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Lyttelton Times, Volume LI, Issue 5628, 10 March 1879, Page 4

The Native Parliament, which ended its deliberations on Friday at Oratei, appears to have done its business briefly and briskly. The gathering has been much sneered at as a sort of puppet show, exhibited by Ministers who, though they were absent, sitting as it were in the audience of the Colony round the central Orakei, and clapping ;heir hands at the actions of the figures Ycre nevertheless the wire-pullers, whose every wrist-turn the dusky narionettes promptly obeyed from the jhief Paul downwards. If this way of jutting things be correct, then somejody is foolish; either the Governnent, or their critics, or the Natives who have allowed themselves to be used is puppets. It is highly unlikely that he latter can have taken part in such a arce, because the Maori, whether : riendly or hostile, is never childish, imd is too shrewd to be played with. ! Sir George Grey and Mr Sheehan, on :he other hand, have given too many • rroofs of their thorough knowledge of . daori character to allow it to be i bought possible that they could play 1 nth any tribes in this way. A cut and * Lried meeting arranged by themselves, with a number of tribes who would never keep the secret, is hardly the way to bring influence to bear npon the i udependent men who acknowledge "awhiao and follow Rewi’a guidance. j l coup de theatre like the one suggested i rould be a loss of time. It is a fa- \ ourite practice with elephant hunters t j send out tame elephants to serve as c ecoys to allure the wild elephants, and as powerful allies in fastening them cown when allured. But as human I eings, even Maoris, are not elephants, s icb a course of action would not be a i opeful one to try upon tribes of men v ith many grievances. Who then is t’ re fool oi; the three parties connected v ith the criticism ? As it is neither tire Native nor the Government, it must bi the critic.

. The fact is that some funny thing his been said, about every one of the n any Native meetings connected with tl .e policy of the present Government. The party of the “ outs ” resents any si iccess of the “ ins ” with the same intensity of hatred with which our old friend Dogberry regarded “flat burglary.” The feeling, no doubt, to fc How the Dogberry vein a little furtl er, is intensified by the consciousness tlat the srtccess of the party of the “ ns” with the Natives writes down tie party of the “outs” “an ass.” hat wonder p For Dogberry’s maxim w ren he attended a meeting of Maoris w is, if the Maoris refused to wake, to “c epart in peaceand when he returned hr made shift to publish apologies for hi i failure, when apologies were quite in possible, whereby he proved that “: or his reading and writing,” he followed his own advice to “ i :eep them till there was no need of su ih vanities.” Under the circumstc nces the success, or the appearance of success by a successor who trims out in spite of predictions not to be that po< r thing Terges, cannot fail to be gal ling to the vanity of poor old Dogbeiry. His friends, as a matter of coi rse, said that the first meeting—with Tawhiao at Hikurangi—would be the las ~ When this theory had to be given up, they fell back upon absolute falsehor d, and said that everything was untru} that had been announced about the Hikurangi meeting. When the Waitar i meeting was held, it suited these cril res to say that the astute Rewi had got the better of the Premier and the Native Minister, and for a season the r made merry by describing the trap intc which they considered that these gen lemen had fallen. But the more thej talked, tire more they succeeded in prpi ing to Hie Colony that they were wilf dly setting at defiance their own kno- Hedge of the figurative forma of Maori speech. They, however, took refu je in the argument that whatever the position of Sir George Grey and Mr ‘ Iheehan with regard to the trap, the meeting at Waitara was without resu t. Now thajfc another meeting at Wai ara has become certain, and bids fair’ ;o be the last and most successful of tl e series, the fact appears awkward. The preliminary meeting held at Orakei at w hich certain matters were to have been discussed, was as a matter of cour. ie branded as made to order by Govr rnment. That meeting is only one of a series of remorseless facts that persirt in stulrifying opposition. The critic ism it has received is evidently only jne of a series of inventions which persr its in ignoring the facts.

As to the meeting itself, it must be proxu unced by the impartial observer to be somewhat barren in results. This is an additional reason for disbelieving that t was Ministerially got up and Minis serially wire-pulled. A coup de theatr 3 would have terminated in a very diffen nt fashion. It is quite possible that t le reports which have reached us are h r from complete; but, as far as they nform us, there was not much busint ss done by the meeting. The resolu ions dwell chiefly upon the game laws, < nd the sale of Native lands ,* they expres i contempt for the Wdka Maori newspaper, and they ask the Government t o pay the cost of printing and circula ting the reports of the meeting. The N itives evidently, like a great many of thei .* European fellow-subjects, object to imp >rted birds, and the tax levied by the fe ithered immigrants upon their grain and fruit;. It would perhaps bo a difficult matter to pesauadn the H atives, that certain kinds of birds more than repay the- cost of thtir keep by the services they perfon i against insect life, Europeans are nc fc agreed upon these matters, therefc re it would be idle- to talk to the Native about them. But as for game birds: all that can be said is that if they a e the only cause of difference betwee: i the two raws, there ought to be no difficulty in destroying every pbeaaaj it and partridge, hare and stag in the North Island to-morrow. The Fishery Jaws are fjgo a eonous grievance

-to the Maoris, preventing them from seeking their livelihood in their accustomed rivers in order, not that the food supply may he increased, but that the gentlemen of the Colony maybe amused. It is by no means astonishing that the preserving of game and fish should form .the subject of fierce protest from the Maori race. There is every probability. Judging by the attention given to the 'matter at Orakei, that it will be very seriously debated at the coming Waitara ■meeting. Beyond this subject, there -was little done at Orakei. The land question was the subject of resolutions which, as far as can be judged by the information to hand, contradict each other. But as this question is the burning question, it is hard to see that such treatment is at all satisfactory. That teatment is in point of fact either a refusal to disclose the Native intentions, or a sign that the Native mind is by no means made up about it. The Other matters we have mentioned are insignificant. The Native refusal to subscribe to the Waka Moon is no ■doubt galling to those who have fostered that untrustworthy publication, and perhaps assists them to believe that the meeting could by no possibility have had other than a Ministerial origin, but it is of no moment whatever to the rest of the Colony. Altogether the results of the meeting at Orakei do not seem to have been brilliant. The fact of the meeting is a sign that the great meeting promised at Waitara is not a sham, but that it is on the contrary looked forward to with interest by the Natives of the North Island. This is probably the reason why the resources of imagination, and the ferocity of sarcasm have been directed against it.