RYOTWARRY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 376, 26 April 1879, Page 21

RYOTWARRY.

TO THE EDITOU OF THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL. Sir, —It is now nearly a year since I published and circulated among the members of the House o( Representatives a pamphlet entitled “Ryotwarry.” It gave a brief description of that Indian land tenure, and suggested the adaptation of it to New Zealand. It was published both in English and Maori, and because I wanted the subject to be understood, and have a hearing from both races, I found the only course open to me was to visit the Maoris in their own country, and endeavor to explain to them the system which I have aided in administering for twenty-five years in India. I procured an introduction to Rewi and to Manuhiri. The latter did not reply to my letter to him ; the former at once telegraphed to me to come and visit him at Mokau—the steamer would take me there. At some axpeuse, and through discomforts in the rainy weather which hardy colonists would doubtless make light of, but which were really no joke to an elderly Anglo-Indian, I travelled by land towards Mokau. Sending word to Rewi, he came to meet me, and I spent three days with him and his attendant chiefs in a village in their own country. Rewi was also accompanied by a very intelligent half-caste translator. Through this.man, with an English and Maori copy of my pamphlet, I was able to make them understand the extremely simple plan which I suggest for their adoption. I said to them iu effect as follows :—I am an Englishman, born in India—an Indian public officer, aud now with a pension of £IOOO a year. I am neither a colonist, a servant of the New Zealand Government, a missionary, nor a land speculator. I want no land either for myself or friends. I have heard and read enough of the Maoris to wish them well.- So I have come among you to warn you of a coming danger, and to suggest to you a remedy. This isolation of yours, however pleasant, reasonable and just, is impossible as a permanence—there cannot be two kings in New Zealand. Although at present two races within their own bounds, it is unwise to expect that thi3 state of things can always remain so. Although no one would attempt to defend every act of my countrymen iu the past, we must leave the judgment of these things to the God before whom we all alike stand, and look practically at the present and future. The English now greatly outnumber you—they are 450,000, aud you are 45,000. They want your land, and it is right that in a proper way they should have it—there is more than you cau use. From this question of the land, which is the bone of contention between you, it is inevitable that trouble will arise unless prevented by previous arrangement. If trouble and war do come, the Maoris may do much harm, for wo admit your courage ; but they cannot stand against numbers, and they will bo exterminated. This

trouble may arise at any moment, despite the utmost cautiou ou both sides —witness the murder of Sullivan, &o. As your friend, I warn you of the danger, aud counsel you to prepare for it. My advice to you Is that you consider tho matter, not as individuals, but as a nation, and that as such you take the best steps for avoiding it. When you aud the king and the other chiefs thoroughly understand and agree upon tho present position, you should adopt the plau I bring you. You have sometimes been paid ridiculously small sums for your laud, aud sometimes large sums, which you have wasted at beershops. Neither of these would occur under “ Ryotwarry.” You would receive a just rental from your land, aud iustead of reaching you and hying squandered in one lump sum, it would he paid to you annually for ever. There would never arise troubles regarding the laud, for your titles would be respected, and tlie English would be satisfied. The two races cau then mingle without a boundary line. Roads aud railways can be made without causing you fear, and the wealth and comfort of all will increase. Rewi said, “ You have now persuaded mo. What we have now to do is to persuade others. Como with me to all the great meetings, and then come and live with me at Bunin, and introduce ‘ Ryotwarry’ on my own property, whatever others may think of it.” I then further explained details to them. I delighted them by telling them tiiat under mo in India most of the surveying had been done by natives. It might here be done by Maoris, and by teaching them on the spot how to plot an irregular bit of grouuil by' cross staff survey. Many a question and answer interrupted my discourse, but at the end of three days I had succeeded beyond my expectations iu the way iu which they comprehended my plan, and were disposed to believe and trust me to a certain extent as their friend, hoping well of me till they learnt the contrary. What more could reasonably be asked for ? When I saw Rewi again three months afterwards he and I were annoyed at my being followed, and every word listened to by a mounted trooper. I saw him again alone. He was half afraid of receiving me. He had been told the Government would be very angry if he did, and he had not his old confidence in me. He said he had only trusted as friends three Englishmen (departed politicians, whom he named), and that each of those three had in the end robbed him of land, and that thus he must now be in doubt of me till I had been tested. He gradually, however, regained some of his first feelings, and repeated hia request that when the coming meetings with the Government were over I -would go and live with him at Puniu, and introduce “ Ryotwarry ” on his own estate, even if no one else adopted it. I have heard that this is his feeling regarding me and “Ryotwarry” through independent sources. But the honest old patriot is so beset by designing men—representatives of “land rings”—whose occupatic n would be gone if “Ryotwarry” was iutreduced, and by parfcizans of the Grey Government, which, unfortunately, looks upon my plan with jealousy, that the evil he has been told of me would doubtless fill many a column ! The annoyances I was subjected to by Government partizans in and about Waitara and Taranaki were such as to surprise one. Refused the room that I had engaged at the only hotel, and unable to get any other I slept on board of a small steamer till it left, aud then went daily in and out by train to Inglewood. In Taranaki people were afraid to bo seen walking with me in the street, and not even lettersof introduction could get me ingress to tin ir houses ; this from people holding Government posts or pensions, supposed to lie gentlemen and men of education, but who had apparently resigned all independence, aud were willing to serve the Government even put of office hours by personal discourtesy to a stranger. What wonder if the example was followed by the coach driver refusing me a seat when I sought it, midway between Taranaki and Mawera, aud telling me iu that uncanny region that it “ served me right for looking after Maori matters ?” And what had I done or designed ? Certainly nothing opposed to the plans of tho Government, and nothing detrimental to my countrymen. I had sought nothing for myself, nothing but the peace and benefit of both races. But the Government organs denounced me iu language usually applied only to criminals ; and Air. Sheehan spoke so seriously of the ill effects of my proposition at the moment when the Government of Sir George Grey was carrying out a mysterious but important and beneficent scheme of their own, that it was evidently supposed that I, a stranger, without influence or wealth, without even the knowledge of Alaori, was successfully interfering with the jiolicy of the Government. It is Burely hardly necessary for me to say that I, a stranger, had no party bias, and not the remotest idea of putting myself in conflict with the Government. It is as plain to uiv as to older settlers that my suggestion will be fruitless unless accepted both by the Government aud the Maoris, and the last thing that I, a lone stranger, would desire would be to find myself in opposition to the Government, for that at once renders tho whole proposition impossible.

All that I wanted was a hearing, and if after that the plan was discarded, there would be nothing further for me to do in the matter. Hence, when thus met by the -open disapproval of the Government, in tlieir organs and in the House, and by personal insult ou the spot, I felt driven from the field. However ridiculous it really is to suppose that the influence of the Premier and Native Alin ft tor could be affected by any act or word of a person in my position, I did what was evidently desired. I left the spot, aud for the time dropped the attempt to bring my proposition before either English or Afaoris. But we have now reached a critical position in native affairs, iu which I venture once more to ask that my proposition may at least be given consideration. After many months of persistent effort no progress seems to have been effected by the Government in its negotiations with these children of the “bush.” Noue but the Lardtucd aud un-

principled can contemplate an armed contest between the two races without the deepest regret—without a wish for every other course to be tried first.

Both sides have gone too far easily to draw back. An honorable compromise ,is “ what is the need of the hour.” With honest diffidence, yet with hope, I would once more ask my countrymen to give a moment’s thought to my suggestion—a suggestion, not a dogma—and one that may need much discreet adaptation In its application to a new country and people —yet a suggestion that would, I believe, exactly fulfil the conditions that are needed in an honorable compromise to be laid as the bridge of peace between the tw® races, and one that will be not a hollow and temporary nubterfuge, but a frank, satisfactory, permanent arrangement to the very great benefit of both races,—l am, &c.,

E. C. G. Thomas.