THE Marlborough Express. WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 1879.

Marlborough Express, Volume XIV, Issue 1137, 28 May 1879, Page 4

THE Marlborough Express.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 1879.

“ Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience,! above all other liberties —Mimok.

The Great Native Meeting at the Waikato is over, and the result leaves the Government completely masters of the situation, and absolved from all previous promises which had been made by Sir Donald McLean, conditionally on a final settlement being arrived at. Tawhiao having refused all offers made, there is an end of the negotiation so far as Government is concerned, and when Tawhiao finds out the mistake he has made, as he is sure to do, he will have to come to the Government on the next occasion as a suppliant for favour, and not as a kind of potentate, dictating terms to the Premier. The conduct of Sir George Grey and the dignified and statesmanlike attitude which he assumed on taking leave of Tawhiao are deserving of all praise and well deserve a public acknowledgment at the hands of the Parliament and the country at large, and the principal Opposition journals are already according it in every part of the Colony. On taking his leave of the ill-advised head of the Kingites, Sir George Grey spoke thus “I have three times come to you without “any satisfactory conclusion being arrived “at; now it is your turn to come to me, “and when you do come I will be perfectly “free, and not bound by anything that has “gone before.”—We are thus freed from the complications arising from the previous conditional promises said by the Maoris to have been made, and are not even bound to regard as Native Reserves large areas of lind set apart a year ago pending further arrangements. Amongst the many claims which the present Government has on the gratitude of the people of the Colony, the mode in which they have conducted Native Affairs, is one of the, strongest,, They have preserved peace between the two races at a time when less firm and prudent councils would have led, in all probability, to open hostilities at Waimate, and they now leave the Kingites at the termination of the Great Waikato Meeting, having conceded to them nothing whatever, and telling them, by the mouth of the Premier, that if they want anything at the hands of the Government they must be suitors for it at a future time. The “Kingites” have , nothing to complain of in the way they have been treated. They have S'-'.’! .... ?

been offered much valuable land as permanent endowments. They have been told by Sir George Grey that the most favorable consideration would be given in Parliament to any suggestions they might make, and he and Mr Sheehan have made repeated overtures to them which they will not accept, or rather Tawhiao for them. The Government, therefore, is perfectly right to leave them to the isolation which it is Tawhiao’s mistaken policy to adopt. The people themselves, however, are getting tired of this isolation, and are becoming alive to the fact that they are losing many of the advantages which other Maoris enjoy who mix with the Pakehas, and they will certainly not rest content very long to remain the mere slaves of Tawhiao, whose influence is apparently waning even now. It is also highly probable, as stated by some of the journals, that Tawhiao has himself been mistaken in the matter. One northern journal, likely to be well informed on the matter, says that he was led by Europeans to believe that the Grey Ministry would not last, and that he would get far better terms from their successors. When he finds out how utterly he has been “sold” in. the matter, he will adopt a different attitude, and when his present sulkiness is over, be only too glad to supplicate “ Kawana Kerei” to grant as a favor such terras as “ Kerei” and his colleagues may think right to concede. Some of the petty “Opposition” journals—though not the leading or most respectable of them for they have adopted quite a different course, —are rejoicing that the recent Native meeting at Waikato has resulted in no agreement being arrived at between the Government and “ King ” Tawhiao, which was the principal object. But the result certainly leaves the Government in even a better position than if an agreement had been made, based on the conditions which Tawhiao was told he could obtain, and which were based on agreements said to have been made by their predecessors and which they felt bound in honor to carry out, if Tawhiao would come to terms, but as he has declined all overtures the Government is absolved from all further obligation in the matter. Notwithstanding the fact that no agreement was arrived at between the Premier and Tawhiao at this meeting, we believe that a peaceful solution of the Maori difficulty is nearer at hand now than ever it was, and that in a very short time all matters in dispute between the two Races will be settled; not amid war and bloodshed, as some of the most rabid of the Oppositionists would have us believe, but in amity and concord. That Parliament next session will endorse the action of Sir George Grey in this matter, we have no doubt whatever. The good sense of the majority of both Houses cannot lead them to any other conclusion than that as regards their native policy. The Grey Government are entitled to the confidence of the country, as well indeed, on many other points to which we may refer in future articles. That there will be some of the rabid Oppositionists who will argue differently ■ there can be little doubt, but one fact is worth any number of flimsy arguments, and the fact we have referred to in connection with what has taken place in regard to this Native Meeting cannot be proved to be untrue whatever specious orations may be made with a view to refute them. The result of the Waikato meeting may be regarded as a Ministerial triumph, and on the whole as eminently satisfactory. Sir George Grey’s skill in dealing with Maoris, which is a matter of history, has never been more displayed than on this occasion, and he has been ably supported by Mr Sheehan, who possesses much of the Premier’s talent in Native negotiations. Another substantial result has been gained, with regard to Rewi, by the Hon. Mr Sheehan, to which we shall refer more particularly when the details are further disclosed. »

Oub local contemporary again ventures to correct us with regard to the control of School buildings. In our issue of the 21st inst., we quoted a clause of the Education Act to show that such buildings might be used for such other purposes as the committee might from time to time prescribe. Our would-be, mentor, in terms the reverse of polite, admits the clause quoted, but says it falls to be read in conjunction with paragraph ,5 of clause 8, intituled “ Suggestions to members of Local Committees.” He then quotes it for our benefit. Now we do not need to refer to the Act to look for any “ suggestions.” Indeed we know very well there is no such paragraph in it from one end of it to the other. Our been badly taught. We presume his extract is from some regulations passed by the Education Hoard, which he is trying to palm off as part bf the Act, but we venture to state that no such regulations can override an Act of the Assembly. The laying hold of a trifling incident to assert that the Board has any sort of control over sie management of School Buildings is highly suspicious, and we caution the committees to look jealously upon any attempt to tamper with the powers, confided to them by the Legislature. We need no telling whence the dictum came to which we drew attention last week, “ that the committee certainly have no such power,” i.e., to use the School Boom for other than school purposes. Supposing, however, for the sake of argument, that we do read the spurious quotation along with the Act, what do we find? .That the committee is recommended to “ grant’ the use of the schoolroom for purposes which'will. benefit the district in a social/point of view,”- —nbiice wfeat follows—- “ but should any doubt arise as to the propriety of allowing the use of the any occasion for other than educational to obtain the permission of the Board.” Where are we to understand these doubts may arise, if* not among the committee. Till they rqise the question, there is no ground for interfefence"by ‘the Board. , i The common sense viewjbf the is this. : The buildings aj6,yested, in the Bpard, ;as trustees, but the management of in^he

committees, which cannot sell, injure, or otherwise dispose of them. The word “consent” is badly chosen, for evidently what is meant is that when the committee is unable to decide, they are advised to submit the case to the Board for decision. We have omitted to notice the strangely insulting terms applied to ourselves, nor have we any intention of competing with our contemporary in the path he has chosen.