COLONISATION OF NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealander, Volume 2, Issue 59, 18 July 1846, Page 2

COLONISATION OF NEW ZEALAND.

Our remarks last week were intended to expose some of the evils of the system pursued by the New Zealand Company, and to point out the difference between the late rebellion and the present war. We now propose to extend the range of our observations, and after glancing at the distinct, characteristics of modern Colonization, as compared with the atrocious systems of bye-gone days, and retarding our opinion of one cause, at least, of the partial failure which has attended the effort of the British Government to establish its authority in these Islands by pacific measures ; proceed to explain more fcltyv~4he^causes w&icli operated , to preserve the settlers at the North, *" and the Government itself, from being regarded with feelings as bitter as those which the Natives entertain towards the Company, and their comparatively innocent, but misguided, adherents. It -will scarcely be necessary, we trust, to apologize to our readers for recurring to these subjects. It is a matter of vital importance to the interests of the Colony, that the Legislature and the people of England should be aroused to a just perception of the errors in policy which have retarded our advancement ; and we conceive that we should but very imperfectly discharge our functions, and culpably neglect the higher ends which a public journal is intended to promote, if we employed our time, and devoted our space, exclusively to the relation of the ephemeral occurrences of the passing day. The present state of society imposes an arduous task upon the Public Press Tj(at which would have contented and sufficed the reading minority of olden times, would furnish but a meagre repast for the cultivated minds and enlarged desires of the people of the present age. Themes which were formerly considered as meet only for the meditations of philosophers and statesmen ; and subjects which past generations relinquished by common consent to the discussions of the erudite, are now the property of the people, and form a portion of their daily intellectual food. The advancing tide of education has overflowed the barriers which ignorance had erected, and having penetrated the secret reservoirs of wisdom hitherto monopolized by the favored few, is now pouring the accumulated treasures of ancient and modern lore, into the opening minds of every member of the community. But to our subject. The history of Colonisation is a fearful page : its facts are recorded in characters of blood. "Who can count the myriads of victims who have been immolated at the shrines of European avarice, or sacrificed to gratify the lust of conquest ! We need not lift the veil which Time has thrown over the bloody deeds of past generations, and ask for the teeming millions of Mexico and Peru ; nor enquire for the Tribes of North America, whom the civilized men of former days destroyed. We may confine our thoughts to a period less remote, and say, where are the hordes that once roamed over the plains of New South Wales, or ranged through the forests of Tasmania ? Alas ! we may traverse those plains, or penetrate those forests ; we jnay gratify our eyes with the sight of the fields and the flocks oj civilized men, but the only response to our enquiry after the ancient inhabitants of the soil, is the echo that answers —"Where are they,"

Examples of the destructive tendency of the intercourse between civilized and barbarous men, are so numerous, that some theorists have even dared to assert that the extermina* tion of savages is consistent with the purpose of God. If it were possible to admit, for one moment, the truth of such a horrible proposition, it could only be upon the clearest evidence of the uniform failure of suitable plans and competent efforts repeatedly devised and put forth, with a view to their preservation. But who will pretend to avow that the experiment has been fairly tried. What nations or tribes of barbarous men have been the objects of a solicitude so untiring, of a philanthrophy so comprehensive as would be required in order to afford a reasonable hope of success ? Not any. On this ground alone then, the necessary extermination of uncivilized men by their civilized brethren, cannot be admitted as a principle in the moral administration of Divine Providence. Time was, when the extinction of- an Abo- ( riginal race or tribe, by the gradual but certainencroachments of progressing Colonisation excited but little attention. It was the ordinary process; the anticipated and expected result.' But the opinions of mankind generally, upon subjects connected with the welfare of Aboriginal races, have undergone an entire change. It would be foreign to our purpose to enter into an examination of the causes which led to, and the agencies which were employed in perfecting this revolution of feeling ; though the subject presents an interesting field of enquiry: suffice it to say, that by the gradual spread of knowledge and education, and the increasing power of Christian principle, former systems of Colonisation were revealed in their true colors ; and men started, as it were, into consciousness of the guilt and responsibility of such wholesale murders, i The preservation of the Natives now became, ostensibly at least, as much an object of solicitude to our Government and Rulers, as the extension of the boundaries of the empire. The tragedies enacted in New Holland and Van Dieman's Land were never to be repeated. The public conscience had been enlightened, and the public voice, omnipotent in its influence, had been aroused ; ■ and the mere utterance of a scheme which was to involve the blood of another Aboriginal race, would have been received with universal execration. The colonisation of this country, may be regarded as the first serious attempt of a civilized power to unite in one the interests of the Colonists and Aborigines — to encourage the enterprize and industry of the one, without entailing oppression and destruction upon the other : and the object was worthy the dignity and reputed benevolence of the British Government. But has the attempt been crowned with complete success 1 ' We trow not. When we think of the unlimited resources at the command of the British Government — the unqualified extent of their philanthropic professions towards the. New Zealanders— -the superior docility and aptitude for improvement 'of the Natives themselves — we cannot but wonder at the failure : and if we were to adopt the natural supposition that the plans to be pursued for the accomplishment of the desired end, had been carefully devised, and studiously adapted to the habits, customs, and feelings of those who were about to be made the subjects of an important political experiment, the want of success would appear still more unaccountable. But the truth is, the Government had no plan : it entered upon a novel and interesting undertaking without having determined upon any specific line of conduct. The ancient mode of Colonisation, by simply taking possession, and driving the Natives to the fastnesses of the mountains, or cutting them off as they came in the way, had been condemned by commor consent ; but no one had so carefully studied the principles upon which the intercourse between civilized and semi-barbarous men should be based, as to be able to reduce them to a system, fitted to supply the place of the iniquitous proceedings of former times. The failure of the laudable attempt of the British Government to establish its authority in New Zealand without bloodshed, must be accounted for on this ground ; and until some master spirit of the age shall be found to arrange and combine the ill-assorted principles of Colonisation, and devise a system for controling ftie frequently conflicting interests of the Colonists and Aborigines, a succession of disasters and disappointments must be anticipated. The total absence of any well digested preconcerted method, in the early proceedings of Government, will be obvious if we examine the manner in which they performed the preparatory act that was to pave the way for subsequent efforts on behalf of the Natives and Colonists of New Zealand. The sovereignty of the Island was obtained by a species of political fraud. The Treaty of Waitangi was founded upon wise and equitable principles, we admit : but the manner in which they were unfolded and explained to the Natives, (as far as the Treaty itself is concerned), was most defective. An engagement so solemn, and pregnant with such important consequences, should have been as clear and specific in its phraseology, and as particular in its definitions, as the Native language could have made it. It should have explained, minutely, to those

about to become amenable to its restrictions, the nature and extent of the powers it constituted, the concessions it granted, and the privileges it conferred : wheieas, the miserable document upon which the right of the Crown to exercise its prerogative is founded, is neither perspicuous in language, nor explicit in detail. Consequently the Chiefs on one hand had but little conception of the character of the power they had acknowledged, and the extent of the obedience that would be required from them ; and on the other hand, the Government had no just idea of the nature of those claims which it had guaranteed to respect. In fine, the Natives ceded the Sovereignty of the Islands without well knowing what they were doing ; and the Government glided into power by a sort of hocus pocus process of unpremeditated deceit. What could be reasonably expected to result from such a commencement, but rebellion and strife. Happily, however, the Government was compelled in its subsequent proceedings, to follow as it were, in the! footsteps of the old settlers, and purchase the lands of the Natives upon the same terms, and in the same way as had been customary before the establishment of its authority. The Natives felt no immediate inconvenience from the new system ; they could sell their lands to the Government, and by this means supply their wants, though they could not do so to the Settlers ; and as Jong as the Government was able to purchase, very little uneasiness was expressed. But when it no longer suited the convenience of the Government to buy, and the Natives were in consequence deprived of their only chance of selling, the murmurs of discontent were heard throughout the land, and the practised ear could catch the distant rumbling of the gathering storm. Notwithstanding all this, the good feeling between the Settlers and the Natives remained the same. No interruption ensued, of the harmony which existed prior to the establishment of the British power because the Colonists who arrived subsequently, and who obtained their lands from the Government, were precisely in the same position as far as the validity of their titles in the estimation of the Natives was concerned, as the old Settlers, who derived directly from t.'ie Chiefs. The iand granted to purchasers from the Crown, had first been acqnired by the Government in the same manner, and by the same careful process as all the bond fide purchases of the old Settlers; and, tlieiefore, no disputes could arise between the occupants and the ' Natives. We are not aware of more than two instances in-which the rights of the Colonists who derived from 1 the Government, were questioned by the Natives ; and even these were only casesr of disputed boundary. The farms purchased by Messrs. Spain and Beveridge are respectively situated at the extremity of the Government land, being bounded on one side by that which was at the time in possession of the Natives. The surveyors bad unwittingly carried their lines beyond the extent of me Government purchaie, and this mistake occasioned the disputes to which w<s have alluded, but which were soott settled to the satisfaction of ail parties. Neither are we aware or a single case or factitious opposition on the part of the Natives, to any of the equitable purchases of the numerous claimants who obtained their lands before the arrival of Government ; and the same may be said of recent pnrchases effected by the Colonists directly from the Natives. Now, with these facts before us, is it reasonable to suppose that the Company would have been prevented by the Natives from giving their Settlers immediate possession, if they had really purchased all the lands ttiey pretend to claim ? If the Company's negotiations for land had been as honorable and explicit as they have been represented, their Settlers would never have been regarded wiib feelings of animosity ; nor would they have been placed in circumstances of such difficulty and danger, and exposed to such annoyances as led them to reciprocate the feelings of the Natives. The Government, though opposed by Heke and his followers, has not been regarded with such bitter feelings as those which the generality of the Natives in Cook's Straits entertain towards the Company : and this is simply owing to the fact of its never having violated, by direct aggression, the Natives' landed rights. The Government has neither j snrveyed, nor sold and granted to others, cultivations, burihl places, and pahs; and though its power and authority have been disputed and opposed, yet its principles have been generally acknowledged by the greatest portion of the Natives as equitable and just. Those of our readers who have not hitherto exercised their thoughts upon thtse subjects will now be able, from the outline sketch we have given, to account for the failure of the pacific scheme of the British Government, and will also detect the cause of the unhappy state of feeling which so generally pervades the Southern districts. We gladly bid farewell to the subject we have been considering, and trust it will be long ere we are compelled to return to it ; but, being desirous of pointing out to His Excellency the rocks and shoals that surround his position, and of furnishing him wrth a clue to the only safe course he can steer,: and, moreover, being aware of the ignorance of the English public upon the real character of past events iv this

Colony, and sensible of the determined energy that will be put forth by the interested supporters of a powerful Company, in order to sustain the credit of their tottering system, the final overthrow of which will be a blessing to the future and permanent interests of the Colony, even though it should be attended with much temporary excitement and trouble — knowing and believing this, we felt bound to do our utmost in exposing error and maintaining truth.