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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8929, 19 December 1887, Page 4

Considerable importance attaches to the question put on Saturday by Hoane Taipua to the Government as to the position of the lands which had once been offered to King Tawhiao. These lands, situate in the Waikato, were placed at the service of the old Maori King on condition of hie agreeing to the proposals of the Governmentthat he should abandon his attitude of resistance to the laws of the country, and recognise the Queen's authority. After taking time to consider them, however, Tawhiao declined the proposals in question, and was, thereupon, sorrowfully informed by Sir George Grey that the offer which had been made to him was withdrawn. This mistaken decision of Tawhiao soon proved for him a more serious matter than at first appeared. For, by the Confiscation Act passed during the period of the native war, Tawhiao and his immediate tribe lost all their land, and were dependent on the Ngatimaniapotos, whose lands had escaped confiscation, for a dwelling-place ; and, for a time, their right to- the occupancy of a certain portion of the King Country was tacitly admitted. When, however, the King tribes began to get weary of their prolonged isolation, and wished to be reconciled to the European colonists, and to come to some under-< standing with the Government as to the title to their lands, the Ngatimaniopoto chiefs disclosed an unwillingness to share their possessions with the disinherited Waikatos. The result was practically that Tawhiao and his tribe were left out in the cold, and it was to place them in the position of having lands which they could call their own that the lands already referred to were offered them in the manner described. For his rejection of these as well as for his taking arms against the Queen, Tawhiao, as Hoane Taipua said, was not personally to blame. He was simply acting as the mouthpiece of the tribal chiefs who owned hiß sway, and was only carrying out the wishes of the King natives generally. He therefore ought not alone to be punished for the sins of all. It would be inhuman to condemn liim and his tribe, the Waikatos, to a landless life, to be virtually without a home, while other tribes that shared in the guilt of the war were allowed to retain their lands, and, especially while great criminals like Te Kooti were well provided for. True he rejected the offer made to him with his eyes open, and after being warned of the consequences. Still he was, though mistakenly, adhering to a principle according to the light he then had; and no one would desire to see him suffer perpetually for his having neglected to study his own material advantage. It is, therefore, very gratifying to learn from the Native Minister that the Government would favourably consider Tawhiao's claim, and also to hear of Sir George Grey expressing his sincere delight at that Minister's assuring reply. Striotly speaking the Government ought to take part of the Ngatimaniopoto lands and convey that to Tawhiao and hia followers; but, as this might cause ill-feeling among the natives towards each other, it will be better to set apart for this purpose some of the waste lands of the Crown. It would moreover be more in keeping with royal custom and feeling that King Tawhiao should have a gift of a home made to him from Her Majesty the Queen than that he should be placed in possession of Maori land grudgingly conceded to him by rival chiefs ferior in rank to himself.

The Government have remorselessly resolved on raising the property tax for the present year, dating from the Ist of April last, to one penny in the pound. Considering the circumstances of the country, we have no hesitation in saying that this tax ought to have been left at present as it was. Had the valuation of property been honestly made in 1885, the raising of the tax just now would not have operated so oppressively, bad as the times are. But, knowing as they do that the valuation then made was by the in» structions of the Stout- v ogel Administration scandalously excessive, to do what the Ministry are now proposing, and add oppression to injustice, is simply shameful. The people, to speak plainly, are not in a position to pay even the tax now in force, not to mention an increase thereon, Bave by denying themselves some of the necessaries of life, or using money therefor which should go to meet their grocers' and butchers' bills. That is an undeniable fact; and yet our Government and members, though aware of it as they must be, propose to sanction a tax which in amount can only be regarded and denounced as an extortion. This callousness of feeling, however, may be explained by the circumstauce that a large proportion of these legislative gentlemen, even with their honorarium added, have not enough to bring them under the operation of the tax they are coolly attempting to impose on others. New Zealand is certainly badly off for legislators when those attending at their place in Parliament cannot devise a tax in lieu of this one, which is dragging out of the people, not only their money, but even their very existence. }