AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1868.

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1516, 3 October 1868, Page 4

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1868.

The tone of some portions of the Middle Island Press in treating upon the present aspect of native affairs is, we believe, an unnecessary gloomy one. "We must bear in inind that those journals take a distorted view of native affairs, one eye being the %vhole time turned upon their land fund. We are not necessarily, as they would have it supposed, fairly in for another and a general war. It is true that the unfortunate disasters on the "West Coast have emboldened tlie people of tribes already wavering in their allegiance to come openly forward as supporters of the cannibal, Titokowaru, but this defection is but partial, and even if it be true, £which, indeed, seems to be the case, that Tawhiao, has, under pressure, perhaps, secretly assented to the acts of these Patea natives, we see no reason to believe that the war will spread beyond the disaffected district in question. Of course, if the escaped Chatham Island prisoners are to be harraased, for the undertaking of auy expedition for the purpose of retaking them is simply an absurdity, we may provoke a war upon the East Coast which may spread in other directions, but the Government will, we imagine, with the lessons they have been lately taught, enter on no such foolhardy undertaking. Prom the first we questioned the propriety of the course taken by the Government in Poverty Bay, the act of the local commandcr notwithstanding. It would be a pretty thing indeed if every subaltern throughout the country, by acting on his own responsibility in an emergency of this kind, should be allowed to precipitate the Government into a war with the natives. It was the duty of the Government to have let the escaped prisoners alone when it saw, ns it must have seen, that to retake them was a matter of impossibility. It is the duty of the Government now to forego all furl - t attempts to retake them. Their conduct : :i escaping certainly does not entitle th- ..a natives to be considered as men worthy >f being hunted down. We question if :-.s many European convicts escaping from a similar position would have fled the Chathun Islands without leaving behind them a very different and less objectionable memento of their escape — whether men's lives and women's honor would have been respected as they were by the escapiug but triumphant Maoris.

In che case of tlie Patea rebels, matters are entirely different. There our Maori enemies have shown themselves to be brutal - ised, ferocious savages, and signal punishment, such punishment as was inflicted on tlie Sepoy mutineers in Tnclia, should be meted out to Titokowaru and his more immediate friends. We may do this, and yet not provoke a general Avar —nay, if we do not do it, and do it in such a way that our arms meet no farther reverses, we may do the very thing that will bring on ourselves the contempt of the natives, and, as a consequence, outrages in other parts of the island. If the Government will leave the East Coast natives to themselves, standing simply on the defensive, it will be all the better able to bring what ability and what resources it possesses to bear upon the Patea. As we mentioned in our issue of yesterday, tlie approval by the King, Tawhiao, of Tito's conduct, if such approval has really been given, will not, we believe, aftect the natives living beyond tlie "Waikato. The Patea war has been a blunder of the G-overnment, in permitting Lieut.-Colonel McDonnell to " harry " a native settlement in retaliation for certain cases of horsestealing, supposed to have been committed by certain of the inhabitants of that hapu. The Government chose to take the sword instead of the policeman's baton, as the

means of vindicating the broken law, and the present state of things at Patea is the consequence. The Ministry was guilty of even worse than a crime in doing so. It was guilty of a blunder ; for it must or ought to have known its utter inability at the time to maintain the position it took up. The Ministry, however, having entered upon the contest, and the contosfc of the natives—so unlike that of the belligerents on the East coast, who have fought us in a manly way, without, as far as is known, mutilating the dead—having rendered it impossible for us to draw back, the colony is bound to come forward and crush out the last spark of rebellion, at any cost, in the Patea. If the present authorities, military and civil, ministers and officers, j are not the right men, the right men mu3t be found. The colony is bound to put down Tito Kowaru ; but, if it does this, it is but reasonable that it should be allowed to choose the tools with which it works. CoL Haultain is too broken a reed on which to lean.

Beyond this district, however, the war need not, and must not be allowed to spread. There is no quarrel between the natives as a race, and the settlers. The people of Auckland and the natives of "Waikato and the North would have lived together as brothers to this day. but for Government interference. The people of the Northern Island desire now to live peacefully beside their dark-skinned brethren, and the latter, we believe, are equally anxious to be allowed to do the same by us. It was with the object of shutting-out the irritating influence of the Native Office under General Government control, that we lately advocated the native policy of Mr. Pox, which proposed to give the management of the natives, within each province, to the Superintendent, that is, virtually, to the people of that province. Left to themselves the two races would live in peace one with the ether, a remnant of the tribes would be saved, and the peaceful occupation of. the country, which would follow such a course, would soon render any future Maori insurrection an impossibility. No Government ever had a better opportunity of distinguishing itself in its conduct of native affairs as the Stafford Ministry has had. When it came into office it inherited no active war as a legacy. The rebel Maoris had arrived at a frame of mind when they were prepared to forego acts of aggressive hostility, and to wrap themselves in a state of sulky isolation.' The Stafford Ministry— had it shown tact and judgment—would have kept them to this ; it would have, refrained from any step which might have provoked the natives into a state of hostile activity. And be it remembered that :the present Ministry has had free scope of action. There has been ho Imperial inter-, ference with its course of action. It has been thwarted by no Governor or General. Instead of refraining from all irritating interference with the disaffected, sullen, natives, the Government allowed its military officers, in one place and the other, to provoke open hostilities. The course of the colony was clearly to have maintained the " let alone " policy" which at one time Mr. Stafford professed to believe in, but which he has failed to practise. The sullen isolation of the natives did the colonists no direct harm. On the contrary, it allowed the strength of the Pakeha gradually, imperceptibly, but steadily to grow, until soon it would have been paramount. The " let alone policy" was the.least expensive, the wisest, and even for the natives the best policy that could have been carried out. It would not of course have lasted for ever, but when the native did wake up and prepare for action, he would have found, that his opportunity was past, and would have prudently set about to malce the best of his position in a peaceful manner.

GENERAL SYNOD. . 'The General Synod of the branch of the United Church of England and Ireland in New Zealand will meet in Auckland on Monday nest, and continue to do so for some time, for the despatch of business connected with the said Church. There will be Divine Service at St. Paul's on Monday morning, at eleven o'clock, and the Synod will meet for business at the Cathedral Library, Parnell, at three o'clock in the afternoon. There will be full Cathedral Service at St. Paul's, the choirs of various churches having irranged to assist on the occasion. . : This General Synod is charged with the general management of affairs connected with the Church of England in this colony. It meets every three years. . Its fundamental principles were agreed to at a conference of members of that Church in 1857, and revised in 1565. The Synod has met at Wellington, Nelson, and Christchurch, and now it meets at Auckland. It is composed of all the bishops of the Church of England in the colony, and of clerical and lay representatives from each diocese, and Melanasia is represented by the Bishop of Melanasia and representatives elected. Its session usually continnes about three weeks. The General Synod is thus a " representative governing body for the management of the affairs of the Church, consisting of three distinct orders —the bishops, the clergy, and the laity; and " the consent of all these orders is necessary to all acts binding upon the Synod, and upon, all persons recognising its authority." Ample powers are given by the constitution and statutes of the Synod for regulating the various important matters connected with ' property, doctrine, and discipline in connection with the Church which it represents. The General Synod in IN ew Zealand gives Churchmen connected with it ample powers to manage their own affairs just as every other religious body has the power to do. The English Church has so long had to look to its " nursing mother," the and been kept as long without this privilege and this power by reason of its connection with the State, that we understand there is positive alarm in the Diocese of Lichfield, since Bishop Selwyn proposed some such organisation there to enlist the sympathies of the Church, together with the laborers and members of it, and to utilise and systematic efforts for the wellbeing of that Church. ' So long has this " nursing mother" done all for the Church, and kept it a babe as far as regards the management of its affairs, that it would appear that "English Churchmen «re absolutely afraid of their own acts, afraid of doing anyching in Synod assembled lest they should do something wrong. Crutches have been supplied so long, that they are afraid to attempt to try the use of their own legs. But as 110 evil, but vast gaod has resulted from the action of the General and Diocesan Synods in New Zealand, "we can only wonder at the dread of their action in England. Several very important matters will be brought before the General Synod. In addition to the n«ual business, there is the resignation of Bishop Selwyn, and the appointment of a successor. The Diocesan Synod nominates a Bishop, and the matter is then brought before the General 1 Synod for its sanction. In the present case the

TJiocesan Svnod agreed to place powers of ;nSouinAe lands of &shop Selwyn. It fs now proposed that the General Synod should act injunction with Bishop Selwyn m the -ointment of a successor in such a way as to avoid any difficulty under the peculiar circumof tasta.ss irill be thf appointment of a Metropolitan. It is understood that Bishop Harper, of Christchurch be nominated to that high office. Then there will be the consideration of whether the diocese shall still be styled that of New Zealand, ft is clear that the title, though appropriate when Bishop Selwyn was the only bishop, and the entire colony formed his diocese, yet, that now there are half-a-dozen dioceses m New Zealand it is no longer appropriate ; and the Bishop of the Koman Catholic Church is styled the Bishop of Auckland ; so that it would hardly do to hare the same title for the Anglican Bishop. How the difficulty is to be avoided we ere not prepared to say. The General Synod ■trill no doubt, give it due and fair consideration. The meeting of the Synod at the present time is thus a very important event connected with the Church of England in New Zealand. The Primate, the founder of the Church of England in New Zealand, of the Melanesian Church, and Diocese, will for the last time meet in council those whom he has so often met beiore, those whom he has trained up as it wero, to carry out principles which have caused hini a vast amount of anxious thought, assisted, though he has been, by able and wise heads, capable of giving him sound advice and counsel. Bishop Selwyn will leave deep and abiding foot-prints in the sands of time. -In is not often that an infant Church has such a wise, patient, self-denying, laborious, husbandman as .Bishop Selwynhas been, to sow the seed, to watch its germination, and growth and development, to introduce fresh laborers as the work increased, and to see, in some measure at least, the ripened fruits ; of which he is so worthy an Apostle.