tuhi, the sole survivor of all the men, European and Maori, who were prominent in the events which preceded the Maori War. Patara had edited ''The Eagle in the Clouds," the Maori newspaper in opposition to which Sir John Gorst ran a little paper called ''The Lonely Sparrow on the Housetop." So incensed were the Waikato Maoris at the "mocking tone" of the "Lonely Sparrow" that they raided the office, carried off the printing press, and gave Commis-1 sioner Gorst notice to quit the district or forfeit his life. The Commissioner waited for instructions from his chief, j Sir George GTey, and eventually withdrew from Te Awamutu to Auckland. Shortly afterwards the Waikato war| began. I notice Sir John refutes the story that the Maoris melted up his type to make bullets. On the contrary, thc-y sent the press to Mr Andrew Kay's store at Mangatawhiri, and the Government afterwards removed it thence to Auckland. Patara's action in coming to Auckland to welcome him in 1906 was much appreciated by Sir John Gorst. It was, he says, "typical of the generous nature of the Maori, and of his inability to keep up feelings of animosity."

During his visit to Christchurch, Sir John Gorst visited one of the public elementary schools with the Hon. George Fowlds, Minister of Education, and was at once struck by the healthy appearance of all the scholars, "great sturdy hoys and girls, with rosy cheeks and well-formed limbs." He inquired whether New Zealand was cursed with that partial starvation of the child population which has for so many years been permitted to exist in Great Britain. The reply was that there did not exist a starving child in New Zealand, from the North Cape to the Bluff, and, so far as his observation went in the schools he visited, he found this statement absolutely correct. What a contrast to wealthy London, where thousands upon thousands of little children go hungry to school day after day!

Amongst tbe changes noted In. New Zealand by Six John, none struck him more forcibly than the altered attitude of the white and the brown races towards one another. "In former times," (he said, "the feeling of pakeha towards Maori was much like that of white man to negro in the United States. Only persons like the Governor, the Bishop, and the leading statesmen treated the Maoris as equals, and nobody else would have thought of inviting them into their houses as social equals. On the Maori side, the pakeha had ceased to have the commercial value he possessed in the early days, when he was a valuable member of a Maori community, and collectively was generally regarded with dislike, suspicion, and sometimes contempt." All this, of course has been altered vastly for the better in the period that has elapsed since then.

New Zealand's labour and land laws receive a chapter to themselves, highly eulogistic in tone. Sir John's conclusion on this subject is that "the Parliaments of New Zealand have acted, while ours have only talked. The democracy of New Zealand is far too intelligent to tolerate the obstruction for party purposes of laws designed for their welfare, to which both parties in the Mother Country are in turn addicted; and the result of active and instructed democratic pressure is a splendid record of social reform."

Much of the book is devoted to an account of the labours of Sir George Grey, Sir John Gorst, and some of the Maori chiefs to avert the disastrous war which ultimately broke out in the Waikato between Pakeha and Maori over the question of the Maori kingship. Looking back after forty years, it does certainly appear, from Sir John Gorst's narrative, that the Government made a grave mistake in bringing the Maori king into the quarrel, which should have been treated as a mere land dispute at Taranaki. In a private letter written before the war Sir John Gorst said, "It appears to mc very foolish not to let the Maori king alone, as there is little danger to be apprehended from him, and with a more efficient native administration he would, as Tamibana hinted, die a natural death." In the wrong over the Waitara land dispute, the Government proceeded to try and crush the "king" movement. The end was bitter war, which laid bare the country, decimated the natives, and cost Great Britain millions of money, and the lives of many soldiers and sailors. It is a sad, pitiful story, even at this interval of time.

Tamihana, who strove hard but vainly to avert the war, was a man of fine character and great ability. "I have met •many statesmen in the course of my long life," says Sir John Gorst, "but none superior in intellect and character to this Maori chief (Tamihana), whom most people would look upon as a savage." It was one of the tragedies of the situation that Tamihana was overrule' by his own tribe, and treated with suspicion by the Government. As it was, in spite of all obstacles, be contrived to stave off war for two years after the Waitara dispute, hit in the end circumstances were toe strong for him. And "the labours of 'SiT John Gorst towards effecting a peaceful reconciliation ended likewise in "disastrous failure."

An anecdote to conclude with. When the war-cloud was looming a little less black for the time being, a dinner was given by the chiefs of Rangiaowhia to Jeommemorate the "King's" accession. At the request of the natives, Sir John Gorst took the chair, supported by the King's sister and the leading chiefs. After dinner there were races and other

athletic sports. "I ran" a race with ~th« general of the King's army, and was beaten by a head," says Sir John. "The news of these festivities, when it' reached Auckland, was received with great indignation, and one journal wrote an article saying that if ever a man deseTved to bo hanged for high treason, Mr Gorst was that man; but by tbe same post I received a letter from "Sir George Grey expressing his approval of all I had done, and especially of the tact with which I had allowed myself to be beaten in the race by the King's general!"