THE SUPERINTENDENT AND THE NATIVES.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3222, 13 November 1867, Page 5

THE SUPERINTENDENT AND THE NATIVES.

To the Editor of the Daily Southern Ckoss. Sib,— Be kind enough through your independent journal to allow me to make a few remarks regarding our Superintendent, Mr. Mackay, and the goldfield. If it is all true that I read in your paper of last Tuesday, and that I hare heard from several Europeans, that our Superintendent and Mr. Mackay have given notice for all Europeans not to go on 'certain lands belonging to the natives, I should very much like to know by whose authority these two gentlemen are acting under. To-morrow, the 27th, I shall have been in New Zealand 42 years. I have travelled all over New Zealand, and was never ordered off any part of the native land. I wish to know if Mr. John Williamson is become the Governor of this province, to keep every white man from going amongst the natives to trade with them in any way whatever, either in purchasing their land or leasing it, or in any other way that natives and Europeans may think fit. If the natives are to be British subjects, let every Englishman treat them as such. What has been the cause of all the war and so much blood-shedding ? Nothing but the way in which the natives have been treated in not beingallowed to selltheirownland. Atthe Treaty of Waitangi they were all told, in my presence, that if they signed the treaty they were all to be British subjects, and that they and all Europeans were to be under one law. It is true that the chief Heke, who cut down the first British flagstaff.said, "Ontheday of the Treaty of Waitangi, I sold my country, and my countrymen as slaves to the white men." If we are to live at peace with the natives, let us treat them as part of our own flesh and blood : the same Lord made all. In the room of Mr. Williamson trying to prevent any European from going amongst the natives to trade with them in any fair-dealing way, he ought to do all in his power to encourage it. Well might Mr. J. Crispe say, "Ib it not rather like the dog-in-the-manger system?" I wonder whether this is the first time he has found out our Superintendent to be one of that system. I should say not. I have myself been talking to several of the natives belonging to the Thames, and not one of them seems satisfied with the Government receiving the miner's right and keeping it for three months ; and, were I a native, I would be the first to object to it. I think the natives ought to be allowed to choose their own treasurer and get their money every month. I have always been one of those people who would sooner have one bird in the hand than ten in the bush ; and rather than a Government that is pleading poverty every day, I would sooner be my own treasurer. I hope Mr. John Williamson will take my advice, and do all he can to bring the Europeans and natives together as one people. Treat the New Zealand natives as they ought to be treated — one law for all ; treat them as British subjects : then the white inhabitants will not have any cause to complain of them any more than they will have to complain of their own countrymen. I suppose the next order from Mr. John Williamson will be that no native will be allowed to go on the pakehas' land nor trade with them, without the consent of Mr. Williamson or Mr. Mackay. — I am, &c, Benjamin E. Tubneb, Retreat Cottage, November 6, 1867.