THE DECLINE OF MAORI KINGISM.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1447, 4 January 1887, Page 3

THE DECLINE OF MAORI KINGISM.

The telegrams rect-ived on Thursday from Wellington with reference to i Native matiers appear to show very l conclusively that a complete change his come over the feelings of the 1 Maori people, and that ihe policy of jealous ttolat on, which found ils expression m the setting up of Potatau as the first Maori King, thus establish- , ing an impetium m impefio, with the aukati line as the demarcation of its boundaries, has been already abandoned by the great bulk of the. Native race. At the tangi held over the remains of his son Tv I'awhiao — who had he lived would have been the successor of Tawhiao, himself the successor oi Potatau— the present so-called " Maori King" lamented that his mana had departed from Him. '• Some of my people at Kawhia (said -he) have forsaken and disobeyed me," and he went on plaintively to ask* why they should thus rebel against him. Then, changing his tone to one almost of threatening, he warned his hearers not to have anything to do with Land Courts or with leasing land to the Pakehas, and hinted that there would be trouble if his warning were unheeded. But neither entreaty nor threat see.-ned to have any effect upon the minds of his heaiers, the chief Hone te One, as spokesman for these, plainly resenting the assumption by Tawhiao of kingly authority over the land. This is what Te One said : " The land ?bout Kawhia does not belong to Tawhiao. I know of no portion of it that belongs to him. The Land Court for Kawhia is now being erected, and we shall have a Land Court here. Then it will be seen who are the true owners of Kawhia. When the land goes through the Court, and is allotted to the proper owners it will then rest with them to do as they please with it." 1 his was a plain declaration that the Natives are well aware of their rights under the laws of the colony, and that ihey are fully determined to mako use of our Courts for the settlement of questions of tribal and individual ownership. And this very necessary work, with a view to the settlement of the country by Europeans, is rapidly being pioceeded with, no less than a million and a half of acres having recently been passed through the Land Court, and this is expected to be sub-divided into individual holdings m a couple of months time. All this is a satisfactory indication of the desire of the Natives to come* under the segis of our laws — m 'a word, indicates that instead of seeking to keep thenselves a distinct people, they are now ready to cast m their lot with the Pakeha. For this pleasing state of affairs much is due to the wise administration of Native affaiis since the present Native Minister took office, and a better proof of the confidence of the Maori people m the present administration could not be given than is afforded by their ready acceptance of the - machinery provided by law for eeltling the title'of their lands ; a confidence which was emphasised the other day by the ■enormous majority polled for Hone Tapua, the Government candidate for the Western Maori electoral district.