MAORI KING MOVEMENT.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 181, 15 July 1859, Page 4

MAORI KING MOVEMENT.

During the present week (says the Taranahi Herald of the 28th ult.) large meetings have been held by the different tribes in the immediate vicinity of the settlement to receive Wiremu Tako of Wellington, the well known chief and now active and influential partizan of the rebel Maori King movement. For several weeks past it has been remoured that the Ngatiruanui and Taranaki tribes had declared for Potatau, though it had been supposed that the latter tribe did not favor the project, but the arrival of Wi Tako amongst them has removed any doubts that may have lingered on their minds, and he exultingly boasts that they are now to a man for the Maori King, At Whanganui we are told that the natives are for the present loyal, but both at Wellington and Ahuriri, and indeed along the whole of the East coast from Cape Palliser to Auckland, there are comparatively few who have not joined the league. Next week Wi Tako goes to Waitara where we know he will be well received by the majority of the natives, and from thence, we hear, he journeys to, Mokau and Kavvhia, visiting Ihaia and Nikorima en route. The movement has therefore, it will be perceived, already extended over the greater portion of the northern Islo.nd, and although the powerful tribes of the Ngapuhi, the upper Waikato and other northern tribes have hitherto kept aloof, the sama causes are still at work which have induced so many to join the standard of Potatau, and it would appear to require but a few men with the the tact and ability of Yfi Tako to make converts of nearly every native in the island.

Much has been written and said on the subject of the present movement, and many have been the attempts to discover the causes which have led to it, and many the remedies suggested for its cure, but hitherto to little or no purpose, and the broad and startling fact remains that an extensive and well organised movement is taking place amongst the maories to support a King of their own, chosen from amongst themselves while they are bound by solemn treaty to bear true allegiance to the sovereignty of the Queen. But by far the most important circumstance in connection with this election of a King is the significant fact that the Maori can combine for a common object— a thing hitherto deemed impossible—and when we reflect how much of his nature still remains, how readily he returns to his old customs and superstition, it must be felt that the present movement is fraught with the most serious consequences. In the circumstance, too, that Potatau has commenced his reign under a government which has shown an anxious solicitude for the moral and physical welfare of the natives, it will be seen how imminently the peaceful relations of the two races is jeopardised. Jealousy of the increasing power of the white man has no doubt been one motive which has urged him to the step he has taken, and his ignorance of the good tendency of that power may have tempted him to oppose it. But it is a protective measure adopted by the Maori with the determination to prevent, if possible, the advance of the white man that the movement must be considered. The position too •of the principal supporters of it is somewhat singular. No Maori has experienced more attention and consideration from the Government than Potatau (more familiarly known as Te Wherowhero). He is well aware of the numerous advantages which the presence of the white man has conferred upon his race; he has hitherto professed to foa well disposed towards and in cordial alliance with the government. It may be true that he is still incapable of lending himself to what might be considered an extreme step towards us, but he is an old man, and in the natural course of events must soon disappear from the scene. And what we ask would be our position if some turbulent and disaffected chief, as may probably be the case, were to succeed him ? Wi Tako, again, has been noted for years past for his friendly disposition, and observance of our habits and customs. Yet he now openly boasts that he will put a stop to our progress by preventing the sale ofland, and cunningly enough quotes some act in reference to land at Wellington reserved for native uses, as a justification of his present conduct, though he well knows the proper quarter to apply to for redress if any ground of complaint exists. The success which has attended Wi Tako's progress from Wellington to this place has beyond doubt been increased by the allegation that the reserves in question are not managed with the approval of the natives, and that they derive no pecuniary benefit from them. The complaint has an air of truth about it, because it is openly made, and we know that several natives hitherto favourable to us have been turned by the adroit manner in which the matter is* made to tell against the government.

It. is the fashion with apologists to treat the King league as a harmless cleviee of the moment, calling for no interference; but experience shows that it is by far too formidable and menacing to be viewed with indifference or unconcern, and it is inconceivable upoff what plea an act the consequences of which must be apparent to every one should not already have received a check. We are not inclined to impute the blame to any one for the untoward position -which a large section of the native population now assume towards us. It is the result of many influences, but the neglect of the Government to buy land when opportunity offered was a manifest injustice to both races, and, by retarding colonisation, has led to the present complication of affairs. But whatever the consequences the movement must be boldly met. The very tendency of it, indeed, will compel the Government to do so. The natives must be told that the step they are taking is one opposed alike to the Queen's authority and the peaceful footing of the two races. It is reasonable to expect -the Government to act towards the natives with the undisguise

they exhibit towards us in the matter. Correct without further delay any impression they may cherish of enjoying immunity for thoir present misconduct. Call rebellion by its right name, and warn all concerned of the consequences that sooner or later always result. The Government, in fact, add to the difficulty by their silence, whereas a few words of friendly caution might keep many natives true to their allegiance, and would diffuse throughout the colony a general confidence in the ultimate prevalence of law and order.

YOUNG MEN FOR THE COLONIES. This is the title of a lecture delivered to the Auckland Young Men's Christian Association, by the Rev. I. Harding, with a view to enforce the principles that Religion is " the main element in the formation of individual and national character." Mr. Harding is a firm believer in the benefits resulting to the whole family of man from Emigration, and in this respect we so entirely concur with him, that we quote-the following paragraphs on this topic, which may be read with advantage both by old and new comers:—

" You have come to this remote country to improve your circumstances, and to enjoy a larger share of the bounties of Providence than could be expected to fall to } rou in the fatherland. You have clone wisely and taken a step which not only falls in with the order of Divine government, but with a etep which if none were to take, the world would stand still, and many of the fairest regions of the green earth would remain deserts without life, wilderness without a voice;—and in the end of all things, when the heavens and the earth shall pass away with a great noise, and all that is therein shall be burnt up, no reason could be assigned why half the rooms which our common Father has prepared in this great house—the world —which He has given to the sons of men, were built and furnished, excepting only that unworthy reason that they were made only to be destroyed.

" The policy which would keep all the English in England, the Scotch in Scotland, and the Irish in Ireland, would have kept the Saxons in Saxony, the Huns in Scythia, the primitive nations in the plains of Shinar, Noah and his sons on the top of Ararat, and Aclam and Eve at the gate of Eden. Emigration is the order of mankind, and the purpose of God. It is thrice blessed. It blesses those who go and those who stay, while it adorns with life and beauty the wilderness and the solitary place. It gives circulation to the life-blood of a nation, promoting trade and commerce, giving enterprise and strength of character to the people, and vastness and solidity to the empire. Without her colonies, her thousands of gallant ships, and her brave seamen, England were an insignificant and powerless island, and a second-rate nation; but with her advancing colonies and affiliated nations in the new world of the West; and their younger sisters of the Eastern Seas —Australia and New. Zealand—Great Britain is the mistress of the oceans and the Queen of the World."

The following is the lecturer's notion of the young men wanted for the colonies:—

"Young men for the, colonies should be men of principle, who know what they are and what they ought to do. Men who are more adapted to lead than to follow, for in laying out a building you require a man not an idiot) and in laying out a nation we want men, not fops; men who can judge what is right in all departments of life and duty, and then from their own character and ability may be trusted to do it; men of knowledge, of skill, of activity and perseverance; men who have been faithful in their first relations and are to be depended upon in others of enlarged independence and higher responsibility. Men of another sort who have been impatient of parental restraint, and anxious only to gather up the portion of goods that falleth to them, and to choose companions of the same ardour and rapidity with themselves, are likely in the colonies to rush into even greater dangers and heavier woes than at home. We want men who can not only feel but deliberate, not only decide but labour, not only begin with spirit but continue and endure, and that in the face of difficulty, opposition, and the seductive attractions of sloth and pleasure, when others and even a multitude go astray and entice them to follow." Mr. Harding, like Mr. Pratt, thinks married emigrants are likely to do better than single, and, after describing the virtuous woman whose price is far above rabies, he sketches the young' man who is fit, and contrasts with him the man who is neither fit for the colonies nor marriage :-—

".A man who never says I can't, who always'says I'll try, who can do anything a. family or a country may require of him;, build a house, make a road, construct a bridge, draw up a memorial, kill and dress, a sheep, break in a colt, plough the land, sow it, reap and mow it, man a boat, drive a team of bullocks,-swim a river, repair whatever is broken, nurse the sick, and console the dying- A colonist must be no noodle, dolt, or sluggard, but the highest, style, of man. Young gentlemen of the white glove and silver cigar-case, and the 'not I indeed!' school, should|not leave their dancing masters, and their sighing Miss Nancies, to come to a new country, for they require everything done for them : but here we want bonafide men who can do everything for themselves, men who when God gives them the free air, the daylight and the soil, will think themselves an aristocracy in the line of Noah and Adam. Mere npgrown boys, the semblance and shape of men, who can drink and dance, smoke and talk of their respectable families, and of going to the theatre in the carriage, are as fit to colonise a country as a dandy is to sink a well or sweep a chimney."

We pive one more extract in which the lecturer shows that genuine refinement of taste and pursuits is not incompatible with that decision oi character which is one of