The New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1879.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5544, 4 January 1879, Page 2

The New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1879.

“ Honorable Legislative Councillors and “ Gentlemen of the House of Ropresenta- “ tives,” said his Excellency the Governor on the 26th July last, “ I congratu- “ late you on the fact that peaceful rela- “ tions have at last been established “ with tho Waikato and Ngatimaniapoto “ tribes, . . . Papers on the subject

“ will be laid before you.” After the Assembly had been more than two months in session, papers were laid before the Houses of such a singular character that Mr. Rolleston is reported to have asked the Premier, on the 15th October — “ Whether the statements in the reports “of the Waikato and Waitara native “ meetings, contained in the Parliamen- “ tary Paper G 3 are authorised and “ authentic,” To this Sir George Grey replied “ that with regard to the authen- “ tioity of the statements in the papers he “ was really unable to speak. He could “ not take upon himself to say anything ‘‘ on that subject. He had merely looked “ at those parts which referred to con- “ versations between himself and leading “chiefs, and the reports of those con- ‘ ‘ veyed, as far as he could recollect, a “fair idea of what took place.” This was the mode in which the Governor’s promise was fulfilled, and information given to the representatives of the people, and this the evidence offered in support of the egotistical and untruthful suggestion that the personal influence of the Premier had in a few short months accomplished that for which his great predecessor Sir Donald McLean had been laboring for so many years, and that, “ at “last,” thanks to Sir (Jeorge Grey, the native trouble was ended. Such an assertion was felt to be ungenerous, as well as untruthful; it evoked a great deal of strong feeling and unfavorable comment on the Opposition side ; and, on the part of the Ministry, an impudent reiteration of their claim to the honor, and a bold demand for the applause of the House as an acknowledgement of the ability and tact which the Native Minister had displayed in dealing with the burning question of the confiscated lands in the Taranaki Provincial District, and notably with tho Waimate Plains. Time has been steadily exposing the falsity of the Ministerial statements, and throwing light upon the character of the relations between the Government and the Waikato and Maniapoto tribes, as well as on their dealings with Ngatiruanui and

others on the West Coast, and now “ at last” wo learn that a 'groat deal of public money has been wasted, that a great deal of fustian and nonsense has been talked and written, and that we are landed “ face to face” with a very serious native difficulty, out of which it may be found impossible to get quietly and with credit. We call attention to the letter of our correspondent in Waikato, which will be found in another place in our columns today, in evidence of what we have said. The facts of the case, as they now devolope themselves, are very different from the fanciful picture of them winch Ministers presented to the Assembly, and tho sad truth gives the lie direct to the boastful assertions of the Government, whether made by Ministers through the mouth of her

Majesty’s representative, or by themselves in their places, or through their subsidised organs amongst the newspapers of the colony. Now this is a subject not for party triumph, but for deep regret on public grounds. Whilst we may rejoice to see trickery and charlatanism exposed and the operators confused and put to shame, it is impossible not to feel that the interests of the whole colony, and of the people of both races have been imperilled by Sir George Grey's struggle to secure a party triumph by a series of coups de theatre, and kudos for himself at the expense of his predecessors in office. It is fortunate, we think, that in this conjuncture the King’s people have announced their determination to have no more of what Tukukino vulgarly, but happily, calls “ gammon,” of which there has been already enough and to spare, and we see the hope of better things in the prudence which Mr. Sheehan has recently displayed in avoiding Tb Whiti on the West Coast, and in abstaining from forcing the pace in Waikato. The walls of the Maori Jericho will not fall down, as we have so often said, before the ram’s horn trumpets of Sir George Grey and the Native Minister; neither will it bo recorded in the appendix of the second edition of Sir Gilbert Leigh that Mr. Bees’ hero had gained additional laurels in Maori diplomacy, and that the general rubbing of noses which the Premier had seen perhaps in one of his numberless “visions’’ had been brought about during his short tenure of Ministerial office by his own personal influence with the Maori people. It is more important that the peace of the Colony and its credit should be maintained than that Sir George Grey’s inordinate vanity should be gratified. Neither object will bo attained by perseverance in the present native “policy.” Sir George Grey talks glibly of the “rights” of the natives to an electoral franchise wider than that enjoyed by the Europeans who pay taxes, from which they are exempt, but ho wants to take away from them another right, that of dealing as they think fit with their lands, a right which was conceded to them long ago, which they now enjoy under the law, and which they are not disposed to surrender peacefully. The one right they do not understand and do not desire to possess; the other, that of dealing directly with their land, they do understand, and will stoutly maintain. It is announced that the scattered members of the Government are shortly to be united in Cabinet here ; those of them whom do not pretend to bo of the periti in native affairs cannot, wo think, close their eyes to facts, and as this is the question of the hour, the burning question, we may hope to find a policy devised in which the gratification of Sir George Grey’s personal vanity or of his hatred to individuals will be subordinated to considera. tions of public rights, of the credit of the Colony, and of the peaceful progress of settlement in the North Island. This is what the General Assembly will, we think, demand when it meets again, and “ dodging” will not evade it.