PROSPECTS OF PACIFICATION.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVI, Issue 1698, 31 December 1861, Page 5

PROSPECTS OF PACIFICATION.

{From the Auckland Register December 16. Argued by what bas been accomplished in the North, coupled with the satisfactory intelligence from Lower Waikato, and the no less gratifying, aud apparautly well accredited, re ports from Upper Waikato, we would fain hope that the Maori difficulty is in a fair way of peaceful solution. This day week His Excellency the Governor, accompanied by bis Private Secretary, the Colonial Secretary, and others, set out dv a visit to the Lower Waikato. There we are rejoiced to learn His Excellency was received with the greatest enthusiasm, bis projects for the pacification of tbe country and the amelioration of the condition of the Native race having been greeted in the same spirit as that which it elicited in the Bay of Islands district. Friday md Saturday were to bave been passed at the station of Archdeacon Maunsell, where every demonstration of loyalty from a great Native gathering awaited His Excellency. On Saturday morning, it was currently und confidently reported, through a variety of trustworthy channels, that the Upper Waikatos had pronounced favourably in respect of Sir George Grey's proposed system of Native government, und that not only had they sent an urgent invitation to His Excellency to visit them, but that a large war canoe, manned by sixty picked warriors was to be despatched for his conveyance to Ngaruawhia. We have been further informed that a special messenger sent to W.Thompson, and who has just returned, reports that that Chief was most favourably disposed towards the Governor's plans and that the prospects of a happy settlement of past difficulties wore a most hopeful aspect. We have spared ho pains to truce tbese reports to their fountain bead, and from all that we have been enabled to ascertain, they are invested with so much credibility, as well as probability, that we should consider it wrong not to give them the publicity they deserve. ** It is said that His Excellency would have beeu invited at an earlier period were it not that bis hosts aie not quite so well provided wilh the means of entertainment as they were wont to be before war had impeded their agricultural and commercial progress. We have only to consider the diminishing supplies of produce from many of the Native exportiug districts, to yield due credulence to such a statement, -and we know how keenly Native„piide-miKt. jev_kfrom being unable to offer hospitality upou the excessiviLScal--of- by-gone days; There can be -tfulTTuledoubt that the Natives are becoming more and more scant of food, and that witb failing stores of corn and other commodities their wealth is diminishing in an equal ratio. Even a native war cannot be carried on without some sort of commissariat, aud when peace is preferred upou terms which cannot fail to be as advantageous to them us beneficial to the Europeans, it seems to be highly probable that the wise and thoughtful of" their number may still possess sufficient influence to restrain tbe impetuous, and to win over the waverers to their views. This, apparantly, is the present aspect of affairs in the Upper Waikato : and with the Ngapuhis and Lower Waikatos disposed in I favour of the pacific system of government profj fered for their acceptance, a profound impression can hardily fail to be made even on the most obdurate minds. i We must caution our readers, however, that i these reports, probable as they are and coming, as they do, from trustworthy sources, have yet to receive the seal of confirmation. A short 1 time will suffice to set the matter at rest. Should they prove unfounded — should the Waikatos persist — as some maintain they will — in rejecting all friendly overtures, then, come what may, His Excellency and His Excellency's Government will at least enjoy the high .satisfaction of having left, nothing unattempted to save and civilize the tribes.