THE CANTERBURY SUPERINTENDENCY.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 14, Issue 1148, 29 April 1870, Page 3

THE CANTERBURY SUPERINTENDENCY.

Mr. Eolleston met tho ql^f fr? rs on Thursday evening last, at th^' s Musio Hall, Ohristchurch, aud made & lengthened address, as reported by the Lyttelton Times, from which the following is extracted :— •

I have always held, with regard to the native war, that it Ima been to a great extent unnecessary ; that the system of military settlement is a mistake, mid if you would allow mo I would* quote irota Hansard the words I said in the Housp on this subject in the session of 1969. What I said Tra's this — that "iue uiautier in which, we hare carried oiittlie scheme of military settlement has, 'to my mind, been productive of war. If you bate a body of mea dependent^ on keeping tip war, you will have war." I held, gentlemen, and still hold, that ihe main trade of the North; Island has been ta war. I do not mean to acccse my fellow-colonists of putting it steadily before ih&rt own minds fch&t they were making a trade of war. I would be very sorry, indeed, to say such a thing, but the military expenditure tlisthas been going oh, the wet that settlenseufc has not been possible in msay parts of ta© . country where it has been, atieaipleu, has rendered an expenditure heepsssry which has brought about n.systeui of living upon Trar. (Hear, feear, gjsiS cheers.) 1 haxe held, and nold: still, that so long as funds will be ftmnd for this expenditure, in- ■ depended tly, as £ maintain -it has been, of" finy probability . of its being usefully applied, so long uriilthe native war continue. (Heft?, hear, and cheers.) Geatlemen, thisrieTf 13 one tbat lias been taken recently by a very high authority — by one who must from distance be reirtovea io a position ■where he ckn calmly, disp&ssionateiy, and judiciously look npon the subject: I mean Lord Crrawille. Thy despatch which he recently nrrofce I look npoa as ofie step towards the settlement of the rfatire difficulty. It is not worded throughout as I should wish, to see it, but 1 cordially agree With the principles which are there enunciated. One of the principles urged by his lordship is tho abandonment of untenable positions, the leaving of country that we were occupying at enormous expense without any prospect of profitable settlement. Another main point which he also insisted on is the Recognition of Maori authority. We have been fighting to a great extent with a name ; we have determined to press ourselves upon the Maoris in a pavfc of the country we should not hare followed them to, in ft part of country we could not profitably occupy, when there is plenty of good land to be occupied else where, and in thi9 Province tor instance. (Hear, kear, and cheers.) The third point which that despatch insists on, and which only to a certain extent 1 agree frith, is the maintenance of a small, w-etUorganised force independent of land. In the Grenerel Assembly I insisted on that point, namely, that you must make your defence irrespective of land. The scheme of military settlement has been our ruin of tli« treatment of the native war. (Cheers.) Well, gentlemen, I hold those vie«s strongly, and 1 think they embrace principles that have a great deal in them. Thny were etill further elaborated by a series of able resolutions Iwocglit foe fore the House I by Mr. Tnncred, a Canterbury member. Holding the views I do,. the course I felt bound to take was this. I found a Ministry in advocating the conquest of peace. I believed it impossible ; 1 believed that it was a «ild-goone chase in which we mii?hfc speud thousands, and the natives not a penny, and where no real result* would be obtained b} r prosecuting the war in the way proposed. I therefore could not, in tiie interests of this portion of the Colony, support a Ministry that had for its text the conquest of peace. (Olieers.) I therefore voted against (he Stafford Ministry, though I must say I had great misgivings in doing so in the absence of any declared policy on the part of any Ministry that was to succeed it, In fact, it was not known what Miuistry would succeed it. Still, the question was put to me — " Have you confidence in a Ministry whose policy is the conquest of peace P" I had not, and I voted with the view of a change. Another Ministry came in which had for one of its cardinal points the obtaining of Imperial troops at a certain cost to the Colony. That is diametrically opposed to the principles which I believe should guide us in this Maori war. (Hear, hear). That question, however, is very well settled ; we are not going to get troops, and I believe that to be one of the most fortunate tilings that can happen. (Cheers). I believe the carrying on of war iv the North will be dropped when people find that the carrying of it on will not be backed up by the presence of Imperial troops. (Hear, hear). I believe that the settlers, whose interest it is to make peace, will make it and keep ifc, because it is to their interest to do so, and will not occupy couutry which they feel it is not safe to occupy. (Cheers). There is plenty of^ country here, to be occupied, and plenty* also in the North Island without it. (Hear, hear.) Therefore do not let us go into coujitry which we cannot certainly occupy for ihe present. (Cheers). Now, gentlemen, that question of troops being settled, I do hope that this Ministry, and I believe this Ministry will devote themselves, as any Ministry now must, to carrying out, certainly in some modified form, the principles I have enunciated, if not those principles themselves. And now this question being settled, I think it would be a great evil io the country to have at the present time a change of Ministry. (Hear, hear) . I hope the members of this island will unite to support the Government in a peace policy with the natives. It ie the one thing that will enable this colony as a whole to advance in material prosperity. It is idle for us here in Canterbury to ignore — and I am sure we do not, because we feel it most keenly — the influence which the fact of a native war raging in the North Island has upon us.