Banquet lo the Native Minister.

Otago Witness, Issue 1640, 28 April 1883, Page 13

Banquet lo the Native Minister.

New Plymouth, April 25th. ■

The banquet last night to the Hon. Mr Bryce was very numerously attended, and it was past midnight before it came to a close. The Mayor presided. Mr Bryce spoke several times during the evening in replying to various toasts. In responding to that of his own health, he spoke for nearly three-quarters of an hour, defending the policy he had adopted in regard to Native affairs. The following are portions of his speech which were intended for the perusal of others outside those whom he was addressing. " The slanders," he said, " which have been poured uoon my conduct have neither been few nor small, from people who may consider they are doing a good service, but who are ready to slander everything done contrary to their wishes. There is no doubt that these people have done the country a great deal of injury. lam told that even important dignitaries of the church, and reI ligiouß and other people, who ought to know better than pursue the conduct they are pursuing, do not hesitate to slander that policy which has been beneficial alike to Europeans and Maoris. — (Applause.) These people, some of them at any rate, do not scruple to stig£ matise the actions of the Ministry as unjust and unrighteous. I havo been told that in a recent publication, which I have not seen, there are falsehoods told of the grossest kind respecting myself— namely, in a book which bears the ostentatious title of ' A History of New Zealand.' It asserts that during the war of 1869 I was virtually a murderer of Native women and children, and that is not a nice thing to say about a man. It is not nice to be dubbed a ' murderer.' Gentlemen, I am sure you know well how little I deserve such au epithet, and your cordial reception of me to-night proves it. — (Cheers ) I venture to say that none of you have ever heard of the murder I committed ; yet I have no doubt the author of that book considers himself better than other people. But I proclaim him a liar, a slanderer, and a coward. He thinks he has a right to smite his breast and thank God he is not as other men are. — (Cheers. . . . The Act of Amnesty was passed almost, by acclamation by bsth Houses of the Legislature. Of course the responsibility of making it general rested on the Government. That is a responsibility I did not desire to evade. . . Suppose, for instance, that the Act of Amnesty had been proclaimed for all Maoris, we will say, with the exception of Te Wetere and- Te Kooti. In reference to Tb Wetere, they would have been brought face to face with the fact that in 1878 he was entertained by Ministers ; he was appointed an assessor by the Government ; and ne was taken to Auckland, and passed the officers of justice without any action being taken to procure his arrest. How then was it possible to procure his arrest ? How then was it possible that he could have been excepted from the proclamation ? As for Te Kooti, he had held himself aloof. If he had thought fit to come in as Te Wetere had done, no doubt he would have been appointed an assessor also. ... In order to show why Te Kooti should not have been excepted from the proclamation, I may state that had he been excepted the proclamation, as far as the permanent settlement of the country was concerned, would have done more harm than good. There is no doubt that Te Kooti did not mean to be taken prisoner without resistance. I have no doubt he would have called his men to arms, and they would havo given us a great deal of trouble to beat them. Other dangers would have happened. Innocent settlers would have suffered ; new crimes would have been committed on the settlers. So far as I was concerned I could not have tolerated the idea. I was fully determined to oppose it. It would have done more harm than good. But, sir, it is said that at any rate I ought n»t to have shaken hands with Te Kooti. Well, I think, if I have drawn that reproach upon myself, it was done for the interest of the people. Where my public duty requires it, I have not been accustomed to consider myself. - (Applause.) I was determined before he -was pardoned at least that repentance should precede it, and further, that he should give me some assurance that his conduct would be good for the future. That was the reason I met him, that he should give me the assurance ; and I did it in the public interest. —(Applause.) Surely no one can suppose that I did it of my own inclination, unless he is a fool altogether ; but having gone there, and received this assurance from Te Kooti, was I to offend the whole body of Natives there? Was I to declare that the amnesty was a delusion by refusing to shake hands with him? Would it have been policy to have stultified the effects that the amnesty would produce ? Gentlemen, do to mistake. I can feel for the people who have had relatives and friends murdered. I have had the feeling myself, and I know that the feeling which is called a wild feeling for revenge is often fouuded on eternal justice ; and it is much that I can stand from such people. But that is not the quarter where the reproach comes from. The voice of these people has been silent. The reproach has come from partisans. Sir, I can excuse the reproach that comes from the friends of people who have been murdered; but the others I despise from the bottom of my heart. — (Applause.) Gentlemen, I will state now what it meant if the amnesty had not been made general. Let us suppose that Mr Hursthouse had gone through the country, and had been maltreated ; and let us suppose that Te Kooti had been excepted from the amnesty. What would havo been the result? I take it we would have found it a more serious affair than has happened. And now I am sure this very man, Te Kooti, is very anxious to give us no further trouble, and to submit himself to our laws. lam sure the Maoris are likely to protest against the Land Courts which are held in Cambridge. lam sure that the proceedings in the Courts have been delayed to a great extent, and the costs have amounted to a most excessive sum — so much so that the Maoris have, in some instances, got little or nothing for their land. What has been going on there is a disgrace to the Colony, and particularly to tho legal profession, which should look well to it. — (Applause.) The legal gentlemen ought to do it, for the honour of their profession is at stake. If they will not do ho, and the Supremo' Court cannot control, another power higher than that mil have to step in and do away

with what is objectionable. Of course I do not make any personal imputation boyoud this —that they cannot escape the disgrace that will be attached to them if such things aro often repeated at Cambridge as have happened in the past." In replying" to the toast of " The Ministry," Mr Bryce said in reference to Major Atkiuson's National Insurance scheme that although tho Major was a little premature - a century too soon, perhaps — yet a scherao for the relief of poverty something similar to the one proposed would, he believed, in time be generally adopted throughout the world. In proposing " The Mayor and Borough Council," Mr Bryce said that although a Wanganui man, still he was a New Zealand colonist, and the prosperity of one place was of as much interest to him as that of any other.

Mr Hursthouse, in responding to the toast, said that he was tinder a. debt of gratitude to the chiefs Te Wetere and Te Kooti, who, had they been European friends of his, could not have treated him in a more thoughtful and kindly manner when he was released from the fanatical Maoris who had tied him and Mr Newsham up. Major Biown, in replying for the Colonial Forces, said that Governor Gordon, knowing that he (Major Brown) had left the Colonial service as Native Commissioner, had sent an aide-de-camp to him in the hope of obtaining grounds to bear out the assertions made against the Ministry regarding the treatment of the Natives ; but ho had declined to satisfy him, for although ho (Major Brown) was ,a loyal subject of the Imperial authorities, yet ho considered that his loyalty was due to the Colony first.