THE MAORI DEAK.

Taranaki Herald, Volume X, Issue 491, 28 December 1861, Page 3

THE MAORI DEAK.

There is something very striking in the picture of the Maori chief, Wiremu Tamihana (or William Thompson, as he is called), as delineated in his own actions and letters, who now seems to be taking the command of the powerful tribe of Waikatos in the New Zealand war. We may be, perhaps" we shall | be, obliged to regard him as a political enemy, and to oppose his forces and his policy. The firmer, more lucid, and self-restrained his intellect, the more dangerous will he be as a foe, if he determines to encourage the Waikatos to throw off the British rule.. But however this may be, we can at least afford to do full justice to his motives and his character, and to distinguish clearly between such a leader as he bids fair to be, and the wily and grasping chief (W. King) who has been our opponent in the Taranaki war. The English settlers, it is said, have not more faith in their new commander, General Cameron, than have the Waikatos in their new leader. • And should the war be renewed — especially if it be renewed on the undivided responsibility and at the sole cost of the English settlers in New Zealand, as our leading contemporaries seem to wish — we fear there can be no result short of the practical extermination of a fine and powerful tribe, with its singular and able chief. Tamihana (or Thompson) has much in him apparently both of the religious and the political leader. He is a convert to Christianity, and, according to his own account, for a long time after his conversion he took the specific duties of a Christian preacher in the absence of any English minister. The missionary who had converted him was obliged to live in a Waikato district at some distance, and the Maori therefore, except as regards " baptism and the administration of the sacrament," " stood," as he tells us, "in his place." He established and has maintained for three years in his own village, Matamata, a school of sixty children, and has been quite recently engaged in finding a suitable permanent teacher for these children. We shall see that these religious functions materially modify his political policy i but if his efforts were primarily religious, he never lost sight of the secondary political results, which he hoped to bring out of the change of faith. It was, his great grief to see the multitude of petty inte>-tribal strifes.which divided, weakened, and disgraced his fellow-countrymen, and he spared no pains to set them at lest. Three such disputes his influence served to terminate. " I worked," he says, " at quarrels about land, and through my exertions the troubles were with difficulty ended." But he saw with great pain that there was no root of civil order in. the Maori institutions, and it was his effort to plant one. We must not forget what the civil state of the native society has become. Their petty land strifes constantly succeed each other in continuous waves, while the British Government has, by its own confession, no power at all to deal with these. •'• It ought to be understood," said Mr Richmond, in 1858, " that the British Government in New Zealand has no reliable means but moral persuasion for the government of the aborigines. It is powerless to prevent the commission by natives against natives of the most glaring crimes. Without their consent it is impossible to survey or even 'to traverse the country; much less could the Government undertake the execution of roads, bridges, or other public works in native territory." Such was the internal anarchy Tamihana sought to remove. He found the appeals to personal influence a merely temporary remedy. He built, therefore, a targe building wherein the different tribes might meet and discuss their disputes. This was done, but though the house was built, and the tribes assembled, merer assemblies did not lead to civil order. " Evil still manifested itself," " the river of blood was not yet stopped.", " I considered, therefore," he goes on, •• how the river of blood could be made to diminish in this island ; I looked into your books, where Israel cried to have a king fortr t hemselves to be a judge over them. And I looked at the words of Moses, in Deuteronomy xvii., 15." The passage alluded to is striking as showing how eagerly, and perhaps unconsciously, the mind of the Maori chief clung to the thought of national independence. " Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee,: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother." " I kept these words in my memory," says Tamihana, " through all these years, the land feuds continuing still all the time, and blood being spilt, I still meditating upon the matter." He adds, in another letter : "If all the kings of the different islands were from Rome only, from thence, algo, might come one for here ; but is riot the Queen a native of England, Nicholas fTamihana is behindhand in his recent Russian history! of Russia, Bonaparte of France, and Pomare of Tahiti, each of his own people 1 Then why am I or these tribes rebuked by you, and told that we and you must unite together under the Queen? How was it the Americans were peimitted to separate themselves ? Why were not they brought under the protecting shade of the Queen, for that people were of the same race as the English, whereas I of this island am of a different race, nor nearly connected. My only connexion with you is through Christ — Ephesians ii., 13." While Tamihana was thus brooding over the political wretchedness of his fellow-countrymen, and 'searching in the Old Testament history for their only adequate remedy, at the end of the year 1856 the chief Te Heu Heu called a meeting at Taupo. Delegates from all parts of the island, to the number, it is said, of eighteen hun . dred, assembled in this convention, which was expressly designed to promote union among the Maories. "When the newa of thia meeting reached

me," says Tamihana to the Governor, " I said, ' I will consent to this to assist my work, that the Teligion of these tribes that have not yet united might have time to breathe.' I commenced at these words in the book of I. Samuel, viii., 5 [' Make us a king to judge us like all the nations']. This is why I set up Potatsu in 1857. On his being set up the blood at ouce ceased, and the tranquillity has remained till now." This is as remarkable a letter as any christianised savage ever wrote. The strong hold evidently taken on him by the Old Testament Scriptures — the mixture of pure patriotism and keen ambition in the whole tone of the sentiment and thought — the strong desire to promote Maori civilization, and the deep conviction that the burden of responsibility was laid upon him to solve this difficult problem, and to choose the king who should best suit his countryman — in a word, the half prophetic, half statesmanlike tone of the whole narrative of his measures, reads almost like some passage from one of Cromwell's apologies for his sagacious and deeply meditated, but not the less arbitrary, measures. But if this account of the train of thought by which Tamihana had been led to advocate the Maori king movement is curious, certainly not less so is the history of his policy during the late war. It shows a breadth of caution and self-restraint, an ability in negotiation with rival chiefs, and a strength in controlling the impetus of a popular feeling, which is rare indeed in a savage race. At the breaking out of the Waitara war, Tamihana resolutely kept aloof. At a meeting of chiefs called to express their opinion to the Government as to its merits, Wiremu Tamihana moved the resolution earnestly condemning the treacherous Maori policy of murdering defenceless settlers which had so often been adopted at Taranaki. When, however, the resolution condemning the rebel chief Kingi's motives for rebellion was brought forward, Tamihana refused to vote for it simply alleging that there was not enough evidence on the subject, — that he did not understand the question clearly enough to condemn the rebel leader, though he could not then support him. Subsequently, he quarrelled with a chief who was his friend, for joining, like many other individual Waikatos, Kingi's rebellion, and used his whole moral influence to keep brfck the Waikatos from meddling in the war. Again, when a Waikato native was found dead — and as it was thought murdered by the English — he joined a formidable force which went to inquire into the cause of death, but used all his influence to hold back the rashness of the paity, and when it appeared that there was no evidence of foul play, he withdrew it altogether. After the battle of Mahoetahi, in which General Pratt defeated the auxiliary Waikato force, the exasperation grew so great among the neutral members of the tribe that many of them rushed into the war, and distinguished themselves by reckless and illjudged assaults on the English position. Then, and not till then, Tamihana, after the most pressing solicitations, went to the scene of war, but not as a belligerent — as a moderator. He wrote to General Pratt requesting a time for negotiation, which, after some misunderstanding, he obtained. He then called a meeting of his tribes, and advocated the unpopular pacific feeling, to their great disgust, but, — so great was his authority, — with sue cess. His next difficulty was to bring over Wiremu Kingi. He told him that his quarrel, however just, was not one in which the Waikatos were interested. He said, moreover, that Kingi had been the head and mind of the war policy, while the Waikatos were merely summoned to his ad as physical auxiliaries in a contest in which they were unconcerned. This produced the desired effect. Kingi at once handed over the disputed land at Waitara to the Waikato chief, and declared that his gift was free, and that he claimed no further voice in the disposal of the land. Tamihana then gave his decision thus, — that all the forces of all tribes should go home, and the English troops should be requested to retire to Taranaki, leaving the disputed land to the regular operation oflaw, as it should be declared by the judicial committee of the Privy Council on appeal. The English troops were not withdrawn, but Tamihana dispersed those of his own'tribe and of Wiremu Kingi's followers, and returned to the north, much dissatisfied with the conduct of the English. Since he has been there, the Governor of New Zealand has decided, probably wisely enough, that the Maori-King movement has fomented the spirit of insurrection, and cannot be permitted to go on ;— less wisely, perhaps, that the Waikatos must make compensation for their rebellion in joining with the party of W. Kingi. Tamihana replies, that the Maori king was never meant to be a rival of the Queen, but only take the same position under her, towards the Maories, that is taken by the Governor of New Zealand towards the English settlers, and resists the demand for' restitution.} He has expressed his views very skilfully in a letter to the Governor, and in a subsequent one, dated 7th June last, he urges again very strongly the impolicy of hasty war. "Be not in haste," he says, "to begin hostilities. Let us duly remember the words of St. James, ' Swift to hear, slow to wrath.' . . . But now, O friend, restrain your angry feeling against all parts of New Zealand. Let our warfare be that of the lips alone. If such be the course pursued by us, it will be a long path, our days will be many while engaged in fighting that battle. Let it not be transferred to the battle with hands. Thia is a bad road ; a short path ; our days will not be many while engaged with the edge of the sword. But do you, the first-born of God's sons, consider these things. Let i not you and me be committed to this short path. Let us take the cirouitous one ; though circuitous, its windings are upon firm ground." This is at least quaint and characteristic writing, and the whole policy of Tamihana indicates a moderation and self-restraint, and yet firmness of view, which is extremely unlike our notion of savage courage. We do not think that the Maori- king policy is consistent with the British Government in New Zealand. But we do feel that Wiremu Tamihana has in him a vein of true, deep, and religious patriotism whioh, though probably not unmingled with personal ambition, is a spectacle rare enough and noble enough to awaken wonder, sympathy, and even emulation in the hearts of his English rivals. He is a religious statesman, with a feeling i'oi the aacredness of peace as deep as Mr. Gladstone's, and a desire for national autonomy as strong as that of the Hungarian statesman, M. Deak. If he shows his patriotism, his fortitude, and his sagacity only on a narrow scale, yet when we think that they are the fruits of a Christian graft on pure barbarism, they put the sagacity, patriotism, and fortitude of Europeans to shame. — Spectator, September 21.