The Waikato Times.

Waikato Times, Volume XI, Issue 884, 21 February 1878, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political. ***** Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain.

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 21, 1878

The Auckland ' Herald ' of Thursday last, m commenting m a leading article on the late visit of Sir Geurge Grey to the King Country, puts the question fairly enough when it says, that to obtain the concessions we require* from the natives we must give them benefits m return ; but when it proceeds to point out what ihese benefits -hall be, we f«el bound to j'.in issue with it at once. " Our object/ says the ' Herald '—and we trust that journal speaks fur itself, and uninspired from official sources — " ought to be to get these people to abandon their isolation, and to Bettle on land which shall be amply sufficieut to maintain them and to anable their chiefs to exercise euthority amongst them under our supervision. There is abundant land on the left bank of the Wai pa and Waikato to enable this 10 be done, where the Waikatos might quietly and contentedly live, and where they might develop any power of improvement which they may have. To effect such a great change

m their position is not iliu -v n: o* a day . . • • but we believe that much i>rogres. was made by the great personal influence of Sir George Grey, aud tbat under the administration of Mr Sheehan, the colouy may see ;^hat has been a vast hindrance to its progress removed by the peaceful solution of the native difficulty." Now wesay unhesitatingly that no such solution of the native difficulty will be satisfactory to the people of thia district, or indeed, for the matter of tbat, be passively permitted by them. If there was one thing more than another that served to weaken the well earned popularity iv Waikato of the late lamented Sir Donald McLean it was the bare suspicion that the settlement of the left bank of the Waipa by the Waikatos was a part of his policy. The measure is one which will raise a cry of bitter opposition against any ministry or minister that may aitempt it. The project is no new one. Years ago ir was proposed by the Chief Judge of the Native Lauds Courts, to locate the disposessed Waikatoa on the lands about the Waikato Heads, a spot comparatively isolated from European settlement, but the matter tfil through as distasteful to both Native and European settlers. VVe have already referred to the odiam which attached to the policy of the late Native Minister from the belief that it was hia wish to settle the King Natives on the other side of vVaipa. We had hoped to have heard no more of this scheme, that its impracticability, its injustice, and its unpopularity had been made so unmistakably felt that no Govern ment would lor a moment have contemplated a resort to it. We can scarcely believe now that it is more than a fleeting suggestion of our contemporary ; but, whether or 110, it is our duty to raise our voice, against any suoh consummation of iniquity. We do not hesitate tosay that m settling the Waipa lands with the now disaffected Kingites the Government would be guilcy ot a very gVave and serious mistake. Such a retrograde movement would oe condemned from one end of the Waikato to the other as unjust, impolitic, aud likely to lead to the most disastrous results. Ifc would imperil the present peaceful state of the district, for it would bring the Maoris into harmonious intercourse, bat inio daily conflict, with the .Europeans, it would be unfair upon the Europeans m many ways. We have but lately had to draw attention to the conduct of the frontier Natives as neighboura to to the Kikikihi' settlers, keeping back much for policy's sake that we could have published, but even that has had the effect of causing the Defence Minister to grant the longwithheld garrison protection which ought never to have been withdrawn from that frontier settlement. Some time ago we had occasion to draw attention to the molestation of European settlers iv the Haripi-'i Uistrier, where roving parties ot ueltishers and pig hunters iud quieily camped m a settler's stackyard, and killed hi» sheep and p«gs and those o other setiltrs, and kept the neighbourhood generally m a state of unedßiuessftndanxiety. If tho Maoris are as bad as this where they have no legal status, what may not be expec;eUirom them when they aresquaUed down by right of possession here aud there among our settlers. Aud ihose who have farmed iv the neighbourhood of maori settlements liione knuw the trouble anl vexatton, and loss to which the settler so circumstanced is subjeottd. be oaunot make the maun Uo his share of fencing, nor contribute his share 10 the local rates, for the maori is above aud beyond the law m either case, but, if the unfortunate settler's cattle stray upou illfeuced maon cultivations he finds th.*t circumstances alter cases wtih a vengeance. To attempt to locate the maori m such a manner amongst the European settler as the * tterald' proposes might possibly aff>rd a ■ioiuiion of the native difficulty, but not a detdruble solution. The gur<lian knob would nob be untied, but cv% and with the sword. If the liscoriianb element of near Maori neighbours, which even an aukati line does not render wholly nugative, keeps the Kihiliihi settlers iti a constant state of irritation, occasioned by maori bounce and insolence, what would be the result, if the country on the VVaipa were settled by an intermixture of maoris and Europeans. The latter must either soon leave their farms m disgust or come into collision with the natives, and m a day — an hour — undo the work of a peace policy of years. The project zn y sound plausible to thoso who are not directly interested m the matter. The picture of native and European living m amiable relationship as neighboring settlers may look well m theory, but we know how ie works m practice. Would any Government, we a»k, be acting fairly towarJs the peaceably-dis-posed, hard-working European setters, who have won the land after hard military service, and are Hp.ndit.g years of further toil m making hoaies upon it for themselvea and tiieir families, if it forced upon them aucu neighbors nil such a result as would inevitably follow the locution of Maori Kiugites on the Waipa.