RAGLAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1124, 21 June 1867, Page 4

RAGLAN.

In another column will be seen letters from settlers resident at Raglan, complaining bitterly—and not -without good cause—of the injury to that settlement, and to the general pcace of the colony, which the Southern Gross and its Jtnglan correspondent are bringing about by the manner in which affairs, native and European, relating to that district are persistently treated. We havo before now received private letters from the most inluential residents of the district complaining also of the conduct of the Cross. One gentleman says " the greatest enemy the province of Auckland has is the Southern Cross." "We wish for the credit of the Press that we could dispute this statement, but wc regret to say we cannot do so. The persistent attempts of the Cross to fail the embers of rebellion and to get up a war in the neighborhood of llaglan and Kawhia, are fraught; with the greatest danger and injury to the peace, and consequently to the prosperity of the colony. Around .Kawhia are now gathered the _ most disaffected of tho Maori tribes. It is tho residence of tho King, the centre of Maridom. Does the Cross wish to provoke these men into open war, Avlio are already yielding to the force of circumstances, and to the knowledge that war brings poverty and misery—peace, plenty and happiness ? Does it wish to keep alive unnecessarily, and without cause, tho feeling of want of confidence, which lias checked settlement in tho Waikato, and which alone prevents us from establishing such a frontier that aggression from without would he impossible. Instead of the facts of the case being, that at any moment the conquered tribes may attempt the retaking of the Waikato, we are in a position to state, that the Ngtimaniapotos themselves arc most anxious to make peaco, and that Matataera the King has despatched messengers to all- his tribes forbidding them to commit any outrage upon the pakeha— and yet the Cross, even in its issue of yesterday, says:—" It is clear that as long as " threats brood over Upper "VVaikato, " neither that country nor the East Coast can " be very prosperous. If we could but be "sure that no attack would be made onus, " we might leave the Maoris' alone in their " kingdom, and cultivate the laud we already " hold. But that cannot be done. Who " knows but that the natives have ceased " fightingnow, because ammunition is scarce; " when they have accumulated a supply they " may again break out. Liable to wild iin- " pulses of fanatical enthusiasm, no one can " tell the change a week may produce." Now can anything be more calculated to interfere with the good work, -which, has been taken on hand, of conciliating the two races, than the publication ef such statements as the above, statements which have 110 foundation vjjhatever in truth. About ten days since we had occasion to correct our cotemporary for his most mischievous and intemperate language, in stating that " the

" crisis was immineiit —that a general attack " upon us by the natives might be imme- " diately looked for." A few days afterwards lie modified his opinions to the expression—whether it would be peace or war was equally a probability—and now we see him terrifying the country settlements with the bugbear that "no one can tell the " change a week may producc." If we refer back to the previous portion of yesterday's article in the Cross, we shall havo no difficulty in tracing the source of tho warlike information on which our cotcmporary builds up his panicstricken articles. Tho Cross in the same article of yesterday, above alluded to, says : — " As to the rumours of fighting at ICawliia, " and the sending away of Hone te One and " the friendly natives from Aotea, these acts " of tho King party have been caused by " Hone, who is a native assessor, having " entered into negotiations to sell or lease a " pioco of land, which, it is said, does not " belong to him, but to some of the King " party. Here the cloven foot peeps out. It is the Raglan correspondent of tho Cross who leads that journal astray. Not content with injuring liaglau, as a correspondent, he would plunge the colony also into war as prompter nnd inspirer of the policy of the Cross, As VPfrmvls Qfi-Hli L 01 1 it" sell", we have good reason to know that the settlers have nothing to fear. "We do not say that they should not be prepared for war—but certainly they should not allow fears for their safety to interfere with the daily work of settlement. The natives mean well towards the settler. The European inhabitants mean well towards the Maoris, and if only we can get the C'rosa to mend its ways, or the Maoris to take the remarks of the Cross at their true value, we unhesitatingly say that we believe the time is not far distant when the two raccs will be as firmly cemented in friendship as they were in former times. The natives, wo learn, are anxious to part with blocks in tho neighbourhood of J3aglan which, if bought and settled under the newly proposed regulations, would add much to the stability and progress of a settlement which, if it had only fair play, would, with its splendid harbour, soon become second only, as a port, to Auckland.