THE Otago Daily Times. DUNEDIN, MONDAY, JULY 27.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 2030, 27 July 1868, Page 4

THE Otago Daily Times. DUNEDIN, MONDAY, JULY 27.

Every Maori in New Zealand costs us nearly a pound, and what we get in return for the- outlay it would not be easy to say. Some of us are occasionally knocked on the heid ; all of us are taxed as no other colonists.in the world are taxed. We provide the Maoris with education when they are young, with medical attendance when they are sick; we furnish judicial establishments for the decision of their disputes, and religious services for the satisfaction of their souls. We recognise them as fellow-subjects of Her Majesty, and surround their lives and property with all the protecting terrors of the law. We anxiously avoid all occasions of quarrel ; and when a quarrel is forced upon us, we strive rather to make a peace than to gam a victory. Engaged in battle, we invariably call upon our opponents, like the French guard at Fontenoy, to fire first; while our prisoners of war are invariably allowed to escape. The page 3 of Universal History might be searched in vain for any parallel to this fastidious sense of justice on the part of a conquering race. The pages of our own English History afford no parallel, unless it be in that part of it which*narrates our dealings with the Hindoos and Kaffirs of the present day. Even there, the parallel fails ; because there has never been such perpetual aud such wanton aggression on the part of Hindoos or of Kaffirs as there has been on the part of our Maoris. Sir George Bowen, in one of his recently published Despatches, alludes to some point of resemblance between the native Irish in the early days of Ireland, and.the Natives of this country in the present day. But if we had followed, in our dealings with the Natives, the example set by our forefa',hers in their dealings with the native Irish, we should probably have been undisputed masters at the present moment of every inch of soil in the North Island. Possibly the Maori might have been known, like the Moa, ouly by his-bones. Yet the native Irish had infinitely higher claims to the consideration of their English )ords than the Maoris have upon us. Not only were they a civilised European people, but by their Celtic Wood they might hays claimed some degree of

relationship with tlieir iron-handed oppressors.

When Emerson was noting for publication the prominent characteristics of the English people, he might have aptly illustrated his remarks on their national sense of justice by a reference to our New Zealand history. The simple facts to which he might thus have called attention would certainly, have startled Continental critics. We know what impressions as to their national sense of justice have been left behind them by the French in Algeria, by the Austrians in Lombardy, by the Russians in Poland. Flattering aa the contrast may be to our feelings as Englishmen, we can hardly resist a suspicion that our doings with the Maoris represent an extreme just as much as the doings of the Continental Governments with conquered races. It is just possible, we are inclined to fancy, that we have laid ourselves open to the ridicule of Continental critics by our ex:cessive desire to be not only just, but benevolent and fatherly to our rebellious brethren. It looks as if we had studiously sought for opportunities to sacrifice ourselves in order to benefit the Maori; as iif we were one and all actuated by the zealous feelings of the Missionary, resolved to set an example of Christian meekness and self-forgetfulness to them that hate us and despitefully use us. It is rather ludicrous—a Continental critic might say —to observe the Prime Minister of the Colony setting up a plea for consideration with the Imperial Government on the ground that the Colony had sacrificed itself right and left in order to cultivate its savages. ' Notwithstanding the continued pressure of the heavy war expenditure, the Colony has expended and is expending very large sums for promoting the civilisation and education of the Native race,' —amounting to nearly three hundred thousand pounds during the last seven years ! Forty thousand pounds a year, on an average, expended for the Civilisation and education' of a race which is utterly useless to mankind from every point of view in which civilisation and education are valuable ! A race which has already cost us three millions of money to. defend ourselves from its murderous aggressions, might content itself with something less than forty thousand pounds a year, considering the variety of its ' pickings.' Sir George Bowen informs the Duke of Buckingham that 'a sum of £26,000 is annually paid as rent by the pastoral settlers tp about 200 families of a tribe in Hawke's Bay.' The chiefs of this unfortunate tribe 'are thus enabled to live in comfortable bouses built in the English fashion, and to drive in English carriages about their well cultivated farms. They have erected a Maori Club at Napier as their place of meeting when they visit that town.' Here are the amounts expended for the civilisation and education of some 38,000 Maoris during the last seven years :— 1861 £17.098 18 9 18 '.2 ... ... 24,723 0 4 1563 ... ...-,»■■ 57,021 13 1 1864 52,959 3 2 1865 ... ... 60,552 7 0 1866 ... ... 49,547 19 0 1867 34,132 7 6 £296,035 8 10 The three hundred thousand pounds having been spent, we are entitled to ask for the results. Has the money been productively spent, as the economists say,— or has it been simply sunk ? Such a sum ought to go a very long way in civilising and educating any race that is really capable of being either civilised or educated. There are few countries in the world in which a pound ahead is laid out for the purpose of cultivating the masses. Fortunately we have some means of answering the question in no indefinite manner. Various Resident Magistrates in the Native Districts of the North have recently furnished Sir George Bowen with their opinions as to the moral and social condition of the Maoris at the present time ; these opinions being the result of long practical experience among the Natives. We find little evidence here to encourage any notion that the Maoris are gradually rising in the scale of civilisation: on the contrary, the impression left upon us by the representations of these Officials is, that the Maoris are gradually sinking. The Resident Magistrate afc Russell, in the Bay of Islands, says:—

There are in this neighborhood but few children to educate, and th* Natives by no means now place the value upon its benefits which they used to do. Fducation in their own Kaingas (villages) I look upon as futile. Children wiU be sent to school when parents lik« or they themselves choose to go, and maintpnance of regularity or discipline is impracticable. At the Church Mission School recently established at Waimate, when a demand of £1 a-year frorathe parents of the younger boys was made for the purpose of providing suitable clothing, although the children -were well fed. taught,, and clad, every boy (some 30 or 40) was withdrawn from the school.

I am afraid that even edueationhasits disadvantages as well as its blessings. The girls educated at the old W'aiimte Mission School, though they even> now continue to be tidier and cleanlier than their untaught sisters, have not proved more virtuous. Several of the boys brought up afc St. John's Collegehave distinguished themselves by taking a prominentparbontherebelsideinthelate war, thus displaying their gratitude for our exertions on their behalf;

The Resident Magistrate at Napier says:—

I am sorry I cannot say much that is favorable of thair moral condition. They are obedient to the law, and crimes of a serious nature are extremely rare. Murder, highway robbery, arson, are never heard of, aud rape scarcely ever. But they are lazy and untruthfnl to a decree; of commercial' morality they have lost aU they ever had, petty lareesy is ecmmon, horse*sfcea!i»g a

matter of every day occurrence. Morality as regards the sexes is almost gone from among them ; and drunkenness has within the last three or four years increased to an extent simply awful to contemplate. Education is hardly thought of, and, with rare exceptions, the children are growing up unable to read and write ; presenting in this respect a marked contrast to their parents, who almost without exception can read, j write, and cypher with fluency. j Their religious convictions, never very strong or sincere, have now almost entirely j evaporated. True, they generally attend i worship to a certain extent on Sundays since j they abandoned Hauhauism, but they think j very little of tho matter, and the outward semblance of devotion does not survive the j departure of the Missionary, whilst * Sabbath j observance,' for which they used once to be ! famous, has now quite gone out of fashion. Of course, there are exceptions to the above rules, but every unprejudiced observer will admit that they are all but universally applicable.

It would be useless to multiply extracts of the same character. Our readers may content themselves with those we have given as specimens of the whole: and with such evidence before them, they will probably feel disposed to doubt whether our annual expenditure for the purpose of civilising and educating the Maori is a very productive one. Their reflections on the subject will be sharpened by the knowledge that, in the words of His Excellency, 'to support this burden, and the ordinary expenditure of the Government, the taxation of New.Zealand averages above £6 per head of the existing population.'

We understand that the recommendations made by the late Goldfields Commission as to the re-arrangement of districts, ha^e been carried out; and that the Otago Goldfields are now divided into five Wardens' districts, instead of eight. Of course, the Commission had nothing to say as to the. officers to be retained: as to that point;, there has been correspondence between the Provincial and the Colonial Executives. We believe that the new arrangements as to Wardens and districts are as follow :—Tuapeka, Mr L. Simpson; Switzers j and Mount Benger, Mr J. N. Wood; Clyde and Blacks, Mr H. W. Robinson; Mount | Ida, Mr L. Broad ; The Lakes, Mr Beetham. To the three gentlemen who have ceased to be Wardens, some compensation has been given; but we have not heard the details.

A meeting of the Directors of the Caledonian Society of Otago will be held at Wain's Hotel, to-morrow evening.

Mr Governor Caldwell's return of the state of Dunedin Gaol for the week ending yesterday, is as follows: —Prisoners awaiting trial, 9 men, 1 woman; under sentence of penal servitude, 15 men; hard labour, 67 men, 12 women ; confined in default of bail, 4 men ; debtors, 11 men—Total, 106 men, 13 women. During the week 17 men and 2 women were discharged, and 28 men and 3

women received.

The Polytechnic Hall was nearly filled on Saturday evening ; and the performances, so far as we saw them, gave great satisfaction. —For this evening, "A Fair Pretender," " Two Gentlemen in a Fix," and "The Area Belle," are announced.

A requisition has been presented to Mr Frank Mansfield, asking him to allow himself to be nominated for the office of Councillor for Bell Ward, vacant by the retirement of Mr Bagley.; and Mr Mansfield has consented to stand. Mr Paul Fredric is also a candidate.

The Carandini Company gave their concluding concert at the Princess Theatre, on Saturday evening. There was a good house, the dress-circle being very well attended. There was a good deal of enthusiasm, shown in encoring songs ; and the concert was a pleasant one.—The menbers of the Company left yesterday, on board the Airedale, we believe.

A man named Henry Mahen, hanged himself yesterday morning, at the Universal Hotel, Maclaggan street. Mahen was staying at the public house, and at one o'clock yesterday morning, he was lying on a sofa in the dining-room, where he had been in the habit of sleeping, as he was not able to pay for a bed. At seven o'clock, the landlord found the poor fellow hanging by apiece of thin cord, which had be-n knotted to the balusters of the stairs. He was quite dead.—The deceased was about 50 years of age, and a native of Jersey. He was sober, when he was last seen alive; but during the last two months, he was three times in custody for drunkenness.

Preparations are being made for ing on the ground cleared by the late fire ; and, probably, the premises first commenced will be those for Mr G. Duncan, Messrs Webb, Russell, and Co, and Mr G. Dowse. Mr Duncan does not intend to erect a new Horse Sale Yard ; but Messrs Reany, Williams, and Co. still carry on their livery stable business, the stables being ' on ground belonging to Mr Cantrell,. on the High street side of the space. The three stores or shops-referred to will^ we beheve, be erected iiba uniform style, from designs by Mr E. J. Sanders. They will be of but one storey, but the front elevation wiU be 18ft 6in high, and a Doric entablature, with a modilhm cornice, and some well-, contrived ornamental details, will make it fairly effective. Messrs Webb, Russell, & Co's store wiR be rebuilt for Mr Finch. It wiU have a 21ft frontage to Rattray street, and a depth of 60ft. Mr DuncanJs shop and office, which will adjoin, will have a frontage of 24ft. or 25ft.. and a depth of 30ft., as wiU also the shop of Mr G. Dowse* But between these two, there will be a 12ft. wide gate or archway, giving access to a grain store, 30ft, deep, and extending across the width of the two shops and the gateway, whicli Mr Dun- j can proposes to erect from a plan of his own. i Thus, where the entrance to th& Commercial I Sale if ard was, the entrance to the grain store will be. Over the gateway, there wiR be an arch, supported by lonic pilasters, and filled in ornamentally. After the erection of the grain store, Mr Duncan will still have some of his land unoccupied.

The fiDyttdton Times- of Tuesday, referring to the flood inthe, Waikamairiri, says: "It would appear from Mr Lookyer's report, on the overflow o| Saturday last, that although

the fresh in the rive? Wag by no me&M » . large one, yet it overtopped the lower em*- | bankment, and found a fresh outlet some j considerable distance below any of the old J points of overflow. The river, we arein- ' formed, commenced to rise at 5 a.m.; and by j 10 o'clock was level with the lower part of the embankment. When Mr Lockyer arrived",, j it had commenced to trickle over in one ot- ! two places, and he at once set men to' work: ito increase the height of the. banks | where required. Fortunately, noafi& of : the earthwork gave way, and this maybe regarded as a most satisfactory practical proof" the resistance afforded by shingle em--"bankments. The river gave no signs of subsiding until 5 p.m., and long before this the stream had overflowed below M'Lean's homestead, whence it made its way acrosa the short space of intervening ground into the river Styx and thence to the sea. Ih consequents of this influx of water the Styar overflowed at several places, being some inches in depth on the North road, and withint about nine inches of the flooring of Trelea- ! yen's flour mill. Happily no damage was done to public or private property. On Sunday Messrs Thornton and Triphook examinded the new point of the overflow to~ | getherwith the course it had taken, and no doubt prompt measures will be adopted by the Government for obviating all danger. Ifc should be explained that up to the present time the Engineer's attention has been directed by the Government to the river bank - between the upper and lower embankments^ and that the place where the riyer has now broken out was not under his immediate supervision, neither had it given any indications of danger at the date of Dr Hector's. visit. Previous to the overflow, men were increasing the height of the lower embankment, which, when completed, willbe eightef a inches higher than at present."

The Lyttelton Times of the 23rd, says : *c Mr J. L. Hall has written to au acquaintance in Christchurch, relative to the Thamea diggings. In his letter he gives a most encouraging account of the field; states that? he has been on Hunt's claim, and wasr astonished on beholding the extreme richness^ of the stone. Mr Hall has been on most of the diggings in Australia ; and after noting this fact, he assures his friend that the Thames diggings are the richest that he has ever visited. Another private letter contains the following: * The Thames goldfield. ia nearly certain to be one of the richest, as ay quartz field, ever discovered in the world. There is no exaggerrtion in the reports of therichness of the deposits. The Melbourne firms are sending over crushing machinery, which will be a great boon to the diggers, their present appliances being -very indifferent. Everybody is in high glee aboufc the Thames, and if they continue to strike gold as they are doing now the North wilL completely outstrip the South this summer.' 1

At the Mechanics' Institute, Port Chalmers, a lecture on " Books" will be delivered by the Rev. W. Johnstone, M. A., to-morrow** evening.

From the WeUington Inclependmt we getr the following information respecting the Road Boards Bill. The necessity for the country having opportunity for expressing an opinion upon it before it 3 becoming law is apparent:— *' The Road B-ards Bill ia likely to give as much difficulty as the memorable Local Self-Government Bill of last year. Notwithstanding that considerable pains have been taken to make ita object plain and its working simple, no lesa than two hundred and fifty-eight clauses have- been found necessary to explain ita meaning and regulate its operation. Tbere are at present iaseveral Provinces Road. Boards in full working, which have accomplished at a great deal of good. That such bodies constitute the germs of local self-governments cannot be denied; but it would seem as though they were suspected of acquiring a* dangerous local influence^ and, therefore, ifc became necessary that the Government should provide for them the means of discord. There would almost appear to be in Newr Zealand two codes of laws, of which the purposes are competitive. Why should it be necessary to establish Road Boards when the Provinces have already taken the initiative, unlesstoaffordnewopportuuitiesforlitigatiott. and confusion. The interpretation clause contains no less than fourteen, subdivisions'. The districts may be-constituied by not lesa than ten of the rateable inhabitans of any original district {the word," original" means anydistrict already, existing under the Highways Acts, Road Ordinances of Auckland, Taranaki, Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago>signing.a petition to the Governor ; and. if within two.months a-counter petition should not be sent in, it shall be lawful for thei Governor, by proclamation^ to .constitute a» road district under this act. No pro-~ ceeding could be more favorable to local! contention than is. legalised by this Bill, assuming there is anything, worth contend-. ing for ; and'where thare- ia anything to befought for, this- act giveß the incentive* for mutual exhaustion. If it were the object of tbe Government to givfe local facilities., for rosdi-making, without? having, any design to. weaken Provj»<aa!L institutions, there was, & nearer as well: as at more acceptable choice, o? means. Thet desire, however; to weaken the Provinces affords sufficient inducement tocreatedivisaoa amongst their inhabitants. Ten malcontents have the power of giving motion to the. most cumbrous machinery of legislation* or drive a political Juggernaut over the bodies; of more quiet and; less demonstrative; subjects. Mr Stafford was good enough to-point oufc that the administration of the Act was to be given to Superintendents of Provinces; but Superintendents of Provinces, may find ifc | more agreeable to do without,the Act, while those restless creatures who swarm about the throne of little Pedlington may find ai* abiding pleasure in giving annoyance. Inv either case the result will be the same* There is not much to say of the regulations framed by the Act; each and all of then* ■provide a new element of diversion, and. consequently of ultimate litigation. Leaaedt lands of tbe Crown are to be rated ; but th^ clause is by no means so explicit as to indicate -what will he its effect in cases wheret questions of dispute may arise. When the Premier introduced the Bill, he was eloquent upon the additional powers given to the Superintendents ; but the annoyances not provided for are abundant in the diffuseness aad great elasticity of the language and provisions. The responsible minister is to have, supervision of the working of the act % and he shall have power to appoint one of rowe persons to &&&9 direct SBC?*.

inquiries as he may think fit relating thereto. If the powers to be given to Superintendents were intended to be increased, it is not easy to see the necessity for the supervision by the responsible minister in Wellington or the appointment of inquisitors to report upon internal management. The provisions for rating, for extending the operation of tbe act beyond boundaries (hitherto not provided for), are of the ordinary kind, and being matters of detail, cab only be dealt with in committee. But the effect of this Bill will not be to extend local self government, but transfer whatever lecal self-government at present exists to the General Government. The determination of the responsible minister is the ultima ratio of the whole bill. There is absolutely no aid given to existing boards ; and the only case in which the act can be worked is where there have been no boards hitherto. The features of this discover the unalterable desire of the Government to weaken every kind of authority under the Constitution of which they are not the centre and the source. It may be that the Provinces will not accept this Bill. It is plausible, if not very intelligible in all its parts. It is the answer to a cry that has pervaded the country for some time. But its effect must be to weaken the Provinces still further ; for though the administration is alleged to be giveu to Superintendents of Provinces, there is a controlling power in the hands of a minister wbich can at any moment neutralise their authority."