Petitioning the King.

Feilding Star, Volume II, Issue 524, 18 March 1908, Page 2

Petitioning the King.

To-»ay the Governor and tlie Premier have gone from Auckland to Waharoa to hold a korero with the Maoris of the King Country regarding their grievances. The natives in various parts of the dominion have from time to time down through the years protested against the manner in which their alleged rights in the famous Treaty of Waitangi have been abrogated or set aside from time to time by our Parliament. Despite written and. oral petitioning, the state of things against which the Maoris are protesting, especially those of the King Country, has continued; and now the natives are taking the extreme step of petitioning his Majesty the King.

That petition, which has behind it the influence of tho Maori King (Mahuta), who happens to be a member of the Upper House, and bis staunch supporter and secretary Honaro Kauhau, a member of the House of Representatives, and which was pushed with great energy by a descendant of tho great ehiof Wire-mu Tamihnna te Waharoa, is to bo sent Homo through his Excellency the Governor, who is to receive it from the Maoris to-day. In the petition tho Maoris complain that, in consequence 1 of tho Maori land legislation now in force- in tho dominion, the natives have been deprived of tho rights and privileges which wore enjoyed by .Europeans residing in England, and they also suffer great loss, inasmuch as they aro now becoming destitute because of theso laws. They claim that tho pre-emptive rights agreed to in tho Troaty of Waitangi — namely, that the Crown alone was to buy I Maori lands — was absolutely abrogated by Governor Fitzroy, and further abrogated by many laws of Parlia- ! went. Then follows a list of tho j laws complained of. Tho petition ! asks for an inquiry into the various ! matters complained of, for a disburse- . Mont of the rovenues derived from ; tho thermal springs regions, for a re- ; storation of lands taken from the ! natives, for the return of the "mana" I over those lands, ami finally claims I the extension to the Maoris oi the j right to managn their own land, addi ing finally: "Therefore wo declare this is a means whereby good may exist between the two races, tho , Maori and the pnlcehn, in unity with I England." It seems to us that the I petition may bo summed up in the • phraso that it is "hardly worth I while," and no other nation but tho • British would give it serious attention.