LORD GRANVILLDE AND SIR GEORGE GREY ON THE NEW ZEALAND CRISIS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVI, Issue 3886, 4 February 1870, Page 5

LORD GRANVILLDE AND SIR GEORGE GREY ON THE NEW ZEALAND CRISIS.

The following correspondence lias appeared in the Stan iird : — "Bolgrave Mansions, Gro3venor Gardens, October 27, 1869.— My Lord,— I beg to state tliafc a despatch of your lordship's, dated the 7th instant, and which has been published by your direction?, is, in my opinion, likely tj seriously injure myself and those New Zealand statesmen who acted as my Ministers. I am confirmed in this opinion by the remarks made to me in connection with your lordship's despatch siuce its publication. Your lordship is pleased to state in the despatch to which I allude that the lecognition of Maori authority by her Majesty's Government in New Zealand is an indispensable, although a distasteful remedy for the difficulties of New Zealand, although it is one which will not be resorted fco while the colony continues to expect assistance from this country ; and that a decision to supply the colony even with the prestige of Butish troops, objectionable as your lordship has shown it to be on the ground of practical principle, would, in your view, be almost immediately injui ions to the settlers themselves, as tending to delay the adoption of those prudent counsels on which you think the restoration of the Northern Island tlepencb. Your lordship will pardon me for showing in self-defence that the statements so made are contrary to fact. One error which pervades your lordship's correspondence upon this and cognate points is, that you are pleased to speak of ' the leading tribe of Maoris' as ' scattered.' In truth, the WVaikato tribe, the tribe to which, I presume, lordship alludes, would not be admitted To be the leading tribe by several other tribes, such as the Ngapuln tubes, the Ngatikahunguuu tribes, Ngatitoa, the Ngatnaufcawa, the Arawa, and other tribes. The Waikato tribe, however, set up the native king, and selected twice a leading chief of their own tribe to fill that office. Hence aiose a great diiliculty. The other tribes to which I have alluded — the chiefs of which had always been mde]>endent sovereign princes — had relinquished, by treaty, their sovereign rights to the Queen ot England, and, conjointly with the Waikato tribe, had by that treaty recognised her Majesty as their common Sovei eign. The tnbe3 I have named, or the great majority of them, were and are proud of being the subjects of a great Sovereign, and no persuasion would indu e them to recognise the authority of the Waikato King. To make them do that we should have to resort to force, and to join the fauatic3 a^ain3t those tribes, many members of which have cheerfully laid, down their lives to maintain the authority of the Queen. The mere lumour of any intended general recognition oi the Maori King ■will raise up new and more foimidable enemies a^ainat us thsu we have hitherto i had to cop8 with, and other tribes will declare their independence upon totally new j grounds. I beg to state that whilst large bodies of troop3 were in the country, and ■ before the WaiKato war commenced, I paid a visit to the Waikafco tribes, who, I believed, were resolved upon a formidable outbreak. The whole of their principal chiefs mot me, with the exception of the Maori King, who was ill, and I to those chiefs, with the full assent of my responsible advisers, offered to constitute ail the Waikato and Ngatimamapoto country a separate province, Ayhich would have had the right of electing its own superintendent, its own legislature, and of choosing its own executive government, and m fact would have had practically the name powers and rights as any State of tho United States now has. There could hardly have been a more ample and complete recognition of Maori authority, as the Waikato tribes would, within their own district— 3, very large one — -have had the exclusive cqu trol and management of their own aftang. This offer was, however, after full discussion and consideration, resolutely and deliberately refused on the ground that they would accept no offer that did not involve an absolute recognition of the Maori King and his £»d their entire independence fiom the Crown of England ; — terms which no subject ha.d power to grant, an i which could not have been granted without creating worsa evils than those which their refusal involved, — (Signed) G-. Grey. — To the Right Honourable Earl GranviUe, K.G., Colonial Office, Powmng-street, S.W." " Downing-street, November 6, 1869. — Sir, — 1. I am directed by Lord Granville to acknowledge your letter of the 27th ultimo, commenting on two r»«---Lordship 'sd»<"" x ' m his II ,., - , — .f^nea of the 21st March, and the 7th of October last. 2. Lord Graaville <iuus nob a-jree with you that his correspondence ia pervaded by any error respecting the position of the Waikatos. 3. Lord Granville's statement that, as the reault of the war, 'the leading tribe of the Maoris was scattered and the power of the others broken,' was not meant to include those who remained at peace (to whom tho letter part of the passage was uicyufosfcly inapplicable), but only thq,2>ei < leading ' and • other ' tnb§3 eon,o,ern.ec| in the insurrection. Lord {franyilla cqntinuea to fear that the recognition of Maori authority — the J'OOQguition, that is, to the extent tQ which it may tjeeom.6 indispensable.— *m.ay prove disfcastef.u.1 t;q the oqlQAiafa, but ho will be well Satisfied, to find himself mistaken, and is glad to infer that you are of a different opinion. Ho has no materiate to judge how far the transactions referred to fey you, which he presumes to be those reported in your despatch No. 5, of February t>, 1863, and in winch you now state that your Ministry concurred, support your anticipation. 4. Lord Granville has never suggested that the authority of the Maori King should be recognised over tribes not desirou3 of submitting to him. — (Signed) F. R. Sandford. — Sir George Grey, K.C.B." " Belgravo Mansions, Grosvenor Gardens, November 13. — Sir, — -Adverting to my letter to you of this day's date, on the subject of Lord Grauville's intention that; 1$\e auth.0-. rity of the Maori King »Mnid k<» rooog nise4 und.S? aqma limitations, I heg you he so, kind, as to direct his }orash,ip/3 attention to my despatch No. 20, oi February 2, 18(56, enelo dug a, paper from Sir William Martin, who remarks that the effort the natives had m.ad.6 to set up a separate nationality was an effort dangerous to hqth raoea, and a great folly, although he thinks it was not a great crime. In that despatch I have fully discussed the subject, and shown the evils which must inevitably fall upon both races if such a policy is allowed to be carried out. The despatch to which I allude ia published on page 18 of the papers relative to the affairs of New Zealand, which were laid before Parliament on June 26, 1866.— (Signed) G. Grey.— Sir F. R. Sandford, K.C.M.G., $q,, Colonial Office, Downing-street, S.W," "Bel^rave Qrosvenor Gardens, No,Y§oib§r }3, 18s6fl!.-4sir, — In reply to your fitter of the 6th instant, I have the honour to state as follows : — I do not think that the portion of the Waikato tribe, to which Lord Granville alludes as joining in the revolt, was the leading tribe, nor was it scattered ; the people composing it retired in a body from one district to another, where they still remain united. I regard the Ngatimaniapoto tribe as having been the leading tribe in forcing on the revolt and in conducting it. Their territory was hardly touched Upon during the war. They have been neither scattered nor broken, and only one small strip of their land, touching the Waikato country, has been taken for the purpose of forming a portion of » military ■ettlement for the protection of the country -*rt;-»n important point. There is, I think, a nwaifaafc eiror throughout Lord Granville's Argument upon .this subject. For it could »ever be said th»tith*d become indispens-, able for an English Government to recognise withia the limits,:" of., its. owia dprnittjona the

authority of a Maori King, when the tribes who had raised an insurrection to set up that King were scattered and their power broken. Especially as they had no original right to set ni> a king, an office unknown to their ancestors, country, and institutions, and which act on their part has throughout been resisted by the great majority of their own countrymen. Barbarian?, whether our ; friends or foes, will never beliere < that we have, from 6uch causes as these, made concessions which they will regard as pusillanimous and disgraceful. The present Governor of New Zealand gives an exactly opposite reason for advising Earl Granville to recognise the authority of the Maori King ; he says it should be done because 'it is clear that the conquest of the Maori King by force of arms is impracticable. ' I am not of opinion that the colonists of New Zealand will now recognise the authority of the Maori King to such an extent as Lord Granville deems indispensable. The Colonial Government, to avoid revolt, when revolt was only imminent, and the colony wag strong in Imperial troops and in it3 own forces, offered to a portion of a barbarous race, all that could in reason be given to them That offer was decidedly refused. War took place. The European race and a portion of the native race have eventually been subjected to a series of the most dire calamities and most cruel acts, including outrages of every kind that the mmd of man can conceive, even cannibalism itself. They are now called upon, without giving any commensurate reward to those tribes who have shown themselves tned and noble fuends, to recognise the authority of the Maou King, which has been supported by those barbarians who have inflicted such ills upon them, and who have been guilty of such atrocious crimes. I feel sure the colonists of Now Zealand will think that Rome in the diys of her utmost decline, when her standai da were withdrawn from point to point, I never humbled herself further than this before a barbarian foe. They will feel that | such an order as this appears to issue from a Minister who regcirds the strength and majesty of the empire as fading away ; but they will also feel that, if it is sent forth from age and decay, it comes to a youthful nation, fresh and vigorous, just springing into life, on which times yet to come will look back for the example it gave and left for the strong peoples who were to spring from it ; and I believe the New Zealand men will give an example worthy of the race from which they have come — the example of sacrificing all they have, and dying, if necea^ary, to a man before they will obey a command which would require them to recognise the authority of a so-called native king, whose servants, allies, and friends have cruelly murdered their men, women, children, and faithful natives, with circumstances of atrocity which make the blood run cold to think of. And in resisting to the last extremity the recognition of the authority of such a king, the New Zealand people will believe that they will carry with them the almost universal sympathy of their fellow-subjects in Great Britain, which sympathy and regard I feel sure they will still further entitle themselves to by the justice, mercy, and generosity with which they will deal with the native race, now, equally with them3elve3, abandoned by the British Government to a most trying struggle.— (Signed) G Grey.— Sir F. R. Sandford, K.C.M.G., &c, Colonial Office, Downmg-streefc, S.W." Two other letters have appeared on thi3 subject, which may be briefly epitomised. In referring to the despatch of the Governor of New Zealand of the 30 th June, 1868, referred to by Lord Granville, Sir George points out that it makes fully apparent the extreme cruelty to both races in that country of the policy of attempting, by the withdrawal of the troops, to force them to recog* nise the authority of the Maori King. Then, after pointing outthat the present Governor in his despatch states that, although some of the leading men of New Zealand at one time thought that a native province might have been advantageously created, "all appear to be now agreed that the opportunity for any arrangement of this kind hai been lost, aud that the Maori King, and a chief named Hakauiia, are nqw surrounded, by fierce an4 bloody fanatics, who cor$nn.it all rnanner qf atrocities." He saya : — " I Relieve the Impeiial Government is much to blame fqr having discoiuaged and weakened in the native mind the noble desire for carrying on the war on meipiful principles, which were indulged and practised by the best natives who were in rebellion. Still, men who viowed the atrocities which had been committed with satisfaction and approval, whilst their ignorance might claiiu their commiseration, had forfeited all claim on us to be invested with the authority of a Governraant in aBritish country; and itappsars strange that Earl Granville could have been induced to attempt to compel the British settlors in New Zealand, by the withdraw- ' of the troops and of all ».—•-* mse tho "•- .^jxdcance, to recog- ._ c-uuuonty of those fierce and bloody fanatics from whom they had suffered such outrages. Our cowardice and their success could but augment their arrogance and daring, and encourage the violent and bad in other pares of New Zealand to play a similar game ; whilst it is impossible to tell what effect such a proceeding on our part would have on the hitherto faithful natives." The Spectator, commenting on the above correspondence, observes : — " Of course, Lord G-ranviIle will be logical, and recommend a rupture ot the Empire and a loss to the Cro « n rather than not meet the Maori King's views — in which case, as Sir G. Grey observes, he will promote a very much more formidable rebellion on the part of other Maori tribes." The Standard says : — " We cannot doubt what the answer will be to any Imperial Governor who should dare to propose the 'recognition of the Maori authority' to a New Zealand Legislature. We are equally confident as to the feeling which would be aroused in the mother country by any attempt on the part of the Imperial Government to give full effect to the Granville policy. Rather than ' restore 1 the island to the Maoris the colonists will spend their last man and their last shilling. They are bound to resist this miserable, this cowardly policy, in the name of their country, of humanity, and of civilisation. Whether by our help or not, the Englishman, and not the Maori savage, is bound to bo supreme in New Zealand, and for ail that happens, should the colony be left to contest this issue single-handed, let the lilnatl Ije on tlio hoaclo of tL.030 -rrlio deserted their countrymen in the hour of peril."