WHERE THE WHITE MAN TREADS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12991, 7 October 1905, Page 1 (Supplement)

WHERE THE WHITE MAN TREADS.

CONCERNING VARIOUS MATTERS. BY W. 8., TE KTTITI.! When two independent peoples contract an alliance, and the time is stated during which it is to be in force; and when, moreover, one party to that contract gains important advantages from the partnership, common sense has established, and ttie comity of nations has ratified, the conclusion that such contract shall remain in forco until it is annulled by mutual consent. Neither can there be partial annulling at the option of tho one who benefits thereby. Especially do these incontestable premises apply to our treaty with the Maori, because by it and it's candid stipulations we became the owners of his land. And not this alone. .In that treaty, by the expression "sovereignty," which he ceded, lie denied himself the'privilege of forming alliances elsewhere. But he parted only with his foreign sovereignty ; were : tins otherwise the whole second article would be meaningless. " Her Majesty the Queen of England confirms to the chiefs and tribes of New Zealand, and to the respective families and' individuals thereof, the full, exclusive, and undisturbed possession -of their lands and estates, forests, fisheries, and other properties, which they may, collectively. or individually possess, so long as it is their wish and- desire to retain , the same in their possession," etc. How can we, when it suits our greed, annul this sacred covenant? And now to claim that it is only partially in force, and can be further modified, to pander to the lust for supremacy, which is the Anglo-Saxon's special heritage, is an impudent violation, of the spirit of all treaties, and an indication that faith, honesty, morality, religion, and all our other pretended attributes, are mere mockeries and decoys, and evidences of a cowardice which requires such _ disguises to entice the unsuspecting victim within reach! -, One correspondent writes:—"We have a right to think that none of the parties on that green in front of Mr. Busby's •! house understood fully what they were doing." find certainly not, because this paradise upon earth lay yet- in the womb of the future! But does my friend (to whom thanks be) for one instant believe that because of their finite view what they enacted on that green minimises one scruple of what- they mutually agreed upon? And that is why, from the Waitara crime and subsequent iniquities, 1 declare the policy of our statesmen(?) to have been a fraud! And the Maori knows it also, and remembers it, and stubbornly refuses to receive our admonitions, because he has detected us in falsehood and rapacity, and mist-rusts every scheme we try to interest him in for his betterment. And until we reinstate the Treaty of Wailangi in all its integrity, and frankly admit that the past has been a horrible mistake, lie is prudent to so mistrust us, and laugh at our unhandsome pretensions! Is the Maori a human' being, or is he not? Because this is the pintle on which his cry for redress revolves. My knowledge of him certifies that lie is; that his appreciation of justice is of the highest order;' and that he bitterly and sullenly resents every infraction of it. Tfis sensation also of personal dignity is of the keenest, and will tolerate no ignoble familiarities. Before we taught him that honour and rectitude were matters to be freely trifled with, a Maori's word was his bond. It had to be, because experience taught him through the ages that wherever a bond was fractured a mere or I alalia would soon mend it. ; .. . On the 2nd and 3rd of this month' 4* number of influential chiefs from several districtsCoromandel, Kaipara, Waikato, arid elsewheremet at the Maori Hostelry, where I also, by special invitation, attended. At this meeting speaker after speaker left the distinct impression that were it not for their numerical weakness a/id poverty, an appeal to force lay latent •hi every Maori's soul! • The latest wanton proposal to destroy treaty rights, the present. Native Land Bill (it is.not worth a capital), together with the Premier's Rotorua promises, and their own rejected prayers and petitions, came under the harrow of a bitter irony with rasping satisfaction! Said one: Our fathers when they met at Waitangi had faith ; their descendants have none." And another: "This Bill is the ending of all things (and shockingly). What have wo done to be so treated?" As the meeting dispersed one after another buttonholed me with remarks of sarcastic incision, speaking of the Bill: "It is a greeting, let us shake hands with it. This is the medicine, let us drink it!" "Oh! Thou pakeha liar!" "But," I replied, "your own man is the father of it. Why do you reproach the pakeha?" Then he smote his forehead with his clenched fist, " True, but who is pushing us to the outer edge? And the man whom we trusted would help us to regain our position listens to us with one ear, and the other is plugged." They were an intelligent party: each delivered his say with emphatic gesticulations; but one felt a want of combination. One. speaker admitted this: " It is the want of cohesion which nullifies our efforts! The load presses equally heavy on all, yet- when we shall unite our strength to remove it each one lifts out of time. Why is this?" _And I explained that it was the hereditary remnant of old tribal animosities. He replied dubiously, " Ana pea" (may be). As. I lay aside sheet after sheet of copy, I ask myself the good of it all. The pakeha lias determined that the Maori shall not be his landlord ; yet he hankers for the poor creature's land. But the Maori does not ask to be anyone's landlord. What he asks for is his treaty right to do with his own as seems to him most profitable. And who dare cavil at this legitimate human desire? The land was his before wo came; a solemn treaty confirmed bis ownership. Where is the unreason of his demand that it now be restored? Much fias been disquisited on the word "sovereignty." To be. sure of my own interpretation I have looked it up. " Sovereignty," according to Nuttu.il, means "supreme dominion." Not the ravishing of property and rights, as some deluded people imagine! In a despatch from Earl Grey. Secretary of State for the Colonies, dated December 23, 1846, appears this extraordinary instruction to Governor Grey: " The Queen, as entitled in right of Her Grown to any waste lands in the colony, is free to make whatever rules Her Majesty may see fit on the subject. The accompanying charter accordingly authorises the Governor to alienate such lands. . . ." To which the great statesman Governor replied: " The intended purpose of this letter is to earnestly solicit from Her Majesty the promise that the engagements which they (the Maoris) regard as having been formally entered into with them when they signed the Treaty of Waitangi should be maintained inviolate, a.nd when they j state that they have been promised that the disposal of their lands was to be at their own option they mean that the right of' pre-emption" (note, "right of preemption, or first refusal) " over their lands was to vest in Her Majesty ; but they were only to be required to dispose of them with their own free will. . • • Upon this stern reminder of the sacredness of treaties, and the of British subjects, the obnoxious and immoral charta and instruction was promptly _ countermanded, and the assurance givenand afterwards many times repeated —that no alienation would be enforced, and that the Treaty of Waitangi remained the inviolable compact its signatories intended it to be. "Having, then, these records before us, by what authority do we dare to interfere with the privileges of the Maori over his possessions? Had the Imperial, Government' intended to relinquish ; its protection of the Maori, and control of the Treaty of Waitangi, it would have included this in the Constitution Act of 1852. Therefore this silence implies* that no such relinquishment • was thought of. Hence also, tno famous Treaty is still an Imperial State paper, which»our colonial Legislature may not tamper with, nor modify, with* I out the mutual consent of the King, the [ uikmio.4 *ad the Maon* J