NATIVE POLICY IN NEW ZEALAND.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 4, Issue 195, 15 June 1861, Page 3

NATIVE POLICY IN NEW ZEALAND.

[From the London Spectator, March 2.]

Theee are many persons in this country who will approve everything done by. a bishop, pro vi tied 1m waa not selected by , Lord Palmerston, aud everything .done by a " Native "— " Aborigine" is the fashionable term — provided he i 9 not a pagan. In New Zealand it so happens that there is a High Church Bishop and a truculent Native who is a professed Christian, not a.Wesleyau or an Independent, which might be. fatal to him, but a godly member of. the Church of England. The .Native hua. defied the authority of t,ne Queen's representative, and. the Bishop — nay^ two Bishops — and more. than one archdeacon fiave given the rebel their warmest support. Under these circumstances, of course, it is assumed that the Bishops and the Natives are in the right, and the Governor, the House of Representatives, and the Legislative Council are in the wrong. Independently of the facts of the case, one would imagine that the presumption would be the other way, and that the Executive, the Parliament, and the Native chiefs who. met near Auckland, and not William King and Bishop Selwyn, were in the right. Fatal error! How can a -Bishop and a Christian Church of England Maori be in the wrong P It must be the Governor and thosa shocking colonists who are not sufficiently submissive to the counsels of the Church, anji who insist on exercising that stiff-necked right of private independent judgment instead of bowing to the dictation of the Bishops and Archdeacons.

It is amazing to what lengths some people will go in order to depreciate the character of the colonists and destroy the reputation of the Governor for fairness. Bishop Selwyn himself did not soruple to say that the colony of New Zealand was founded for the protection of the New Zaaianders, an absurdity we impute to haste and over-zeal. It is a common- accusation against Governor Browne, that he planned the war and put his plan in execution on the first ." pretext." The fact being that his just authority was nut only resisted but defidd' and contemned, and that he set about vindicating it as an honest English Governor should. Governor Browne declared lie would buy no land unless he could obtain it with an undisputed title, and his conscientious opponents construe this to mean a title that no one, whether rightly or wrongly, justly or unjustly, disputes : an interpretation which would place it in the power of any ill-con-ditioned fellow to put a complete stop to the purchase of land altogether. Then we are told by a distinguished contemporary that the principle ou which the colonists act is this — " All claimants with a shadow of a title shall be compensated, but hone shall presume to keep their land inalienable ;" a gross perversion of the principle governing the purchase of .land. Every Native may keep his land inalienable. He offers it for Bale ; if he does not offer it the Government cannot buy it. No one, except the Government, can buy land, and the- Government does not buy until all real claims are compensated. . . In the Taranaki case nine months were spent in ascertaining titles. Wm. King set up a claim to prohibit all "sales whatever ' between the Waitara and the Mokau, an exercise ; of mere despotic will. It is this indefensible proceeding-: that is, championed ■ by , Archdeacon Hadfield and . Bishop. Selwyn, who seem, to believe : that the colonists were made for the Maoris, and the Maoris made for the Church. Anotner mode' i of casting odium on the Governor, the Government, 'i and colony of New Zealand, is to represent thewar.as a paltry quarrel; about six hundred acres,, and to condemn . the Governor, .especially,, for "involving, the British, Empire in an, expensive and discreditable war." This is the kid'-g]L6ye" view of ths business. If a French ; aianipf-;war captured a.paltry British brig, and killed the maa: ter, .and'i refused redress, yre might ; call; the .war ; that -would arise expensive j; but would .any Eng llishman call ii discreditable ? The war in New" Zealand broke out because Wm. King resisted the Q.ueen's ; authority, and set up a little empire of his own.': between the Waitara. and .the Mokau. Are we to- applaud him and sustain him, Bolely because the proximate cause of toe outbreak was a piece of land not' worth' six hundred pounds? The extent and value of -the land-have "nothing-

to do with the question "whether Wm'. King- or Queen Tictoria is sovereign over'thß islands of New Zealand.* It" sounds very : high-minded' to talk of doing justice to the' Natives, and 'defending Native rights from -encroachment ; but the UNctuou^ as well as- the' scent-bottle • defeh dersof ■yVtn. KSrig, altogetineir' forget the Native right winoll Win; King usurped — the right to sell their land. Natives haVe a right to- refiise to sell their own landi : but no Native ha3a' right to prohibit the sale of land which he does not own. Yet this is what Wm. King did, and this is what his white friends defend. But so long as the judgment of the Home Government is not perverted by the unwise, un-English, and unfair assertions of Wm. King's supporters, it matters little what they say, for the New Zealand colonists— the noblest colonists in' the whole world — have unequivocally approved of the war, and have given ample support to the Governor. . -

The last session of the first Parliament of New Zealand came to an end on the sth of November, and as the- Parliament was immediately dissolved, ample opportunity was afforded to the colonists of ratifying the measures that Parliament has taken, or of returning a majority adverse to the Governor and Ministry. Before they separated they passed a series of resolutions relating to Native affairs, -and a Native Council Bill, which has come home for approval. The resolutions are based on broad principles of just and fair dealing towards the Natives, declaring it expedient to establish civil government among them; Native institutions, with their assent ; periodical meetings of chiefs, like that held in Auckland in .1860, and district meetings of Natives ; the appointments of chiefs of districts to be the organ of 1 communication with the Government ; a comprehensive scheme for the extinguishment, or commutation, of Native title, reserving Native rights in all their amplitude, but placing them on a new footing. The whole plan, which, in the main, had the assent of the House, refutes the accusation that the Government and colonists are pursuing a deliberate scheme of ex.tirpation. What the solf-styled friends of the Maoris in this country will object to is, the proposal embodied in the Native Council Bill, and assented to by Governor Browne, that "the aclminsiration and management of Native affairs shall be placed on the same basis as the other departments of the Government, and shall be conducted by a Secretary for Native Affairs," who will be a member of trie responsible Ministry, and whose duty it^will be, subject to the proper constitutional action of the supreme head of the executive, to work the machinery of the new act. What is wanted is a reduction of the Native tenure of land to an intelligible shape, the establishment among the Natives of something like local government and local courts, and the encouragement of every tendency on their part to submit to settled law and government, and of every tendency to assimilate the principles of European civilization. These ends could be accomplished far better by a council responsible to the Parliament than by the governor and a little knot of nominees'. Nobody desires the extinction of the Native race. .No policy is designed to effect that extinction. The fact is, here are two races confronting each other ; it is manifest which is the stronger, and, we will say it out, the better. Whether the Natives will be able to hold their own is altogether dependent upon the vitality of the stock, and the power of the race to imbibe and reproduce the substantial principles of European civilization. If they cannot do that, they must die-out ; if they can, they may flourish. At present they appear to be fading before a civilization which is too strong for them, and all the seritimentalisrn in the wofid will not save them. The chances of preserving this noblest race of savages will be greatly augmented if the colonists are left to deal with them through* the machinery of a responsible Ministry and the Queen's representative.