MONTHLY SUMMARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 276, 30 September 1864, Page 5

MONTHLY SUMMARY.

To. judge by the present line, of policy pursued by .England towards, these Colonies, it would, seem that the precepts of Professor Gold-win Smith have not tallen upon barren ground, but have found root in the mindsof Brit ish statesmen of tho present day, and of the British people at large. There may. be. as yet, 110 intention at Home of " cutting the painter" at a single blow, but the acts of the Imperial Government are so placed across it that strand by strand is being fretted away by the .friction, until at last the rope may part. e see this evidenced in the attitude of delianco to tie will of the Australian Colo, liies shown, by the Home G-overmuent.in its determination to continue the transportation ot .criminals to their country. But ..more especially do.we see it in the whole line of conduct, adopted towards the colonists of New Zealand. AVe do not impute fo the Government or people at Home any studied intention of bringing, this state of tilings, about, but nevertheless they are most assuredly, precipitating that which might have been* almost indefinitely deferred.- the severance of the Australian Colonies, from the mother country. \ . £The conduct adopted towards this Colony by Britain is neither just nor generous. The tone assumed by the Imperial Government at the present time is one of marked injusr tico <0 New -Zealand. Distrusting the motives and intentions of the. colonists —influenced in. . these opinions by the ■ very men who should have been the heralds of peace and good-will, of love and charity, instead of raising feelings of .jealousy and suspicion between the peo-i'e of the two races, and between the-European settler:; .and. the .mother country—the Jnperial Government jealously excluded tiie Colonial .Government from.any. part icipafcion whatever in the management oi Native affair?. The Government of the Natives, or rather we should say, the .relations between them and our,own race, for government there.was next to none,, was. carried 011 entirely by t-lie Governor of the. .Colony, the lieutenant 01..the Imperial Government for the time being. -Tlie introduction pf-.Christianity, the opportunities afforded by. trade for ti.-.e iiw dlistrious amongst the Maori, to raise himself from the debasing (kad level. of.: tribal ■communism, the example' constantly before liim .of European habits, and the blessings attendant on civilisation, loosened the hold •formerly exercised, by tribal .usages and cusfom, and. weakened the : power and authority • of the. chiefs, while no other laws. and. authority ■ were substituted for the ones . slowly., but. surely passing away.. Thus for the.rude but simple rule pf a. chieftain over his vassals .was substituted general lawlessness —might became, right;, and he who dared and could enlist a few armed accomplices to assist him in an act of rapine carried the law in his,own. hand. The interminable land feuds amongst.the natives themselves were therefore, for. want of a tribunal. afforded .by. the .Governor, settled summarily by tlie tomahawk and the. gun. and to. .so .great, a pitch had..this state of anarchy ; reached,- .that armed...parties of Nat iveseugagedeach other within am He of the town of New Plymouth, and onland alienated .to the. Crown, .murders were openly committed, Native settlement siulumwereatt a,eked as for. tho loss of life.sustained by the other side, and the country was kept in a .state of anarchy and confusion. All this occurred, let, it. be remembered, while the iCntire management of Native, affairs ; was jealously kept jn the hands .of.,tlie. Imperial Government. No effort had been,made to give the Nativc ; race auy. ibrm of .Government; in exchange for thatwhichhad been over.tju'.ued by the growl h of events,.;and .as a necessary , consequence the ground..which, .the .Home Government refused to sow, bccamfi foul ;wjtli the weed of Kingism: Tlie ev.il reached its cuhninating point w.heiL the.. Governor havjng purchased laud j rout the Nativc;chief, Tcira, felt bouijd to make a stand, and assert by force of arms itlie rii.dit .of this chief to.do. what he liked with.his own, despite the threats of the disaffected land leaguers, who.sought to,prevent liim from so doing. Thus,, by its inertia .the Imperial Government allowed .a certain growth., of; circumstances to creep into existence, audi then pf its own ac;t attempted to .cut. the.. .net .with, ; which , it,. liad ..become surrounded and entangled,with the sword— meshes which it.should. never have allowed to be. tied knot by knot, around it. . . Had the.war,beenrpiickly.settled,as Goveraior Browne believcd-it; .would have been, when he entered upon it, iy.c. sjip.uld. : haye. heard nx)tiiing of the landrgreed and covet ousjiess of. . the :New Zealand, .colonists. .But .Britain, found that she ..b.atl .roused an:, active and ; energetic, ..foe,.. so that the, war con Id only be, carried pu ,iat an appreciable, cost .to .the British l;|.\.-payer, and. by- the .assistance of an ; anny in..itse]f The moment ; the British tax-payer felt the effect of the. Wait,, it. became necessary, to iind a.Rcape-goatf»r Imperial ladies and linperial blunders, . and .where, so good a,one as the c/jlonists ■ tlicniselvcs ! /The party of Exeter Hall, readily, took the,, cue,, an.fi ,th.e. ministerial organs of the press were, louden their condemnation of the colonists, endeavouring to make it appear that they, the colonists, were the cause of the present insurrection, easing thus the odium of the cost of the war

,' m : . lie shoulders of tlie Government at those of tlie absent'colonist^""J., ; .i lie facts of the ease are, however, a'sAvb 1 have shown them to be it vyas riot untfrthe country had already'been' plunged nrto'the war ot lneiifc offered over the charge of NrtMvo'alKurS* -° *' 10 .c 0 l°uists. Between the' tiiyc ofaeebptj n p., ; charge' in TS(?2, and tho/prcsent outbreak, tlie Colony had neither jmnoribr opportunity to inaugtu;at ; system of Native Government, indeed during this very time the .New "' Institution', experiments' ot' Sir George Grey; and the plot for the .surprise and 'the'•destruction- otr Auckland and of the whole European of this' islandwere running tlieir parap&l course, and when Sir George Grey's experiment ended, iu utter failure; the presept -insurrection fairly commenced. To sgy, therefore, that the colony is chargeable /or the present slate of tilings is unjust aiupu tige he r o us.. The. position has arisen entity though tho negligent inaction, and subsequent rash action, of. the Imperial Government,- acting through its lieutenant the Governor . for the time, being ill New Zealand. It was .equally the case in former wars. The war in..tho North was purely an Imperial question 111 which the settlers had no concern, but as suiferers. Uoki would have 110 Queen's flag (lying at Ivororareka. It was against, this symbol of authority, that he fought, not urged to such a step by the en.croachment or greed or ill will of the settlers, nay, at the-commencement of thehostilities :the settlers themselves were kindly treated by the combat ant natives. Neither in the commencement of the Taranaki outbreak of 1859, was there any unusual ill-feeling towards the colonists in the .mind of the natives. No settler's property was destroyed until after some canoes and an old mill had been burned by a party of soldiers, at the order of Ensign Gould, and son of the renowned colonel of that name: an act committed despite the earnest appeal of: Mr. l'arris, who was present at the time, and who pointed, out the certain consequences. Afterwards, when the settlers, as liiflemcti and Militia, were brought by the Imperial Government into active hostilities with. the natives, a feeling of bitter enmity was naturally enough engendered between the two, and reprisals became general. Had the settlers not been necessarily compelled, to espouse,the quarrel of the Imperial Government and the troops, we do not believe that at that time theN T a r lives would have outraged . Iheir properties and their lives. It is.since then, during the Taranaki war and while the mild experiments of Sir George Grey were being carried out, that the design of. driving the. Europeans from the island was conceived and matured. Even until after tlie breaking out.of the war at. Taranaki tlie question was one between the Maori and the , Queen's troops. There was 110 quarrel between the Maor.i and the settlers. . The war has been one of a purely Imperial concern, caused by Imperial mismanagement. :u;d into.whiL'b the .colonists of New Zealand have been, dragged as subjects of the Uritish Einpirj who.could not sit by and see the Queer.'* authority .trampled under- foot without >iriku;g a. idow in defence of tlie. national honor. ..Thus have tlicv become: implicated in the quarrel, but they were never tho originators of .it,. nor were they a party to its commencement..—r September !).