THE WAIKATO MURDER.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume I, Issue 88, 5 July 1873, Page 3

THE WAIKATO MURDER.

TO TUB EDITOR. Sra,— No one more heartily depict the recent atrocity than 1 do. Under any circumstances a violation of the command, * Thou shait not kill,* is extremely revolting and greatly to be jfleplored. I trust, however, in our horror and detestation of the crime, the Government will not bo urged by the cry from without into undue precipitancy to avenge the outrage. Thanks to the Defence Minister, the lion D. McLean, and the Government With winch he i» associated, for our immunity from bloodshed and the calamities of war during the last few years. Thanks to that policy 1 The bow has been broken and the spear cub in sunder,* and from one end of New Zealand to the other we have for a considerable time enjoyed the blessings of peace. Each man has been able to 8»t under his own vine and fig tree, none daring to make him at raid. Under this benign rule great progress has been made in this settlement, isolated as it is, in the construction of roads, the erection of bridges, the building of houses, the occupation of farms, the establishment of schools, fencing, and other signs of industrial enterprise. On every side symptoms of health, happiness, and prosperity meet the eye. And are our villages to be again laid desolate—our wive* and children slain P Are our fruitful field# once more to be laid waste, our commerce annihilated, our credit stopped, immigration checked, our public works übandone.l, and the ooiony thrown back for years f I sincerely trust not, and that tie whose name is Jehovah will dispose of the gloom at present hovering over us for the permanent benefit and advantage of this our adopted land. As Europeans we have bt on too insensible of our mercies, and on account of our crying sins He might justly revive serious disturbance# in our midst. Xam sorry to notice on the part of the Europeans such a storm of indignation against the Native Office, and the policy of the Defence Minister, the Hon D. McLean. It has been said that his Honor’s policy with the natives is of too pacific a character, and that it is high time it wore swept awny. I ask you to say, is it not cheaper to feed the natives than to fight them ? Hut I deny that his policy is what it Iras been nicknamed one of sugar and flour, I regard his policy as the most enlightened and Christian iu its operation. It is firmness combined with kindness, judgment tempered with mercy—a system of education and civilisation. What is opening up of roads by the employment of native labour, and opening schools in centres of native population, but a system of education and an attempt to raise the aboriginals from their preseht degraded position ? Even road making is eminently calculated to bring together the two and to train the Maori to habits of European thought and manners, Nor is his enlightened and Christian course without a precedent iu the history of the past. The ease of William Penn is in point, and a fair illustration of kindness in its bearing* on rude and savage nations. Charles 11. scouted the idea of Pemrs project j he decried his peace principles, prophecying that the/ would signally fail, and in their room advised the use of the musket and the bayonet. i Ijo result was that Penn and the Quakers lived safely, while the other colonies, acting on the war policy, were involved almost incessantly in conflicts with the Indians. Pennsylvania, during her seventy years of peace policy, remained without harm from the American Indians, but as soon as she changed that policy, suffered the same calamities with the other colonies. And this policy is in keeping with the teaching of our I) vine Lord himself s “Resist not evil, but whoeuuver will smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also,’ *lf thine enemy hungers,* says Paul, ‘feed him; if be thirst, give him drink i for in bo doing thou shait heap coals of fire on his head,’ And we all know by experience that, if wo have an enemy, the best way of burning out his resentment i* by returning good for the evil done us. Then £ would not follow the murderers into the King country and bring the outlaws to justice ? I did not say that ; but I would not hastily plunge the colony into war. I would do all I could by reason and conference with the aggressors, and let the last resource be an appeal to arms. It Is very easy to hold meetings and magnlloquently to animadvert against the Native Office and the Defence Minister, whose policy in this ooiony has not yet been equalled ; but I would ask the clamourers seriously which would be the lesser evil : that the murderers should -escape or that the colony should be plunged into war and many a family mantled in mourning ?—I am, &0., J,M. Opotiki, June 10, 1873.