ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE*

Daily Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 17, 12 August 1843, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Southern Cross, Sir, — Will you allow me to avail myself of your columns in making a few remarks upon the fatal disaster at the Wairau Plain, its causes and probable effects. I I have been grieved, though I cannot say much astonished to find the opinion very prevalent here that the originators of the expedition, which terminated so tragically, are chargeable with imprudence, rashness, folly, even illegality. To us at Nelson, well acquainted with their characters, and nevei in several of them having perceived any but qualities diametrically opposite, such opinions could hardly have presented themselves. Bui in drawing a conclusion as to what has happened there, those who were strangers to them can of course have no such materials to sway their judgment ; they will be guided solely by a consideration of the naked facts of the case, and it is to a dispassionate review ol these alone that 1 would confidently appeal for the vindication of the character and conduct of those whom I conceive to have lost their lives in attempting to execute what they considered their duty, to have been sacrificed to a much mistaken line of policy on the part of the government, founded on the visionary cant of the age. If the aborigines of New Zealand are now British subjects, (which they undoubtedly are,) under the protection of our law, and at the same time liable to be punished by it when outrages are committed by them, will it be asserted that upon disputed land they are at liberty to pronounce their own verdict, and at the same time to carry it into execution, to declare that a servant of the party who disputes that land with them, has no right to be there, and to burn down his house ? It is put forth by certain parties, that these savage chiefs were willing to abide by the decision of Mr. Spain, and had no intention of putting their own law into execution. The truth of the case upon this point wants to be known. Rauparaha and Rangihaiata had seen Mr. Spain at Porirua, and agreed to meet him in the Wairau on the lUth of June, or as soon after that date, as he could be there. Why then did they not wait for his peaceable decision, or with what intention was it that they themselves on the Ist or 2nd of June crossed the Straits attended by a considerable number of their slaves, armed with musket and ball cartridge, having previously despatched to the Wairau several canoes full of their followers similarly armed ?—? — It is necessary that these facts should be known, when it is asserted, as has been done in various quarters, that the natives did all in their power to avoid fighting, that their intentions were throughout of the most pacific description, and that at length they were compelled to fight in selfdefence when driven as it were to bay, by the insane conduct of the whitemen. Ido not mean to assert, nor do I wish to convey the impression that they went to the Wairau prepared to fire upon the white men who were there, but the depositions, which I assisted to take, prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, and their own subsequent acts confirm it, that they went to take the law into their own hands,- antHn sufficient numbers, and armed to resist British law, should it be put in force against them. What then was the course for a Police Magistrate to pursue on the information being laid before him of the burning of Mr. CottreU's house? He had a precedent to appeal to ; about 3 months previously, a warrant had been applied for at Port Nicholson to apprehend Rangihaiata on; the same charge, (a charge of arson,) — had been refused, and its refusal sanctioned, as we understood, by the principal law officer of the colony. Had he preferred his case, he might have sheltered himself behind this, and received applause ; but it is my conscientious belief that he felt that he should not thus be doing his duty. I happen to have heard him express his opinion with regard to the pro-

priety of what had taken place at Port Ni* cholson, and maintain that the course which had been pursued there, was calculated to weaken the impression of the power of British law upon the native mind, and to encourage further outrages. And now that this dreadful disaster has taken place, we cannot but look back and reflect that; had this previous offence of Rangihaiata's been dealt with with promptitude and energy, we might have been spared the loss of many valuablo lives, and the colony never have received a blow from which it will bo long before it rallies, and the ultimate effects of which it is impossible to calculate. A charge of rashness in the execution of the warrant is also commonly advanced, but not in my opinion supported by facts. — The force taken by the Magistrates appears to have outnumbered the aborigines who were armed, and will aiiy one assert that it could over have been predicted, that 50 Britons would have fled before ail equal number of savages. The only argument upon which the charge of rashness ean 1 rest, is, as far as I can see, in this view of the question : Is it prudent to risk a collision between the two races by putting British law into effect? But thus viewed, the charge of rashness appears to me undoubtedly to recoil uport our rulers, who piace men in situations in which it is their duty to put the law in execution, and leave them without sufficient power to do so. In fact, under the existing state of things, a police magistrate finds himself in a most anomalons, and embarrassing position. On the one hand, it is his duty to enforce the penalties of his law, on the other he fears to do so ; duty and strict justice are 1 clear before him, but he must bring them into operation against a class of people who are termed subjects, but whose tomahawks he knows are ready to prove themselves in the right. The white man submits to him and receives his punishment : he must submit also to the aboriginal, who cannot bo punished. lie lies under the penalties of the two laws, the civilized and the savage, and is under the protection of neither. Such are among the blessings which flow from- the belief in the miraculously sudden civilization of savages, and from the insane attempt founded upon it to govern them without an overawing force by the same laws as: civilized men. The conduct of those who were massacred at the Wairau, may be viewed in another light still, as tending by a bold assertion of the law, to clear up disputed points of relation between the white man and tho aboriginal, and to tend to the settlement of questions which hitherto undecided, have retarded most seriously the advancement of this colony. It may be expected that such results will now arise, and the colony will owe them to those brave men who took a step which others of less courage would have shrunk from, and by their deeply lamented deaths, may be said to have assured what in life they aimed at. It cannot be now doubted that a change must take place in the policy of the government of this country in the attitude assumed by it towards the aborigines. The interests of 15,000 British settlers demand it, and it would be much to the bonefit of the aborigines themselves. The. colonization of the country has now advanced too far for it to be abandoned, but there is no alternative, save change of system. What the effects of the affair of the Wairati on the native mind may be, it is impossible to foretel. They have already been sufficiently incited to a feeling of the intrusion of the white man, and are prepared to demand exorbitant payment for land uninhabited, and utterly worthless to them. But deplorable as it must be even now upon their minds, consider for an instant what it will be, if those savage chiefs, dyed in the blood of our countrymen, are allowed to go unpunished. It requires no witches' mirror to foreseo consequences of the most disastrous kind to the colony, and admitting of such a certainty of prediction, that any man who should remain in it till they overtook him would be utterly mad. But it is still in the power of government to repair in a great measure the misfortune which has befallen us, and to avert those still greater which threaten. If it be proved to the aborigines by actual demonstration,. that we are connected with, and protected by a power, against which their united warriors from the North Cape to Stewarts Island, could offer no chance of resistance, they will then learn that the name of Queen Victoria is not. an empty sound, and feel the necessity of submitting to laws, the justice of which they cannot fail to recognise. And who can doubt that such a demonstration of force would, if directed by an enlightened humanity, be the means of guiding in the speediest manner, the aborigines at present steeped in some of the most revolting prac^ tices of the savage, to the knowledge of thosesocial duties and obligations which civilized

man obeys. How monstrous is the condition of the native population at present ! How hurtfully palpable the weakness of the government! The natives are British sublets and yet, among them murder, cannibalism, and slavery are tolerated, and must be tolerated, because they cannot be put down. . It is anything but my intention to blame, the local government for tins, for whatever their inclinations might be, they have not tho power to enforce them ; but do not our rulers at home, stand convicted of the greatrst absurdity ? Lord John Russell writesto Captain Ilobson to make no compromise with murder, cannibalism, and other crimes revolting to humanity ; at the same time, o-ivin* him 80 soldiers to suppress these crimes among 50,000 armed savages, who. cling to them with all the fondness of old association, and conservative attachment;. _ To do justice to tho British settlers in New Zealand, the demonstration of an overawing force is absolutely necessary. If this be not made shortly, and tho policy *of the government in other respects changed, New Zealand, instead of advancing, must retrograde. The question of titles' to land, from the course which government has^ pursued in it, lias already most seriously injured tho country, ruining many, and driving others away in disgust. On this matter government professes to act with tho strictest justice, and according to the very letter of tho law ; and for aught I know to the contrary, it may do so. But when it sees that in practice, this leads to absurdity, confusion, and misery, should it not adopt a different course, and make a different law ? It is in some cases necessary to stretch the btfcer of the law, that justice may be done, and if government wants a precedent, it has not far to go for one. In favor of the native population of these islands, it lias already interfered in a manner which rigorous justice could not sanction ; but winch justice, properly understood, must approve of. For, what else can be said of its depriving many individuals of the greater part of, tho land which they had purchased when New Zealand was an independent country. If the government wishes now to do justice to its own kindred subjects, there is nothing for it but to cut the Gordian knot of the Land Question, and with a strong hand to do that which will undoubtedly be ultimately beneficial both to the white man and the aboriginal. Of the land on which the Nelson settlers wish to locate themselves, there are certainly not 500 acres made use of by the natives, and without dispossessing them of these, were the government to take possession of the waste land, and protect our colonists in settling upon it, the natives would receive, according to our scheme 20,000 acres of land made valuable by the industry and capital of the white man in exchange for 180,000 acres of wilderness, at present of no earthly use to them. The next question that presents itself to our minds is, will the government adopt such measures ? For my part, I have no great hopes of it. In the first place, I conceive that it is too much under the influence of a philanthropy which no one respects more highly than I do, at the same time that I conceive it to be greatly mistaken in the proper means of furthering its intentions, in the second place, our home rulers know very little of the real nature of New Zealand, and it appears, care not a great deal more. We have seen them declaring their sovereignty over New Zealand, and again denying it, as it suited their purpose ; we have seen them stretch justice in an extraordinary manner, and again cling to tho letter of tho law with dogged tenacity, though ruin and misery were the result. But lastly, we, who are settled under the auspices of the New Zealand Company, have seen too much of a policy dictated by a petty and unstatesmanlike jealousy, neglectful of tho interests of the settlers, but seeking to crush what has been regarded as 'a too" powerful rival. In tho present position of affairs, it is to bo hoped that no paltry feelings of rivalry will interfere to prevent the British settlers throughout New Zealand from unanimously combining to obtain more efficient protection, more unshrinking administration of law, and a different line of policy in the acquisition of land. These are not questions which affect the settlers in any particular part of the country alone, they are of vital interest to every one, and in every part of New Zealand. If we look forward to what the present state of things will lead to, we can see nothing but disappointment and utter failure ; but lpoking calmly upon our present condition, and searching for a remedy, we may see that, though this disaster at the Wairau has been a most heavy blow to tho colony, it may yet lead to our being placed upon a firmer footing, and must, I should say, be the means of proving to the natives, that we have a mighty power at our back, which, •watches over, sympathizes with."

us and protects \\?, and will infallibly avenge the murder of its subjects.