THE STORY OF NEW ZEALAND.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 3, Issue 136, 28 April 1860, Page 1

THE STORY OF NEW ZEALAND.

-As a. general rule, it requires the courage of a. literary martyr, or the despair of a seaside lodger on a rainy day, to open a book of colonial facts. A true colony — we. do. not mean a conquered province, but a settlement — is very like a* second rate English town, with some addition to energy, and some deduction in morality ; and its literature smacks very much of a county "Mercury." The returned colonist from the southern seas, who seeks to enlighten the English public on. the-" Young Empire " to which Mr. Disraeli looks for succour against France, seldom has the breadth of knowledge requisite for his task, and is too much' steeped in local politics and prejudices to. give it if he had. It is a rare piece of good fortune when the duty is undertaken by a writer whose position at once gives him a thorough familiarity with the events and facts he is describing, and frees him from the passions by which the actors in them are blinded. No situation could be more favorable for this purpose than that of a military surgeon. "Ex officio," he is bound to be impartial in political disputes ; while his profession gives him both an inquiring habit of mind, and also that extensive personal intercourse from which alone contemporary history can be constructed. Dr. Thomson has not been wanting to his opportunities. He has worked up his subject with a laboriousness and accuracy which a German might envy, while he steers a straight impartial course through the midst of the many angry controversies which have agitated the minute and vivacious communities whom he describes. Indeed, in respect to one of the controversies it is only from a medical man that a fair narrative can be expected. In the questions that have arisen between the white man and the Maori, neither missionary nor settler can be taken as an unbiassed witness. The settler only thinks of the native as the " nigger," whose absurd rights of property cramp his enterprise ; while the missionary mentally curses the settler for the introduction of a busy worldly activity which tainted his once simple followers, and substituted agriculture for church-going. The surgeon's art gives him friends and interests among the maories, while the innate antagonism between doctor and clergyman imbues him with a certain sympathy for the settler's grievances. Ten or fifteen years ago, New Zealand occupied a very prominent place in the public mind, and was a bone of contention both to religious and political parties, though the successive wars of the Crimea, India, and China have of late caused it to be almost entirely forgotten. Perhaps it did not deserve the exaggerated attention it used to receive from politicians in the days of the New Zealand Company ; but in an historical point of view its colonization must always be very full of interest. It marks a stage not only in the civilization of the Maories, but of our own. There is no sounder test of a high and true civi- | lization than its dealings with a race of r helpless savages. Its office i 3 to rub off prejudices, and there is no prejudice so catlike, in its vitality as the prejudice of I race. While it stimulates commerce, it is "^ho true civilization if it does not curb the . greediness of trade ; and the weakness of savages presents a temptation to rapacity which even liberal politicians and deeply religious men have not been always able to withstand. We do not mean to say that the conduct of Englishmen to New.Zea- * landers has been always unimpeachable, but it marks a great advance. The progress has been slow, and has taken two centuries to learn. We were; never quite so bad as the Spanish, Portugese, and Du tch settlers, , who 'enslaved the i natives whose lands they seized.' .. " Tfie |Eitgrim Fathers w«fe content „ -with, the: lands, and &.- ' their former owners whenever they stood in |l their way. bi ' When Australian colbmzatidh

: . f The Story of New, Zealand. - By Arthur's. ;. T&oiisOnJ"M.D., Surgeon-Major, 58fch Regiment, :;. 2 vols. London jvMurray, 1859. ;:

began, we had advanced a little further.; We took the natives' lands but we pro-* tected their lives ; arid although a settler would occasionally disembarrass himself of inconvenient neighbours by. inviting them to a feast of poisoned damper, still these were mischances for which. the Government was not to blame. In New Zealand we have reached the unheard-of liberality of not only sparing the natives' lives, but of purchasing all the land that we occupied. Whether the Wairau massacre did not stimulate our consciences in this respect it would perhaps be invidious to inquire ; but, at all events, a precedent is established which will we trust, be a law for future cases. The English Government seems to have had a presentiment of the difficulty which, in this age of humanity, the|occupation of aboriginal property would present. They struggled gallantly to escape the fatal acquisition ; but their destiny was too strong for them. The folly of burdening our little island with such vast and distant possessions has been a favorite theme for the lamentations of one school of politicians. But New Zealand is only the last proof out of many that the firmest convictions and steadiest resolutions on the part of rulers are unavailing to prevent the growing of an empire whose law is growth. Except in the case of convict colonies, the English Government has scarcely ever taken the initiative in colonization. Either traders, or missionaries, or settlers occupy the country ; and then no choice is left to a Minister but to accept the colony or to abandon to anarchy a community of British subjects. So it was in New Zealand. First it was visited by whalers, even missionaries, then by runaway sailors or by Sydney speculators, until at last there was a considerable number of Europeans in the colony. The days of William the Fourth were days of economy, and the Government did their best to stave off the recognition of the colony as long as they could. First they sent a British Consul to the Bay of Islands to keep the Europeans in order. Then some patterns of flags were sent for the chiefs to choose from ; and the chiefs, inspired by a Yankee whaler, chose a close resemblance to the stars and stripes. The Colonial Secretary gravely sanctioned their choice, and orders were issued from the Admiralty to recognise the New Zealand flag. Then the consul assembled a number of chiefs and formed them into a nominal republic, represented by a Parliament, under the title of the United Tribes of New Zealand. But these were postponements of the evil day. 'As soon as the New Zealand Company had begun to colonize in earnest, and had sent out their first ship-load of emigrants, the Ministers of the day felt that to remain any longer inactive would be to ensure a war of races. Perhaps the news that Louis Phillipe had taken shares in a French colonizing company directed to the same islands quickened their measures. But their mode of proceeding was, for the credit of humanity, a novel one. Instead of taking possession, | in the Queen's name, as Captain Cook had done, their emissary, Captain Hobson, assembled the chiefs, and by guaranteeing to them their lauds, obtained a cession of the sovereignty at the treaty of Waitangi. This guarantee of land was destined to sustain many a rude shock from many different assailants ; but it has in spite of all efforts been nobly maintained. The attempts of the Europeans to evade it lay at the bottom of all the troubles by which the .infancy of the colony was beset. r First came the missionaries and the land sharks. Adventurers from Sydney, which was not at that time the residence of -a very elevated pop ulatiori," ; had early taken the opportunity' of practising on the. ignorance of the natives to buy frqmthem^at the price of a few trinkets, {heir signatures to" convey ances; which -purported to alienate, huge tracts; of territory, but with whose import and Value thepoor^signataries: were never made acquainted.. The missionaries thought" if a pity that "the land -sharks settlement of them was for a long time a

monopolise the spoil, and so they resorted to the same .system. The result was, that by the time Captain Hobson had assumed the government, nearly half the northern island was claimed by Europeans. It is needless to say that any attempt to force these claims would have resulted in a native war, and that the Government wholly refused to sanction them. But the thorny question, in consequence of the native jealousy on the subject of land. These claimants, however, were weak and isolated, and easily dealt with. It was very different with the New Zealand Company. This body had spared ho pains to attract emigrants, and among other devices it had sold land to settlers in England at a time when it had no more title to sell land in New Zealand than in: Spain. It had sent forward Col. Wakliield with instrucions to buy land, and had acted on the assumption of his success. . It was necessary, therefore, that he should succeed. Accordingly, his theory of the formalities requisite for a sale was exceedingly liberal. As soon as he arrived off the coast he took on board the first natives he could find. He then pointed out all the headlands and hills in sight, and asked the names of them. Having listened to a bead-roll of Maori nomenclature, he made a whaler, who professed to know the language, ask the native if he would sell them. The native grinned, and said he would ; and forthwith, in consideration of sundry trinkets, signed a deed presented to him. Having repeated this process on various parts of the coast, Col. Wakefield wrote home a flourishing account of his splendid purchases. Of course, when the settlers arrived, they soon discovered that the natives With whom he had bargained had no more power to give a title to land than a boatman on Wahner beach could give a title to Dover castle ; and when they tried to take possession of their purchases they received the broadest hints that it w r ould be at the peril of their lives. This dishonesty on the part of the Directors was the source of endless trouble. The Wairau massacre was the first result of an attempt to act on Colonel Wakefield's bargains. This startling defeat at once set iv motion the various chiefs from Heke to Rangihaeta, whose power had been clipped or whose resources had been impaired by the English colonization; and, before long, it brought on the war which cost England nearly a million of money, and New Zealand several years of progress. And even now, though peace has long been restored between the races, the land question remains still pregnant with mischief. The jealousy of the natives — roused by the unjustifiable proceedings of the New Zealand Company — has never thoroughly subsided. It has issued, within the last few years, in an anti-land-selling league on their part — a menacing step which it will tax the judgment of the colonial statesmen to frustrate. Two or three retaliatory measures, passed by the Legislative Council, but fortunately negatived by the Home Government, are not a happy omen for the future. Of the prosperity which awaited New Zealand as soon as it emerged from its early troubles, Dr. Thomson gives a careful and interesting account. There is instruction as ■well- as entertainment in his narrative of the infantine vagaries of its somewhat elaborate constitution. Of course the early efforts of a minute community to fit to its own size the cumbrous mechanism of Responsible Government has its ludicrous side. On the whole, however, it has worked very well. It would be better if the ex-Premier never diversified an animated debate by punching his predecessor's ribs ; and it would have been more dignified if the first care of the first Parliament of the Britain of the South had not been tovbte themselves a handsome salary for the trouble of .coming together. -But such little defects are more than repaid by the solid rsocial progress of the islands. Both our material and our spiritual aspirations must be satisfied by the facts that two-thirds of' the natives are Christians, and that in five years the export of wool

has increased fivefold. There is a sadder sequel to Dr. Thomson's story, for which however the New Zealand Government can hardly be held responsible. It appears to be only too certain that the natives are melting rapidly away. It is not that there is any absolute census on which the assertion can be based ; but there is the telling fact that the adults are out of all proportion to the children. Many reasons are assigned for it. There are contagious diseases which have been introduced by Europeans, and habits of comparative luxury which fit in ill- to the remnants of savage life. A good deal is "attributed to the neglect and consequent mortality of femalechildren, and a good deal to the' scrofulous , tendency cfethe potato which was intro-^ duced by Captain Cook. But these causes hardly appear to satisfy. Dr. Thomson. . r lt should seem as if there were some undis- ' covered law which dooms the inferior race to disappear before the face of the white man, just as the New Zealand rat is yield- - ing to the Norway rat, and the New Zealand grasses are withering away at the contact of their European congeners.