Hawke's Bay Herald. WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 1878.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5122, 10 July 1878, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald. WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 1878.

The meeting between Sir George Grey and Rewi, at Waitara, has been made the subject of a good deal of ridicule by the Opposition papers. For this there has been no doubt some ground in the prolixity of the " talk," and its seeming deficiency of meaning, except on the one point, that of Rewi's demand that Waitara should be given to him. What may have been Rewi's object in making the demand is difficult to say, seeing that, though not the slightest intimation was made to him that it would be complied with, yet the non-compliance did not prevent his coming to an amicable arrangement with Sir George Grey on all other matters of difference. Evidently, therefore, the demand had not that significance that has boon given to it by Sir George Grey's detractors. The explanation given by those who are versed in the knowledge of Maori ways and mode of speech, and whose minds are not warped by anti-Ministerial prejudices, is that what Rewi meant by giving Waitara into his hand was that the whole dispute between his tribe and the Government should be settled between himself and Sir George Grey. The Auckland Star, however, thinks that too figurative an interpretation would be placed upon Bewi's language if it were concluded that the confiscated lands were in no wise implicated. " We fully anticipate," it says, " that when the terms on which Sir George Grey and Rewi are agreed become pub-' lie, they will be found to include the restoration of blocks of confiscated land for settlement by landless natives." Of course, that would be a matter for Parliament to determine upon, before any validity can be given to any arrangement on that head which may have been made by Sir George Grey, and there can be no doubt whatever that such terms as the Premier has agreed to have been hedged with the provision that they would be subject to Parliamentary ratification. Whatever may have been the conditions on this point they have notyet been disclosed, and it would be idle to speculate upon them at present. It is, however, known that the meeting, so far from being an abortive one, as the Opposition journals pretend it to have been, it was, (in the contrary, a complete success, giving another proof of Sir George Grey's influence with the natives, and of his skill and adroitness in dealing with them. Circumstances, it appears, rendered it undesirable that the settlement should be made in public, but it was made, nevertheless, and there is every reason to believe that it will prove highly satisfactory in every respect. The desire to have the settlement arranged privately proceeded, Aye are told, from Rewi, not from Sir George Grey ; and it is easy enough to understand that Rewi felt he would have a difficulty in yielding publicly before his tribe to terms which might be fair enough in themselves, and which he would readily accede to in private. A large share of his sway over his clansmen, as the Otaffo Didhj Times remarks, being based on the prestige attaching to their bitter resistance to European advancement, it must have been to Rewi a task of indescribable delicacy to conduct at once satisfactory negotiations with the Government, and yet not forfeit that influence over his own people without which negotiations would have been abortive. Hence his wish to come to an understanding with Sir George Grey privately, taking his own time and opportunity afterwards to secure the assent of his tribe to the terms agreed upon. According to the

Daily Tiniest, amongst the arrangements made is included the construction of a railway through Rewi's country, the lino being from Auckland to Taranaki. It was supposed that this would have been the last thing Rewi would have consented to. Yet not only lias Rowi given. Ms consent, but he has pro He red most generous assistance in carrying out such a work. "It now turns out," siiys the Daily TLnw.% " that not only does Rewi desire a railway through his country, but offers to give all tho land required gratuitously. But is this all ? No; but lie has done that which it never entered into tho heart of any European capitalist to do; he has offered to make a present of as much hind as "will pay for the construction of the whole ef the northern, trunk line of railway as far as it runs through his enormous temtoiy, extending from Tc Awamutu station in the Auckland Province to Waitara station in Taranaki." These are certainly large and liberal concessions, and may well justify the exclamation of our Dnnedin contemporary — that no event like this final settlement of native troubles has over been paralleled in the history of New Zealand.