THE DEBATE ON NEW ZEALAND.

Press, Volume VII, Issue 804, 29 May 1865, Page 3

THE DEBATE ON NEW ZEALAND.

(From the Times.) The debate on New Zealand is an epoch in the history of British colonization ; itself a movement which ranks in importance with the first dispersion of the human race, the invasion of the Northern races, and the discovery and settlement of the New World. New Zealand, has had the full benefit of our liberal politics, our phUanthrophy, our poetry, and our religion. It was colonized at that fortunate juncture when everything that existed was found to be wrong, and we could not be too thankful that we knew how to mend it. The first , colonists were to govern themselves, and were some of the most enlightened men of the age. The favorite clergyman of bis day gave up . all his prospects here to found the Church there. More recently, an entire Church of England city has been carried out and planted in one of the choice parts of the Southern Island. The Maori race itself is the finest and, in many respects, the most-interest-ing we have yet come in contact with. The inlands are more like ours in latitude, climate, and area than any other group, and. like ours, even more insular than islands generally are.. For this dear and, we must now say, spoilt child, we have done all we can, and tried every resource. In the pathetic language of Divine expostulation, ire may ask what we could do that we have not done. Our object lias been to proceed on the highest, the noblest, the kindest, and the most permanent - principles., But whatever we have done, we have had to give it up and make the best of Compromise has everywhere, and in eTerything carried the day. The Original settltes had to surrender their charter to Government.. With the Natives we have always been more or lesa.at war. *• Chrjstchurch" had to sell its eacrei birthright to the vulgar crowd of colonists on the ground, Churchmen or not. We made a treaty with the which they have repudiated in our sense, and we in" theirs. Wβ have since been glad to receive from them not a sale or a concession, but a leave to occupy. We encouraged them to elects chief,-who should represent their grievances and teach, them-to: settle their own quarrels, and he has interpreted this to ;inean kingly, power, and has waged war against us; We gave the colonists the right of self-government, with successive reservations successively abandoned. Ipiret, absolutely we reserved from ibis self-government the government of the Natives, and insisted on a committee, which was to represent in. the colony the cause of Imperial philanthropy. Between the colonists governingfor themselves, and the committee looking to the Nativee, the S ative* went to war. We then sent a great force,

and, being thus once more masters of the situation, reserved to ourselves, pending that actual superiority of force, the right of dealing with the Satires in arm*. Both the operations of war and the reserved right hare rather worked themselves out than come to any definite conclusion j so wo are withdrawing our army, and only pledging ourselves to have soldiers enough for .the protection of life, and for the nucleus of a colonial force. Doing thus, our bounden duty to our colonial children, and. no more, we finally and unreservedly give up to them ! the management of the Natives. The Imperial Government no longer aims to deetroy the Natives, or to rescue them, or to improve diem, or Christianize them, or to see that they hare their rights, or to see that they do not push their claims \ too far, or to obtain from them land, or titles to land. It no lonper aspires to either a humane or rigorous policy. It leaves all this to the colonists. They ask it, and the home Government readily grants it. For the rest, England will not guarantee three millions ; but perhaps one, on easy terms. As the old arrangement as to to the payment of* our troops has expired, and no new one has been made, the colonial Government is invited to deal handsomely with its protectors. To some such set of arrangements the House of Commons gave its virtual assent on Friday. It provides a bare garrison for the colonists, but leaves the open field, the Natives—in fact, the entire islands —to the management of the colonial Government, which will henceforth have to bear the responsibility of all that happens. This conclusion has been arrived at by the exhaustive method of trying everything, making every concession, and correcting every mistake. The last, indeed, is a way of putting it scarcely fair to ourselves, for we have been trying experiments. It is a course with which we are very familiar at home, whero ■Wβ have long proceeded on the system of trying all things, and only holding fast to that which is good* In New Zealand we have fallen back to the " possible beet," —indeed tlie only possible. The position of affairs to which we had brought ourselree by trying to give equal satisfaction to every condition of the problem is so ridiculous as even to have drawn upon us the scorn of the Natives. At the colonial seat of Government, itself under condemnation, and not perfectly safe from Native surprise, there was her Majesty's representative, the Governor; there was the colonial Legislature; there was an Executive representing the latter, supposed to be servants of the former, but at open collision with him ; there was the British commander-in-chief at the head of a considerable army —as large an army as that which we lately sent to defend British America from the Federals, if necessary; there was an independent office for dealing with the -Natives; there was a colonial Church Establishment holding a> very neutral and candid position between the Natives and the colonists. Among, the Natives, also, there was a considerable confusion of authority, for neither we nor they knew exactly who, or what, or where was their responsible Government. "When to this we add American whalers keeping up a brisk traffic in arms and powder, and missionaries, of all sects, and schools maintaining settlements irrespective of political questions, we have a state of things not. without its interest and its charms, but certain to ferment into hideous confusion. The entire population among and for whom this grand political drama was enacted, including British, and Native, was that of a second-rate • English town. It is always a tragedy or a farce that give's the final blow to an. intolerable complication, and the farce in this case,— 200 Native prisoners slipping through the rery fingers of the conflicting authorities,'—was one so ridiculous that Mr. Oardwell, with a pile of blue* books before him, asked to draw a veil over, the past,, and think only of the future. Wβ consent to let the colonists lead the way for the obvious reason that we cannot lead ourselves ; and the colonists, if they cannot do much to help us, hare the power, not to say the will, to spoil everything we do. They now take the responsibility on themselves, and, of course, the main cost.

The most remarkable feature of the debate is the variety of the testimonies offered to the wisdom, or rather the necessity, of the course now taken. Excepting for a fevr mutual skits, which might hare been spared, the concurrence was complete. Mr. A. Mills - represents the British colonists, desirous of managing his own affairs, expecting, to extend his borders in the wilderness, and wishing, if possible, to combine hie own prosperity, with the happiness and improvement of the Native. Mr.. Eoebuok , brings to the subject .the .severe logic of facts. Smiling at 'good intentions and brushing away shams, he proclaims the merit* - able destiny of the higher and the lower race. The Maori, he eaye, will soon cease from the land j we all know it, he adds ; and he therefore makes the bitter comment that all our efforts for the poor savage are not only rain, but a mere hypocrisy. Ourpolicy he calls a great sham, and the Treaty.of Waitangi'a farce. The colonists, the diplomatists,. the merchants, and the philanthropists only .mean one thing, he says, and that is to obtain the unencumbered possession of those beautiful islands. . Wβ shall not go into argument with the member for Sheffield. There ia too much truth in what, he Bays. . He agrees, after his fashion, with, our ru>w policy towards the colonists, but suggests to them *v exact and rigorous course with the Satires, whose only chance nes :in utter submission and dependence. Mr. Buxton makes a chivalrous protest in favor of good intentions, the colonists, and the Natives ; but, on the whole, thinks we are now taking the best course. Mr. Adderley can say nothing else, and even hopes for a success.' Mr. Marsh, brings to.the debate the benefit of a colonial experience, cbuntrymfln , there from some serious imputations; and thinks the '' Natives have a chance. XordSfanley defends the advanced. Natives, and concludes 'by an entire assent to the course now; taken. Never'was'there so much agreement from so many different sides in tones so various. Nor is it to be wondered at. - There was . a dead-lock at Auckland at the lost date. The Gh>vernment there makes the only practicable suggestion, the. home Government adopts it in pure despair of anything better, and farliatrent has only to cay Ay. ~-.. But though the Maoris are to be to the colonists, the English at home cannot so easily lose all interest- in the race. 'Are they, indeed, to die - out'in a generation: or two ? We doubt whether any cannibal race ha* ever long, survived.contact with Europeans. The trlbal.system itself offer* axi almost insuperable impediment to dnlizatibn,- unless it exists ' inaveryqualifiedforaiu In New Zealand,At least in the Northern Island,.we have to deal with tribes most nebulous in their own constitution and character, though moat violent in their dealings with. us. The tribe iteelf is new on the landj ifr ha* driven out another, which, claims to- Dβ; the true osmer. The chief is elective; there are rightful heirs, and other pretenders: The whole 'tribe tfie wioM land, ■ tuad -forbids the sale of any part. It claims the jierr son of every descendant, merer bo remote a: degree* One of the Govarnor'eown servants might be forcibly abducted from under Ins- own roof, separated from, her husband and ohMr^<cjarried^^:to&f3ie !^oustwuu> 'and compelled to contract a » Maori, on the ground that mother, had been?c£ =that race- Eyepy«,MißOJtiend . every ha&caate reach of the'enemy ha* Jwen service, new comiexion*, new , and 'property, to join theitoetileeainp. - The onlyEMOpeans tolerated w^themiewonariea and some others, whose iarn every ree'pect able. They have ontarto recognise the, parjtnwunt Government, to tell itanj , thing they happen to know, aiidib spend man/ tixqur sanda contributed by pioa* people »r away, and the - Native protect ttiem and their settle-, mente-. „ Otherwise,; the th* Maoris i* devastation and depopulatiQtti ievejj their and TTxider eucK n w colgk nial poUcy, if kind, must be>bp onlj in the interests of iSie Maoris ere datrojixig ptiiM or the tut* of war who at the »re dwiro/ipf *h«j«lrw. ' • ■-- - <-x\' ,