Answers to Correspondents.

Auckland Examiner, Volume 1, Issue 33, 30 July 1857, Page 2

Answers to Correspondents.

A.B. — manifests more zeal than discretion. No Native Policy of Downing-street will secure peace, freedom, and prosperity for New Zealand. It may be quite clear that our General As sembly knows very little about either Native character or Native affairs; but a New Zealand Parliament must be stupidest of all

stupid legislative bodies, if it do not know more of Native wants and Native capacities than the best Blue-Book-fudge crammed British Parliament that ever sat, or is likely to sit, at Westminster. Many communications in reference to the Native Question have reached us, but for only a part of one can we x now find room. It is tempera te in tone, and humane in spirit. A.B. will perceive that the II hangaroa Grazier is no “ in ere theorist” but one of those " working settlers,” he thinks “ ought to know best.” “ JFe trust that the distinct marking out of the line which we intend to adopt will have the effect of increasing the number of the communications which we receive from those who are actually resident among the Native population, whether in the form of objection or acquiescence. The one or the other will be considered by us with equal attention.”— Southern Cross, June Moth, 1857. To the Editor of the Auckland Examiner. Sir, —I do not understand whether the Editor of the Southern Cross in the above paragraph requests residents among the Dative population to write to him for his own information, or whether he intends to publish those letters. As I am entirely opposed to any of his views on the Native Question, I could not expect him to publish this letter, and as the Native difficulty is now becoming of public interest I shall feel obliged if you can find room for it in your columns. Government, the Editor- of the Cross modestly tells vs, is of one accord with some of his "suggestions” and I think with most of them, according to the Native reports of intended changes. If Government carries out the " suggestions ’ in the shape of a code of laws for the Natives setting apart aboriginal districts, appointing itinerant magistrates, &c., they will succeed in collecting as nasty a mess as the celebrated banquet after the manner of the ancients, described in the interesting history of Mr. Peregrine Pickle. Before we attempt to make for the Maoris, laws about marriage and divorce, we ought to reform our own infamous laios on these matters ; but in supposing the Maoris to be British subjects have we the power of altering the law of England on the subjec ? England allows the colonists of Au. tr ilia and Neio Zealand to hang one another when they feel inclined to, indulge in the spectacle of a man hanging from a gallows, said to be the highest mark of civilization; but. a divorce! No! If a colonist wishes to indulge in that luxury he must seek it on his knees, and at a vast expense from the house of incurables sitting in London, the said house being afraid to touch the present law of divorce, though the highest legal authority sitting there declared it to be a scandal and a disgrace. When the House of Lords sees the code now being framed in Auckland, it may be encouraged again to attempt to alter the law of England. Are we going to confer on the Maoris our law that enables a creditor to cast into jail and make a slave of his debtor? A more barbarous law than, with one exception, existed in New Zealand when the illustrious Dutchman first landed on its shores. Setting apart aboriginal districts is about the best way we could contrive to teach the Maoris combination —the only thing that can make them formidable to us. The gentleman who has suggested these changes, is, I am informed, to be the Native magistrate and boasts that "he will be a little Monarch among the Maoris. In this case he will have marvellously filthy subjects, and must indeed have a strange taste to affect their soverffnty. A short time ago you quoted, as from Chambers, a very correct account of the Maoris. Chambers has plagiarised the account from Power's Sketches in New Zealand, where you tvill find it and a good deal more about the interesting Natives. Chambers is a greater pirate than Galignani, without the excuse of that admirable newspaper. To return, however, to the Maoris. My present occupation forces me to see more of them than I find pleasant. 1 hold frequent conversations rcith them. I am deeply interested in our peaceful relations with them, and am of opinion that unless wc treat them with more justice and kindness a heavy day of reckoning will arrive, and that speedily. Among the theories of our day is the theory that o r : orl I is in a state ofpr .gression and that whenever the white race multiplies and increases it exterminates the abori ginal black race. Those who can contrast our impotent attempts at building, and pier and harbour making with the majest c temples erected and carved many thousand years ago at Ellora andßalbec may doubt the first theory ; but America and Australia prove the truth of the second. We are, therefore, in the vanguard of the pale-faced army destined to overrun the lovely islands of the Southern Hemisphere and exterminate their black inhabitants. Butif we do not perform our duty with more justice and prudence we shall undoubtedly meet with more reverses than any we have yet experienced, and they have been bad enough. We in NewZcaland may, if we please, salve our conscience with the idea that if we had not made our appearance the Natives would have exterminated one another ; or like the Kilkenny cats have fought till only their tails were left. The Natives themselves allow this. Before Whalers had tamed the Maoris sufficiently to admit Missionaries!' before the first gentleman in Europe, George the Magni-

ficent, had presented his brother Ilongi with a sword, inscribed “ George IV-., King of Great Britain to Ilongi, King of New Zealand” (so this king-making is nothing new), with that sword the Ngaphuhi chief desolated the northern part of the Island. Before all this, FFhipalo had swept the East and West Coasts. Those driven from the west Coast under Te Hauperahara had conquered and exterminated those on Cooks' Straits and so on. The first act of justice to the Natives should consist in abolishing Governor Grey's three unjust and impolitic restrictions on their rights as British subjects. I need scarcely explain that 1 mean the laws relative to sale of land by the Natives and the sale of arms and spirits to them. The first law was for getthe land. The Government land purchasers either cannot or will not purchase; had they zealously performed the duty they were paid to perform, the whole island (reserves excepted) might have been purchased; butthen Othello's occupation would have gone were Nativ S allowed to sell the land to the best bidder. Government should grant a title after the proposed sale has been advertised, and the purchaser one or more years in quiet occupation, charging an acre for surveying, etc.; for whatever Government charges, the Natives expect the same, and a land-tax is about the least felt tax that can be raised. It is notorious that the Natives purchase whatever quantity of arms, powder, and spirits they like ; they have to pay more but probably purchase more than they would were the sale legalised. Human nature is much the same, whether represented in ebony or ivory, and when you tell a man that he shall not have a thing he considers htmself entitled to it,you raise the old Adam in him, and have it he will. (To be concluded in our next.)