THE NATIVES AND THE MIDDLE ISLAND.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVIII, Issue 1850, 2 April 1863, Page 3

THE NATIVES AND THE MIDDLE ISLAND.

[From the Canterbury Pbbss.J Do our renders imagine that the Native question is nothing to them ? Are they bored with the constant recurrence io it ? Then call it by any other name. Do not think of it as a Native question at all ; think of it rather as a vast complication of questions which involve the future of the Middle Island. It is & financial question of the greatest importance because it involves a perpetual drain on our wealth to which no limit is at present apparent. It is a military question, involving the solution of that great difficulty, bow the Colony is to be defended. It is a 'political question, of no less magnitude than the dismemberment of the Colony, the destruction o£ the Provincial Governments, the reconstruction of a constitution. Can we in the Middle Island shut our eyes to a subject which is creating political revolution and threatening financial disaster P There is of course a purely Native side to the question ; we may consider it as regards the Natives alone, and our duty of governing them as best we can. It ought of course to be so considered ; but the constant recurrence to such a snbject would be very tedious and uninteresting to those who have no immediate duties connected with it. But when this Native question is positively modifying our political arrangements; when it is retarding our progress and threatening to remould our form of Government, it forces itself on our attention whether we will or not. When the Assembly left the matter in the hands of the Governor last year, it left an exI peuditure going on which the colony would, no doubt, cheerfully consent to bear, provided it saw some definite result to be obtained. It voted £200,000 to recompence Taranaki for its I losses in the late war, and it voted it cheerfully, believing it to be the final settlement of the account. But what has been done since P We have perused the Northern papers with attenj tion, and we are really unable to state that the ! position of the colony is altered in any one important particular since the session closed. When the whole question is one of time, the passage of time with no result is the failure of policy. The mere fact that six months have elapsed and the position of affairs remain tin* altered, is the effectual break down of the Government. It is the case of a commercial undertaking in which there are vast outgoings and no returns.

The first step towards the restoration of a position of security must be in the establishment of a police force. We bear from Napier that 50 constables are to be stationed there. Need it have taken six months or six days to come to that conclusion ? The relations of the Natives and Europeans at Hawke's Bay have for a long lime been of a very critical character. The gross outrage committed in the streets of the town, of which an account will be found in another column, is but a repetition, on a more prominent stage, of the sort of lawlessness which has been growing fur some years in that district. Mr M'Lean the new Superintendeut, no doubt acted with judgment in staving of a struggle between the English population and the Maoris, for wliich the former are not prepared. But why are they not prepared? Why is not the civil power sufficiently strong in that district ? Talk of the law being carried into Maori districts .' Why here is a chief who declares in the middle of an English town and on Queen's land that if a Maori does wrong he shall be given up to the Maoris to be tried by Native law. It is not the Bishop or PhiloMaoris who submit to this dishonor; it is 8 government of men who have always proclaimed the necessity of force. We confidently believe that every act of this kind costs the countty tens of thousands in the future.

So again with regard to Taranaki. The war, so far as Taranaki claims are concerned, is still raging at that place. We say this is positively true so far as financial results are concerned. The Gene; ral Assembly has declared that the Taranaki settlers shall be recompensed for their losses. But their losses accumulate erery hour. A Taranaki settler's loss depends on his being kept from his farm, and compelled to live to town, and do nothing. Sir George Grey begged the Taranaki men not to go— not to leave Taranaki. They are content to wait. They live in hope. But the Assembly has recognised the principle that they are to live in hope at our expense, not at their own. We can't retreat from that position. If £200,000 were due to them last year, and they have waited at the request of the Government, that is of the colony, the bill is daily increasing. And that bill we in the Middle Island have to pay. It would have been far cheaper to hare bought up the whole property of the settlers, and given the settlement to the Taranakis and Ngatiruanuis, • and to have located the settlers elsewhere, than to have allowed the present state of things to continue. A do-nothing Government is costly beyond all calculation. . Now Sir George Grey and his Ministers have gone to New Plymouth. We most earnestlyand cordially hope that they will be suci cessful. We shall be ready to load them with applause if they ore so. But we are bound to ! bold themselves responsible if they are not. The thin* has to he done. They have accepted the chance of honor if they succeed, but with the certainty of disgrace if they fail. They shall have their reward. % We do not believe that if Tataraimaka oad been occupied a year ago the war would have been renewed. We do not believe it will be renewed now if the Government insist on Ta« taraimaka being given up forthwith. There aye reports that William Thompson has sent to the southern tribes to beg them to give up Tataraimaka. We do not know if this is true. But it is very likely. Bishop Selwyu's words, and the Governor's visit have not been without . e j} ec t—they cannot have been. We confidentj|p believe the Maoris will not fight /ar ,7^far||p|| maka. They know it is ours. in^the'-^iaeaD^ time the rapid tide of population is^U|ngq^g The impatience of delay on the p»iri s of^p.B|fl^ ifffo'ean population in. -vthe ;L' ! |,^, tl tP^iHfe^ ■ $11 fuekion is gvowihg¥S)»tjlcie^ad ftmßßHw^ moment will have seeiv, lost for : *?&*swHH®ljm more of the pres^t;jGfoy6?rih>ent au( l^^^^p will have issuedM^MU! Maoris to a tqml,'aiJdmave lef||pif^ffl|^g character of thejpw,^ lau lMW|^^S wiU-never^be,ejfised;-.;;, i -v -^^m^m^m \?-WtMW*W*wto ?f -^^^^pH