MR BRYCE ON TE WHITI

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 726, 25 March 1881, Page 2

MR BRYCE ON TE WHITI

Slsettleii'w'pians in anxiety, but atill I proßebu£ed^^^tl,aoting^cQuraeior. : 'the' .(jto'vimmeriti,- -moved the Opnstabu-. r larywrbss'the nverj I made';roadß,' and > I m&elheniwithout the consent of 'tho ,; Maories; I completed the telegraph line r which Te Whiti had resented j I caused the'n'ghtbouse't6bebeiun:t6;vp^hm : ' Whiti had refused his consent;. I falblfied all his'prediotioria and: put -the camp within two miles ofParihaka, and.tlie Jaw was vindicated.'. The fencers;*Kb;were.' sent down to obstruct the'road-making.; were captured and put'in prison. That served two purposes, it vindicated ; the ' law and weakened Te Whiti's strength. Land was surveyed and .prepared for market, and 'everything went on well til] v September last. Till then we continued : to'advance and my plan had proceeded without interruption. I admit there was a pause then, and! am now; coming ; tb ■: the point of divergence betweenijnyself: and the majority, of the Cabinet. What I ought to have 1 been permitted lo; do at that time was to have, .paid a visit tp Te,_.' Whiti. I ought to ha've.gone 'and' Been;;'; him with such a. force at my. back; as j would have commanded respect. I pugntJ to have gone, in point of fact, with as™ large'a force of the Armed' Opnatabularyas could have been collected together', and"; loushttohaveaaid then to Te Whiti,'-'; "This 1b a very'small country, too small to hold two separate authorities,. If'you are the man of sense some people auppoae you to be, you will see that yourself and you will also see which of thetwo"author : itiesmust prevail.-,;- Either tho'.Queen or . you must prevail, and' I must' see the authority of law shall from this time forthprevail at Pariliaka as well as elsewhere." I would have told him that he could no longer be permitted to harbor oriminals--1 that such a thing was fraught with danger to the community,'■ I should have told', him that particularly he could no' longer be permitted to give refuge to murderers, ' and I should have told him that.there. was one murderer who must be arrested, and that 1 had come to arrest him, and thon and there I should have, arrested 1 that man. 'You will not expeot me to. ' declare tho plan I had made to render that arrest effective, but I have little ■ doubt that it would haye bepn effective. If Te Whiti had quietly consented there would have been np necessity for the ' arrest of Te Whiti himself except that it would have been the one thing necessary to destroy his prestige among the Maoris—his- prestige so far as it was'. hostile to our authority, But lambound to say this—that if he had resisted I should have arrested him with as little hesitation'an I would have apprehended any other person who resisted- the law. Whether he resisted pc not, this 'step would from that tiine fortli ijaye pjaceoj ; h'im'unrfer (he control qf the law,"aria!flig ; , 1 mana, bo far as it ps hostjlc to:us, woulij' ; have been severely shaken,; I dq np| think he would have'resisted, He would have seen perfectly well that hißi.means. of resistance were too weak i that our ' power was too strong. He would '•■ have known as well as I kilew that within ten days I could have concentrated 2000 men upon him, and another•'.' IW9 iritliitl anot her ten days, and he would not for a ■ moment have entertained the slightest jdea of rgslslqnpe. If h,o had i , esls,teq ) jarnb.ou'nd tq dwell upon it bßcpe'|. ; bow'the p'qint tod'Vbighed withiu i|; i?i| 'oollsifgues, I should 1 have arrested hirjij • and that, | beljeve, would have been the . best thing whioh oould have haprJene'd for the solution of the West Coast'difflonlty. I have been accused- in the publio of a onut. rnanv t.hinoa. T lm»o \- i j! that J was going to make' a desperate advance, and occupy P,arin'aka, violently' arrest Te Whiti, and bring 'on 'ft wqr." ! Iq fact, I hays bedh Veprysente^'as; a'blqqd: thirsty wretoh, who only' wanted "hn. opportunity to have his. name handed down as the perpetrator; of another Massacre of Glenc'oe. I am not going'to defend myself from all these charges, but there is one charge which has run through . , the Government section of. the. Press which 1 should like to' say a few'words-, about; tjjty'ig, that I haoj fiora the lines of the West Coast Qommission. T'oahnotaaythat I felt myself particularly bound by those lines, but I deny the fact that J have departed from thorn. [The. Hon , gentleman here read an extract ftom the repqrt of the Commission, setting forth—that'''w|lile!"lip*era} provision shpujol made, the pro'visjiin should) ahd"must'b'e, conditional upon the European getting a. guarantee of good behavior from the natives.] J tliinjj, thprefore, np/qng can accuse mo of departing frqrn the liqes, of the recqipniendationspfthe atiti that hefqr'e/ rqaking gqctj charges those gentlemen did not ascectajn what those lines were, I have now indi« catod generally the point* of divorgehoe between the majority of the Cabinet and myself, and I should like to say'this- if you leave Te Whiti with the power, of liarburing criminals at Parihaka,.is it not an iqdirepji enpouragoment to crime | I believe HirokV murdered McLean out d private maiice.'but'imiqetjiafely he went to Parihaku ana said it'was beaaAißQ-of land he became a hero and a'honored guest, and. bo remains. Is it not then in human nature that after Maoris who may feel a little disposed in that way will go and do likewise \ No doubt if Tuhi 1)8,4 not by the. aqtivity of the fyQi pfq; ventedfron)gqing tq fiarihakahewoqld, have told the 'samp tale, aqd (ybqld qq doubt have been'similarly treated. I believe wo would have gone and arrested him, but if. it would have been right to have arrested Tuhi it must be. alio right to' arrest Hiroki, It has been said that we are no more bound to arrest Hiroki than any of the murderers in the VVaikato country, bijtto my mind that argument has,no forpe. j[t. would'have been uqdp. sirable to havq attempted the arrest of/the murderers of Moffat at- Upper Wa'nganui, 1 because it woitld have been useless to cjqso, but suppose they had come up to Putiki and stayed there week after W§e]{, and month after month, would we not ■ have been bound to go and arrest them J Certainly. So with the :Waikato and Ring country. That would simplybrlng about a war; but here we have a strong force within two miles of Parihaka, where Hiroki is flaunting himself; I do not attaoh so much importance as some people do to the expense, because I know it .is over estiraated, But' one thing I.dq attaoh importance to. 1 There'are-fleveraj,; little quarrels in various parts of 'the M colony, and as'a Result df keeping thi? force on, thelawcaiinot be vindicated at Napier, the; Waikato, the Thames, and • other places this ocours;" And so long as these matters are allowed/to. hang on 1 , there will be. constant rjsk f of sqqh/aq qqfc break as would, if it ocourredj hedessitate the withdrawal of a part of the force from the plains! That ia another reason why something definite should be done at once. I may be asked, land indeed I have been •: asked, ''lf this view prdsehted'itself to you last September why did you : hot then ; resign J'', That' seems a pertinent and reasonable question, My reply is,, as a matter of fact I did resign last September. I sent in my resignation on the.grqnr/o] of divergence of opinion between myself an! the Cabinet,'but I "withdreW-thaVresigna." tion because I thought I sawgood grounds for.jhoping; thai, giving;,;up certam points; to'iliat'portioh [6f(;theX'Mihistry between reaigh'atidn I was always tryiugt(JptomQta umßoh;irV "the; Cabihe'f sobjooti I:consent«d:to some things against' iqs

judgment, in order to get that which I hoped for, with a great deal of assurance, up to the last. Wheh.l found I was unsuccessful I retired from the Government. It was a very painful thing for mo to retire, because I was associated with, men whom I highly esteemed, whom I believed were necessary to the carrying on of the ' good work of restoring the governmental condition of the colony to something like a proper tone; and yot I felt compelled to resign. There was another thing that added bitterness to. it. As a rule, lam not an ambitious man, but I had some • personal ambition in this matter. I did strongly desire to associate my name with the settlement of the West Coast difficulty, which had baffled successive Governments for years. I thought I had brought things to such a state that the fruits of my anxious labor might be fairly gathered, and I assure you it was a bitter moment for me when I had to turn away disappointed. Nevertheless, lam bound ' to say, and I say it with the most per- \ _ feet sincerity, that the members of 5 "the Government who. differed from me . ' (it has been said the Government was unanimously against me, but that is not - '«ytt)had a perfect' right to their judement. V[« by no means a departmental matter, Vw\ "great matter affecting the whole colony, and they had a perfect right to exercise their judgment. I do. not doubt they exercised it in the most conscientious manner, and in a manner which they believed to be to the inte rest of the colony. The question is what is to be done now i For my own part I do not think it is of any use to negotiate with Te Whiti. I do not think there is any case in New Zealand of any Maori having consented voluntarily, and in direct terms, to confiscation, and from the character of To Whiti, I take it he is one of the last men likely to do it, I believe the idea of negotiating with Te Whiti to be perfectly preposterous,