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New Zealander, Volume XVII, Issue 1568, 27 April 1861, Page 3

Those who watch with care the signs of the times have been able to note, within the last few months, a gradual and steady change in public opinion upon the subject of the Taranaki Question, and of the war which the pretensions of the Native Land League has there induced. In January last, it was " treason" to express a desire for peace ; in the present month of April, the language that was held by the " vigorous prosecution men" at the commencement of the year, would, if now repeated, be "vigorously" condemned by the great majority of the people. Some of our Northern representatives in the Assembly, who, wiser than their fellows, sought to stem the torrent of public wrath, were offered up as victims at the late elections; all who took part in the meeting of the " Royal" were fiercely denounced. Tom King, of Taranaki, was the oracle of the hour; and the result of an agitation encouraged by the Responsible Government, and which was extremely mischievous, has been the return to the House of Representatives of one or two out-and-out supporters of a policy which the Ministers themselves, we rejoice to say, appear now to have abandoned. It is worth the while, without proposing to revive the old controversy, to reprint the proposition which was the subject of conversation at that "treasonable" meeting of the representatives of the Northern Island. That it is desirable that an address should be presented to the Governor requesting His Excellency to appoint a Commission consiscinj; of members of the General Assembly and such officers of the Government (well acquainted with Native affairs) as His Excellency may deem (it, to proceed to Taranaki with a view to ascertain and report whether or not any means can be devised, consistent with the dignity of the Crown, to brinn to an end the unhappy war that exists there, arising out of differences that have taken place between certain Native Chiefs of that district and the Governor. Is it, we ask, quite certain that if a deputation, such as that which was talked of, had been sent to Taranaki, six months since, as satisfactory a solution of the Taranaki difficulty might not. then have been attained, us that which, —seasoned, however, with the prospect of compensation,—now appears to content the leaders of opinion in Taranaki itself? We think it at least not impossible j that if the same means which are now being ! employed art the seart of had "!?te&ii

then applied, they might have been not less effective. We must not be supposed to he in a disposition to find fault; on the contrary, we desire only to register the result of our past experience, and to see the lesson we have bought at Taranaki applied in the treatment of the difficulty which yet remains to be overcome in Waikato. Troops are pouring into Auckland, more are on their way from India, and still more may be had, if need he, for the asking. Being thus strong, the Government can afford to he merciful, without having clemency attributed to fear, and can stand face to face with the King movement, and calmly investigate its characteristics and its origin. If it bo found to be a widely spread conspiracy against the supremacy of the Queen, and if, as has been recklessly asserted, its objects are to "drive the Europeans into the sea" and to reclaim the land which has been alienated, then by all means let the power of the British nation be used to crush it out. But if it prove to he nothing more than a wild attempt on the part of the Maori people to organize for themselves a system of Civil Government, to establish " Magistrates, laws, andrunangas" for the settlement of Native disputes, to do for themselves in line that which the Queen's Government, according to its promises, ought to have done for them long since, —then, we think, it will be just that the duty of the Government shall first be discharged, before it insists upon the recognition of its rights. The real proof of the nature of the King movement in Waikato will rest upon the acceptance or rejection by the tribes of a well considered system of laws for their government, and of the proper machinery for carrying such a system into operation. The Assembly must meet before such a system can be matured; the next mail also may bring authority for the establishment of the Native Council; delay will certainly not weaken the Government. All recognize the necessity that the authority of law shall bo established amongst the Native people in the Waikato and elsewhere, but, before force is employed for that purpose, all, we hope, desire to see the efforts of philanthropy, as well as the arts of diplomacy exhausted in the, causo of peace. His Excellency the Governor, we feel assured, will not fail to employ them.