Correspondence.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIV, Issue 3509, 14 October 1868, Page 4

Correspondence.

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£>K. POLLEN ON NATIVE AFFAIRS. To the Editor of the Daily Southern Cross,. Sir, — la the present critical position of native affoiis, the public aie but too ready to seize with avidity on any fresh information .' om reliable sources bearing on so important a subject. A heading, fn titled "Dr. Pollej on Native \ff lir-V appeared iv yo ir columns a few daya ago, introducing, a-> ib i.ppear«, an address ou the subject recently delivered by that geutieman in ♦'he Legislative Coilncil. fince then a very flatUrinsr notice ot Dr. Pollen's speech, by the Bishop of Waiapu has appeared, having been delivered en tho occasion of the Melanesian Mission Society's meeting last -week, all of which, taken together, co far excited my curiosity that I was induced to give a careful perusal to the addreia in question. I need not observe thar, approaching the perusal of a &et performa ice of this nature in Parliament on y an important subject, by, a gentlemr.tf of Dr. Pollen's" known ability, I had looked to fiud aom thing ii the chape of a well ordered if not a ueU-argued discourse, based more or less firmly either on already well-established historical facs, or on some fresh information more recently divulged, and through which the speakei'a position, whatever it might be, would he b iit up securely, and his roncluskn* drawn accordingly. Judge of my sunrise on discovering thai, instead of this being the case even to a lim'ted extent, the honourable gentleman h r not furnished » siugle fact throughout in conrection ■with the histoiy of our misunderstandings with the natives, past or present ; nor > ffered a tingle argument in support either of this position or of '■'la I.1 '. So far all who real Dr. Polleu'a speech of coarse will judge for .themselves ; but us many may never se; it at all, and probably will hear of it onty in connection with such exaggerated statements as are implied in the encomiums and deductions of Bishop Williams, I will briefly .point out what the speech really cont?'ns. Dr. Pollen repudiates the iJea that our present trouble with the natives is t te! >c result of my recent act on the p.irt either of individuals or of Ile Government. It is purely the effect of the confiscation qf their lands, enforced by us, durirj the late war, against tbe rebels. " Millions of acres," g«ya D.. Po'hn, "had been confiscated— he need uot say. against their consent.' 1 "And he feared the injury lay "oo deep to be eradica ed by personal influence. It wai at the heart of the nativts ; festering andjnothing but time, firuones*, patience, and justice would procure a relief." This is the sum of what Dr. Pollen said. Of course he tells uhe foresaw all this. "Be had the satisfaction of thinking thit so far as he had been able, he bad raised his voice in protest against the course which had been pa sued in confiscation, and had pointed out, both in speaking and iv writing, the consequeucej that would foPow." He proceeds to say, almost unnecessarily I thiuk. that " He be] ings to a [.arty who were once stigmatised aa Maoii doctors, but he was not ashamed to belong to that much-abused party." 1 have neither desire nor intention Lo trespass on yoi» r columns for the purp' c of criticising these remarks of the hon. gentleman. Most people wi) l , 1 think, believe that ia his speech Dr. Pollen fully explains himself. One observation, however, bh^ll have a passiug notice. We hive here hel.l up as it were, in memoriae, f>r our cmiiuiscrafci'ju, a u rtain ''much-abused party." In tljovj days, indeed, abuse and vituperation were n > uuc.'mmon th ug in Auckland; but if a certain wt'llnowu neiv-.pdf.er writer of the tune d'd notsuppiy thd lion's «-h%re of what was going of that com in ml ay, a' l th<tt I civ nay is, that in some rtspects Dr. i'olLn lvi 'oug been credited beyond his deserts The people of Auckland have not yet quite forgotten the last dajs of the New Zealander. Tho wholesale fa'sehood, calumny, an! slander helped ou the colonists at that timf, at the itist'mce of the conductors of that journal, and the plr'o-Maoii party whose organ it was, for the express purpose of injuring them behind their l<aok* with the British Government and people— that nioit iuiquit v*, unnatural, and suicidal abusd, Dv. Pollen, And those who think with him, may resb assured is not yet long enough buiicd to bear f • be read backward aftev the fashion he now proposes. To that a' u-e indirectly, but surely and infallibly, the \vh >le cb ,'n of di-asteis down to tbe present hour is clearly and legibly traceable. The then leading mwspapsr of the colony, by every mail transmitted to England, oj.3ned up the way. Its effect on the Aboriginal Protection Society, then temporarily silenced — scotched in fact — at; tbe first anno uiceiniMit of the colonial policy of 1863, promptly sanctioned in Dowinng-street, was, we know, like tinder upon gunpowder. The influence thence exerted, first on Lxd Palmeratoo, and then on the Colonial Office. A rat suiffed on tbe wndby an old setter, Lho.oughly competen, on a thinupr sc nt than thrt, to tell how the game lay, desciibps the next stag • in thetictnu diauaa. Sir George Grey was not s!oa- to perceive that a chance might yet be in his way to >eoaiu on^e more the dearly coveted teputati n of his life, ofcoarso he set himself to work accordingly, con amor<». The War Mini-try must be got rid of. The military must be bamboozled. The South must be tired out with interminable delay, waste, and obstruction. The climax would not be long deliyed. The North against the South bad served ita purpose before now. Of course we all saw only ruin to our->plves in the game thus being played ; bi t our extremity was to be the enemy's opportunity. They pressed ou accordingly. The war was pr maturely closed in this province, and precipitately transferred to that of Wellingtm, against the judgment and protest of the military authorities, but where the expenditure of theremuant of tie loan was to be made ;it all c sts. Of course the fruits of the war in tho North meantime were «o far SACiificed. Tlw W\uk"atJ hcheme was abandoned. Faith was broken wit'i the new settlers, and ere the laurels we were supposed to have won, at a cost of millions of debt, and hundreds of valuable live*, were anything like fairly gathered, our prestige as conquerors, with the native", was lost for ever. The philo- Maori party now began to take breath. Sir George Grey's triumph was complete. The South itself wai almost satisfied, and 1 am not qrite sure whether George Graham was not appeased. We all know the history of the pa t three years. The rac°, we have seen, is not always to the swift, nor the l>atlle to the strong The Nemesis of their fate was early on the track of the priucpal actors of those bygone scene* ; ( f selfishness, calumny, and wrong. Sir George Grey's requital, even by tho-e he - most de?p'y wronged, is looked upon as almost in excess of Ins deserts, a noth^r, whose feelings, as au ' Auckland citizen, I will tpare, has suffered iv auother way. The ijouLh indeed has had its plum, aod Auckland (ntill above watei) is reduced to a provincial city, but the very conditions involved in that act of robbery contain the >e^ds of iuevitable retributiou on the despoilers. Are the eno tigns now that bhose seeds are germinating ? S lutheru domination iv the affair* of the colony siuce 1864 has shut out from the Executive the cauton and counsel of Noithern experience in native affairs— more needed no* even ' than before the destruction, through Southern iguorance and prid^, of the only pacification scheme e>er attempted on a statesmanlike batis. The results are apparent enough. Our neighbours have town the wind, and they are reaping the whirl- ' wiud. The disasters of the last two months are the unmittakaule fruit of the pitiful concept and unparalleled arrogance of the "self-reliant" hero, s, who in 1864 insulted Geneial Cameron, dismissed the British army, an 1 wrota a despatch to inform the Coljo^iiH Office that for the future Wellington is ]Sew Ze*Und! It m nob enough to say that the renewal of our troubles with the natives is the result of unequalled blunders. It is th» result of deliberate ci ime— crime madly conceived and perp*trnt«d against pne

I another by the European settlements of the colony — the fruit of tbat narrow- minded jealousy which baiely tolerated a nine months' existence to the union 1 of 1863. 'Hie Southern pres3 is now astonishud at the resumption of hostilities without notice by the rebels whose oiup! jtesu^ijugation four yearj ago it l.iboure t so hard to prevent. Southern legiolntois d jlaim in .Parliament at the prospect of another Maori war, wl ile the beau id*al of tho philo- Maori junto iv I Auckland, whose reputt-d abuse of the colonists in the columns of the New-Zealander was Fa d to have thinned down the subicnbers to tb.it journal to the tune of 100 a wee!', now informs us tuat coufis :ation of the reb?lV land "without th :r: r consent" is the head and front of ?'l our troubles, past, present, and to come ! With Dr. Pollen's \iiws ai a philo-Maori I promised not to interfere. To argue with the Southern press on 6iich subject i would be hopeless iv the °xtreme, but 1 tiuit the day is > ot f: c distant whan there will be found in the hall of the Parliament llou.se of New Zealand & voice trong euough, and honest enough, to command attention, while the wholesome truth of their omne, a«i the authors ar I abettora of nine-tenths of our native trouble?, is fearlessly brought home to the doors of Southern legislation, and their confreres, the Maoii doctor". At another time, 1 may notice Bishop Williams's inferences from Dr. Pollen's remarks.— l ?m, &c, H. Ellis.