CAUSES OF THE WAR IN NEW ZEALAND.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXI, Issue 2343, 3 April 1866, Page 6

CAUSES OF THE WAR IN NEW ZEALAND.

(John BvlI.J The mail just arrived from this Colony too sadly and surely confirms our worst anticipations, as to the prolongation and aggravation of the native war. The apparently extinguished, but still smouldering and growing embers of disaffection, have again broken out into a flame of open rebellion, which threatens to spread over a wider range of country, and to rage with a fiercer and more destructive force. Provocations and complications meanwhile have gone on increasing at a compound ratio ; while the old moral, social, and political restraints havo gradually lost their prestige, and exchanged it for that of a divided Government and military failure. Tho Proclamation of Peace, which was so confidently relied on | as a means of pacification and reassurance, accompanied as it was with the occupation of the confiscated land, has not only been received with distrust, but absolutely rejected as if an insult, and tho messenger charged to deliver it murdered in cold blood. We cannot express any feeling of ; surprise, though of deepest regret and disappointment, at this result. We deplore the enforced I resignation of the Weld Ministry, from whose measures we hoped a ehango in the tide of Colonial atl'airs, and with it especially we regret Hie involved exchange of Mr. KtzGerald for some other, probably far less able, honorable and fair- ! dealing Native Minister, and the not improbable total reversal of tlio Weld policy. With that policy wo never entirely agreed in principle, ! though it seemed to us tho best possible, under present most untoward circumstances. We do not forget, too, that the Ministry which is now seeking another innings under the lead of Mr. Stafford — since which no less than three others have been bowled out — is tho one under whose [ policy ihe present native dillieulties commenced, and by whose advice the late well-intentioned but half-informed Governor, Colonel Gore Browne, issued hid disastrous proclamation of martial law. ]S r o doubt, the misfortunes which have since happened are primarily owing to that policy — assisted by the far less excusable error of tho Colonial de- | partmont of tho Home Government, in ceding tho Imperial responsibility in native management, while retaining tho Imperial liability to military expenses. No policy certuiuly could possibly have !*cc7i devised more favorable to Colonial interests — in an immediate commercial sense — or to an indefinite prolongation of the Maori rebellion. I<Yom tho miserable one-sidedness of that fatal compromise we hoped that the proposal of Mr. Wold would have set us free. Wo do not doubt j the. sincerity of his intention towards both the' colonists and the natives, in his proposed withdrawal of the British troops, on condition of an absolute control by the local Government of all

native questions. We doubted, however, and J now doubt more than ever, the proposed acqui- 1 csconce of the settlers themselves in a policy so j suicidal to thciv immediate interests. , We are by ' no iuearis- surprised at, though we greatly regret : the dismissal of tho Weld Ministry, and, as an almost necessary consequence, the reversal of his intended policy. But we think that the new Ministry would only too probably be a fairer representative of the colonial mi:ad and will. . . . Tho truth is, that one main difficulty of our perplexity in this country as to the unravelment of the New Zealand difficulties, is tho impossibility of getting any but tho colored version of partisans as data on which to ground our judg- j ment. We aro earnest, however, in our belief of Mr. FitzGerald's sincere intentions towards the j natives. It is with a feeling of dismay, therefore, i that we receive his testimony to thoir increasing I disaffection and demoralization, and, above all, j their temporary, if not confirmed, enmity against ' our missionaries and clergy. Mr. • FitzGerald's ! account of the prevailing sentiment is as follows : — " Tho present suspicions and sulky attitude of tho great bulk of tho native race has its origin, partly, at all events, in a multitude of petty . grievances arising out of unfulfilled promises, j Instead of letting them alone, and giving them what they ask for when it is a mattci* of indifference, wo have treated them like children and acted as if we knew much better what was good for them than they do themselves. Their conclusion has been that in all this manipulation we were looking at our own objecb and interests, and not to theirs ; and I cannot tell them that this is a mistake. One most remarkable instance of this is seen in the hatred to the missionaries — an entirely new feature in tho Maori sentiment, but one painly evident. They accuse the missionaries of stealing their land while they pretended to teacli thorn religion, and point to the largo estates formerly acquired by the missionaries. Unjust aa these charges are, with some exceptions, they are deeply folt. As one chief expressed it, ' While you wore teaching 119 to look up to Heaven you were pulling the land from under our feet.' Again, they look on the missionaries as having deserted them in this, as they view it, unjust and aggressive war, and as having sided with their oppressors. One point in particulai is pointed to. Bishop Sclwyn accompaniod the army through the Waikato, and endured all the misci-y of a campaign in order to tender Ins services to the wounded and dying of both sides. But the natives believe ho was actually in command of a part of the army, and was showing General Cameron. his way about the country. W. Thompson, in a petition to the Assembly, speaks of the ' army of Bishop Selwyn and the General.' Formerly the missionaries wero the link between tho two races. Now this link is absolutely dissolved, and in this new-born hatred of the missionaries lies one of the causes of Hauhauism." j We havo only one remark to make in further qualification of the above statement, tho general I tenor of which is, we fear, in point of fact too true. The charge against the missionaries of personal aggrandisement in tho way of landsharking is wholly groundless, with one or at most two notable exceptions. As applicable to Bishop Selwyn, who lias boon alienating his private property and His professional income in favor of his beloved Muoric3, ever since he entered upon his Episcopate, it is of course simply ridiculous ; but there is no more ground for the insinuation in the case of our Church missionrrics who preceded him. Archdeacon Had field, of Otaki, is one of the oldest, as he is the ablest, in the Colony ; and j we believe that to this day he has scrupulously avoided holding an acre of his own. Nor do we think that tho fault is justly chargcablo against any of his brother clergy. At the same time, somo cause must havo originated this reversion of feeling against the missionaries, and we think it demands a more satisfactory explanation than as yet been given. It may prove, on explanation, to bo simply unavoidable ; or it may suggest sonic improvement in our missionary system.