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of the difficulties. Eewi had come across from the "Waikato to the place where the trouble first began, and the difficulties had been settled, and peace restored between the two races. It was not a question of party politics they were dealing with, but one which every man in the country, if he was a true colonist, would be pleased to know was being so amicably settled, He was sure that in a very short time Taranaki would be a flourishing district, and that when settled by people the colonists in other parts of the Island would find themselves also materially benefited. He hoped that all difficulties were now at an end, and that swords would be turned into ploughshares, and all heartily engage themselves in completing the great work they had so successfully commenced. Eewi said :My heart is glad because of this work, of what is being done. To-day we are seeking the means of uniting the two races, so that we may be all one in the same Island. Sir George Grey and I have been made one at the Waitara. We will remain together, and the laws of the Queen shall be made one. Mr. Joshua Jones, of Mokau, said : As a settler who has been but a short time in this colony I ask leave to say a few words on the present occasion, a time which I feel to be the turning point in the history of this good country. A new era has dawned upon this North Island. I happened to be in the Taukua country when the news arrived of the accession to power of Sir George Grey and the Hon. Mr. Sheehan, and great was the delight of the Natives at hearing the name of Sir George Grey a:; the head of the affairs of tins colony ; and it is within my province to be aware that Mr. Sheehan's administration and his tact in dealing with the Natives has secured him the confidence of the Ngatimaniapoto, a tribe who have never hitherto been conquered, or acknowledged allegiance to the Government. In reference to the opening of Mokau and the Maniapoto country, I think it due to Mr. John Shore to say that he has been a great asssistance in bringing about the friendly feelings which we are now enjoying, his honest and upright dealings with the Natives have secured to him their mutuality. Himself, with his family, have undergone many privations and difficulties that New Zealand will reap the benefit of. His name will be remembered when we are gone to the great majority. Upon my arrival in this country I telegraphed to Sir George Grey —whose name is a household word, and is held in grateful memory in Australia (the country to which I have the honor to belong) for services of State rendered before New Zealand knew his name—about settling at Mokau. Another Australian, Mr. McMillan, was with me. Sir George Grey then, as Superintendent of Auckland, kindly answered me, advising us not to take our families to Mokau until we were conversant with the feelings and temper of the Natives, as he was not in a position to know correctly himself. At the same time he forwarded us plans of the country, and of the alienated lands around Mokau, various Acts of Parliament, and all information that occurred to him as likely to be of avail to us. Then, in company, and under the guidance of Mr. Shore, we went to Mokau. We were well received by the Natives, and, indeed, I shall never forget their hospitality. The leading chiefs gave us precisely the same advice as did Sir George Grey. They said, " Don't bring your families here until we tell you it is safe to do so ; but come and see us again, and continue to visit us." And we did as the}' desired. Three of our families of little children have now been living there in peace and happiness over twelve months, and only a few days ago the Native applied for and obtained a weekly mail with the settled districts, and a subsidy for a steamer for regular trade. The Ministers granted these things. Time works wonders. These have been accomplished in less than two years, and I venture to predict, if the Natives are treated fairly and openly, that within another two years astonishing results conducive to the prosperity of this country will be obtained. I may mention, as another instance of good that has arisen through our intercourse with the Mokau people, a son of one of the head chiefs has been able, with a little assistance from us, to go to the college of Auckland, and a good young man he is. I hold in my hand a letter written by him to myself a few days ago the composition of which is good, and the handwriting many a banker's clerk might envy. I shall before long feel it my duty to ask the Native Minister to find him a suitable position in some branch of the public service, a request that I know will be responded to with delight by that gentleman. But, as the majority of you know, the Mokau settlers have had greater difficulties to contend with than those of other settlers, difficulties that people outside the Colony of New Zealand will scarcely credit, and, as this is a period important and eventful in the annals of this colony, it may not be out of of place to now mention these things. You will remember that on our first going to Mokau we were looked upon by some persons in the public service, and a few others outside, as wrong-doers, as poachers upon their preserves: every annoyance and insult that could be made use of was thrown at us. I have personally heard a Government officer abuse and threaten a Native chief in the public streets of New Plymouth because he allowed us settlers to go to Mokau. I have heard other reliable chiefs complain of another officer tampering with them by offers of money in the same premises; and, if not destroyed, I know there are communications now in the Native Minister's pigeon-holes from the Mokau chief's, begging that the ill reports in circulation from official sources should be suppressed—that there was no foundation for them. I have often heard that Waikato and Taranaki were of the most fertile of New Zealand districts, and in one respect, from bitter experience, I found this to be correct. For some sessions it had been the practice, at about the time the Parliament was considering the "ways and means," for a luxurious crop of telegrams and reports of burning, tomahawking, &c, to spring up both in Taranaki and Waikato, the two extreme points of the Maori difficulties. These created plants were transplanted by electricity in Wellington, and, until the late change of Ministry, they bore fruit successfully; then the blight took hold of them, a kind of Grey blight. At the moment of the change of Ministry the great chief Taonui —who lam glad to see here—whose very countenance is nobility and goodness of heart, told us in Tuhua that he had every faith that the Grey Government would stop those wicked telegrams, as they were groundless. In Taranaki the opposition to our settling at Mokau was swayed by an enlightened instrument wielded by those upon whose sacred preserves we were poaching —the Taranaki News. Numerous were the unfounded statements appearing in that oracle of light; and at the present time, I am sorry to say, evil works are manufactured therein having a tendency to excite the Maoris against the Europeans. In Australia when persons are found'by word or deed attempting to create a Native difficulty, the settlers and the Government adopt prompt and