THE DEFENCE MINISTER, SIR DONALD MCLEAN.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4177, 10 August 1874, Page 3

THE DEFENCE MINISTER, SIR DONALD MCLEAN.

The latest telegraphic news from England contains one item of intelligence which will be gratifying to the .colonists of New Zealand generally, inasmuch as it conveys intimation of a well-deserved honor having been conferred upon a good and faithful servant to the country, the H<sh. the Minister for Native Affairs. Already a companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, the Hon. Donald McLean has been raised to the higher grade of Knight Commander of : that most distinguished order, as a special mark ' of his Sovereign’s approval of the manner' in which, as member of the present Ministry, he has aided in’ preserving peace in the Colony, and in promoting friendly relationship between its European and N ative inhabitants. There is, perhaps, no man in the Australasian Colonies upon whom suchhonor oouldhavebeenmore justly conferred; throughout his life as a colonist, and especially during his tenure of office as Defence Minister, Mr. McLean has been to the Colony and to the Crown of greater service than might have been the expenditure of millions and the presence of an armed host ; and upon his elevation to the dignity of Knight, he will, no doubt; be congratulated by his fellow Ministers, by the members of both Houses of Assembly, and by the people of the Colony generally. Of the character of Sir’ D. ‘McLean’s services in the ■past,’a'fair estimate may be formed from the following, which we- are ’ able opportunely to quote from the Otago ■: Daily Times, in the columns of which journal there has lately appeared a series of “ Political Portraits" from the pfcn of a writer /who possesses l peculiar acquaintance with his subject, and deals with it in a style which .is rare in the columns of the Colonial Press :—, , ,on: Though it is of comparatively late years that the name of Donald 1 McLean, alone has been sufficient, like the whisper of , Cccur-de-Lion’s name, to quell the pukiugs and wailings qf would-be Native critics, he lias . hot sprung all of a sudden on to the stage. Almost from the beginning we-find his name on’ the rolls of the Native Department, picking;up- the first of those ideas and conceptions of the future of the Maoris, what it might be made, and what it might be made again, which he has’since, after many years, assimilated pnto a powerful whole. So far back as 1857, which we can. call to,mind at the moment, his name, appears as the Native Secretary, and even, at, that early time commanding the respect and admiration of the dusky nation whoso , affairs ho had all control of, and which he administered with a blunt straightforwardness which covered the many defects ,that experience had yet to correct. Then wo meet him as Chief Land Commissioner, where his clear views of the nature of land tenure, and his power of separating those principles which are very well in the matter of a land transfer or change of land laws inn long established and civilised community, but whichare useless and out of place in so intricate a question at that of the Maori land, from the consideration of a disputed claim, caused him to bo looked to as a soilnd authority on all land disputes, where the true perception of the Maori interpretation was often the essential of n peaceful settlement. Passing over the intervening years up to recent times, wo find that in all the important places which Mr. McLean filled, he was gradually working himself more clearly before the Maori mind, until at last the Natives began to look upon him as indispensable in securing to them their rights, and in

advocating their cause, as he was determined to do even justice hy Maori and Pakeha. There were, in the days whexx we doated on Mayhe Reid, and slept with oxxr finger and thumb betxveen the leaves of Eennimoi'e Cooper, a class of persons whom these fascinating writers called “ renegades ” —white men, as far as we can recollect—who, on an average, scalped ten times as many foes as the bravest Indian chief, and were more Ixxdians than the Indians themselves. That is where the shoe pinches in the policy of most of the px-eceding Native Ministers. Some were too much Pakehas; some were too much Maoris — renegades, if we abolish the objectionable half of the word’s meaning. It is here that Mr. McLean diffex-s from them all. He is a Pakeha-Maori and a Maori-Pakeha ; and he is equally just, fail-, and trxxe to one race as to the other’. So the Maoxis came to look up to him ; but they found that, if they had an advocate of their rights, they had no less a judge of their wrongs, and one who would not palliate any open act of rebellion or disaffection. Far the greater part of Mr. McLean’s X’eputation and status is due to that one quality, or rather that combination of many qualities, which we call firmness. His wide experience of men and things, manners and customs, ways axxd means, enables him always to catch the real meaning and tendency of a speech or dispute, and his naturally shx-ewd Scotch intelligence combined with this faoxxlty enables him to decide rapidly and surely where hesitation would be fatal. Once made up in his mind, the Scotch side of his ehax-aoter again comes ixx ; for though anything but bigoted and set against conviction, his decision is hacked up by an intuitive feeling which a great deal would be needed to shake, that “ I’m varra ■ weel near rioht, ye ken.” He has had no wavering or vacillation in his treatment of the Natives, No blanketclad miser of a Ngatiaxva or Ngatiporou ever came whining to him to get back his land for himself, his heirs, and assigns, for nothing, and got it; and no cunning Maori chief ever tried to sell his land twice, when the Native Minister had an inkling of what was goixxg on, and sold it. Thwarted , sometimes in their most cherished schemes, and forced almost against their own convictions to submit to the firm, strong pressure of a sxxperior mind, it was not unnatural that enemies should have been made in some quarters. But as a rxxle, time put things in another light, and amicable relations were restored. The one same, ixxvariable, unchangiug policy which he adopted, had an attraction for the will-o’-the-wisp Maox-i and exerted an influence over him of which he was to a great degree insensible himself ; and so on the basis of strict impartiality, Mr. McLean bvxilt for himself among both Maoris and whites an equal approbation and confidence, which recent events have only strengthened. The last, the saddest and severest of all oxxr Native sti’uggles, a contest with fiends and devils incarnate rather than with human beings, stained with treachery, massacres, the blood of resistless women, and of tender infants, and adorned with the names of many brave dead in a warfare of snares and toils instead of manoeuvres and battlefields, called for all the energy and all the mind power to check its hideous course, and none but the force of a stx-ong and active mind could have fronted the danger successfully. It was foxxnd in Mr. McLean ; blunders there xvere, but the course of murder and rapine was stayed by careful planning and judicious negotiation, and the cessation of war in the land is to a great extent attributable to him. Of his popularity and influence over the peaceful tribes, their willing axxd valuable bush service against their own race on behalf of a strange people abundantly testifies. Friendlies we had had in our ranks before the days of Mr. McLean, but hardly anyone will deny that the aid of the Arawas and other friendlies and loyal Natives against- Tito Kowaru, the man with the nine lives, and Te Kooti, the xxbiquitous murderer, was given rather to Mr. McLean than" to the Pakehas generally. When that series of battles was over, a peace descended upon the land, which has happily not yet been broken, but which is rather receiving more and. more consolidation as time goes on. Many are disposed to say ; Peace, peace, when there is no peace ; to say ; What and where are the functions of the Native Minister ? to say : Why do we sweat and toil to keep an ornamental standing army of 700 paid men ? But take the office of Native Minister away —abolish the Aimed Constabulary—and leave the Maoxis to play once more, unmolested, with , their toy-king ; or, in a word, remove Mr. McLean, and it would requxi’e a wisdom which it would be foolish to say all our legislatox-s possess, to keep things straight. It is not: that Mr. McLean is the cleverest man in the House or the Government; there are others who have quite as much, if not mox-e, ability than he ; but he is, as it were, wedded to the position he fills, and anybody else would at the present time find it very difficult to fit his foot to the Native Minister’s slipper.That the great services rendered by Mr. McLean have not been unrecognised at Home, is evinced by the fact that he wears the badge of the Companionship of St. Michael and St. George, like his colleague' the Premier ; and the speculative say that it. will not - be. long before both .the Premier and the Native Minister are raised to a higher degree than mere companions j a dignity xvhiclx they well deserve,, and- which they would wear becomingly after their eminent services. What Mr. McLean has done in more recent times is well known to those who read the newspapers’and Hansard. _ For one mouth in 1872 he vacated the office he had filled since Mr, Vogel’s accession to power, but the i retirement of Mr. Stafford’s Government caused him once more to become the head of the Native Department; and, though occasional murmurs are heard about the expense of this'branch, of the Government,' the majority of people ai’o quite willing .--to leave .the abolition -of the Armed Constabulary, which .may -ho taken as a sample of- the kind of grievance alluded to, to the good time and discretion of Mr.- McLean. Native matters are running smooth and unruffled under his management; and all feai’S of. future war and Native troubles : are fast vanishing fi'om the catalogue of possibilities. . Meanwhile, thex-e ■ is no idleness itx the camp. Mr. McLean has a keen perception mf the ameliorating effects of ; education and civilising arts - upon a rude people; and, under his guidance a. .series: of. Statutes, has been passed to better the condition of the Maori generally. It is' in the peaceful, arts he is, using- now, :no less tlxah'fov.the firmness of his operations in; the. time-of .war, that Mi’. ■McLean deserves,,and has earned, as a Native Minister, the sincere respect and ; esteem. of both-the -Maori and pakeha. ’