Maori Obstruction.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 859, 17 August 1888, Page 27

Maori Obstruction.

(From the jVeto Zealand Times, August 11.)

Exacting- children are sometimes pacified by a promise that their wishes shall be fulfilled whenever there are two Sundays in one week. This phenomenon is seldom, if ever, experienced on shore, although it is a common enough occurrence on the voyage from New Zealand eastward, when the 180th meridian is crossed on a Sunday. But if we do not enjoy the boon of a dual Sunday, we can at least revel in the blisß of having three Thursdays in one week. Parliament makes the la ws of the land, and according to the High i Court of Parliament now in session : three days in the present week have been Thursday. According to tbe rules of the House to-day is Thursday, yesterday was Thursday, and so was the day before. In other words, the sitting which began in the regular course on Thursday afternoon did not terminate up to 1.40 this morning, the House having been sitting continuously for thirty-five hours. Messrs Taiwhanga -and Taipua carried out iu full their threat of stonewalling the Native -Land Bill, but they would have been unable to keep ; up their obstruction had it not been for the assistance given to them by certain European members, in pursuance, it is understood, of a bargain to the effect that this aid should be reciprocated when certain other measures come up for consideration. The object of stonewalling is, as we pointed out yesterday, simply to substitute physical force for argumentative and voting strength. The whole weight of reason and argument may be on the one side, and nine-tenths of the members may be eager to record their votes on that side, but uuder the present rules of Parliament an insignificant minority may overrule everything, and impose their will on the majority by forcing the issue to be referred to a test of physical endurance. It is exactly the some as if the fate of the Native Bill were to he decided by trying who of two selected members could longest hold out a weight at the full length of his arm. It would be only one 1 step more lo determine all Parliamentary issues by a battle of fisticuffs on the floor of the Chamber. And when the tone of some of this session’s speeches and the growing use of offensive personalities are considered, it can hardly be doubted that we are on the steady road to this .interesting development of Parliamentary practice. If the House is not yet con vineed that a revision of its procedure has become as needful as. i ; t has been found in the House of Commons, it must be ofitsidp the pale of reason i altogether- As matters, stand the plain ' fact ia that parliamentary Government I is rapidly becoming utterly imprac ; tipabie. Parliament by its own show- ! ing i 3 no longer able to conduct the business of the country. Loug-suffer-ing , as the public proverbially is, it surely cannot stand many more such sessions as the present one. It is not very easy to gather fvom the speeches of the members who are stonevysoling the Native Land Bill yjjbat is the real end at which \ they are aiming. Their ostensible object is, of course, plain enough ; they want the Native Bills to be held oyer until next session, and referred in the interim,to the great meeting of Natives which is to bfi held at Waitangi in March, 18S9. But why do they want this 1 ?, Wliaf good is likely to result from' such postponement and reference? That is what they fail to shpw. There is no reason whatever, to., anticipate that any practical- bpnefit would accrue tram f'u,rlh.er discussion of the Government's proposals among the ; Natives themselves. The speeches of ihe two chiefs who wore heard at the bar of the House last night threw no light on the matter, and gave no reason for any expectation that the Government would be one inch nearer satisfying the Maori dissentients after postponing the Bills, for a yeay, and consulting th,e Native meeting, than they aro at the present time. For wfiat the Native malcontents demand is just what the Government deem it inadvisable to grant. Apparently their true aim is, as of old, to bring about a species of Maori Home Buie. They dislike the administration of the Native reserves by the Public Trustee

and the determination of land titles by the Native Land Courts, and wish to substitute Native Assessors and Committees as arbiters and administrators in these matters. In this respect and others they are desirous of being conceded powers which the Government hold it would be detrimental to the Natives’ own best interests to confer upon them : powers which would infallibly be exercised in a way most prejudicial to the welfare of the Natives themselves, and which the Government as their guardians do not feel warranted in thus delegating. Mr fiaiwhanga was very emphatic in his assertion that the Native Land Bill would destroy the Native race, but judging from all past and present experience the surest way to ruin the Maori people would be to accord to them the very concessions for which they are agitating.