The Timaru Herald. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1881.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 2235, 19 November 1881, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1881.

"Mrt Beyck appears to be getting on very well m his unpleasant task of sorting out the assemblage of nativeß at Parihaka. The truth is, just as we anticipated, the difficulty of disposing of this embarrassing business diminished as it was approached. If any one a year ago had said that the Native Minister could walk into Te Whiti's stronghold m the face of the largest meeting that had ever gathered there, and take complete control of the place and its inhabitants without resorting to violence, he would have been laughed at. Such a result would not unreasonably have been set down as impossible. Yet it has actually taken place. It is not to ba supposed that Mr Bryce saw the whole course of events lying clearly before him just as they have happened. That he made his plans carefully and that he saw his way to the end of them is likely enough. But what adventures, mishaps, or varied chances might intervene to disturb those plans before he reached that end, neither he nor any one else could possibly foresee. As things have turned out, however, he has been able to carry his designs into execution with singular success. He had, no doubt, alternative designß. If Te Whiti and his followers had behaved like reasonable beings and accepted the terms of the Governor's proclamation, the rest would have been easy. It would only have been necessary to assign particular lands to particular people, and to have adjusted boundaries and such minor matters, so as to make things as pleasant for the natives as might be. A few thousands of acres of land more or less would have been neither here nor there to the Government m comparison with the advantage of the. Parihaka agitation being put » stop to. This, of course, would hare been the most satisfactory conclusion of the affair. It would have been the most satisfactory to the public, who are not at all anxious m these days to make more fuss than is necessary about native disputes. It would -have been the most satisfactory to the Government, who had quite enough to attend to m the general election without being worried by questions of peace or war. Finally, m spite of all that may be said to the contrary by Opposition writers, who stick at nothing to depreciate Mr Bryce's success, it would have been the most satisfactory to the Native Minister himself. He does not pretend to have any special affection for natives and we are not prepared to deny that he is much harder with them than his predecessors m the Native Office have been. But at the same time he has no ill-feeling against them, and nothing was farther from his wishes, we are sure, than that the Parihaka malcontents should reject their last chance of benefiting by the labors of the West Coast Commission. Looked at from the lowest point of view, it would manifestly have been convenient to Mr Bryce if the natives had consented to abide on the lands of their ancestors whilst acknowledging the supremacy of the Crown. But it was not to be, and we question whether Mr Bryce ever had much hope of it from the beginning. His first set of plans, therefore, had to be laid aside almost at the outset; for it was clear from the moment when he demanded from Te Whiti at Parihaka his reply to the Governor's' proclamation, that no likelihood existed of a friendly settlement of the dispute. Mr Bryce had then immediately to fall back on his alternative plans, which consisted of treating the natives assembled at Parihaka as law breakers, not as rebels or rioters m the most serious sense of the term, but rather as misguided obstructives, who for their own cake as well as for tb.at of society, must be dispersed and pliaced beyond the power of doing farther mischief. What is perhaps more remarkable, the native*

themselves accepted this character without question. They did not behave m ;lie least like rebels or the more violent class of rioters. They limply squatted down m the marae at Parihaica and obstructed the law m the most amia'Wle manner m the world. Their attitude, indeed, was so extremely inoffensive that it was believed by many to have created a greater difficulty for Mr Bryce than armed resistance would have amounted to. The enemies of the Government —we mean their European enemies, political, personal and above all journalistic —weVe jubilant. They declared that Mr Bryce would never be able to digpeme of two thousand unarmed and ostensibly harmless people, who merely sat down m their own market place and neither said nor did anything. For our own part we recognised that there was a difficulty, but we nevtr doubted Mr Bryce's capacity for dealing with it. We expressed our conviction at the time, that if he found it necessary to have every man, woman, and child at ParihaVa carried away m the arms of the Constabulary he would assuredly reeort to that primitive method. Events have entirely justified our belief. The natives have not actually put the Constabulary to the trouble of carrying them m their arms or on their back, but they have done very little short of that. They have remained stolidly mobbed together until they were picked out according to their respective tribeß, formally arrested and ordered to march as prisoners. Some wonder has been evinced at their obeying this order and the mischief makers are not a little disgusted with them for doing so. The explanation no doubt is that they saw Mr Bryce was m earnest and knew it would only make a slight difference m point of time whether they marched at their ease or were removed by main force. They fully realised that they had to go, and having still a good deal of the Maori love of creature comfort left, they elected to go m the pleasantest way. By this means Mr Bryce has already got rid of something like half of Te Whiti's motley congregation. There still remain about a thousand to be dispersed. But the process is now well understood and there is every reason to believe that m the course of a very few days or weeks, the marae at Parihaka will be cleared of the last of its deluded frequenters. There is one feature m Mr Bryce's native policy which distinguishes it from every other native policy that we ever heard of. It embodies the views of all political parties and even of all responsible politicians. Men who have nothing else to say m favor of the Government, nevertheless dwell m terms of hearty eulogy upon their native administration. Their bitterest opponents m the past even on native questions, lay aside opposition now and hasten to offer support instead. Sir George Grey, the least magnanimous of all politicians, aannot withhold his praise from Mr Bryce, though he yields it with a sneer at the Minister's motives. Mr Sheehan, who is nothing if not theatrical, m welcoming the Thames Volunteers on their return from the front, went beyond the best friends of the Government, m his enthusiasm for the course they have pursued. He predicted, from his special knowledge of the subject, that the whole native difficulty would now shortly be at an end. A higher tribute could not have been paid to the policy of thoroughness and common sense, which two years ago he declared to be impossible. The Geraldine electors promise to be exceedingly well off as regards number m their choice of a parliamentary representative. The three gentlemen who are now m the lists would surely satisfy the ambition of any ordinary constituency, but it is said that a fourth one is about to present himself, and rumor even haa it that it is not improbable a fifth is likely to make his appearance m the political field, seeking suffrages. As it is apparently the right thing to do nowadays, it is thought necessary to tack on to a man who is about to woo a constituency one o£ the titles o£ tho tiro great parties who are supposed to divide the land between them, and accordingly we are told that this fourth candidate comes forward m the " Great Liberal Interest," whatever that may mean. Looking at the work so styled Liberals have done, or rather failed to do, and regarding that which so called Conservatives have accomplished without making any fuss about it, it strikes us there is no greater misleading cry than that of Liberal and Conservative m New Zealand. During the last session or so the. Conservatives have ousted the Liberals completely from their places. They have done their work for them, they have passed their Bills for them, and they have succeeded m placing on the Statute Book measures which the most ultra-Liberal Government New Zealand was ever blest with, failed to do. The fusion then of the two parties has been so complete that it is nonsense to attempt to define them if their definition were based on measures of policy; based on men not measures the cries " Liberal" and ■' Conservative," though empty and meaningless, are just as good as any other m party warfare. We have endeavored on several occasions to point out the grave responsibility that belongs to every elector m the exercise of his vote. At election times the people have the future virtually m the hollow of their hands. They have to declare at such times who shall rale them, and the manner m which they are to be ruled. Parliament being supreme, it behoves every right-minded elector seriously to consider the class of man he returns to it. As legislation is sensible or the reverse, so assuredly will its good or evil effects come home to those who choose their representatives. Many people, it is to be feared, are utterly oarelesß of their votes, and talk glibly that one man is as good as another, and so on. Some day they will discover their mistake, and find that the uneducated adventurer m the field of politics is not the man to place m x position to make laws for the country. Were Parliament unhappily full of this class of men, good bye to New Zealand's prosperity present and some way into the future.