NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume III, Issue 644, 5 December 1865, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND.

(To tho Editor of tho Times.)

Sir, —It is from no fooling of respect for tho wishes of Mr. William Fox, tho late Colonial Minister and Native Minister of Now Zealand, that I comply with his suggestion by forwarding a copy of tho Aborigines' Protection Society's address to the natives of New Zealand, but I fend it simply because tliero can bo no possible motivo on our part from withholding it from tho public.

A politician like. Mr. Fox, who, after vehemently denouncing the Taranaki war, in opposition, became tho fierce supporter of nn equally iniquitous w.ir when ho crept into oiliee, and who. after tilling a Bluebook with his miserablo wranglings witli tho Governor, and seeking to initiate a general policy of confiscation, which would havo added tenfold to th c horrors of tho struggle, was compelled to make way for a bettor man, is not exactly tho kind of poison who can afford to mako charges, or to cast imputations, upon even tho Aborigines Protection Society. Jsut as you havo published his letter I may perhaps bo permitted to omphatically deny that our address has been " privately and secretly" circulated amongst the natives. Copies of it were forwarded to gentlemen who, having held high office in tho colony, wero not likely to bo wanting in n sense of responsibility, and who, from their intimate acquaintance with the native character, were much more competent t ijudgo of tho expediency of publishing an address than Air. Fox. There was no sort of concealment attempted by them or by us ; and only a few days ago I received a letter from ono of them, a. dignitary of tho Church of England, in which he remarked on tho good effect tho circulation of tho document was likely to produco ammig the nativo inhabitants of his district. AVhilc it is truo we havo acquired some influence over considerable numbers of tho Maori race, that influeuco has over been exerted to uphold tho Queen's authority and to induco tho disaffected among them to intrust their cause, if it was a just one, to tho advocacy of their friends in tho colony and in Groat Britain. I am, Sir, your obedient sorvant, P. W. Chessoj.', Secretary of tho Aborigines' Protection Society. 3, Catherine-terrace, Lansdowno-road, S , Sopt. 20, 1865.

A certain Society, with (ho doings of which our readers boeomo periodically acquainted, makes ono more appearanco before tho public this morning. In the last letter of our Wow Zealand correspondent an address to tho Maoris from the Aborigines' Protection Society, which had been recently received and circulated in the Colony, was stigmatized as wicked, nonsensical, and worse than seditious. An exMinister of the Settlement, now in this country, followed up the chargo by challenging tho Society to produco tho document aud submit its contents to the judgment of the public. That challenge has been accepted, apparently in perfect confidence, by tho parties put upon their defonce, and every reader can now form an opiuion of his own.

It seems to us that if thero is to bo such a practico as colonization, and if the superior or moro civilized races of tho world aro to do in futuro as thoy have dono in all past time, tho address before us must certainly bo held liablo to severe censure. If tho Maoris had tho power of acting on the advice it contains, and could be induced to do so, tho British settlers in Now Zealand might as well bo brought back to this country at once, for tho development of tho Colony would be 6imply impossible The settlement could not grow or expand itself even by tho fairest means, but would bo confined to tho strips of torritory at present occupied on tho coast. If tho principle wero applied to all colonies and to all people, and it is obviously just as applicable to ono as to nnothor, there could be no such thing as the settlement or reclamation of new countries nnywhere. All nations must confine themselves to their present bounds, and no wild or savago territories could be brought within tho palo of civilisation. But according to opinions which havo always prevailed, and which still prevail, such a principle as this would certainly nevor bo admitted, and tho mero statement of it would bo enough to convict it of folly.

Colonisation necessarily involves tho contact, and practically tho collision, of two races of men—ono superior and one inferior. Tho inferior is in possession of the soil; the superior gradually supplants it. So it has been everywhere and in all times. It was so in this country, whore the Celts dispossessed eomo oarlior inhabitants, and were in turn dispossessed by the Saxons. It was so in all civilised regions of tho earth, and in obedience to what appears a natural law. Most notably, however, because in our own times has it been tho csso in America. That great country has been formed, stop by stop, in this very fashion. The Red Indians, perhaps not themselves tho first occnpantß of the continent, hav.3 been driven westwards from State to State, till the race, once tho lords of tho soil, aro to be found only in its remotest tracts, and aro not safe oven there. They havo disappeared, and (ire disappearing, boforo the white man, but the result is the United States. Now, If the Aborigines' Protection Society had merely charged itself with tho mitigation of this inevitable lot, and had sought to impress upon colonizing nations the duty of kindness and charity to tho inferior race, their object would havo been highly laudable. That tho work of colonization has too often been carried on in a cruel and high-hanclod maimer is doubtless true, and it should be a recognh.ed obligation in our days to prevent such doings. Tao Americans have a department of Stato espec : ally charged with tho supervision of all transactions with tho Indians, and exespfc in some remote districts, where the natives aro sanguinary and treacherous and the settlers few, tho retirement of one raco boforo the other is unatteuded with violence or suffering. The process, however, gops irrosistably on. Every Stato added to tho Union Was Indian territory not long before, and very little account was taken of tho title of these Indians to tho plains over which thei forefathers hal hunted.

In New Zealand, unless tho lifo of the colony is to bo cut short, I ho result must be tho same, and it i'b the fault, or ,'tho folly, of the Aborigines Protection Society that it not only shuts its oyes to a natural law, but actually interferes to the best of its power to provent its easiest and least oppressive operation. If these philanthropists had urged upon our authorities the expediency of regulating the inevitable expansion of the colony, and the duty, for instanco, of providing tho retreating natives with such allotments and assistauco as aro given to tho Indians in America, they would havo dono well. If they had argued that a nativo tribo should reecivo compensation for its loss, or that a Maori vendor should bo entitled to tho purchase monoj' of land ho had sold, they would have doEe no wrong. But when they actually maintain that no land should pass from the possession of savages to the possession of settlers under any condition whatever, and when they advise tho Muoris to act on this principle and to refuse to recode one stnglo Btep, they commit thomselvos to doctrines which are palpably nonsensical, and which, if viewed by the light of their consequences, might bo described in far stronger terms. Yet this, and nothing less, is what they really do. Thoy tell tho Maoris that every Maori should bo rendered by nativo law unable to dispose of his property oven if ho wished lo do so, and that "this rule should he made quite strong and safe." They even warn them ngtiust letting land on leaso, and recommend that euch transactions should bo discouraged. The obvious purpose of such advice is to keep tho inferior raco where it is, and to restrain tho superior race from making its natural advances. What the actual

tTin n « ?f SII ? h a " n * (om P t would bo wo no*d not he at mo pains of predicting. v! >?v"°( °m OUl ' corre spon,len! 3 admits us to a clear t■■;,*?„, l " l) l l ? ull!iona b 3' which the members of this benorolent society are actuated. •• We," says 110, aio qu, X otic enough to beliovo that tho Now Zealan ers areas jiutly entitled to their land at « Tilf-r \ of Northumberland and tho Duke of Ji™,' " r0 }° oir c,til{c9 in England." Tho extra- agance of this comparison gives an easy duo VowV„ 0, l im , C,,ti . of th ° Tho title of the ttLft « erS l °, * hoir Und is 6inl Pb' "'at of any fn,,n ß , r a \° So,] on Vhich ho happens to bo °™j',, "I" U '° cas ° of Ihe Maories wo happen to know that thoyoame within tho last hundred years „?■,■• -n? 0t Wlloro wo now flnd the ™, and thoro, L-; 1 and eating, tho former proprietors, established themselves in forcible poLssion! u o_ know likewise, and tho Aborigines' Protection oocioty appoars also to have a glimpse of tho fact, lint, tno Maories thomselvcs cannot at all acreo about their own rights, either tribal or personal, to the tracts which tlioy claim. And if our correspondent wisnes tor any further dissection of tho illustration no nasl advanced, wo beg to say that English lords wno did ui limes past what tho Maories habitually ao now were pretty sure to lose both their estate? ana tiieir lives together. Assuming these natives to be genuino landowners and responsible subjects of the Wueen, they have forfeited their land scores of timos mer by rising in aims against tho Crown. This is tno weak point of tho ciso for tho natives. Wo must ask in what political character tlioy are to bo considered. If Uioy aro British subjects, differing lroni other British subjects simply in oxtraction mid colour, wo request to know what penalty is their duo for armed rebellion. If they differ so "greatly from other Hnlish subjects as to bo allowed to levy war against tho Queen when they think propor, it can hardly bo unreasonable to regard their position as exceptional in other rofpects also. It is, in truth, a monstrous pieco of extravagimco to say, not only that these sayagn tribes have an indefeasiblo title to all the soil in jScw Zealand, but tint they ought to bo maintained in possession of it for over, to tbe obstruction of all colonization. Such a proposition needs no contradiction. It is quito enough to put it in print. lho Aborigines' Protection Society may soften tho natural lot of a race which they confess to be gradmiUy expiring, but they are not likoly to stop tho growth of 11 British colony by such advico as that now mado public— Times, Sept. 23.