HAWKE'S BAY HERALD SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1863. ROADS AND MILITARY SETTLMENTS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 7, Issue 437, 14 November 1863, Page 2

HAWKE'S BAY HERALD SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1863. ROADS AND MILITARY SETTLMENTS.

We this morning publish, at the request of several of our readers, the first portion of the parliamentary paper referred to iv our last. We wish it were iv our power to reproduce the plan attached to it, which, as showing the lines of road proposed to be made, now and at a future time, and the local position; 1 pf intei ded semi-military settlements, as well as the approximate number ofthe natives in different localities, would materially aid the reader in following the views of the Colonial Secretary. Besides, there is something in the red lines (indicating roads), and red circles (indicating settlements), with which the map is so profusely interspersed and intersected, that is peculiarly gratifying to the New Zealand settler. After years of heart-sickness at Maori arrogance and aggression, stimulated by British vacilla..tipn and weak u ess, a prospect at length dawns of a new and better state of things — of thriving British settlements taking the place of unreclaimed wastes, and of British law being asserted throughout the length and breadth of the land. It is true that much has yet to be done, as well on the part of the future pioneers of the interior as oni that of the Government ; but, the effort haviug once been put forth, we have perfect confidence that intervening obstacles will be surmounted, and that a few years will witness a full realization of a scheme that ajmo.it sounds Utopian to those who, having carefully watched the events of past years, have all but despaired of the Northern Islaud as a* field for colonization. We have referred to obstacles ; strange to say, one is to,be found amoiig ourselves. We refer to the conduct of Maori sympathisers — more particularly to Mr. FitzGerald's opposition to the second reading of the New Zealand Settlements Bill, the .debate on which took place on the eveuing

of the sth inst., and is thus summarised in the Southern Cross of next morning : — Mr. Fox moved the second reading of the New Zealaud Settlements Bill, and in so doing he briefly explained its object. He said it was the keystone of the policy of the Government — viz., to introduce a sufficiently numerous European population, so that in future the natives might be debarred from any successful resistance to the law. For this purpose land was required, and it was proposed to confiscate that in the districts where the rebellion at present existed. The area comprised in that was about four millions of acres; two millions being in Upper Waikato, 550,000 in the Lower, 710,000 in the Thames and Piako, 600,000 at Taranaki, and 620,000 in Taranaki South. He believed this land would be ample for carrj'ing out the views of the Government, that of providing for the settlement of a population of between 15,000 and 20,000 persons. The hon. member then referred to the provisions in the bill for compensating individuals of the native race whose land might be taken but who were not in open rebellion. Mr. FitzGeraid at great length criticised the measure in severe terms. He said no such bill should have been placed before the House, until they had an opportunity of discussing the policy of the late Ministry, in order that they might make up their minds as to how far the Government itself was responsible for the evils under which the colony labored, and their judgment of the necessity of such a measure would mainly depend upon that. He said the bill repealed every engagement made between the British Crown and the natives, from the first day this became a British colony, and.he felt confident that Her Majesty would not give her assent to it. It gave power to the Government of the colony to confiscate native lands upon every imaginable and conceivable wrong. It would confirm every charge made at home against the colonists here, viz., that of an undue desire to acquire land from the natives, and it would go home to England that they had resolved upon one great confiscation. The hon. member then contended that the Bill was in contravention of the Constitution Act, which provided that thi-y should pass no law that was repugnant to the law of England, and this, he concluded, was so. Mr. Brodie followed, supporting the bill, and replying to theremarksof thelastspeakerwhosesentimentalism he hoped the House would avoid equally with the injustice he condemned. No other member appearing inclined to address the House, Mr. Fox replied to some of the objections which had been raised, and the bill was then read a a second time, without opposition. — The opposition of Mr. FitzGeraid was fortunately without avail in the then temper of the House ; but it is quite possible that the representations of his party may have an effect in England inimical in the extreme to the interests of the colony. The present is pre-eminently the time for the New Zealand colonist to be true to himself; and it is deplorable to see such exceptions as that to which we have alluded. We observe also that Dr. Featherston has very absurdly constituted himself the champion of the Maori king ; and, at the instance of Renata & Co., the loyal occupants of Pa Whakaaro, has taken great pains to prove that Matutaere did not in reality write a letter to Wi Tako and the Ahuriri natives, suggesting as a highly -desirable step a suddeu and general rising of the native population, to take place on the 17th July last. He pathetically and, to our mind, somewhat ludicrously, depicts the satisfaction it must be to these good men to have access through him to the " Great Runanga" of the pakeha. What unmitigated bosk.