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New Zealand Mail, Issue 423, 20 March 1880, Page 24

The settlement of native affairs constitutes the all-absorbing topic ot the day. There is nothing we are aware of that should command greater interest on the part of the public, for we are approaching a very momentous period of the long-existing differences that have sundered the natives and the colonists. Acutely alive to the position, and recognising the tremendous importance of the issues at stake, we have stinted neither trouble nor expense in providing for our readers the most reliable intelligence that can be procured, and to that end have engaged the services of correspondents of unquestionable ability and fidelity to supply us, not only with a record of current events, but retrospective information to make those events as clearly as possible understood by the uninitiated in native matters, amongst whom may be classed the great bulk of the public. There is no question of public policy that is so obscure to the average colonist as that appertaining to the transactions between the Government and the natives, and to make it clear in the present juncture is our desire, and to this task we shall impartially bend ourselves, careless of clamor raised byvenal scribes and unscrupulous partizans. The article we published on Saturday was from the pen of a gentleman, than whom there are few more deeply versed in the complexities of the native question. We believe that he appears for the first time in print, and we can commend his article as a truthful resume of the causes which have led up to the present position. If he has a leaning, it is, we believe, to the side of the natives, but he is free from the slightest taint of political rabies, and his desires strongly incline to the establishment of cordial- relations between Maori and white man. We expect to hear from him again shortly upon the same subject, and we can assure our readers that his opinion is of the highest value. We have also another correspondent who supplied the report which appears elsewhere, andwho is exceedingly well informed in native affairs, and a close observer of passing events. It will be observedthat the opinions of these men trend in the direction of ultimate and early pacification, as, indeed, do the opinions of all who, judging impartially, profess an acquaintance with native affairs. For ourselves, we think that the burning question never wore so promising an aspect. So far the native policy of the present Ministry has been productive of the happiest effects, and only demons, to whom the public welfare is nothing compared with mere party considerations, would dare to decry it, and attempt to place stumbling-blocks in the way. Unfortunately, there are those who stick at nothing to supply personal greed or to defame a political opponent. They may be classed amongst the worst of the pakeha-Maon tribe, whose influence is always for evil, and who, when thoroughly cornered by wise and equitable administration of the powers that be, can find no other expression for their discontent than a malignant and unmeaning hiss.