Raglan Maories.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1691, 20 July 1875, Page 4

Raglan Maories.

" Under which King ?—Speak or Die !"

RAGLAN,

(From our own Correspondent.)

When I called attention to the careless neglect and ill-treatment of the friendly Maories in this district, I did not expect that we should so soon see the fruit of the mismanagement of the Native Department. The principal friendly Maories of Raglan and Aotea, and their followers, are now (as I am informed) cultivating side by side with the Maori King at Te Rua Uku, Kawhia. That I may be open to correction, I give their names : Hone Te One, Wetene Moon, etc. Some of them are, or were, in Government employment and pay. For years past the King has been striving to get these men to join him, and the only wonder is that they have so long resisted his invitations. Why the Maori share of the revenue should be almost exclusively spent upon the King's Maories (Hauhaus), the Native Office alone can tell. The friendlies are sufficiently astute to appreciate their situation, hence the defection. When in Waipa, I was told that William Ngaweke, one of the principal Whata Whata natives, asked for a pair of harrows^ and was curtly refused. "Were I a Hauhau," retorted Ngaweke, "you would grant my request." You had better give them to him, said one of the Maori satellites. "On consideration I will grant your request."—The Puketutu scandal is still in the limbo of the General Government. I understand that the short portage road, so mysteriously sold and closed, will be reopened ; but how about the road on the right bank of the Waitetuna river ? As the right to survey and take this road will lapse in October, unless the General Government take immediate steps, the fortunate purchaser of the reserve for three shillings an acre, will be able to demand his own price for allowing a road to be made. In the meantime there is no public road through the reserve, and Mr Cogswell and the Messrs Wilson have no road to their homesteads. So thoroughly is the neglect of the Friendly Maories looked upon as " the rule of right and the fitness of things," that the only occasion on which the member for Raglan was inspired to open his mouth during the late sitting of the Provincial Council, was to denounce the extravagance of giving them some seed potatoes. Contrast this with the gifts made to the King Maoris. Te Aihepene, a chief of the Ngatiteaha, on his marriage with a sister of the Maori King, two years ago, received, as I heard at the time, £100 cash, a gold watch and chain, etc., etc. Sir George Grey is the only man capable of interposing and rectifying this lamentable state of affairs. Sir Donald McLean may if he pleases call the Friendly Maoris joining the King, "the establishment of cordial relations," but I assert that the King Maoris have consistently declared that they will only make peace on the restoration of the Waikato, and the country is lulled by Sir Donald McLean into a state of false security, for the after consequences of which he is responsible.