THE NATIVES.

New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, Volume V, Issue 362, 18 September 1844, Page 2

THE NATIVES.

By the cutter Finnetta, which arrived on Sunday last from Kawia, a report has arrived to the effect that many of the tribes in the neighbourhood of the Bay of Islands had united, and were engaged in fortifying a strong pah with the intention of resisting any effort to maintain British authority which might be made by his Excellency Captain Fitzroy, on the arrival of the troops from New South Wales, for which the Sydney had been despatched some time previously. The report reached Kawia by a. native, who had arrived there from Auckland or the Bay of Islands. It is. stated that he was fully examined on the subject, and it is considered that reliapce may be placed on the statement. In confirmation we may add that we are assured that the natives of this place are alive to some movement, and that they have been requested to proceed to Waikanai to talk over some subjects at a general muster of natives at that place ; and that some of them have already proceeded there in consequence of the invitation in question. It is true this may be merely an accidental coincidence, but when

we bear in mind the singular rapidity with which the natives are made acquainted with movements in any part of these islands which affect them, it is not unreasonable to assume that the Waikanai proceedings are connected with the disturbances at the north.

No report has yet reached us of the arrival of the Sydney with troops at the Bay of Islands ; but the same opportunity which furnished the foregoing report from that quarter, stated the arrival there of H.M.S. North Star, and that her worthy commander Capt. Sir Everard Home had either thrown himself or fallen overboard, and was drowned. We trust the report may not prove true, but we fear it will be authenticated.

We are uninformed respecting the extent of the coalition amongst the natives in the nonh, but we understand that the opposition offering to the British Government is in no manner connected with the Land Question. It arises entirely from a conviction that the assertion of British authority, in these islands, has been exceedingly prejudicial to their physical well being. They state that prior to that event a large number of whaling vessels, hailing from various countries, resorted to the Bay of Islands, with the masters of whom they carried on extensive trade, bartering the produce of their labour in exchange for various articles, such as clothing, fire arms, amunition and tobacco, which from long habit have become to them the necessaries of life ; but that since the introduction of Brifish authority the trade has ceased, and they find themselves reduced to a state of destitution. We have been assured that the receipts at the Bay of Islands, from furnishing supplies to the whalers, averaged, for several years, about £45,000 annually, and that now the trade has nearly become extinct. We are necessarily ignorant of how much of this amount was exchanged for the products of their labour ; but doubtless the proportion was large. Nor can we learn whether the defalcation in question has been made good to them through any new, channel. We shou2d say not, and take the present movement of the natives as the proof. The natives consequently undoubtedly have a grievance, but are not justified in the outrages of which they have been guilty towards the settlers at the Bay of Islands. Change could hardly be made, of so important a character as rendering these Islands a British colony, without some mischief ensuing. The justification must be furnished by establishing the fact, that though evil may have attended the,., change, the balance is nevertheless on the favourable side. This, bearing in mind the mistaken views by which our rulers have been animated from the hour New Zealand was declared a British settlement, will be by no means an easy task; we should doubt the ability of any man to accomplish ir. But this is a British colony, and it has repeatedly been shown that the first great service, which could be rendered to the native population, would be to convince them of the fact. The peace of the colony and the advancement of the native race have always demanded this, and the greater the delay the more powerful and violent will the opposition be with which the Government will have to contend, and assuredly at no distant date. The delay which has already ensued may involve the Government in a cruel and bloody contest, for which they will have no better justification than the miserable excuse of the imbecile, that they were, in all their acts of omission and commission, always animated by the best intentions. But this excuse cannot avail them for its justification, the inability to be guided by experience, cannot be pleaded. His Excellency has now an excellent opportunity of asserting British power and authority. It becomes necessary to do so in the stronghold of the native population ; the aggressions have been insulting, and wholly unjustifiable, the occasion is therefore good ; and he will be backed by three hundred troops, might have as many settlers, and he has the Government brig Victoria, H.M.S. North Star, and H.M.S. Hazard, forming together most ample force. Should erroneous policy prevent his taking advantage of this opportunity, when that mischief which will assuredly follow arises, he must be prepared to vindicate his administration of the affairs of this colony before his Queen and country, which we suspect, under such circumstances, he would find a hopeless task, and that such will be declared in a voice that neither he nor his will ever be able to forget.