Page image

E—No. 4

able," or " treacherous" or " exterminating," or at all improper, until the issue of Bishop Selwyn's Pastoral Letter in 1855, and now of his correspondence with Mr. Parris, in which the same line of remark is adopted ; and in proposing its being carried into effect, I never expected to meet with censure. The proposal complained of (as will be setn by the foregoing , extracts) was one entirely of a pacific character, made by one minister to another, that the united influence of all parties should be rsed (especially at that crisis) to bring peace and prosperity to the Province, by the final settlement of that long-disputed block: and by such a peaceful measure to break up at once that illegal conspiracy of Maori land-owners who threatened immediate death to the " seller of land." Rawiri Waiawa and his companions had been massacred for the same cause but a fortnight before, and the same promise was held out for the future ; and I certainly never dreamt of being rebuked for proposing a settlement of that question on the terms already laid down by the Home and Colonial Government, and already adopted in every other portion of the New Zealand Company's Block. I did most earnestly desire that the Bishop and Archdeacon Hadfield, with many others, should combine their influence together, in breaking up that unlawful confederacy, which otherwise, I foresaw would be the cause of an internecine warfare bel ween the two races, which, when once commenced, would never be satisfactorily settled until the whole of that sea-board'had been drawn into the dispute. If the Bishop had then used his endeavours to effect so peaceful a solution of our difficulties, they might possibly have been successful, and the present war averted from the country ; but by withholding his advice until such time as the electoral " rights" of the Natives are conceded to them (as mentioned, I think, in his Pastoral Letter), we have been summarily plunged into a war for which we were not prepared, but which, in 1855, I had earnestly entreated his Lordship to use his utmost endeavours to avert. The sad and tragical history of Taranaki, from that day to this, will at once evince whose plan was best, and what system it is which will most surely lead to Maori extermination. That the Waitara land was greatly desired (not coveted, for no man can covet his own property) by some of the settlers, is accounted for on the ground that they had properly bought it from the New Zealand Company, and that it had been duly awarded to them by Mr. Commissioner Spain. They did not crave for the peach groves of Huirangi, though more " delightfully" situated, and on the bank of the same river, simply because they had never purchased them. As also with Mangaoraka. There a beautiful village had been formed, and the waste land brought into a slate of European cultivation by a band of ha>d-working and respectable settlers; but they were driven away to town, even against the remonstrance of Governor Fitzßoy. Never shall I forget the day when they were ordered off, simply to satisfy what Sir George Grey very justly terms the cupidity of Katatore and some ten or a dozen followers, who have never to this present time been able to cultivate or reclaim those very sections which were thus abandoned to their primitive state of waste and uselessness. This was the beginning of the settlers' sorrows at Taranaki, and this doubtless was the ultimate origin of the present war, which could only afterwards be averted by breaking up the land-league, and by the further purchase of the Waitara district from its rightful owners (with suitable reserves), and its peaceful occupation by the united races. In conclusion, I cannot but regret that the inauguration of our free institutions should be attended with such very great freedom of remark, on the plans and purposes of those who have spent the best years of their lives in hard-working and practical endeavours to promote the real advancement of the Native race of this country. H. Hanson Tuetox. Auckland, June 22nd, 1861.

11

NEW ZEALAND AND MR. COMMISSIONER PARRIS.