THE MAORI, MR. PARRIS, AND THE ENGLISH.

Press, Volume XIV, Issue 1833, 26 February 1869, Page 3

THE MAORI, MR. PARRIS, AND THE ENGLISH.

TO THE EDITOB OP THE PBES3. Sib, —The longer I live the more am I amazed at the credulity and the folly of the colonists of New Zealand. At the White Cliffs, that is to say, the only pass from the Ngatimaniopoto country to Taranaki, are murdered, the same day, two settlers, by name Edward Kichards and John Millner, the Rev Mr Whiteley, a Wesleyan Minister, who hae been labouring on behalf of the eternal welfare of the Maori race for thirty-three years ; and Lieut. Grascoigne, hia wife, and three infant children. The usual report which the Native Department generally gives us denizens of the Middle Island is given on this occasion, viz., that the murderers are four persona—three natives and a half-caste—and that this crime does not indicate a general rising in the province of | Taranaki. Mr Parris is the great oracle in native matters, and the above suggestion of course come from him. People of the Middle Island! I, though not a Maori expert, entreat you to listen to mc! The simultaneous murder of persons of three separate classes docs indicate the commencement of a Maori war, if I may so prostitute that sad word, and the spot where these murders were committed indicates that Rewi, the Maniapoto chief, who though the:most inveterate enemy of the English, did not suffer at all in the Waikato campaign, in the loss of adult males of his tribe, or of land, has either obtained the consent of Potatau the Second to a declaration of war, or he finds Mmself strong enough to declare war without the consent of Potatau. The sooner the colonists of New Zealand accept the position the better. Will the colonists of New Zealand continue any longer to believe Mr Parris, a man who has been systematically duped by the nativee of the Taranaki province, and who has in his turn as systematically misled his countrymen ? To go no further back than May, 1868, Mr Parris reported to the Native Minister that while he waa at Ngutu-o-te-; Manu, Titokowaru assured him that the large new house lately built in that village would, unlike the two large houses built by his tribe in the Ngatiruanui country only a few years previously, last for ever, instead of falling prematurely to decay ac those two houses had done ; because, as he avowed, those two houses had been built in furtherance of rebellion and the Land League; whereas the new large house of Ngutu o te Manu had been erected to the God of Peace. How much he cared about the God of Peace was proved by his murdering a few days later Cahill, poor Smith the trooper, and several others. Ask men of the most opposite opinions on other topics what they think of Mr Parrie ? Ask Dr Featherstone, the Superintendent afc "Wellington ? Ask Lieutenant-Colonel McDonnell ? Ask Cracroft Wilson, of Canterbury, and E. B. Cargill, of Otago ? Aek General Chute? what they think of Mr Parris, and they will tell you that a more gullible man does not exist. For my own part I do not believe that his namesake, Paris of classical story, ever brought more calamity upon Troy than the modern Parrie has brought upon Taranaki; and now, in conclusion, let mc entreat you, fellow coloniste, to insist upon the Government suspending Mr Parris from pay and allowances and also from pension, until hi 9 native friends bring in Titokowaru and lodge him in Wellington gaol. When that has been done— and nothing is easier to do if iirParris's native friends are what he terms them to be, firm friends of the British Government —then let Mr Parris be placed on the pension list. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Cosmopolite. Christchurch, February 25,1869.