CORRESPONDENCE. TO JAMES MACKAY, Jun., Esq., GENERAL GOVERNMENT AGENT, WAIKATO. (Per favor of the Editor of the Waikato Times.)

Waikato Times, Volume IV, Issue 182, 8 July 1873, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE. TO JAMES MACKAY, Jun., Esq., GENERAL GOVERNMENT AGENT, WAIKATO. (Per favor of the Editor of the Waikato Times.)

Sir —The first duty of a Government is to protect the lives and property of its subjects. At the present juncture, when the hostile attitude of the disaffected Maoris seems to have endangered the lives and property of such white •uhjccts of the New Zealand Government as lie open to attack, it is gratifying and assuring to find that the Government acknowledges its duty, and declares its readiness to the utmost extent of its ability to perform that duty. It is better still to fiud that Government has done more than meiely make the declaiation ; that it has undertaken and is proceeding with the execution of such defensive works as will give protection and a sense of security to outlying settlci s till the authority of the law be asserted and estabiished over the whole island ; for an efficient Government must rtgaid such works as only temporary expedients for the pi evention of farther out. age until suuli end lie attained. The Government, then, having acknowledged and accepted Ihe duty of protecting exposed settlers, and having, for that purpose, undertaken the construction of a line of defensive works at great cost of public money, it becomes a matter of the utmost impertance that those worka should be so placed as best to meet the end in view. It seems to me, however, and to my neighbour settlers, that the position chosen for a defensive post at Taotaoroa, about four miles east of Cambridge, on the road leading t» Matamata, Tauranga, Taupo, and Napier, does not meet the end in view. It is proposed, we are informed, to place this work on or wilhin the confiscation line, somewhere in the neighbourhood of Mr Buckland's station. To us it seems that the proper position for a defensive work for that district is on the nigh ground about three miles further along the road ; a redoubt or blockhouse there, would be in commanding position, guarding a main inlet to Cambridge from an extensive district of Maori country, and affording protection to all the settlers between it and Cambridge, while such a work, placed where Government propose to put it, would only afford protection to the two or three settlers between it and Cambridge, leaving undefended all the other settlers along the road and beyond the confiscation line. Seeing that Government had announced that outlying settlers were to be protected, the Taotaoroa settlers beyond the confiscation line, of whom I am one, presented to you, as Government Agent in the Waikato, a memorial praying for the ettabhshment of a defensive poet in such * position as would beet secure them against attack. To this memorial you replied— as we are informed by one of our number who presented it to you— that Government would not extend its defences in that direction beyond the confiscation line. This seems to us a mistaken and dangerously timid policy, adopted, we understand, through fear of irritating the natives. Are thelives of settlers not to be protected throu-jh fear of irritating the natives? Why should it offend the natives to place a redoubt on land to which not one of them h.is asserted the shadow of a claim since it passed fiom them by purchase (in legal form) years ago? Why should settlers on land lawfully purchased from natives be leas entitled to Government protection than settlers on land which Government has confiscated ? I have heard it stated as another reason why Government thinks itself justified in withholding protection from us, — that when the party from whom we purchased our land acquired that land from the natives, he was told that in the event of hostilities with them, Government would not undertake his protection. Well, this might have been a reason for withholding protection from us had the Government made sure and certain provision that all parties whD purchased such land should be made aware that they did so on the same conditions ; and that although the titles granted to them seemed to be in every reßpoct legal, and to confer all the rights and privi leges of Crown Grants, yet, there was that unexpressed, but exceedingly important distinction, betwixt a Government title to their laud and that given to other lands. Without such provision the alleged reason is no reason at at all. Let me illustrate this by a parallel case : suppose a government department to deal in flour, and to be in possession of a quantity of that article which it knows to be poisoned. A purchaser comes to the officers in charge of the department. Well, he says, I have a quantity here which I can let you have, but it is poisoned, and it' you retail it to your customers as good, Government will not be responsible for the consequences; nevertheless, it will license or allow you to sell the flour without making known its dangerous peculiarity, and will also receive the dues or customs arising out of your sales. Tins is manifestly a parallel csse ; for although the land was purchased from the natives, the salo had to pa9S the Native Lands Court and bo sanctioned by Government. A Government title or Crown grant to it was given* and thereby Government placed itself in tho same relation to the purchaser, and subsequent repurchase^ as if it had directly sold the land. The consequences in either ease may be equally fatal. The unwitting purchaser of such land having settled, and perchance expended his all upon it, feels compelled to risk remaining by it at such a time as this. ; and, denied Government protection, may share the fate of the consumer of the poisoned flour. Ido not, therefore, for a moment suppose that Government would asiign such a reason for withholding protection from the Taotaoroa settlers. It is doubtless true that Government cannot place a redoubt at every settler 1 * door; but the defence «f the Taotaoroa settlers would not coat it an additional work, but only the proper placing of tho one proposed to be erocted 5 and there must be some more valid reason given why they should be left defenceless ere the Taotaoroa settlers can be satisfied that they are fairly dealt with by Government. If settlers beyond the confiscation boundary are not to share in Government protection, where Government oan so easily protect them, then there is an end to the progress of settlement in this district of tho colony. Desirable land within that boundary is not now to be had at a price to suit the ordinary immigrant, and if settlement is to progress here, it must be beyond that boundary. Why should Government encourage immigration to the Auckland province if protection be denied beyond the confiscation line? In that case I for one should consider it my duty to let English people know, through English papers, the true state of matters here. I should tell them Government has no land to sell you hero worth purchasing. There are hundreds of thousands of acres of first-class land which may be cheaply purchased directly or indirectly from natives, but in the event of a difficulty arising between Government and any section of the natives, and dangor ensuing, as is presently the case, Government will grant you no protection to life or property. To share in its paternal care your land must be within a miserable paper lino called the confiscation line, which bounds a district taken from the natives in the last war, an<l seems also, in the eyes of Government, to bound the Queen's authority in this portion of the island. The Taotaoroa settlers are few in number, and, unaided, may not be able to make good their claim on Government protection ; but 1 trust tho other Waikato settlers and the community at largo will make common cause with them in this matter, seeing that their defence is imperatively demanded in the interest of tho whole district. It is clear that if Government defends certain points, and leaves one undefended, it renders that point more likely to bo selected for attack than if thore were no defences at all. I cannot, think that Government, on full consideration of the subject,, will refuse the prayer of the Taotaoroa settlers, so little would it cost Government to grant it. So beneficial not only to the interests of the settlers themselves, but to the interests of the district at largo, would tho granting of it be, as an intimation that the Queen's authority and power to protect her subjects does not cease at t.'o confiscation line. I have tlio honor to be, Sir, Your very obedient servant, Tnos BmjCE, Jim. Cambridge, 29Lh Juno, 1*73

A "Ri'kxt Ciiilo's FrOts — Tho programme of Pacific railrond and civnal const riii-t ion, amiouived in the speecli of t'lo Govornoi-G-ener.il of C.inuda, pre^nta topics of fierce controversy and e\oitemr»t The control of a total of not less than $200,000,000 is involved in those measures, llus is a prodigious sum to be expended among a sparsn population, not so numerous as that of New York State, and spread over an uroa larger tWn tho whole United States, territories and nil It is sufli lent to convert the entiro adult male population of tho New Dominion into a race of office-holders and contractors. Tho effects of this system of Government works on the polities of the New Dominion may bo inferred from our own Credit Mobilicr revelations, and from the corrupting influences of the Erie Canal on Now York politics and legislation for more than a score of years past. The Canadians aro undoubtedly destined to pay a heavy price for any stimulus imparted to their material development by tho corruption of their political system and the social extravalance involved in the handling of money which they never earned. Thoy nro mortgaging the future at a rate not wurrantcd by their material growth, and tho lesult must bo to incrcaso taxation and tho <wt of living, and thus neutralize tho advantages which the New Dominion aro now ollenng to emigants. Of course these considerations are tho very last that will engage attention on tho other side of tho front ier. A vast amount of money has to be spent, and there will bo a fierco strugglo for the spoils. Notes of the coming cen diet are already heard.— New York Daily Bulletin.