Wellington Independent PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 1871.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3110, 30 January 1871, Page 2

Wellington Independent PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 1871.

The murder is out ! The Hon. John Hall was the marplot of tho Stafford Ministry. Our evening contemporary explain why they could not initiate any progressive or colonisation policy in the following words : " Mr Hall held views on some points which perhaps would have unfitted him for acting with his colleagues, and the cousequence would have been that he would have left the Ministry wlien they got so far as to be able to inaugurate a colonisation scheme." We are also assured that " the native troubles bequeathed to the Stafford Ministry by their predecessors had engrossed their entire attention, and precluded them from attempting to carry out the rational policy of colonisation, which they had steadily kepc in view." We must, then, excuse the Stafford Ministry for not bringing in any great colonising measures, because their entire attention was engrossed with the native war. The only objection to this explanation is that it is not true. On the 9th of July, 1867, the speech from the throne referring to the interval that had elapsed sinee 8th October, 1866, says, "lam happy to meet you again in Parliament, and to recur to your assistance .and advice." Is it some difficulty with the native race that gives significance to this opening sentence ? Had the Ministry been giving their " entire attention to native troubles," and did they now come before Parliament for assistance and advice ? " Oh ! no, nothing of the sort. Her Majesty's representative proceeds, " I congratulate you on the re-establishment of peace generally throughout the North Island, in no part of which do I anticipate in future any systematic or sustained hostility to the Queen's authority." After describing how tranquility was speedily restored on the East and West Coast, he proceeds : " During the recess I have made a journey, partly on foot, through the North Island, and have traversed native districts which it had for some time past been deemed unsafe to enter I everywhere found the embers of disaffection dying out, and I was received by the Maori population, even in districts recently in rebellion, in such a manner as to inspire confidence in the future peace of the colony," In such pleasing circumstances, it is difficult to' see how the native difficulty absorbed " their entire attention." The rest of the speech never mentions the native race at all, and not one word can be found in it to imply that any difficulty existed. Here then was a fitting time for the inauguration of a colonising scheme ! But as we read the speech to the end we do not find a single word about it ! The following subjects are taken vp — the Suez service, the bringing into operation of the Post Office Savings Bank (described lately in the " Evening Post " as a " means to raise the wind "), the Administration o( the Otago gold fields, the consolidation of the loans, the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh, local self-government, and a few legal reforms ! Not one indication of that great colonial scheme of colonisation which they had " steadily in view." Yet when was there a better opportunity ? Mr Cox, in moving the address in reply, aptly remarks : "Owing to the present peculiar circumstances and condition of the country, I deem it almost an advantage and a privilege (to move the address in reply). For the first time in my experience in this House, the Government are in a position to say, « Peace is reestablished in New Zealand.' Within my recollection no Government has ever before used such an expression. As' I have already said, this is a new state of things, on which one and all in the House will congratulate themselves." Time rolls on, and on the 18lh of August we find the Hon. J. 0. Richmond talking of the. "native difficulty" as the "late war." The Governor, on the 10th of October, prorogues the Assembly in a speech in which the native difficulty is scarcely adverted to. Parliament met again on the Bth of July, 1868, and the speech from the throne contained only one allusion to native affairs, viz., " Since my arrival I have been enabled to visit all the principal Settlements of the Northern Island except Taranaki and Wanganui, and have received in every place conspicuous proofs of the attachment of the inhabitants to the Throne and the Empire." And in th-3 debate .on the address in reply we find the Hon. Mt Stafford indignantly denying that there was anything in the rumors then afloat sufficient to alarm the House or absorb the " entire attention" of the Government. "We are not," he says, "in a time of civil war now, and I trust fervently that we shall not be again." At this time the disturbances at Patea excited considerable alarm among the settlers, but were systematically pooh-poohed by the Government. The House asked them to declare their native policy, but, after a long series of debates the Government refused to state a native policy, and threw out Mr Fox's motion by a majority of nine. Among the opponents of the Government, by the way, and the most pertinacious assailant of the Hon. J. C. Kiohmond in particular, was Mr Travers. He says, "In the Government of the Premier, there are, except the Treasurer, who is absent, a bundle of weak wills gathered together from the wrecks of former administrations, and from the wrecks of principles." So far, then, from their " entire attention" having been engaged with native affairs, they had, from their accession to office up to this point at least, far more time and leisure for inaugurating a colonisation policy than the present Ministry have had. This they cannot deny ; their own words in the royal speeches prove it. Nor is it the

case that, even on the native question, the Stafford Ministry, weve unanimous. In "Hansard," vol. 4, page 110, Mr Hall expresses himself thus: " I have always declared nay adherence to the principle of , self-reliance." While at page 126 Colonel Haultain, the Defence Minister, says, very candidly, "I was always an earnest opponent of the selfreliant policy." For his trimming on this question, the Hon. J. 0. Richmond has been upbraided in the House in very emphatic terms. No one, perhaps, has more emphatically condemned their native policy than Mr Travers, or traced, their lamentable failure more clearly to this variance of opinion. While it is now given out that Mr Hall was the Jonah in the ship, which could only be steered in the direction of a progressive and colonisation policy after he had been thrown overboard. Mr Travers, by his constant attacks on Mr Richmond, clearly pointed him out as the Palinurus asleep at the helm of native affairs, after whose death only the voyage could be favorable. We do not know on what authority it is stated that Mr Hall would have resigned in order to permit Messrs Stafford, Richmond, and Fitzherberfc inaugurating a great colonising schome ; we can only say that when such a scheme was brought before the House Mr Hall showed himself a more enthusiastic supporter of it than Mr Richmond, and on the divisions on the measures necessary to carry it into effect the name of Richmond alone of ail the Stafford Ministry was found among the obstructive " noes." We shall return to this again. Meanwhile we have shown that the excuse for their not bringing forward the great measures they kep tsteadily in view cannot be sustained, the cause being other than that of their " entire attention being absorbed in the native difficulty." And when 'they differed so widely on questions of finance, protection, land kw.s, self-reliance, purchase of native land, immigration and public works, we think the explanation for. their having done so little for the advancement of the colony in their long tenure of office is not far to seek. If these are not " fundamental questions in a scheme of colonisation," we should like to see a list of some more vitally important. But not only on these but on the native question itself on which a claim for unanimity ib now set up, they were at sixes and sevens. Hear the deliberate utterance on this point of an eminent statesman in the House which, that it may not be characterised as a garbled extract, we shall quote at length from " Hansard" vol. IV page 113. " The fact of the matter was this, that the whole conduct of military , matters had utterly failed in their hands, and it would be found that Ministers themselves were at variance with regard to the subject, for while they charged members of the opposition with a failure of their duty to the country in bringing forward the utter and miserable disorganisation which existed in the colonial fo ces, a member of the Government in another place was referring to them in language infinitely stronger than any used in that House. "The bill was one of very considerable importance, action having been taken by the commander of the forces at the front for the purpose of putting an* end to the hideous and frightful drunkenness, which was encouraged by the existence of so many public houses, and this bill was necessary to legalise the action taken by, him. The description which he had heard of the condition of some of the posts there was shocking. It had been stated that upon one occasion, a small party of Maoris might have captured the whole garrison at Patea, and knocked every man there on the head." "Who is the eminent statesman that said this ? We answer William Thos. Locke Travers !