The Daily Telegraph TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2978, 11 January 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1881.

The resignation by Mr Bryce of his portfolio in the Hall Ministry, though it will cause little or no surprise, will be heard with general regret. With institutions such as ours it is impossible to have two directors of native affaire. Mr Bryce must have keenly felt the anomalous position in which he wae placed by the advent of a Governor armed with extraordinary and ill-defined powers with regard to aboriginal races. How far tboee powers can be stretched so as to be made to fpply to the Maoris : to what extent those powers encroach upon the province of Ministers; and how much duty the Governor owes to the Imnerial Ministry, and how much to the Constitution of New Zealand, are questions that are grad tally unfolding tbemselves, and rendering a Native Minister's position in the Cabinet un> tenable. It is now tolerably certain that there was much more behind the Governor's letter of invitation to Te Whiti than has been allowed to appear on the surface. About the time when the Premier addressed his memorandum to the Governor in respect to Te Whiti, meetings of the Cabinet were constantly being held. At a meeting held on December 21 it was resolved to release the first batch of Maori prisoners; on the following day the memorandum was signed in which Ministers practically left the pacification of the West Coast troubles in the bands of the Governor. Since then several more batches of native political piisoners have been released, the Governor has been insulted by Te Whiti, and, finally, Mr Bryce has resigr,_J. IfMrßryce's resignation is due to other causes than those we have indicated, the Ministry owe it to the country to state what they are. Our telegram says that Mr Bryce parts with his colleagues on perfectly friendly terms, and it hints that he leaves because his advice is not accepted that active measures should be adopted towards Te Whiti. The public have the right to know why at this particular time the Native Minister's advice was not taken by his colleagues. Up to this Mr Bryce had the confidence of his fellow Ministers and the confidence of the country at large. Is it not possible that the advice he tendered was less acceptable to the Governor than to the Cabinet, and that, finding he was to retain the responsibility, though his duties were to be cut into, he resigned rather than be a puppet to be made to dance accordidg to every fresh interpretation put upon instructions to His Excellency from the Imperial Government? Mr Bryce's resignation will seriously weaken the Ministry. For nearly eighteen months a large field force has had to be maintained on the West Coast at immense expense to watch the vagaries of Te Whiti. It is more than probable that without *his exhibition of preparedness for war Te Whiti would bave proceeded to extremities. His peaceful pretensions, after the precautions that were taken, were increased by every accession to the ranks of the Armed Coustabulary. He first prophesied tbe extinction of the pakeha by means of a flood, that might be interpreted to mean war, but discovering that we were quite ready to fight he changed his tune. Mr Bryce has had enough of this folly, and he knows that tbe country is heartily tired of a state of things that has nothing to recommend its continuance. The incarceration of Te Whiti would have settled the difficulty long ago by showing the natives that the demands of settlement and of good government could no longer brook obstruction by the foolish ravings of an uncivilised lunatic. We do not believe that Ministers were altogether averse to the adoption of strong measures when all otners had failed, and therefore we are inclined to attribute Mr Bryce's resignation, and the continuance of a policy of trifling with a serious danger, to the influence of the Governor.