E—Xo. IB

TO NATIVE AFFAIRS.

But holding as they do, that the preservation and civilisation of the Native Race, and the promotion of the settlement of the country by Europeans, are objects of policy not merely compatible but, in the present circumstances of the Colony, inseparable the one from the other, His Excellency's responsible ministers consider that the controversy opened by these expressions of his Lordship the Bishop is idle and mischievous. If la is Lordship desired to arouse and stimulate the hatred of race, he could not do so more effectually than by such assertions as are scattered with a profuse hand over the short document under consideration. Once let it be understood that the interest of the settlers is to be subordinate to that of the natives, and a war of races is inevitable. Earl Grey has rightly said that such a struggle once commenced could hardly close, except by our abandonment of the islands in disgrace, or the extirpation of the aboriginal inhabitants.—Earl Grey's Colonial Policy, vol. ii., p. 137. The insinuation that the war is one of aggrandisement—that it is undertaken for the sake of acquiring territory—is quite untrue. The proceedings which have led to it were under the immediate superintendence and control of the Governor. His Excellency will confirm the statement that those proceedings were not, at any stage, urged upon him, or so much as suggested to him, by the Responsible Ministers, nor was there, previously to the commencement of the war, any manifestation of public feeling on the snhject of the dispute between the Governor and William King. It would bei absurd to suppose that His Excellency could be actuated by the motive imputed. And it must appear almost equally improbable, to any person who calmly reflects on the matter, that the Colonists, or their representatives, should willingly incur the risks, and submit to the sacrifices, of a Maori war, for the sake of a few hundreds of acres in the least important Province of New Zealand. Other motives must be sought for to explain the general support which His Excellency has received in the Colony upon the present occasion. There is in New Zealand a small, and happily decreasing, party, who, to benefit as they suppose the Native Race, would willingly check what is invidiously styled ' ; the aggrandisement of the English Provinces." Their apprehensions for the future (which seem in a great measure to blind them to the danger and even impossibility of a continuance of the present relations of the races) are aggravated by the low conception they have formed of the general motives and objects of their fellow countrymen in New Zealand. Moving, as these gentlemen for the most part do, in a narrow social circle, and mixing little with the settlers, having moreover their feelings and energies concentrated upon one great, and in itself most noble, objec, it is not wonderful that they should do but scant justice to the motives of the colonists. On behalf of their fellow settlers His Excellency's Ministers would represent to Her Majesty's Imperial Government, that the grand desire of the British Colonists in respect to the natives, is—not the appropriation of the Native Territory —still less the destruction of the race—but it is to see the Maori people rendered amenable, in their dealings with the settlers, to British Law. The restless instinct of progress, the love of wealth, the hatred of race, are all no doubt motives at work in tlie country, and against the indulgence, or the excess, of these strong passions the Government is bound to be upon its guard. But stronger, and more universal, and more inevitable, than all these feelings, is the desire which animates the public mind that all the inhabitants of New Zealand should be subjected in their mutual dealings to the control of one equal law. This is a natural and praiseworthy desire, and if duly regulated uiusl be conducive to the good as much of the Natives as of the colonists. The Addresses which have been presented to the Governor since the commencement of the War justify these representations. Under accumulated provocations—the contemptuous defiance of Her Majesty's authority—the ruin of one British Settlement—the most serious ii jury to several others —the interruption of the advancing prosperity of all—under the natural indignation caused by cold blooded murders, perpetrated upon unarmed men and young boys —the settlers of New Zealand still restrain their passions, and confine themselves to the prayer that the majesty of the law may be vindicated and the authority of the Queen upheld. Perhaps those only who have lived as settlers surrounded by a Maori population are able to realize the intensity which the desire expressed by these addresess can attain amongst Englishmen so situated. In his intercourse with tie natives the colonist is exposed to daily provocations. His cattle, for example, stray from his paddock ; he follows them to a neighbouring Fa, and is compelled to redeem them by an exorbitant payment. In the course of the altercation a n usket is, perhaps, pointed at him, or a tomahawk flourished over his head. On the other hand should he try the experiment of driving Native cattle to the public pound for trespass on his cultivations, a strong party of Maoris, with loaded muskets, breaks down the pound and rescues them. He has to maintain party fences without contribution from his Maori neighbour. Herds of Native pigs break through to his crops. The dogs of the Pa worry his sheep. To save his own farm he has to pay for the extirpation of thistles on the neighbouring Native land, hundreds of thousands of acres of which lie waste, and worse than useless, around his homestead. Redress in the Courts of law is not to be obtained because it would be dangerous to the peace of the country to enforce the judgment. On the other hand, Natives freely avail themselves of their legal remedies against Europeans. At the present time a trader lies in the Auckland Gaol, under arrest for debt at the suit of a Native Chief. About a year a<xo this same European had a judgment for a large amount against the Native who has now imprisoned him, which he was of course unable to enforce by execution. Men of great judgment, tact, and courage, and of a commanding type of character, may get on well with their Maori neighbours. But even these sometimes fail, and such men are the exceptions in every country. Missionaries again, may take refuge in mere passiveness. Their calling permits it without reproach. A missionary is wronged, and he submits, and there is an end of it. But the settler cannot do the like without loss of self respect, and to him the petty provacations and injuries

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