THE TARANAKI QUESTION.

21

E—No. 2

2. What are these difficulties ? The difficulties are doubtless many; but they resolve themselves ultimately into one, which is the source of all: that one is the lack of confidence on the part of the natives in our honesty and good intentions. They listen quietly to our words and approve them, but they watch and scrutinize our acts. This is the one original difficulty, ever reappearing , : capable of being lulled and quieted, capable of being overcome and removed entirely, but capable also of being aggravated to the ruin of all concerned. Just before Samuel Marsden left the waters of New South. Wales on hie first voyage to New Zealand, this difficulty showed itself. The ship was ready to sail, and all persons were on board, when the Native Chiefs, who up to that time had strongly encouraged the enterprise, became on a sudden gloomy and reserved. Their suspicions had been awakened by a gentleman at Sydney, who told them that the Missionaries would be followed by many others of their countrymen, who would in time become so powerful as either to destroy the Natives or reduce them to slavery. In proof of this assertion, he bade them look at the conduct of our countrymen in New South Wales. Mr. Marsden met this difficulty promptly. He offered to order the vessel to return to Sydney, there to land the Missionaries and their families, and to abandon the thought of holding any intercourse with New Zealand. This sufficed, and the good work proceeded. [Nicholas, Voyage to New Zealand, vol. 1. p. 41.] The same suspicion was expressed at Waitangi. Kewa, while addressing Captain Hobson, turned to the Chiefs and said, " Send the man away —do not sign the paper : if you do, you will he reduced to the condition of slaves, and be obliged to break stones for the roads. Your land will be taken from you, and your dignity as Chiefs will be destroyed." The same feeling prompted the Northern war under Heke. It has re-appeared from time to time in various forms. The letter which will be found at the end of this chapter, shows how strongly these suspicions were entertained five years ago by the tribes immediately to the Southward of New Plymouth (63.) 8. Hitherto, the endeavours which have been made to overcome these difficulties, have been attended by a remarkable degree of success. The Natives have voluntarily transferred to the Crown nearly all the Southern Island and very large tracts in the Northern. They have gradually abandoned old usages, adopted our dress and our modes of cultivating the ground. A very large portion of the corn and other produce iaised in this Island has been grown by them. By co-operative labour, sustained for great lengths of time, they have raised large sums of money ; which have been expended in the building of mills, and in the purchase of small vessels for trading. Nor has the moral growth of the race been less apparent. They have readily given land for schools. In the central district of this Island, boarding schools for children, offshoots of the schools aided by the Government, have been established by the Natives themselves, and are now conducted and supported by them. One hundred and seventy children are at this time boarded in such schools. In every part of the country, efforts have been made by them to establish some mode of settling their disputes by law. and to frame and enforce regulations for repressing drunkenness and immorality, and for securing good order amongst themselves. The success of this great undertaking, as to both its branches, has been such as no man in the Colony anticipated twenty years back. 4. It is a remarkable fact that the same period of time forms the turning point of the political history of both races. The earliest working of the system of Parliamentary Government amongst the Colonists, was concurrent with a wide spread movement amongst the Natives towards some regular system of law and organisation for themselves. The preparation for this general movement had been long going en. In fact the Maories, even in their old heathen state, were not without law. Notwithstanding the crimes and outrages of that state of things, the ceaseless wars of tribe against tribe, a strong authority was exercised within each tribe. On all occasions the life of the Maori man, in peace and even more in war, was fenced round with forms and ceremonies, with minute and rigid rules. War was not entered upon without extreme deliberation and caution. The movements of the warriors were controlled by the priest (tohunga). All the tribesmen consulted together on all matters affecting the tribe. The old system of government fell with the fall of heathenism. The authority of the Chief and of the heathen priest sank gradually, as the old belief and the heathen usages, which supported that authority, were undermined by the teaching of the Missionaries. For years the people experienced the mischiefs which flowed from the decline and the failure of the power which formerly restrained and governed their tribes (64). Yet the usage of public deliberation remained. Our new forms soon commended themselves to their old habits. One of the first words of civilization which they borrowed from us was " Committee," which, under the form of Komiti, is now received and current in all parts of the country. After the colonization of the country commenced, they watched carefully and habitually our public proceedings, and came gradually to the conviction that our obedience to law was one main source of our superiority to themselves. They were continually taught and exhorted by their teachers, and especially by the Government itself, through the Maori Messenger, to substitute arbitration and peaceful modes of settling disputes, for their old mode of appealing to force. Nor was practical aid wanting on the part of the Government. Native Assessors were appointed in all parts of the country : who were to act under the instruction and guidance of English Magistrates. But it was not easy to find a sufficient number of English Magistrates, or to provide those who were appointed with the means requisite for carrying out completely the plan of the Government. The Native Assessors were left to themselves. Accordingly they set themselves to supply the need in their own way. They strove to establish for themselves, a system, rudely resembling ours, and so to procure for themselves a benefit which our system did not confer, except in the immediate neighbourhood of our own settlements. The result has been, that at present, through most of the Native districts, a sort of lawless law is vigorously