THE PARIHAKA AFFAIR.
■TO THE EDITOR OF THE PKESS. Sir, —I am pleased to see that Mr Luxford doesn't like Mr Alpei__ turn on the limelight and talk such nonsense as about pillaging and burning. While admitting that Mr Luxford saw more than Mr Atpere, and that his opinion is more reliable ' than some "specials" -who wrote to ths paper-, and whri were known among journalists as romancers, still Mr Luxlord cannot be considered as good an authority a3 the settler-, who, ho admits, strongly disagreed with him. One can understand wny the settlers could not agree with Mr Luxford. The settlers had as good a title to their land as tho Wosleyans had to the section- on which their churches are biu;t, the only difference I can sea being that the stealing of the land oacurred at different periods. If we are once to allow that the Maoris had a grievance because of land being stolen, we shall have to be careful to be consistent. The settlers -had the title, and no band of Maoris i_ going to upset what gives proprietorship according to the laws of all nations. The Maoris did not try to take the roof off the house in which'Mr Luiford lived in, nor did tbey tiy to deprive him of what was to maintain him, nor had he a wife and children clamouring to be taken to a place of safety. Mr Luxford was too far away and in a comparatively populous district to have any trouble like the settlers. They . lived in lew populous places than Mr Luxford, they built their own houses, and depended upon the product of the land for sustenance. Mr Luxford s house, though not palatial, was not so humble as these of the settlers, and the nouroe of his income was more sure than that of the settlers after the Maoris got harassing them. On his pastoral visits among the Maons Mr Luxford would be received with -miles, both childlike and bland, and when he got to __* cosy home, over fifty milei away, ne would write up the poor Maori. Tha fattier, on the other hand, would come to a less cosy home, find some sulky and menacing Maoris about, and his wife n tears. One can consequently understand. tho differences of opinion. "Mr • Luxford cays thafc'Tohu expressed surprise at t_e enlisting of so many constabulary and the building of blockhouses. Had *Tohu expressed the same to me, I would have replied that he knew why the enlistment was taking place, but would have asked bun where the bk>c_ho_Bes were b_il_uv?. But iit is not to be supposed that Mr Luxford, I living so far away, should know wb_teit_er the coB-tabulary or the Maoris were doing, or what the people in the wilderness had to I put up with-—Yours, etc., ZE___A_fl>lA.
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Press, Volume LX, Issue 11488, 22 January 1903, Page 3
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472THE PARIHAKA AFFAIR. Press, Volume LX, Issue 11488, 22 January 1903, Page 3
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