THE PALL MALL GAZETTE AND THE MAORI KING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 3764, 28 February 1874, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE PALL MALL GAZETTE AND THE MAORI KING.

. . — : ■-«f^ : The Pall Mall Gazette of December 24th says> :— ■; '■ There are few persons more difficult to deal with than an unsociable monarch. When an ordinary person is afflicted with a fit of the "gliimps," he lias .generally a number of kind friends who delight in poking him in the ribs and saying, " Cheer up, old boy," and in otherwise trying to restore him to a proper state of light-heartedness ; but with a king or an emperor the matter is entirely different. No one- dares to take the liberty of chasing away the clouds that obscure his august presence, and all that can bo done is to leave him alone until such time as it shall please his Majesty to shed the sunshine of his smiles onoe more on his fellow-creatures. This policy has, it soema, been sucoessfully pursued in the case of the Maori King in New Zealand, where, aocording to the Melbourne Argus, Native affairs have lately assumed quite a new aspect. For years past it has been the object of tho Government to withdraw the King from tho state of sullen isolation in which he dwelt. On one occasion Governor Bowen was kept shooting in the. Waikato in tho hope that tho King might be induced to nieet him. The Native Minister has at various times, but always unsuccessfully, sought an interview. All his emissaries have been similarly repulsed. A few weeks ago, however, the startling intelligence was received that tho King had voluntarily viaited the frontier town of Alexandra, and walked about the settlement, stayed all night at the houao of a settler named Morgan, expressed himself in tho most friendly way towards Pakehas generally, appeared much pleased by his having visited tho placo without being known, and had quietly returned to his own people, after promising shortly to give a groat feast to which the Pakehas should be invited. Ifc is almost impossible to overrate the importance, of. this event; and it is considered that the Maori difficulty will be practically at end if the isolation of the King ia overcome, and friendly arid intimate relations established with His1 Majesty,