The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3040, 24 March 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 1881.

In another column will be found a condensed report of the speech delivered by Mr Bryce last night to the electors of Wanganui so far as it referred to native affairs and to his retirement from the Ministry, two subjects of the greatest interest to the whole of the colony. Mr Bryce, it will be seen, has made a splendid defence of the vigorous policy he proposed to pursue, and he has shown tbat the vacillation aud weakness exhibited by the Government in dealing with the natives were due to his colleagues. As in financial matters so in Maori affairs Ministers have had to be forced by their friends to take the proper course. We have shown on previous occasions how Mr Ormond compelled the Government to amend the estimates, and retrench expenditure, and now we learn that the native difficulty would have gone on increasing its proportions had not Mr Eryce taken the bull by the boms. Up to a certain point Mr Bryce moulded the native policy of the Ministry, but when affairs came to the desired position at whieb it was nt-cessary to make a decisive mow Urn tbe wmp vf Mlnittm

failed tlifcin, *ud ] \h- 2ryce retired. How will the Govern r at ..answer the well Merited tauntf; t 3,"<.: leero of the country ■vher» Parii<U£Ci..t rvetsT? We have seen I.)? Major Atkinson credit for the .-ouomiocO. administration that has characterised tb- > cesp, and so, probably, Mr ■ftolle?"rti will ask Parliament to rrplarx' *be t . • rnment for what has beeu &ceon?lisb•.■:«. n the West Coast, is to b3 ho>je<. L<;wever, that honor will be given whe, cit is due, and that the Government *vi I be properly regarded as merely an ■nwilling instrument up to a certain point, and then as thoroughly hostile to the policy they would take credit for carrying out. It is more than apparent that the native difficulty is, and has been, entirely owin-* to the vacillation of successive Ministries. If Mr Bryce had been allowed to have had his own way there would have been no more difficulty on the Wes* Coa?t. Unfortunately too many thrive aud prosper under troublous times with the natives >.rid, perhaps, the withdrawal of the constabulary force would not have suited Major Atkinson's constituents. Mr Biyce would have dealt with Te Whiti and his followers in the only way eemi-savages can understand and appreciate ; but the effeminate nature of his colleagues clung to the sugar and blanket policy of bye-gone year?, and continued a state of affairs that will prolong the existence of that Augean stable, the Native Derj-u ■■ sent.