The New Zealand Herald. AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1866.

New Zealand Herald, Volume III, Issue 720, 6 March 1866, Page 4

The New Zealand Herald.

AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1866.

Sl'KCTfnttJß AGENDO. " Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice : Take each man's censure, but reserve tliy judgment. This above To thine ownsMf be truo; And it must follow, as the niffht tho day, Thou canst not then be faho to any mm."

Ls* another column wo publish a very important letter addressed to the Times by the Rev. .T. Uadclifie, Minister of the Established Church of Scotland, and dated Kingston, Jamaica, October 25. This letter seems to give a clear, distinct, and truthful account of the state of things in that Island. The writer speaks in a very decided manner, and gives his name, address, and profession. He wrote, then, under the full knowledge that any erroneous statement or views which he published would be eagerly seized by the Badical and Aborigines Protection faction in England, and duly exposed. Considering this, and his position as a clergyman, wo tool safe in assuming that Mr. Radcliffe's graphic letter is a truthful one, and believe his statement et the great mischief that has been done in Jamaica by l'abid and intolerant religions and political bigots, who have for years petted both Negro and Maori, and encouraged thein in their laziness, their insolence, and lawlessness. "What a pity that these friends of the aborigines will not leave their own comfortable firesides, and go and reside among their pet black sheep in Jamaica, and the brown members of the flock, the Ilauhaus of New Zealand. "We propose drawing a comparison between Jamaica and New Zealand petted savages, and to deduce a moral from the story. Both races have been looked afc through a wrong medium. A diseased imagination has held the place of reason. Thirty years ago the Negroes were slaves, the Maoris cannibals. It is expected by ignorant, and prejudiced, though wealthy people at home, that thirty years is sufficient in a people's life to enable them to cast off their old habits and practices, like a serpent casts its skin, and to be then fit for enjoying and managing a constitutional government. Nothing short of a miraclc could secure such a, result. Look at past history ; does the i historic volume show us any single instance i of any race of people bounding in one generation, or in one century, from barbarism to civilisation. Is it not a notorious fact that what wo call civilisation is a plant of the slowest growth. Take our own or any other nation that ever existed. Look at the ancient Britons ; did 25 or 85 years' contact with the Romans place them on a par with their conquerors. Were they qualified to accept, understand, and carry out the civilization and the Government of the Romans. Undoubtedly not ; and if we trace the stream of history, we see that it is the labor of centuries rather than of years to divest a people of their manners and customs and ideas, which they and their forefathers have, generation after generation, practised and entertained. The whole current of thought, and springs of action have to be entirely and thoroughly changed. Each generation can only be partially improved, the process must go on through many generations. And then again, there is the great diversity of race to be overcome, a difficulty all but insurmountable. No uncivilised and savage race ever was or ever can be fitted for tlie institutions of a constitutional Government like ours in one generation, neither can the distinctions of race be obliterated so speedily. To throw a constitutional Government then before such people is simply to throw pearls before swine. Let us now take a rapid glance at the position and practices of the turbulent negroes in Jamaica and the turbulent Maoris in New Zealand, and of the mode of treatment adopted in both cases —and the results. Some thirty years ago. the Negro was a slave, and had his freedom bought at the expense of £20,000,000 to the British nation, and ruin to many planters. He was then mado a freedman, and allowed equal liberty I with any white man, without any previous training or preparation. The Maori, about the same time, was introduced, to a considerable extent, to a new civilization—to new modes of thought—new practices —new laws. Both had, unfortunately for themselves, a number of friends, who painted them in bright and • false colours —who petted them on Missionary and Anti-Slavery and Aborigines' Protection platforms—who told them what , noble savages, what a fine, though down- < trodden, race they wore—who taught them 11 to despise the whites; and look upon them ( a« cruel taskmasters, and laud-robbers,' i

ind sent men among them who oft-time 3 in affect preached ill will instead of good will, le who blew the flame of jealousy that slumbered in the hearts of the slave and savage, r£ instead of drawing the white and coloured a; races together by words of amity and good will. liankling jealousy of the superior was thus lodged in the breast of the inferior tl race. Tales of oppression were constantly told p to the inferior race. They began to believe them. They cast a longing eye on the pro- ®, perty of the white man, the result of patient n labour, detested alike by negro and Maori. jAnd they determined upon a general rising to a drive the white liiiui into the sea. They strike terror into families living in the country, cause them to flee for their lives into the town : the Maori murders such settlers as he can, and threatens the city of Auckland; the negro plans a general masacre and commences it a little too scon by setting j fire to a Coilrt House containing a lot of £ people and murders these as they attempt ] to escape. The blacks then prowl about in t gangs and murder all they can, except ] women, whom, in their savage cruelty, they j spare for their own diabolical purposes. _ So far then the tragedy in both islands might ■ have been written by the saute author, ] and enacted by the same company. But now the parallel fails. The Governor < and officers in Jamaica brace themselves up i for the occasion. They know the designs of < the blacks ; they have seen the first bloody j act played. They count the lives of their white brethren and of their brown brethren as worth saving. They determine to uphold the dignity of their Queen, and enforce her laws. They see crowds of murderers pursuing their cruel work ; they smite them down in their path; they check their progress ; they try them and punish them without delay. A terrible "crisis demands extraordinary measures ; they. put large numbers of those who are seeking to kill others to death ; and the rest of the rebels are cowed by this well-timed vigour and severity. The lives of the white and mixed population are saved; the rest of the negro population are saved; the fierce war of races is at once brought to an end; and the cost and miseries of a prolonged War are saved space of time. Sharp, short, and decisive lias becu the operation. It was planned by a master mind —it was carried out by a man of firm and determined will, Grovernor Eyre. In New Zealand the opposite policy was pursuedj The Maoris were pampered", they were mildly entreated not to kill our kinsmen, they were taken prisoners, they were allowed to escape; miirderers were pardoned, convicted murderers even; they had peace proclaimed, they shot the bearer of the proclamation, they slaughtered white men and women whenever they could. Many battles have been fought, many lives of both races lost, an enormous amount of treasure spent, the mother country and the Colony embittered one against "the other, as also the residents in the .Northern and Southern islands, aud a legacy of debt is entailed upon the Colony which presses most heavily upon it, while the Maori has suffered largely also. Can any sane man doubt as to whether Governor Eyre has not been more merciful to the bulk of the black population of Jamaica by signally punishing the rebels, at the very outset of their murderous career, than- Grovernor Grey has been to the Maoris by the dilatory aud slow and so-called kind manner in which he has acted. A murderous | rising in Jamaica is immediately cheeked, in New Zealand it lasts for years. We contend that the former policy is most merciful to the rebels, that it has saved a number of lives, aud a vast amount of treasure. " Petting panthers," to borrow an expression of Mr. liadcliffe's, is not- a very wise mode of proceeding, unless you can always keep them secure behind strong bolts and bars. It is all very well for. people at a distance to say they are innocent noble animals, but those near them had better look carefully after them and keep them safe, but should they unfortunately break loose and begin to prey on men and women and children, the rifle must be allowed to do its work, no matter what humanity-mon-gers who are out of harm's way, may say about the matter. As Sir Francis Head says : " The most merciful, and I firmly believe, the only possible way of subduing it (the rebellion) would bo by a prompt and vigorous exercise of martial law, to nut it to death wherever it had broken out within the reach of the Queen's authority, aud simultaneously to terrify it to deatfi throughout the whole of the remainder of the country, where it was slunVbering all ready to break out. How many fellow creatures ifc might be absolutely necessary to shoot, execute, or flog, to secure the blessed victory of pcaco, would of course depend on the characLer of the conspirators." Exactly so-, and a taste "of the cat" applied by an A.IJ. seaman to the backs of all the Maoris we have taken prisoners, before they were set free or allowed to escape, and " a prompt and vigorous exercise of martial lawwould have been estimated in a rather different manner by the noble savage, than have been the potatoes, and flour, and tobacco he has had bestowed upon him at our exnense. The fellow who had once received fifty lashes would be very careful not to hazard receiving a second fifty, and his friends would not be particularly anxious to obtain the same marks of our friendship towards them. Every flogged Maori would have been a missionary of peace among his brethren.