Extracts.

Auckland Chronicle and New Zealand Colonist, Volume 2, Issue 59, 19 September 1844, Page 4

Extracts.

THE ABORIGINES OF NEW ZEALAND. The recent disaster in New Zealand has set moralizers at work to deplore, animadvert, and condemn: but its proper moral is neglected. As one of the harshest censors has confessed, a true judgment is impossible in the present imperfect state of our information. It is so imperfect, as we have reason to know, that any conclusion founded upon it must he utterly delusive. For example, it has generally been regretted that Mr. Thomson, the Magistrate, did not consent to await the arrival of Mr, Spain, the Commissioner of Land Claims, at the territory to be surveyed; now there is no reason to believe that Mr. Thomson or Capt. Wakefield, or even Col. Wakefield at Port Nicholson, was informed, until it was all over, of Mr. Spain’s intention to proceed to the land in question at a fixed time. Other instances might be given ; but it would be useless. To say that this part or that was to blame, settles nothing. It is not more Useful to deplore the exterminating course of British colonization; while to assert in bar of that colonization the “ rights’’ of the savages who occupy waste lands, may encourage the vague sentimentalism and cant that obscure the subject* but cannot prevent that irresistible march, and therefore cannot help the savage, though, by exciting in him a mad resistance, it may aggravate the terror of his doom. If immigrating colonization needed no precedent to justify it, that might he found in the past history of the World. Not only has suph colonization existed from time immemorial, but every advance in the progress of mankind has beep achieved by a conquering immigration, from the earliest times down to our own age. The banks of the great African

riyer were invaded from Syria; the Jews asserted a Divine mission to seize others’ lands ; the rude civilization of Italy was vivified by the incursion of cognate tribes from Greece and Phrygia; Spain owed its highest estate to the conquering Arabs j Home repaid -the debt of civilization which it had borrowed from Greece, to Britain ; Britain afterwards derived

the spirit of its institutions from Saxon invasion, and a new infusion of enterprise from the Normans ; and by such means the United States, with all the great American republics, exist. Invading colonization is irresistible, and, on the whole, for the good of mankind. But to oppose the appropriation of their lands by foreigners, the “rights” of so calj,ed aboriginal tribes are of the most nheer!£!” kind. There is hardly an in stance itr which, if the history of the occupying tribe can be traced back for a few generations, its own title is not based pn bloody or treacherous conquest. For instance, the Mexicans, dispossessed by Cortes, had exterminated the antecedent race. The New Zealanders, before our recent rule, were in a perpetual state of flux of dispossession and conquest. And if the chief's whom we dispossessed were “ aboriginal,” and not the invaders and conquerers of some inferior race, (which is far more probable,) each p£fi» tieufar domain was held solely by the right of the strong arm. This, then, is no sacied “ right,” to gainsay the decreed progress of the human race. “ Justice” can no more assert exclusive claim for the savage to broad lands which he cannot turn to use. An able corress: pendent of the Times, “ Late a settler at Nelson,” who puts doctrines from which we do. not in general dissent, in a some*

what austere form says—“ All property whatever among men exists and originates in labour, even in the less palpable case of finding such things as gold and diamonds. On this principle, the New Zealand savage has no title whatever to the possession of the wild lands, and the man who improves them acquires the only right to such property; which, in fact, then only begins to assume a value.” It is slso most highly probable, argues the same writer, that the natives of New Zealand, left to themselves, would not cultivate a larger quantity of land than that which they already use, and to which their right, is indefeasible, for the next ten thousand years ; and indeed the wild land is of no use whatever to them. The Times calls this “ thieves’ morality”; and indignantly exclaims—“ Because they did not cultivate more than was requisite for their own wants, ergo, we are »o take it from them, in order that we may cultivate it to the measure of our wants I” This is no answer to the Settler, who asks whether the sparse Red hunters of North America had a right to forbid the existence of the great Anglo-American nation ? It is not written that special territories were given to each of the races of mankind; and the very transmigration of the human family shows that the whole globe is lor all. Millions are not to be hemmed in the narrow compass of Britain, while less than their number roam about the vast wilds of the earth. It is just, as well as inevitable, that civilized man should spread abroad, carrying with him the arts of life. It is not to be denied that the course of colonization has often been disastrous, if not destructive to “ aboriginal ” races; and it should be the part of the conscien tious legislator to render the inevitable process as little hurtfdl as it can be made to the weaker tribes. If the British people could not forbear its march into the wild—which it could not—other European races would not forbear. If New Zealand had not been occupied by England, it would have been occupied by France, or the United States, or buccas neers of all nations ; let the aborigines of the Mississipi, or of the antities say whether the New Zealanders would have gained by the change! But the being able to vindicate itself in the comparison does not exonerate England from endeavouring to lighten the process to the New Zealand savage. We are bound to compensate him for that which we take from him. There is much delusion touching this “ compensation,” as well as the “ value ” of thp lands to the savage. To give him a few blankets and knives, may suffice as inducement to surrender he knows not what; but such payment “ compensa iion ” is absurd and nefarious. Some, with a higher notiou of the “ rights ” off savages, have asked for hundreds oft “guineas” for little patches of land—guineas, to be spent probably in gew gaws, fire-arms, or “ fire-water.” These European methods of estimating values by false standards—standards of value to Europeans, pr of temptation to untaught minds-do not determine the real value to the savage. The value of the land to him is his existence, its means of prolongation and enjoyment ; and that is the value which the European should return. T,he early colonists of New Zealand promulgated a plan for rendering that due to the Aborigine*, by reserves of laud for their use, with value enhanced by settlement, aud with a scheme (which some thought fanciful) for creating an aboriginal aristocracy as a means of attracting the race Safely within the pale of civilization. What d J the local government, assumed control over the matter, do with the reserves? We believe, nothing. The first scheme, therefore, to mitigate for the savage the hardships of the colonizing process, has been placed in abeyance by the Government. It is as yet un tried ; and no ot,her need be suggested on the score of compensation, until that he subjected to the test of actual experiment. But another duty is owing towards savage and settler. It is necessary for the safety and welisheing of bo h, that the, savage, whether ..within, the settlements or on the Frontier, should be sufficiently controlled. Our forms of law obstruct justice; expose jJ&gs) settlers; who are bound by them, to n and irregular aggressions, which they artY forbidden to

resist ; at one time tempt the savage to steal a march upon the spell bound settler —at another, alarm or irritate him with unintelligible ceremonies and restrictions. Its principles are utterly beyond his comprehension, its rules are not to be retained by his memory or reconciled with his habits. In ninety nine cases out of a hundred, it does not apply to the circumstances. We want, then, a code for the relations of aborigines with settlers—a simple, comprehensive, intelligibe law, a formula of plain natural justice, suited to the geographical and social circumstances, The want is not felt alone in New Zealand, to prevent disasters like that now deplored : it is a daily fell want all along the vast frontier of our colony at the Cape of Good Hope, to prevent grievances of all classes, from petty theft to murder—sources of discontent, and even of recent and ill-suppresaed rebellion. These then, are the two wants of which we areTeininded by the shocking event at Wairau—a method of justly and effectually compensating the savage for that which he losese when his land becomes civilized ; a law to regulate the intercourse of settlers and aborigines in our colonies. The future historian will be amazed that England should have colonized for two centuries without making such provision for the defence and control of the dispossessed tribes.— Special or.