RENATA’S LETTER.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume XVII, Issue 1724, 8 February 1862, Page 3

RENATA’S LETTER.

To Dr. Featherston.

July 23rd, 1861. Sin, —These are the words of our meeting which we wish you to communicate to the General Assembly now sitting at Auckland. These words are from the assemblage of Ngatikahubunii held at Wahaparata attended by a large number of people. The runangas of Mataikona, &c., including all the eoast from Castle Point to Mohaka and back to Taupo. A whole week was taken up in discussing the question of the Governor's opposition to the Maori King, and the runanga came to the conclusion that the fault did not originate with the Maori King; the two questions about the Taranaki war and the Maori King should be kept distinct. For the Maori King was not set up to fight against the Queen or to trample down her sovereignty. No but it was the Governor who dragged°him upon the Queen (f.e., who put a forced construction upon the movement so as to make the Maori King appear to be set up in opposition to the Queen’s supremacy). The cause of the Maori setting up his King was because of the evils arising from” the sale of the land of the Maoris, for it was sold by single individuals without the consent of the Hence arose the present difficulties in the eyes of the Runanga and not from the setting up of a Maori King to fight against the Queen, nothing of that kind was intended neither was any part of Aotea (New Zealand) which has been clearly sold to you been taken possession by the Maori King that you the Pakeha should feel'so suspicious of us as to think he is a fighting King. Is the Maori then ignorant of his deficiencies? It is plainly enough to be seen that he is without money) without guns, without powder, without lead, to enable him to stand up to fight. Instead of the Governor thinking of these things being wanting to the Maori he tells the Queen that, the Maori King is to fight with you. This is purely an invention of the Governor’s, for wejnever said anything of the kind in these years that have passed. This is what lie said to us at A buriri about the movement in Waikato. Leave my Children alone to amuse themselves in my bouse ; let them go on playing till they leave offof themselves.* But when his own wrong dealing with the Maori lands is found out and goim> to war without cause he turns round upon "me and my King and accuses us of having brought about the collision between the two races. This charge is brought by the Governor that he may have a ground for going to war with me. but he ignores the ground arising from the lands being wrongly dealt with by his purchasers, and this was the reason why I set up a little King for myself, and from that time the people and the land breathed freely again. These were the things I intended my King to do, to fight with the drunkards, adulterers thieves, and with all the oflences of the Maori’. But when the land purchaser of the Governor did

wrong then they made an excuse that the Maori King, was the cause and thus things went wrong. I t was not so al first, nobody cared about the Maori King, but when you made a talk about him everybody rallied round to support him. To return to the men who sell the land by stealth to the Governor, he should have seen the fault and condemned it; so that I might have left it. for him alone to redress the wrongs of the Maori; instead of which your servants go and accept the dishonest oilers of the Maori, which encouraged him to go on stealing lands, and then the Maori thought of setting up his King to investigate my (the Maori’s) own wrongs. This meeting has arrived at this conclusion. If this work of making a King is of Maori device, it will pass away of itself. Friends, leave the King of Aotea alone and he will disappear oi himself. But do you initiate something good for us both in order that evil may be ashamed, and that good works may destroy the evil deeds of evil doers. For evil will never be put down by guns, powd>r' and balls. ’ \Ve wish' now calmly to request you not to attack the Maori King with guns, powder, ball, and the sword, or else all the Maori tribes will rush to support their King, so that all may die to-’ether But if you persist in destroying your Maoris like sheep or pigs, it cannot be helped. Had I set up my king to bring evil between you and me, it would be right enough for you to attack my king and me; instead of which he was intended as a prelector. The Queen was to be the great protector for me as well as for your side,“as well as from dangers from without or from the sea (foreign invasion), and my king was to be a little protector for me inland at my Maori villages the places which are not visited by you, and for the evils which are not corrected by you. If, indeed, we had seen that the conduct of our king towards you was bad it V-mid not have taken us a second day to seek it out, and we ourselves would have cast him aside. It was the wrongs that we suffered at the hands of you I’akchas that drove the Maori to the Maori King. Asa man is driven by rain or wind or cold into a house—it may he a hut of reeds, a house full of fleas, or ever so bad a house—still he will stay in it until a fine day shines forth, and then he will come out. Man should be led, rf you drive him it ' will not do. Look nt this, wns it by being driven 'that my Maori forms of worship were abandoned by ns? it was by being drawn into the practice of good works, and that is how I come to be in this beautiful house—the Church. Therefore address yourself to the evils ot the sellers by stealth of mj lands and cure these as a good work, from which I may see that Jon are roofing in a good house and that there is no deception intended, and then all will be well, (: e., let me clearly see that a proper lirt6 cf action is laid down in reference to land purchasing, and be clear there is no deception I or mistake about it). Address your effort's to your Treaty which has been lost by your trampling it under ground. Take it to Waitara and set it up there so that 1 may see that that troubled spot has been set at rest by means of thc treaty, and that William King has returned to liis Inntl, and then I shall know that lam protected by our joint treaty. For instance we have been endeavouring for a whole year to obtain an enquiry into the evils that led io the war. I thought my mother the Queen will surely hear of my being ill-treated, and will send out some one to look after me, so that I might have experienced the affection of my mother for • What tbe Governor really said wns,that ho would ns aoon think of interfering with the Wnikatos for setting up thoir Maori King, ns he would interfere with his own children who might be having a game of piny in his house. He would let them piny until they were tiro.i, nnd then they would leave oil of their own accord.

■lie, tlllitjs lor flu- Maori Gibes; so that I might jave bad. grounds fdr proclaiming her name, (i.e. *°r submitting to | ler oupremitey and placing myself tinder her protection.) That is our present ground of entn'plniiit (the refusal of cnqttii.v.) 1 lie principal topic of our Runanga lias been t'"| t "i l W'f'l nil< l good fellowship between ybu the I akelia and me the Maoii, and d-> you meet our regard with an equal measure, that is if you really have atty regard al all for us. I hat isjdl that this Runanga has to say, and we write it for you to see. If anything that we say is wrong, it is wrongly said openly before your _<tce, and it res's with you to ebndenin or approve

That is all. From the mouthpiece of the great meeting of Ngalikahtlhunu. From RSSATA TAf.IAKIHIKUBANoi.