MISREPRESENTATION IN HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1085, 21 September 1869, Page 3

MISREPRESENTATION IN HOUSE OF COMMONS.

[Prom the " Evening Post," Sept. 8.1

The amount of ignorance which prevails in England in reference to New Zealand affairs, to the relative positions of the European and Maori'raees, and of the Colony towards the mother country, is perfectly astounding. Despite of increased facilities for communication, the extension of the Press, books and letters written by well informed and conscientious men and disseminated " at home," the misrepresentation which has been our bane since the days of that arch-ntfodle— Fitzroy— still continues, and in fact appears to be gaining ground. Earl Granville writes a harsh, bitter despatch to the Governor, in which, arguing from entirely erroneous data and ignoring facts which are patent to the world, he attempts to prove that we have no claim whatever on the mother country for assistance, and that she is perfectly justified in refusing to grant it either in men or money. He says that the thorns we are now reaping are from the tree we planted ourselves, utterly forgetting that the prolific seeds of war and trouble were sown broadcast during the gross mismanagement of native affairs by the Imperial authorities, with whom the colonists could not interfere ; and that these affairs were abandoned to us only when successive administrators had worked them into an inextricable muddle. But Earl Granville's despatch has been so frequently commented on that it is useless to dwell upon ifc. The latest case of misrepresentation which has come under our notice occurred in the House of Commons, where, on the 9fch of Ju].y> (as the Home News informs us) Mr.' Whalley— a gentleman whose name we have heard in connection with similar statements before— stood up and said : — . His opinion was that the war in New Zealand had been originated and was sustained entirely by the activity and vigilance of the Roman Catholic priesthood. Sir G. Grey, the Governor, had, he believed, more than once reported to this effect. He had repeatedly asked the Government for an explanation upon this matter and received none. He had asked whether the rebellion in New Zealand was not founded upon the system of the Ribbon conspiracy, (Oh, ob). Five Jesuit priests out of 30 who had gone out had been taken in complicity with the natives acting against our troops ; at all events he had furnished the information to the Government to this effeot, and the matter had never been refuted or explained by the Government. He challenged the Government now to deny the' statements which he had made. —We laugb. at the wildly exaggerated accounts the Maoris sometimes give of transactions in which they have taken a part, but is it possible to conceive a more false, calumnious assertion than this ; made, too, by an English legislator in his place in the House of Commons P It is a waste of words to refer to the character of the Catholic clergy among the colonists of New Zealand. Their loyalty, proved on the memorable occasion when a Fenian rising was anticipated, their conscientious devotion to their duties, the sublime courage some of them have displayed in succouring the wounded and dying on many of our battle fields, their blameless lives, are far too well known to require comment from us ; but it excites feelings of shame and indignation that such statements as those made by Mr. "Whalley should go forth to the world on the wings of the Press. It may be the settled policy of England — one widely different, however, from that which built up her grandeur, from that which incurred the expense of an almost ruinous war, and the sacrifice of Vast interests in the futile attempt to retain possession of the Colonies of North America — to withdraw all support from her Colonies, and force them to walk alone ; but, if we are to be cast upon our own resources, and compelled to carve out our destiny unaided, in the name of Justice let it be without having our character blackened, and undeserved calumny heaped upon our heads by way of finding an excuse for the unnatural act. The commissioners now about to proceed to England may succeed in procuring Imperial troops, and they may not ; if they do, they will certainly have to surmount great difficulties ; but if they succeed in reflating the calumnies so freely circulated against us, and placing our relations towards the native race and the Imperial Government in their true light before the English Parliament, the English Ministry, and the English people, their mission will not have been in vain, and they will earn a claim to be considered the benefactors of their adopted country.