POVERTY BAY.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 2, Issue 89, 4 June 1859, Page 5

POVERTY BAY.

To the Editor of the Hawhe's Bay Herald. Sir, — You will receive herewith certain resolutions passed at a public meeting; -ajid a memorial adopted to his Excellency, the. Governor. I hope you will accompany, the, publication of those by such remarks; as you may deem expedient. You will "understand that our small community, with hardly one exception, have agreed to the necessity for the measures we have adopted. I will now state for your guidance, as succinctly as possible, some of our grounds of complaint not contained in the accompanying documents. Our R. M. (Mr. Wardell) a young protege of the Governor, was , sent here direct from England : consequently he could not be supposed to know anything of the co-; lony or of the usages therein, "which -are in ■many cases quite at variance with custom in the mother country. . Of course his having any idea of the natives and their usages was entirely out of the. question. Mr. Wardell supposed, doubtless, that without many cases were brought before his court, he would be considered inactive and a useless appendage to the district, and" might consequently lose his situation. 1 We (I write collectively) decidedly differ from him, thinking he would better fulfil his'duv ties in a society constituted as ours is^ (nearly purely native,) were he to keepjhj? court as clear of cases as hepossiblyicanTrKinjf^act taking more ;the, vpar£ ; o£ arbitrator, »fiarsyjrig-, his decisions by moral persuasion, inp^hich, he would be supported by the bulk of our population j European and Native. Of course we do. not mean that he should shut his court against any grave. charge. On receiving his appointment he probably supposed he became the great man of

..the district,, and that the settlers would look .at him with the awe inspired "by his situation, and never attempt to cavil at any of his proceedings. . Though no one deprecates more than myself the selling of spirits to natives in places like this where we have no means of staying (heir excesses, I cannot but think it harsh if a person gives a single glass of spirits to a native, and be informed against, that he should be amerced in the fine of £5 or # £l 0 which, if, proved, is invariably the case, with only, an exception such as this. A policeman named Murphy was charged with supplying spirits to two natives. On the case being heard, it was dismissed on the plea of its having been given medicinally. It is well Known here that both Murphy and police sergeant Brown made a common practice of giving, not only glasses of grog, but bottles of spirits to natives, pfteh making them intoxicated. A settler : 'KereVasked them why they did so, and was - answered, — "Oh! we are detectives and are allowed to use any means to obtain information, and were informations laid against us we should not be fined." And, truly the case in question was dismissed on a plea that, if urged by a settler, would have been laughed at. Again, persons who were not making any disturbance or creating annoyance in any way, and who, in fact, were quite able to attend to their business, have been fined for intoxication on information given by : the Clerk and Interpreter. It is held, we understand, as the dictum of the R. M., ;that any one who may be ..perceived to be at all excited by drink, can be fined on the information of one individual. In consequence, parties have been fined as above, and not only so, but when they have actually heen upon private property. Our Clerk and Interpreter has considered it his duty, from the time he first came among us, to carry everything he hears or sees to his principal. He meets, for instance, a native or European with a bottle : what have you got there, where did you get it, and so forth — thereby, as you may suppose, earning a not very enviable notoriety. I have advised him to refrain from , meddling with what did not concern him, and got for answer that if he heard or suspected any one of doing wrong, he would get to the bottom of it if possible, or words to that effect. You will perceive by statement, in the case against Mr Read, that he actually endeavoured to warp the evidence. . You will note that though the case against Read for felony was dismissed, there is still a civil action pending — the native Waka claiming £20 for the cow killed, as his property. .The hearing was postponed till the return of the "Queen" from Auckland, with native witnesses in Read's favour, on which Waka immediately said, (you will note that he and two others had just sworn the skin produced was from his cow), he would in that case look for the beast. \ The whole matter has been most unjust. On the first report Capt. Read attended a whole day at the court to answer any charge that might be brought against him ; t he was told there was none ; and left the same evening for Napier — when it was immediately reported by the magistrate's brother-in-law, (a Mr. Thorn) and others, that he had bolted. On his return, after the case was dismissed, Read very justly complained of such treatment, towhichMr. Wardell replie d, " that he had brought it on himself by going away." Going away from what, as the information was laid on the 4th and tried on the sth inst. We all think the government commit i grave errors in appointing R. Ms. to any district without one or more honorary -; magistrates with ■whom they could advise, ;■ and their decisions either sustained or objected to, as the case might be. ■ Trusting you will render us all the assistance in your power, I am, &c, (For myself and others) J. W. Harris. Turanga, Poverty Bay, I9th April, 1859. ' To the. Editor of the HawTce's Bay Herald. ' ■ Siu.—r As an Englishman lam proud of ; an Englishman's privilege — the right of ex.pressing his opinions through the press, the, mighty oracle by which society will be , .freed from thraldom of every description, , -religious, mental and political ; for through i J;Ke instrumentality of the press we give; '' wings to^ our expressions, and publish to "the four of" th'e\ ! globe that which 1 must necessarily be local 'without the press,; — the sure palladium of the body politic, and the true witness against, any man that

appears on the stage of action as a public character. Knowing that your open columns are designed . for the expression, of public, opinion— which has been given repeatedly of late by yourself regardless of consequences, I presume upon the publication, of the present. The immortal councillors of Napier have met in preliminary meetings as well as on the floor of the house, and have measured their strength ; and common report tells us they are equal in battle. All eyes are now turned in that direction, and have been for some time past, looking for reform in every particular ; for, after labouring under the evils and injuries resulting from Welling- . ton misrule that have been so constantly preached by the leading politicians of the day — so energetically urged that every one who listened to the sage gentlemen felt inclined to believe that the meeting of the council would be the great antidote for the many wrongs inflicted ;' and that the restoration of prosperity and plenty would be the effect of their active measures. But time, the mighty change- working machine, has put us in possession of facts that the most speculative politicians of the day must necessarily have been ignorant ot, and has developed to a certain extent the deep machinations of the would-be-thought reformer of public abuses. Declamation and sophistry seem to have been the weapons artfully concealed and cunningly used to betray the less guarded portion of the community. In retrospecting the past, can we consider the repeated admonitions given in the "Tracts for the Times" without seeing in the present state of affairs the absolute necessity for the same ; and all must agree with the writer on this one point : abuses cannot exist to any considerable extent, nor exist long, if the people will only use the power in their hands. If the people will only watch the present council, and endeavour to judge from surrounding facts the motives which give impulse to action in each case, they will soon discover that pretention when opposed to action, no manner by whom, is hypocrisy of the deepest dye, and sufficient of itself to load its author with reproach and shame, if capable of feeling the same. It is a fact admitted by both parties in the council that the present formation of the council is the work of necessity, justified on the ground of expediency ; may we not, Mr. Editor, well ask what concatenation of circumstances produced the necessity ? Did the members not create the necessity by dividing on the question of Superintendent. Had the people had the election of the same, the members could not, by mutual consent, have placed a man at the head of the executive whose former declarations and present position are the most irreconcilable, and cannot be defended on any sound principle of policy. To make it appear somewhat plain, expediency is pleaded ; on those grounds the most notorious villain can attempt a justification of his every act. Did Mr. Fitz Gerald, Mr. Editor, declare at the meeting for separation that he would not take office ? The moment the town elections take place, do we not find the man who would not accept office contesting a seat for the council, and reconciling his former declarations by a playing of strange constructions. He would not take office in the executive : this to many seemed laughable ; but, lo and behold ! the gentleman who would not take office in the Executive is placed at the head of the department and has become the all-in-all, and this, as a matter of course, justified on the grounds of no salary — as if there was the slightest connection between the office and the salary. Can the public, who heard the former declaration, believe any declaration about giving office up in three months ? Is it not already whispered that His Honor knows nothing of any three months' pledge. How the present state of affairs and miserable attempt to form an executive harmonise with the dastardly attack of 'Veritas,' as published in your issue of 4th Dec. last, the public may judge — the design and tendency of which seem to have been to enter into a man's domestic circle, and hold his private character up to public ridicule ; and in order that the work may be done effectively, we find a strong appeal made to mothers, wives, and daughters to rally round the standard of morality, and oppose a man by every possible means whose high intellectual accomplishments Have won for him the esteem of numbers of his fellow men, who can appreciate merit it is to be found. But how just is the description of a. religious fanatic given by the despised Nazarene — straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel ; from re-

port, we are almost led to fancy that what . i» such; a flagrant crime in the man as to ■/, incapacitate him ifpr 'Superintendent, would ;i-;be a virtue in another, and not at all affect. t;. ( vhis moral or intellectual., capabilities >as a; jX member of the Executive. .'■-• r-Q 1.- --. , In conclusion, Mr.. Editor, I think ( a ; part of the estimates are as strange as! any thing else. What are , Carlyle street and Milton road that the public moneys should be spent for the improvement of the same ? Are they any part of a trunk line ? What makes Milton road important — because the contractors use the same. And who are the contractors ? However desirable it may be' to improve '. Carlyle street, can any person doubt the -. justness of the remarks of the member fc r Clive, that tho,' the expense may be Iriflir g in the present case, yet it may lead to the expenditure of thousands for no other purpose than to hriproye private , property by ; a ; precedent, of a Provincial ■ .Council making 'the streets'of a town. Hoping these few remarks will lead to careful inquiry, I am, &c, Aisr Observer. Napier, May 24, 1859. To the Editor of the Hawkers Bay Herald. Sir, — The recent outrage perpetrated by the natives on the property of Mr. Towgcod J need scarcely say, calls for the serious consideration of the people of this Province particularly, and ,of the inhabitants of New .Zealand generally. Coming events cast their shadows before them, and this incid- ■ ent, though it may seem but trifling, and of no immediate importance to the casual and uninterested observer, points nevertheless -.■.-; with unerring precision, and but too plainly, . to an event which will most assuredly come ,to pass before long, if proper precautions against it are not speedily taken ; and that is a collision between the Europeans and the Natives. It is all very well for our sages anil wise men to cry Peace ! Peace ! when there is no peace. It is all very well for the commercially interested and chicken hearted to proclaim in the market places that the interests of the two races are identical; and that a rupture between them is all but impossible ; and it is equally satisfactory to • ■ hear that the Maori and European have a ; mutual respect for Her Majesty the Queen, ' and. all who are set in authority over them. The belief in this state of things is hollow and dangerous, and fallacious to the last degree ; fostering as it does the most venal inactivity on the part of the Government to provide for, and the most apathetic ind'fierence on the part of the people as to their means' of defence in time of need. Between the immigrant settler in, and the aboriginal inhabitant of any country which has ever yet been colonised by a superior *■ race, there has always been, and always -.:•• will- be a feeling of antipathy, an innate ioi consciousness of jealousy and distrust ; i j. ; and not all the force of reason, of education, ./'and the advance of civilization and 1 pros- , .parity combined, can efface it.- The one is looked upon as an intruder and interloper; the other as a savage and barbarian. This fesling is as thoroughly natural to, - and is as purely an element in the mental constitution of each race, as the language ' .' which they speak, or the thoughts to which , that language gives utterance. Nor musr we forget that there is not 1 wanting a further cause of disunion between ( the two peoples, and that it will be found in a class of men of our own station v>ho delight in cherishing the smouldering fire of aninosity and dislike, and who make it their special business to heap fuel on, and to .gently .fan the -combustible materials, by. insidiously reminding the natives of the humiliating truth, that, while the strangers are rapidly increasing in wealth, in prosper- ■ ity, and in numbers, they, the original ' owners and possessors of the soil, are gradually, but surely, sinking into oblivion and slowly dwindling away from the land of their fathers and the face of the earth. The pregnant fact that the New Zealauder is keenly alive to a sense of nationality and ( " is. acutely susceptible of a feeling of sorrow ; . ■ "and- of shame, at the fast falling :ofhis ; '■"' :P. eo l?^ e arounch him, like. . autumn . leaves, ;. ,and to the, , alienation, of lands!, which have; - : - been the -. theatre of valorous deeds perfQiyn-, .-. or by .ln's.c.pl- . •^l^c'tive tribe, ! or .which, coyer the^yeni^aj-ed' . l*Temains.;6f some great warrior chief of r,e;arid whichlbear the traces mind at every step, Some liiarki-. iSf £ied %yen t" tir memorable cft.;curastaii'ce, con - ' : iii;s6rne -way' by "other with' him' or ' t •v:. l •■piis^^.'selßmV'■'tQ' ; b"e .''entirely lost sight/ of in ! of'Eng- ■'

lisli manufactures, Jamaica rmn^and the church catechism, iri' exorcismg -all sigW and indications of the manly' Spirit aild independence of-this^people. "* v "'""■ ■ .:• Presently some grey haired oldwarrioi? will rise, up and in the flowing and emphatic language' of his race, call their attention; to the dying spark of their independences and recount the brave deeds andj^nstancgs, of the intrepid valor and heroism of their, fathers and of some yet among them-, in defence of their liberty, and the punishment' of their enemies, in times past; and his eloquence will rouse his hearers, for a moment to a sense of their fallen and degraded condition, and, like an expiring flame fanned into fitful brilliancy by the passing breeze, their dormant courage will flicker up and burn brightly for a short space, and then die out for ever ; leaving many a desolated hearth and sorrowing heart, many a blackened ruin of a once cheerful home, and the bleaching bones of many a, yo,ung and, jflanly form which once held a- geueroits 'an'dbrave spirit, as sad memorials.and testirncmies of their last hard struggle with us. • ■ Talk not to our young men, of the progress of Christianity and of civilization in the land, as sufficient to neutralise or to remove the bickering and ill feeling engendered by mutual wrongs and injustice, or by cowardly concessions on the one side, and equally coivardly acts on the other ; but talk to them, as the old chief will talk to his, of the brave acts and noble doings of their forefathers, in old times, in defence of their hearths and homes, and all that, they hold dear in this cold earth ;• ;and .tell them to leave for awhile their constant counting of profits and the prices of wool, and to devote a little of that time to the : casting of bullets and to the practise of shooting, that wi*may be prepared to cn r{( force justice and' r our rights, •■ to' 'establish; and maintain our fairly earned claims tos peaceful possess'iqn of our properties, and , that we may rise up early and lie down late, in confidence of . security, and in the feeling of safety, obtained by our readiness to resist unjust aggression, and power to punish the aggressors. I am, Sir, &c., 0. L. W. Bousfield. Napier, 20th May 1559.