SIR GEOEGE GREY AND THE WAIKATOS

Press, Volume II, Issue 42, 1 March 1862, Page 1

SIR GEOEGE GREY AND THE WAIKATOS

Xot many of our readers, we believe, see the ' Maori M ■ sender'; we have therefore reprinted in full from . L . omm ns the reports of the conversations between ~ Governor and the Natives of the Waikatos, which appear in that journal. Partial reports of these interviews have appeared before, but not in the | ,-me lull ftllcl accurate form. We publish them h 'ciuse we deem it of paramount importance, that, More the next meeting of the Assembly (which has, we hear, been postponed till June, and is to take place at "Wellington) the Middle Island should be riiabicd thoroughly to comprehend the policy which Mis Excellency and his Ministers have proposed to iln , natives; and nowhere have we seen that policy so fully set forth as in these speeches by the Governor to the Waikatos. It is also very curious to watch the expression of the native mind, in order to see to what extent mistrust in the Government and the Europeans has taken root, and to what extent conjideuce is beginning to return. Sir (t. Grey seems to us to have put the King question in a light which will work amongst the natives. He begins by saying " I want to know what you mean by a King " —" Is he to be a King over the whole native race ?" —"Yes" they say. "But suppose some of the natives will not accept him ; what then ?"—" Yes, but all will accept him." - What, the ISgapuhis ? says the Governor." " Oh, we have not had answers to our letters from them." i; Well, but what will you do if they wont accept your King." " "We don't know that they will not." " I tell you they will not," says the Governor. Thus they continued to fence with the question; but Sir George Grey was not to be foiled; and when one native replied in this strain, he calls forj another speaker to inform him on this point. ■ "Because" ne sa y s "I *° know —do you intend to establish the Maori King by force in those districts where he will not be willingly accepted ?" Thus he brings them to one important result. He tells them that he will not permit any such !'»rcibLe extension of the movement; and shews them that, without force, the King movement is only a union of some few tribes under one head; that their King is only a larger chief, and in such capacity he ready and glad to acknowledge and welcQme him. He thinks the name a bad one to have chosen, but does not care much about a name ; but he will be ready to co-operate with the larger chief, or with the <'hiefof each individual tribe, as they please, in order 10 produce the result which is the recognised object i>l all— namely, the introduction of law and order over the whole island. ■The question as to the plunder taken from the Europeans in the late war is treated in a less satisfac'■°iy manner: there is some difficulty in understandtUr s w aat the Governor means. He does not say that &c plunder, either of goods, such as horses, or cattle, °r land, which is held by the natives, shall be S'wn up. .- -*'/■. ' " 1 ou will he says, ki that this has been •Wnded to be u p, if you do not wish to be ,l faeked. In my postibn as Governor, I do not care whether this is given up orjtiot: but I will tell you w «at T think." H e then goes on to explain, that if my stolen property is found on any Maori, " he will, eu>!l if it he twenty years hence, be taken before the Jud " e - ati <* if he be found to be a thief he will be punished: . The view Sir G. Grey takes is, that ie is, and has been, no war—the case has been one

of a simple riot. For example, in the celebrated Bristol riots, the troops fought with the people; there was war for a few days till the riot was over; and then n special commission of the Queen's Bench sat to try the offenders according to the ordinary process of law ; not according to military law. Sir G. Grey i seems to take the same view of affairs here. There is now peace. The ordinary courts of law are to settle all past questions. Now we are not saying Sir G. Grey is wholly right or wrong, we are simply trying to explain his policy. But it may be remembered that long ago we asked this question—Were we at war or not ? What was the legal aspect of the question ? Were we fighting as against a foreign power, or simply putting down a riot ? Were we fighting against the Queens' enemies, or subduing her own subjects ? And we asked this, because in speeches and articles innumerable we saw that the same character was attributed to the natives at the same time, when it suited the speaker's or writer's purpose. And now the difficulty comes to light. In war plunder is justifiable. You can't punish the soldier after a war for sharing in the plunder of a town or district; and the natives are themselves quite sensible of this view. His Excellency asks—" How about the stolen property; the cattle and horses ?" Tipene—" My name for that is spoils of war," (or the spoils lawfully taken in war). But if you regard a man as a rioter, you may try him as a robber or receiver of stolen goods; thus Sir George Grey seems resolved to ignore the existence of war in the colony at all. He. deprecates the idea of accepting terms of submission or punishing offenders. But there is this to be remarked; that, in a country where law is prevalent, such an institution as police intervenes. If we suspect a man has stolen goods, we send police to search his housewithout police law is helpless. It was actually helpless in Ireland till Sir Eobert Peel founded the police force now called 'Peelers' in that country. But here is a case where hundreds of horses and cattle are openly held by the marauders; and we confess it seems rather like a shirking of the question in such a case to assume that the case is one of law, and to say that a man found with stolen property on him will be punished. In another place the Governor holds language scarcely consistent with the above. He says —" I do not promise to bo satisfied without the stock is given up. I do not think I shall be satisfied. I must have an enquiry before I can say what I will do." The only conclusion we can come to is, that Sir George Grey is not anxious at present to be very explicit on this point. That he intends first to let the new i nstitutions get hold on the outj lying districts. All north of Auckland is now thoroughly secured. The natives in other parte are gradually accepting the system of government which has been proposed to them; and when the north and e"ast are committed to the new government under the Queen, Sir George Grey may be in a position to hold different language to those who positively and forcibly obstruct the reduction of the island to one system of government. He has given ominous hints that force may be used after all. " I have many soldiers with mc," he says, "and lean have as many more as I like." In the consciousness of power and of determination to use it in the last necessity, he can well afford to hold language which may produce the desired result by persuasion instead of violence. Thus he hints to the Waikatos that it would be better if they could persuade the Taranakis and Ngateruinnis to give up their plunder, and also a 'portion of land as a recom-

pense for the injuries they have inflicted—"Therefore I recommend you all to try and persuade the people who have the plunder to give it up." The way in which the "Waitara Question is introduced is curious. When the Governor talks' of giving up land taken from the Europeans, the Native asks—" Have the English none of our land ?"— " What do you mean ?" says the Governor. "The Waitara." It is obvious that the idea that the m\h of the Waitara was an unfair one, is not confined, as we used to be told, to William King and his fraction of his tribe, for evidontly the Waikatos also disbelieve in the justice of that sale. Sir G. Grey at once says there is to be an investigation into that purchase. The Native then says, "Let also the other land Taiaraimaka be investigated," This looks rather to bo 'giving an inch and taking an ell.' But the Governor stops that at once—" We can have no dispute about that, that land is ours "—" i f the people interfere with that block or use threatening language, I will place soldiers there." The proposal however that in all future cases the Eunanga should settle the sale appears to remove all future ground for dispute; and the declaration appears to have been unwillingly extorted, that if any native, willing to sell his land, had not previously pledged it to the king, he would not be interfered with; though they still maintained that lands placed voluntarily under the power of the king should not be sold without his permission. On the subject of selling arms and gunpowder Sir Gγ. Grey was firm and explicit":" he would Mot allow it. The conversation on this point gives rise to an excellent Maori witticism. Euihana is pleading for powder—" What are you afraid of? ,, says His Excellency. "I am afraid of you," saye the chief. " You need not fear mc, I will take care of you. " Euihana," very well, you will take care of mc; but there is your dog" (meaning the military force). On the whole, there is one great value in theee reports; whenever any paper or letter from a native has been published, putting the truth in an inconvenient light— "Oh" say the European party, " that has been written by one of the missionaries." In these conversations, at all events, there is no missionary work. Whatever the nativee have got to say, they say it viva voce, and it must be admitted that no documents have yet been published of such interest and importance, whether as displaying the native view of the question on one hand, or a clear enunciation of the policy on the other.