ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 14, Issue 1125, 8 February 1870, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

(From the " European Mail," December 3.) lOBD GBANVILLE AND SIE GEOBGE GEEY ON THE NEW ZEALAND CEISIS. The following correspondence has appeared in the Standard : — "Belgrave Mansions, Grosvenor Gai'dens, October 27, 1869. — My Lord,— l beg fc> state that a despatch of your lordship's, dated the 7th instant, and which has been published by your directions, is, in my opinion, likely to seriously injure myself and those New Zealand statesmen who acted as my Ministers. lam confirmed in this opinion by the remarks made to me in connection with your lordship's despatch . since its publication. Your lordship is pleased to state in the despatch to which I allude that the recognition of Maori authority by her Majesty's Government in New Zealand is an indispensable — although a distasteful — remedy for the difficulties of New Zealand, although it is one which will not be resorted to while the colony continues to expect assistance from this country ; and that a decision to supply the colony even with the prestige of British troops, objectionable as your lordship has shown it to be on the ground of practical principle, would, in your view, be almost immediately injurious to the settlers themselves, as tending to delay the adoption of those prudent councils on which you think the restoration of the Northern Islanddepends. Your lordship will pardon me for showing in self-defence that the statemects so made are contrary to fact. One error which pervades your lordship's correspondence upon this and cognate points is, that you are pleased to speak of " the leading tribe of Maoi'is" as "scattered." In truth, the Waikato tribe, the tribe to which, I presume, your lordship alludes, would not be admitted to be the leading tribe by several other tribes, such as the Ngapuhi tribes, the Ngatikahungunu tribes, Ngatitoa, the Ngatiraukawa, the Arawa, and other tribes. The Waikato tribe, however, set up the native king, and selected twice a leading chief of their own tribe to fill that office. Hence arose a great difficulty. The other tribes to which I have alluded — the chiefs of which had always been independent sovereign princes — had relinquished, by treaty, their sovereign rights to the Queen of England, and conjointly with the Waikato tribe, had by that treaty recognised her Majesty as their common Sovereign. The tribes I have named, or the great majority of them, were and are proud of being the subjects of a great Sovereign, and no pursuasion would induce them to recognise the authority of the VVaikato King. To make them do that we should have to resort to force, and to join the fanatics against those tribes, many members of which have cheerfully laid down their lives to maintain the authority of the Queen. The mere rumour of any intended general recognition of the Maori King will raise up new and more formidable enemies against us than we have hitherto had to cope with, and other tribes will declare their independence upon totally new grounds. I beg to state that whilst large bodies of troops were in the country, and before the Waikato war commenced, I paid a visit to the Waikato tribes, who, I believed, were resolved upon a formidable out-break. The whole of their principal chiefs met me, with the exception of the Maori King, who was ill, and I to those chiefs, with the full assent of my responsible advisers, offered to constitute all the Waikato and Ngatimaniapoto country a separate province, which would have had the right of electing its own superintendent, its own legislature, and of choosing it own executive government, and in fact would have had practically the same powers and rights as any State of the United States now has. There could hardly have been a more ample and complete recognition of Maori authority, as the Waikato tribes would, within their own district — a very large one — have had the exclusive control and management of their own affairs. This offer was, however, after full discussion and consideration, resolutely and deliberately refused on the ground that they would accept no offer that did not involve an absolute recognition of the Maori King and his and their entire independence from the Crown of England;— terms which no subject had power to grant, and which could not have been granted without creating worse evils than those which their refusal involved.— (Signed) G. G-bey.-- To the Eight Honorable Earl Granville, K.G-., Colonial Office, Downing-street, S.W." " Downing-streefc, Nov. 6, 1869." " Sir, — 1. I am directed by Lord G-ran-ville to acknowledge your letter of the 27th ult., commenting on two passages in his Lordship's despatches of the 21st March, and the 7th of October last. 2. Lord Granville does not agree with you that his correspondence is pervaded by any error respecting the position of the Wuikatos. 3. Lord Granville's statement" that, as the result of the war, ' the leading tribe of the Maoris was scattered aud the power of the others broken,' was not meant to include those who remained at peace (to whom the latter part of the passage was manifestly inapplicable), but only those ' leading' and 'other' tribes concerned in the insurrection. Lord Granville continues to fear that the recognition of Maori authority— the recognition, that is, to the extent to which it may become indispensable — may prove distasteful to the colonists, but he will be well satisfied to find himself mistaken, and is glad to infer that you are of a different opinion. He has no materials to judge how far the transactions referred to by you, which he presumes to be those reported in your despatch No. 5, of Feb. 6, 1863, and in which you now state that your Ministry concurred, support your anticipation. 4s. Lord Granville has never suggested that the authority of the Maori King should be recognised over tribes not desirous of submitting to him. — (Signed), F. E. Sandfokd.— Sir George Grey, K.C.B. " Belgrave Mansions, Grosvenor Gardens, November 13. — Sir, — Adverting to my letter to you of this day's date, on the subject of Lord Granville's intention that the authority of the Maori King should be recognised under some limitations, I beg you will be so kind as to direct his lordship's attention to my despatch No. 20, of February 2, 1566, enclosing a paper from Sir William Martin, who remarks that the effort the natives had made to set up a separate nationality was an effort dangerous to both races, and a great folly, although he thinks it was not a great crime. In that despatch I have^fully discussed the subject, and shown the evils which must inevitably fall upon both races if such a policy is allowed to be carried out. The despatch to which I allude is published on page 18 of the papers relative to the affairs of New Zealand, which were laid before Parliament on June 26, 1866.— (Signed), G. Gbby.— Sir F. E. Sundford, K.C.M.G., &c, Colonial Office, Downing street, S.W." " Belgrave Mansions, Grosvenor Gardens, November 13, 1869. — Sir, — In reply to your letter of the 6ih instant, I have the honour to state as follows : — I do not think that the portion of the Waikato tribe, to which Lord Granville alludes as joining in the revolt, was the leading tribe, nor was it scattered; the people

composing it retired in a body from one district to another, where they still remain united. I regard the Ngatimaniapoto tribe as having been the leading tribe in forcing on the revolt and in conducting it. Their territory was hardly touched upon during the war. They have been neither scattered nor broken, and only one small strip of their land, touching the Waikato country, has been taken for the purpose of forming a portion of a military settlement for the protection of the country at an important point. There is, I think, a manifest error throughout Lord Granville's argument upon this subject. For it could never be said that it had become indispensable for an English Government to recognise within the limits of its own dominions the authority of a Maori King, when the tribes who had raised an insurrection to set up that King were scattered and their power broken. Especially as they had no original right to set up a king, an office unknown to their ancestors, country, and institutions, and which act on their part has throughout been resisted by the great majority of their own countrymen. Barbarians, whether our friends or foes, will never believe that we have, from such causes as these, made concessions which they will regard as pusillanimous and disgraceful. The present Governor of New Zealand gives an exactly opposite reason for advising Earl Granville to recognise the authority of the Maori King ; he says it should be done because 'it is clear that thej cMLcniest of the Maori King by force We? arms is impracticable.' lam notjo_f opinion that the colonists of New Zealand will now recognise the authority of the Maori King to such an extent as Lord Granville deems indispensable. The Colonial Government, to avoid revolt, when revolt was only imminent, and the colony was strong in Imperial troops and in its own forces, offered to a portion of a barbarous race, all that could in reason be given to them. That offer was decidedly refused. War took place. The' European race and a portion of the native race have eventually been subjected to a series of the most dire calamities and most cruel acts, including outrages of every kind that the mind of man can conceive, even cannibalism itself. They are now called upon, without giving any commensurate reward to those tribes who have shown themselves tried and noble friends, to recognise the authority of the Maori King, which has been supported by those barbarians who have inflicted such ills upon them, and who have been guilty of such atrocious crimes. I feel sure the colonists of New Zealand will think that Rome in the days of her utmost decline, when her standards were withdrawn from point to point, never humbled herself further than this before a barbarian foe. They will feel that such an order as this can only issue from a Minister who regards the strength and majesty of the empire as fading away ; but they will also feel that, if it is sent forth from age and decay, it comes to a youthful nation, fresh and vigorous, just springing into life, on which times yet to come will look back for the example it gave and left for the strong peoples who were to spring from it ; and I believe the New Zealand men will give an example worthy of the race from which they have come — the example of sacrificing all they have, and dying, if necessary, to a man before they will obey a command which would require them to recognise the authority of a so-called native king, whose servants, allies, and friends have cruelly murdered their men, women, children, and faithful natives, with circumstances of atrocity which make the blood run cold to think of. And in resisting to the last extremity the recognition of the authority of such a king, the New Zealand pp ■■■>; -1 •> will believe that they will carry \vi;;. ;iiom the almost universal sympathy of their fellow-subjects in Great Britain, which sympathy and regard I feel sure they will still further entitle themselves to by the justice, mercy, and generosity with which they will deal with the native race, now, equally with themselves, abandoned by the British Government to a most trying struggle.— (Signed), G. Gbet. —Sir F. R. Sandford, K.C.M.G., &c, Colonial Office, Downing-street, S.W." Two other letters have appeared on this subject, which may be briefly epitomised. In referring to the despatch of the Governorof New Zealand of the 30th June, 1868, referred to by Lord Granville, Sir George points out that it makes fully apparent the extreme cruelty to both races in that country of the policy of attempting, by the withdrawal of the troops, to force them to recognise the authority of the Maori King. Then, after pointing out that the present Governor in his despatch states that, although some of the leading men of New Zealand at one time thought that a native province might have been advantageously created, " all appear to be now agreed that the opportunity for any arrangement of this kiud has been lost, and that the Maori King, and a chief named Hakaraia, are now surrounded by fierce and bloody fanatics, who commit all manner of atrocities." He says : — " I believe the Imperial Government is much to blame for having discouraged and weakened in the native mind the noble desire for carrying on the war on merciful principles, which were indulged and practised by the best natives, who were iv rebellion. Still, men wAio viewed the atrocities which had been committed with satisfaction and approval, whilst their ignorance might claim their commiseration, had forfeited all claim on us to be invested with the authority of a Governmentiua British country; and itappears strange thatEai-1 Granville could have been induced to attehtp^ to' compel the British settlers in New Zealand, by the withdrawal of tlie troops and of all assistance, to recognise the authority of those fierce and bloody fanatics from whom they had suffered such outrages. Our cowardice and their success could but augment their arrogance and daring, and encourage the violent and bad in other parts of New Zealand to play a similar game ; whilst it is impossible to tell what effect such a proceeding on our part would have on the hitherto faithful natives." The Spectator, commenting on the above correspondence, observes : — "Of coui'se, Lord Granville will bo logical, and recommend a rupture of the Empire and a loss to the Crown rather than not meet the Maori King's views — in which case, as Sir G. Grey observes, he will promote a very much more formidable rebellion on the part of other Maori tribes." The Standard says :—" We cannot doubt what the answer will bo to any Imperial Governor who should dare to propose the ' recognition of the Maori authority' to a New Zealand Legislature. We are equally confident as to the feeling which would be aroused in the mother country by any attempt on the part of the Imperial Government to give full effect to the Granville policy. Rather than restore the island to the Maoris the colonists will spend their last man and last shilling. They are bound to resist this miserable, this cowardly policy, in the name of their country, of humanity, and of civilisation. Whether by our help or not, the Englishman, and not the Maori savage, is bound to be supreme in New Zealand, and for all that happens, should the colony be left to contest this issue single-handed, let the blood be on the heads of those who deserted their countrymen in the hour of peril,"