G.—2.

grow up by small degrees, which has since become the unwelcome inheritance of every Government. The wisdom of assigning specific land to the returned rebels has been proved in Taurua's case; nor can it, we think, be reasonably doubted that Titokowaru himself, as well as the tribes which had remained loyal, would at that moment have welcomed and accepted some definite reserves as the condition of his return in peace. Yet no impartial man will be tempted to condemn the Government, without thinking how great were the difficulties and anxieties which beset them at the time. In every previous phase of the struggle on the Coast we had had the support of the Queen's troops; and though these had long been forbidden to take the field, their presence in the centres of population had ever had a very great effect. But the prestige of that presence had been lost by the recent removal of the last regiment. In vain the Assembly had appealed to the Imperial Government to let even a thousand men stay for a year or two, offering to bear the whole cost of their pay and maintenance: the appeal had been inflexibly refused. In Waikato the King had openly and repeatedly invited the West Coast tribes to renew the war. On the East Coast, Te Kooti was still being tracked from fastness to fastness, ever on the point of capture, yet ever eluding, though in despair, our relentless pursuit. The force on the West Coast had been disbanded. The whole Colony had but just begun to show signs of revival after the reverses of so many years. The country was bent on a policy of peace. The Government had just raised their first loan under the Public Works Acts, had begun the stream of immigration, and were busy with roads and railways in both Islands. On the coast south of Waingongoro the settlers were fast rebuilding their homes and bringing their farms again into cultivation, while new-comers w rere rapidly pouring in. To them the future of the Waimate Plains was no burning question : what they cared for was that Ministers should keep faith with them and "let no rebel Native return to the country about Patea." Sixty contracts for the construction of public works were being carried out along the coast between Whanganui and New Plymouth : and a large number of Natives were at work, bridging the streams and forming the road over which an enterprising man had just been induced to start a coach between those places. The tribes about Patea were patiently awaiting the promised restoration of Taurua and his people, and had renewed their assurances of loyalty in person to the Governor. Differences which, had existed between the Imperial and Colonial Governments had but just been healed. Lord Granville had conceded the Imperial guarantee for a million, and the credit of the Colony had been re-established by the belief that all Native wars were at an end. The settlers on the New Plymouth side were constantly urging upon the Government the injustice to themselves of subjecting them to the danger of an outbreak if Titokowaru were made desperate by a prohibition of his return. The Natives along the whole line of coast were entreating the Government to forgive the past, and let the insurgents return to their homes. The insurgents themselves had come back one by one in secret, spreading themselves over all their former settlements north of Waingongoro. At the end of 1871 Titokowaru alone, with a few old men, yet lurked in the district where for three years he had sought refuge. To attempt at such a time the policy of treating these men as rebels and driving them once more away, was to risk all that had been gained during two years of peace. There were but three courses open to Sir Donald McLean: to drive them off by force, to insist upon their return upon defined reserves, or to yield a tacit consent to their reoccnpation, and bide his time. He chose the last. IV. —The Instructions of 1872. The Instructions of January 1872 may be summed up in a few words. South of Waingongoro the lands awarded to the Native tribes were to be defined and surveyed, and such of them as the owners were willing to sell were to be bought for the Government. North -of Waingongoro the land along the whole coast as far as Stoney river, "although nominally confiscated," was declared (except Opunake township) to be " unavailable for settlement until arrangements should be made with the Natives for land sufficient for their own requirements " : and the Native "owners" were to be "compensated for all lands they might relinquish " at rates not exceeding ss. per acre.

1872,

Sir D. McLean, Instructions, 20th January 1872. Appendix A, No. 3.

XVIII