New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4239, 21 October 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1874.

Thebe is a feature in the management of Native affairs, since 1809, which is not the less important because it has not been "enorally noticed. We refer to the union of the Defence and Native Department under one head. Up to 1869, when Mr. Fox took office, with Mr. Donald McLean in charge of Native affairs, the Defence Office was independent of the Native Department. In fact, our departmental system was modelled as nearly as possible after the Imperial pattern. New Zealand had its War, or Defence Office, and its Native or Foreign Office ; and many and frequent were the conflicts between the two. The intelligent diplomacy of the latter was often rendered abortive by the policy of brute force adopted by the former. There was no unity of purpose ; —no attempt to combine the forces at the disposal of the departmental chiefs, for the single and

necessary duty of pacifying the country. The Defence Minister was invariably a believer in repressive measures ; the Native Minister was usually of a pacific turn of mind, and endeavored to allay, as much as possible, the irritation of the Maori people. But as the former had the means of keeping the game afoot, and lost no opportunity for play, the Native Minister gradually came to be looked upon as a useless appendage to the Government. “What has he to do ?” was a frequent, and not unreasonable inquiry, in tho dark days of misrule to which we refer: “What are the Native Minister’s “ duties, now that we are at war with the “ Maoris, and shall continue the struggle “ until we civilize them off the face of “ the earth ?” A difficult question to answer truly, and one that was practically left unanswered until 1869, when Mr. Fox’s Government was formed, and the warlike traditions of the past were wholly ignored by the man, of all others, most capable of dealing with the difficult problem before the country, namely, how to subdue the Natives without incessant fighting, and yet retain all the advantages which "our race-superiority enabled us to obtain, in peace and war, up to that period. Very wisely, we think, tho Native Minister made it a condition that he should also have the control of the War department, and with equal wisdom, his colleagues acceded to his request. The Native Minister was no longer a cypher, pushed into the back-ground by the Minister for War. He took his rightful position, and in a remarkably short period of time indeed, had so far restored the country to its normal state that the Defence Office, as a distinct department, and the Defence Minister, as a political chief, have together disappeared. But capable as the Native Minister is, and eminently successful as he has undoubtedly been, we question very- much whether he could have accomplished what he has done if the former departmental arrangement had been continued. The new Defence Minister, whatever his personal feelings might have been, would very speedily have drifted into the traditional policy of the Office; —a policy which may bo likened to the preaching of a very earnest Waikato missionary, as described by an observant Maori disciple— “all blister and no oil.” He would have had no alternative but to fight. It was tho business of his department. It was created for that purpose. It had at its disposal a largo force of armed men, for whom it was necessary to find employment. Tito Kowaru was in hiding on tho West Coast; Tb Kooti was still at large, and the Poverty Bay massacre unavenged. Reports would have poured in from all quarters, in which the “ threatening movements of the “ enemy” would have been minutely recorded. No man could have resisted such pressure upon him. He must do something to save the colony. He would stand on the defensive, most likely, by carrying the war into the enemy’s country. But by the new arrangement, the control of tho New Zealand army was given to the Native Minister, a man profoundly versed in Maori usage, who interpreted the war correspondence of the one department by tho reports of his Native agents in the other. The result was soon apparent. War ceased, money was saved, the Maori people were reconciled to us, roads were mads into the interior, in every direction settlement was extended, life and property became safe, and the reign of law began. We think it right to bring these facts prominently before the public, and to trace them to their true source the political sagacity and administrative talent of Sir Donald McLean. He has still a great deal of work to do before he can retire upon his laurels ; hut from our knowledge of what he has done in the past, we may safely trust him to do the right thing in the future.