The Invercargill Times. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1863.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 109, 2 November 1863, Page 2

The Invercargill Times. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1863.

"What wvll they do in the General Assembly" — a pamphlet by Edward Jerningham Wftkeneld— has been recently published in Canterbury, and we hail Myth pleasure this evidence of political life -in that Province. Throughout the whole of the Middle Island there has heretofore been little attention paid to questions of publicimportance— little attention to purely provincial politics — none at all -to the wider field of the general politics of New Zealand ; and yet matters of imminent importance to the welfare of the colony as a whole, and consequently of each of the component parts, are daily transpiring. It is to be hoped that Mr Wakefield's pamphlet will have the effect of arousing men from .this state of somnolency, which is detrimental to the best interests of the celouy., and that controversy on that most important subject to all the Provinces — the Maori war — will be excited. Mr Wakefield is an old New Zealand colonist, and one who has taken part in almost every movement for the benefit of his adopted home. He says : — " During twenty-four years I have had at heart the greatness and prosperity -of New Zealand, and not the comparative success or failure of its geographical or arbitrary divisions." No less could have- been expected from the son of Gibbon Wakefield — a son possessing, moreover, very much of the ability of the father. This pamphlet, which bears evidence of that ability, is to some extent marred by the bitter tone in which it appears to have been penned ; buk many years' residence in Wellington, and the share the author has taken in the politics of that city, has probably led him unconsciously to this infringement of good taste. The language he uses would be looked upon as mild, rather than otherwise in the rancorous political atmosphere of the Empire City, Mr Wakefield opens his pamphlet by a well merited rebuke to the people of Canterbury for the political apathy hitherto displayed by them in all matters connected with, the General

Assembly-^a rebuke vvliich comes home to every Province in the middle Island', and to none more so. than to Southland. After expressing his gratification at the result of the public . meeting, held at Ctiristchurch on the lOrh August last, he launches into his own views on the Maori question, and. we must admit that, taken as a whole j we have seldom if ever read so clear an' exposition of the causes of themisfortunesof thenorthern Island. He traces carefully to their sources the* " native difficulties, and first and foremost amongst those he blames is Sir George Grey himself. After shewing that the Governor during his former administration, between the years 1846 and 1853, could do just what he liked, there being no General Assembly to cont ol his actions, he characterizes that administration as one "of tampering with the native difficulties ; of staving off, [by any means, the time when collision between the races might occur ; of omitting toenforce any decisive policy one way or the other; in short, of doing anything rather than offend either the Colonial Office, by calling for any large naval and military expenditure, or the Missionary party in England, by doing anything with relation to the natives, which misjht be even misrepresented as cruelty from the platform of Exeter Hall." Anyone acquainted with the history of the time spoken of, and the character of His Excellency, will at once acknowledge the truth of the charge ; but there is another chax'ge equally grave to be laid at the door ot Sir George — that of misleading the Government and people at home by his dispatches, and placing the Golonists in a false "light. That he was capable of so doing, and of effecting it in a very clever manner, the publication of his despatch on the Waitara question, commented on in our issue of the 28th inst., fully proves. That being written with the knowledge that it would undergo severe criticism in th© Colony, what mast have been his dispatches written when Sir George had no responsible advisers; dispatches which he knew would never be heard of in 'the Colony, *or refuted for at least eighteen months, during which time he would have the opportunity of writing other dispatches, and again mystifying the subject; til', after the lapse of three years, few in the Colonial office woulolhave either the desire or ability to exhume the 'original letter. Sooner than undergo so useless an amount of labor, colonists who complained would be voted bores, and Sir George a paragon Governor. To return to Mr Wakefield's pamphlet. After instancing Sir George Grey's weak .policy in the Waitara matter, and the daring disobedience to his express commands of the Chief, William King, in taking possession of it, a disobedience left unpunished, he dismisses His Excellency with the following words — he "bequeathed to the colony of New. Zealand the "Waitara question, on which the present native rebellion has been founded. He left his successors to struggle against, the spirit of insubordination which his unwillingness t be firm had excited.'' Mr Wakefield next proceeds to " another powerful cause of the native difficulties," namely, the Church Missionary Society. Some time since, we depre ated the interference in native matters of the Missionaries, headed by Bishop Selwyn and Archdeacon Hadfield, suggesting that it might be more in accordance with the nature of their holy calling w-ere they to content themselves with preaching peace, instead of urging rebellion ttnd -inciting bloodslv d. From this pamphlet, their conduct appears to be part of an old and well-Sus-tained policy. Mr Wakefield states that when his father, Gibbon Wakefield, in conjunction wiib. others, was trying to -found a colony in New Zealand so early as 1838, he was desirous of obtaining the co-operation of the Church Missionary Society, and that, after long and patient negotiations, he was informed by the Secretary of that Society, the late Mr -Dandeson Coa-tes, that he would " thwart them byevery means in his power. ' 'It vvoul I appear that his spirit died not with him, but, entering ir\to the body of Bishop Selwyn, has worked marvels against the colonists, finally bursting forth in the declaration that " the Colony had been founded for the benefit of the aboriginal -race." The motives for 'this siugular opposition on the part of the reverend gentlemen may be supposed to have been the fear of hosing their priestly authority, and their grants of land from their grateful flocks, when the Maori, on , the influx of of population, should begin to find that it was too valuable to be given away without a fair equivalent, and particularly when ' disagreeable lay colonists should compete with them in the illegal occup .- tion of renting Tuns from the native proprietors, an instance of which we quote from the pamphlet before us: — "Not -many months ago, I heard, at . Wellington, a runholding tenant under the Maories, complain of the encroachments on his boundary of Archdeacon Hadiield, who similarly holds the -n-eighboring run. Ido not venture to assert that the Venerable Archdeacon was claiming more than he was entitled to under his illegal agreement with the more or less loyally disposed Maori subjects of her Majesty ; , but I do assert that H is piteeus to see a gentleman in his situation, obliged by his private interests to appear as one ■ of the parties in such a dispute." . Another great cause of the Maori difficulty, and one which still operates against its solution, was Sir George Grey's " Cheap Land Regulations/' "without consulting the representatives of the people in the- Colony," by which immense tracts of country fell into the hands of speculators, when " an alliance naturally sprang up between the mis-

sionaries, -who desired 'to- keep- their Maori > flocks a'nd^ their own priestly authority undisturbed by ths progress .of English colonists in conquering the wilderness, and the, run holders, who had an equal objection to the intrusion of thriving people and happy homes on the cheap pasturage of their fourfooted property." The evils of the system are graphically described, and vwth such minuteness, of detail as to baffle contradiction. Having got thus far, Mr Wakefiisld proposes his means for a settlement of the- present difficulties, the description of which must be left till our next issue.