THE NATIVE DIFFICULTY. TO THE EDITOR OF THE EVENING POST.

Evening Post, Volume XVII, Issue 546, 26 June 1879, Page 3

THE NATIVE DIFFICULTY. TO THE EDITOR OF THE EVENING POST.

Sir— Being an old Southern settler, and a very frequent reader of your paper, I take up my pen on behalf of the South, and also of my adopted county Twanaki. There are a large number In the South who think all that the settlers here want is war. To such I can only say we have not bad one shot fired, and up to date the county has lost tens of thousands of pounds, in that persons who came here to purchase land have left, and many who had bought have sold at heavy loss, and have left the county, and, in tome cases, the colony. A very great number of building contracts - have been counterordered ; also, nearly every farmer who wa9 preparing for cropping has been obliged to dismiss his men, not knowing whether if be ?*nt la a crop he would over Teap any. So, having been already twice losers by war, no man can blame them for keeping their coin In their pocket, to perhaps pay the shipping companies for taking them from a district that would ere this have surprised the whole colony by its wealth were it not for the fast-and-loose policy of the Government with the natives. Already the county has been put back two y»aw by only a three weeks' scare. The South will lose as well as we will if the Government don't root out Parlhaka, for so long as it is there we can never resc or improve our farms, as there will be no knowing when Te Whiti may order either ploughing or something else. The way ia which the South will lose is, in England they don't know whether Parlhaka in in Canterbury or Otago, or where it is; but they will know there is some native trouble somewhere, and it will prevent emigration and deter capitalists from sending out their money for investment; therefore it behoves the colony as one man to see that Hiroki is brought to justice, and the natives who have caused this trouble and terrible loss to a large" number of her Majesty's subjects should be made pay by forfeiture of their lands. Had lor any other settler gone on to Te Whiti's land and commenced ploughing, or had I shot Hiroki, where would I have been at this moment? The colony to a man can say— * You would either have been already hung or in gaol. Therefore, as a settler of more than a quarter of a century's standing, I ask my fellow-colonists to urge oa each of their members now going to Parliament to once and for all let the law be the same for a native as the pakeha, and let it cost what it may, that \VbOBVer breaks the law shall be punished ; then there will bo peace, and not until 'then. No man South who has not had to do with the natives can tell how hard it is to endure having his business completely ruined,, simply because he is an Englishman, and not a Maori. I am, &c , A LOSBB.