Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Teller. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 663, 29 March 1879, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Teller. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 1879.

Our telegrams of yesterday, with regard to the Waimate affair, would lead us to expect considerable difficulty in avoiding a disturbance. The Native and Defence Minister is placed in a most unenviable position. If his policy is to be conciliatory; if he allows expediency to become perceptibly an ingredient therein, he will certainly be attacked as a Philo-Maori, and be called a temporizer. If, on the other hand, his puts his foot down firmly, and hostilities ensue, it will be said , that he has endangered the peace of the colony ; that he has plunged us into war, and that it would have been much wiser to have spent a few thousands for th6 sake of peace. Let what will be the outcome of the present state of matters, whether it be war or peace, he will alike be complained against. If peace be continued, there will be the outcry of the party who think any pretext should be taken to quarrel with the natives, and obtain by the sword that which cannot be got by purchase, or otherwise j those whose motto, with regard to the acquisition of native lands, is " recte si postint, si non, quocunque modo." If a war, unavoidable by him, should break out ; there will be no end to the cry of the " peace-at-any-price" party ; those miserable advocates of the expediency policy, regardless alike _ whether it entails injustice to the native, or (through the Treasury cofierß,) to the European. "We are not thoroughly acquainted with the details of the present collision, and, for the purposes of this article, it. is not essential that we should be so. "We presume that it is the old story of a right, or a supposed right, to the land in question. Now this question of a right or a supposed light to land, jealously guarded by the European, inasmuch as it is placed out of the jurisdiction of most of our Courts, is, with the native, an extremely ticklish and delicate question, frequently leading amongst themselves to bloodshed and

fighting of a very virulent and obstinate nature ; and we can well understand that it should more rapidly do so in cases in whlcli Enropeans, and not the actual owners of the soil, are parties to the dispute. In all cases in which disputed titles to land have led to fighting, and we think we are right in saying that almost every New Zealand war has been directly or indirectly caused thereby ; we believe that hostilities might have been either averted ; or much reduced, and abbreviated, by a timely and patient enquiry into the causes which led to the first act of aggression. We are decided adherents to the maxim " suaviter in modo, fortiter in re," and it is seldom more applicable than to disputes of the present nature, The natives must be patiently heard. If they have real ground. of complaint, it must be removed ; justice demands no more, requires no less. If they have no just cause of complaint, it is equally necessary to thoroughly explain that to them, patiently, but firmly; taking great care they shall perceive that there is not the least desire to do them wrong, or to over-i'each them, but rather to be forbearing and to secure justice to them. Natives are very quick to perceive when they are unfairly treated, and to resent such treatment, and once a Maori's blood is up about land he is utterly regardless of consequences, if he thinks an attempt is being made to deprive him of it unfairly. Should the Waimate affair be an attempt to intimidate, or to gain by violence that which cannot be obtained by justice, then it must be put down by the strong hand, and as it is more merciful that the contest should be short than protracted, the measures resorted to should be the most powerful at command, in order that the struggle be sharp and decisive, and faom the first, hopeless to the wrongdoers. We feel confident that Mr. Sheehan will be patient and judicial ; if the aggressors have a colour of right he will give them justice; indeed, right or wrong, we are sure justice is just what he will give them. It may be that he will decide that it should take the shape of chastisement, and if so chastisement they will certainly get. There never was a greater mistake than the idea entertained by some persons, that Mr. Sheehan will give way to the Maories in everything ; and we confidently await the result of the present difficulty to show that firmness is a large ingredient in his policy.