A WORD FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXVIII, Issue 41, 22 May 1869, Page 4

A WORD FOR NEW ZEALAND.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE ' SIANDAED.' Sib — As an old New Zealand colonist, I ask you to allow me a little space to reply to tho many accusations that in these days of our misfortune are being brought against us in tho Times, and to which "we are not there permitted to reply. I cannot expect that youwillallow inesufficient space to point out the many statistical inaccuracies in the leading articles of that paper, or the mis-statements of its anonymous correspondents, about the natives being cruelly deprived of their land, &c. Nor need I ask room to prove that we are not convicts, or slaveholders, or even foreigners in New Zealand ; nor are we, that I am aware of, subject to any influence likely to deprive us of the same degree of humanity, mercy, or justice, which belong 3to our brethren in this country. Tho best answer thafc can be given to all such accusations against the colonists will be 'found in the comparative condition of the Maoris in the North and Middle Islands. In the North, most of the land still remains in the hands of the Maoris, quite useless, but a constant object of contention and bloodshed amongst the different chiefs and their supporters. In tho Middle Island, it was all early purchased from the natives for a trifling sum, but as it has been surveyed a large portion has been set apart for their use and benefit ; and so far from their having been deprived of any land that they could possibly require, every intelligent observer must have noticed that, although living in perfect peace with tho Europeans, they are much injured and demoralized by too much nursing and pecuniary assistance from the funds obtained for the rents of these nativo reserves. In the North Island they are driving each other from place to place, subsisting upon fish, fern-root, and any trash they can find, and are returning to their original cannibalism, whilst the injured and oppressed amongst them are unable to obtain any redress either from their own tribunals or from ours. In the Middle Island they are cultivating the best and most accessible land in peace and security with comfortable houses and clothes, producing abundance of vegetables, corn, and meat for themselves, riding their own horses, attending their own places of Christiau worship, sending their children either to their own or our schools without any payment, and all are as completely protected from oppression and injustice as any Europeans in the "world. In yesterday's Times, "Observer" says :—: — " I would go further, and say that the -war commenced in 1860 by the occupation of the land at Waitara, in tho Taranaki province, against the protest of an influential section of the Maoris in the district, and which land was abandoned by Sir George Grey (by proclamation) in the year 1863 as a matter of policy or necessity, was the cause of all the subsequent difficulties." I entirely agree with " Observer " in this paragraph, and feel surprised that he does not at once see that his own statement of " tho causo of all the subsequent difficulties " in New Zealand entirely exonerates the colonists, and throws the whole responsibility of tho war upon the British Government. At the time this Wailara block was purchased by Governor Browne, and the present foolish and disastrous war commenced about the right to survey this paltry 600 acres, the colonists were carefully excluded from all voice or control in any native question. As a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives I constantly voted with the majority, in opposition to Governor Browne's wire-pulling ; and I write not now to advocate the employment of Bri«

fcish troops, far less of Sikhs, but to deny the responsibility of the colonists for the commencement of a war which neither they nor this country have been able to terminate. There are subjects upon which anonymoiis writing is justifiable and even desirable ; but sweeping condemnations of large bodies of our fellow-subjects, and charges of greediness, robbery, injustice, and oppression, against absent and suffering persons, will, I think, never rank amongst them in the estimation of honourable and courageous men. — I am, &c, Aifeed Saundees. Aldermore, Southampton, January 21.