COUNTRY EDITION. The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, JULY 12, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3132, 12 July 1881, Page 2

COUNTRY EDITION. The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, JULY 12, 1881.

Amongst certain sections of colonists it bas become a habit to tbink tbat the work performed by missionaries in their relations towards the natives of this island was of little avail. Bat by those who were acquainted with the Maoris in the early days of the colony, and with the nature of what the missionaries did in the cause of civilisation, a very different opinion is entertained. It detracts nothing from the merits of missionary work that tbe fauna of New Zealand competing the natives to turn their attention to agriculture lessened to a very great extent the task of reclaiming the savage. The Maori was not by nature a hunter, for the reson that there was nothing to hunt. Had the plains and the forests contained herds of buffalo and deer the natives would have been found broken up into wandering tribes, and would have been as difficult to tame as tbe North American Indians. As it happened, the Maoris were, for savages, a stationary people, and, consequently, wherever the missionary established himself at or near a native settlement, he found himself surrounded by a fixed population upon which he could exercise a continuous influence, Some of the first effects of civilisation upon the natives, after the comparative abandonment of inter-tribal warfare were seen in the declining influence of the chiefs, and in the improved coudition of the people.

The missionary schools taught that there was dignity in labor, and that wealth and ease should be attained by work and thrift, and not by theft and the murder of enemies. The value ot these lessons cannot be over estimated ; and now that missionary influence over the Maoris has almost completely ceased to exist, we can learn to appreciate what it did for the colouy in the past by imagining what the native race would be now if that influence had continued to be exerted to the present time. When under that influence the natives were sober and industrious; they were large exporters of surplus grain, &c, and they were friendly to tbe settlement of the country. Now all is reversed. They can no longer be considered a sober people ; they are very far from being industrious ; they oppose settlement; and they cannot at all times supply themselves with food. This remarkable change is due of course to a variety of causes, but tbere can be no doubt that one of tbe chief has been the character of our legislation with regard to native lands, which has taught them to look to the possession of vast areas of courtry as the source of wealth rather than to the cultivation of that which they could profitably occupy. The consequence has been that, settlement beinc retarded, tbe Government has bad to bend to pressure and abandon its preemptive right to purchase native lands. For the protection of the Maoris under these new circumstances against fraud, practised, be it understood, by themselves against e_ch other, as much, or more, as by unscrupulous land buyers, a number of laws have been enacted from time to time, the general effect of which has been to surround all efforts to alienate the native title with innumerable difficulties, the result of which is seen in the inextricably involved condition of the titles to lands on the East Coast, and to some extent in Hawke's Bay. This is one result of our legislation, but there is another danger looming in the distance. Our legislation will have the effect of building up a Maori territorial aristocracy that will owe its wealth and its political influence to the industry of the colonists and to the progress of settlement. In the early days of the colony there was sufficient excuse for not imposing upon the natives the responsibilities, which are regarded .as privileges by Europeans, that attach to the possession of landed property. There is no excuse to be offered now for such leniency. The Maoris know the value of laud as well as we do, and they further know that every yeari as the numbers of colonists increase, so does their land become more valuable, because more coveted for settlement. Possession costs them nothing : they pay no rates, neither can they be compelled to contribute towards the formation of roads, or the construction of bridges, by which they are enabled to command high rentals for the patches of land tbey may please to let on lease. The policy of the Government ot the colony has been directed, apparently, to make the natives selfish, grasping, and exacting; to make tbem claim everything as a right due by tbe country to an inferior race, and to hold themselves free to give nothing in return —not even loyalty. This has been the difference between missionary influence over the Maoris, and the influence tbat has been exerted over them by the character of our legislation. Major Atkinson's proposal that the Government should pay the rates to local bodies that he thinks should fairly be imposed on native lands is of a piece with previous and mistaken legislation. It can but have the one effect of confirming in the Maori mind the opinion that the Maori race owes nothing to civilisation, nothing to settlement, nothing for the vastly improved value ot the country, by which they are enabled to live in idleness, and to discount a problematical sale of land at every store. In the natural order of events this state of things will not be permitted to continue, and it is not difficult to foretell in what manner a change will be brought about. A time will come when those to whose industry and enterprise a young nation will owe its existence will regard the remnants of a slothful native race as an encumbrance and as a drag to progress. The sons of our present legislators will have little of that sympathy that is now entertained for the Maoris, and the laws tbat tbey will make will certainly determine the existence of the natives, for it will be shown plainly to them that those who are not for this country are against it.