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New Zealand Herald, Volume II, Issue 494, 13 June 1865, Page 4

have not yet; crossed the threshold of either, | as is testified by their lives and practices. To talk to persons who live the life of the Maori in the common pa, where the commonest virtues and the commonest deceney are never practised, as if they were very far advanced in the Christian life, and were far superior to the thousands of Englishmen and English women with whom they arc surrounded, is a deadly error of the worst and most mischievous kind. It can only make them believe the lie which is so alluringly-held to them. They will hug the dear delusion to their hearts, for it comes at anopportuno time and chimes in with and confirms their halt or wholly formed notions of their excellence. And what can bo the effect of such teaching, but to encourage the people to make their own wretched lives the standard of excellence, and to believe that their crimes partake rather of the nature of virtues than of vices. Hence then the Maori may well cry out, " Save me from my friends who " glos3 over and conceal my real state, and so " prevent me from making those efforts for " improving myself which I ought to make." Tlicy are "not the real friends of either Maori or any other race who gloss over their faults and speak words of vanity aud flattery to them. And it is not only in this great and important matter that this tract is calculated to do great harm and no good. i7or instance, the Maoris are coaxed not to rebel and wage war any more, because the white man, the " bad whites" would,never know when thai/ 1-ad ■punished them enough. "What is this but to tell tho natives that the colonists arc a set of miscreants, moro brutal and more savage than themselves ; to tell'them' that the cruelties of the Spaniards in South America will be enacted here ; and that we are in fact fiend* in human shape who gloat over tho punishment and sufferings of a persecuted band of saints .who are told meekly to bear all this. The tract might, so far a? this parti-

cular phase of it is concerned, have been written to a band of Christians exposed to tho cruelties of heathen neighbours. The tone is such as would have been suitable had it been addressed to the Christians of the lirst and second centuries, who suffered insult and wrong from the surrounding heatheTi: and that tone is based on what neither has, nor never had, the slightest possible existence here, for the Maori never has been thus vindictively punished. The very opposite is the fact. It is the colonist who, for years, lias had to sutler wrongin every possible way at the bond of the Maori, and not only has the latter gone unpunished, but the former has oft-times been punished without a shadow of a cause, when the Maori ought to have been instead. The law has been, and now is, wrested in favour of tho Maori and against the European. " It cannot overtake the former in his crimes, it makes no effort in fact to overtake him. The advice is also vicious in another view. The natives are not told to give up war, and not to engage again in it. because they wore wrong in doing so, or because to wage war against others without any cause or pretence is wrong. These high minded moralists take the very lowest ground they can take to dissuade the Maoris from commencing a fresh war, viz., the fear of punishment overtaking them in the form of retaliation at the hands of the •" bad whites." And could the Maoris believe that they could carry on the war successfully, and drive the pakeha, the countrymen of these gentlemen into the sea, it is quite evident they will be justified in doing so according to the advice and logic of the writers of the tract. At least the natives will argue thus, and take this view of the matter. And it is worth noting that any further war depends entirely on the natives. Sir George Grey lias solemnly told them by proclamation that he will not attack them if they refrain from attacking the English.

It needs merely to notice the suytjestio falsi, that tlio Maoris commenced the war, because they longed for some settled Government. That is clearly proved to the most unprejudiced to be wholly without foundation ; and for the aborigines gentry to reiterate it, and to tell the Maoris that they believe it, will cause the latter to laugh outright at the simplicity and gullibility of those who assume to give them advice and to nialcc such professions of belief. It is, indeed, a pity that the wealthy individuals who bestow their attention on the protection of aborigines who need not their protection, do not spend their time and money in ;.■:••;- touting the " white slaves"' at home, and m ameliorating the condition of the thousands of poor creatures living within a stone's throw of their Belgravian palatial residences.