The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1881.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 6439, 2 December 1881, Page 4

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1881.

Whatever may be the construction placed by a small section of the colonial Press on the Native policy of tbe Government, and the action recently taken at Parihaka, it will, we think, be well understood in the Home country that the measures adopted by Ministers are quite within the bounds of legal enactment, and meet with the universal approval and sanction of the people of the colony. It has bnen asserted by a Southern journal that before the Proclamation to Te Whiti and his people was prepared, some of the members of the Ministry were informed that the Governor, then absent in Fiji, would soon be in New Zealand, and that thereupon arose a flutter of excitement. A Cabinet was suddenly summoned, and everything was hurried to get the Proclamation out and signed by the Acting-Governor before His Escel-

lency Sir Arthur Gordon arrived. This is sheer slander—a device of the enemy, which defeats its own intent, and carries its own refutation. The slanderer has forgotten that there is no cable communication between New Zealand and Fiji, and that none could

know of Sir Arthur Gordon’s intended return until the vessel bringing him had reached port. In point of fact, his arrival, or non-arrival, at any particular period c#uld have had no influence on the action of the Government. Te Whiti had received final intimation of the determination of the Government, the Hon. Native Minister had returned from interviewing him, to report the non-success of his pacific mission, and the Ministry, having given Te Whiti ample time to consider the position, issued the Proclamation, which, still disregarded by the Natives, led to the final resolve to make an armed demonstration against them, leadingto results whichnoamoumt of mere verbal negotiation could have effected. The Government have had the sympathy of the people in the suppression of the Parihaka difficulty and in dispersing the Natives, among whom a few deluding and self-deluded leaders had fomented disaffection. As the Hon. W. Eolleston stated to the Papanui electors a few days ago:— “They have had to take abnormal action to meet an abnormal state of things, and they have had expressions of sympathy, not merely from people on their own side and following. The question has been divested of party feeling, and has been acknowledged to bo a national one; and every encouragement has been held out to the Government to deal strongly and firmly with the difficulty as they have done.” As to the question raised about the right of the Government to take the land of the Natives, and which has been dealt with as if the confiscation were altogether a new procedure, Mr Eolleston made explanation which, in repeating, will enable us to put concisely before Home readers a point on which there should be no misconception. His explanation is this: —

After the Waitara war, the whole coast was declared a district open for military settlers. It was a district proclaimed in the same way as the Waikato. That was in the month of January, 1865 ; but the whole of the country was not confiscated, but only declared a district within which blocks of land might be taken or confiscated for the purpose of military settlement. When Mr Weld’s Government had been in office for a little time, they found that the Natives were returning, and that consequently the question of title would become very much confused, and the prospect of the settling of the country was getting more and more complicated. They therefore determined to confiscate the whole —to make the whole district Crown land, and then to grant back from the Queen to the loyal Natives, and also to the rebels who came in, so as to make them live upon these lands under a Crown grant. Tbe principle upon which this was done was laid down in the peace proclamation, which was issued in the year 1865 :—“ Out of the lands which have been confiscated in the Waikato, and at Taranaki and Ngatiruanui, the Governor will at once restore considerable quantities to those of the Natives who wish to settle down upon the lands, to hold them under Crown grants, and to live under the protection of the law. For this purpose Commissioners will be sent forthwith into the Waikato and the country about Taranaki, and between that place and Wanganui, who will put the Natives who may desire it upon lauds at once, and will mark out the boundaries of the blocks which they are to occupy. Those who do not come in at once to claim the benefit of this arrangement, must expect to be excluded.”

In the instructions given to the Commissioner appointed to set out these blocks of land, it was expressly shown that the Government had thoroughly determined to wipe out the whole Native title to the land in question, and to return to the tribes nothing more than they could from time to time profitably occupy; but in the instructions issued appears this passage:—•

The Government feel that the matter of first importance to the permanent pacification of the country is to induce the Natives finally to accept the fact that the laud is coufiscated, and to consent to hold what is now returned to them under Crown grant. To attain this end the Government would sanction a far more liberal disposition of land to the Natives than would on other considerations be desirable.

It will be thus understood that the Natives recently giving so much trouble have all along known that they have been occupying confiscated land; and that, in reality, the power of ejectment recently exercised might have been exercised at any time within the last fifteen years. Eemembering that one of the first acts of the present Government was to appoint a Commission to remove the disability under which certain of the Native tribes thus suffered, and to settle the question of the apportionment of lands on the "West Coast, the refusal of Te Whiti and his following to listen to any overtures for fair settlement, and the rejection of all offers made, appear the more flagrant, especially when, as Mr Eolleston puts it, lands to the value of something like a million of money were apportioned by the Government to a number of Natives, not exceeding 3000 ; and the settlement of the European would have given value to the land which it never otherwise would have had, making the endowment worth something like £IOO,OOO a-year. As usual where disaffection and discontent prevail, while some willingly accept terms the chief agitators and malcontents are those who have no just claims to advance. The Natives dispersed from Parihaka were, in the eyes of the law, a mere assemblage of disorderly person*.