THE NEW ZEALAND POLICY OF THE HOME GOVERNMENT.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1962, 19 August 1869, Page 2

THE NEW ZEALAND POLICY OF THE HOME GOVERNMENT.

An important despatch from Earl Granville has been published on the proposed guaranteed loan for New Zealand, in which the Colonial Minister states his views and those of the Government on New Zealand affairs generally. Mr Fitzherbert was deputed by the New Zealand government to endeavor to procure from the Treasury a guarantee for a loan of L 1,500,000. Earl Granville having forwarded a copy of Mr Fitzherbert’s letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, “ my lords” took it into consideration, and on the 11th March sent word to the Colonial Department that they were not prepared to recommend Parliament to guarantee the proposed loan. Earl Granville, in enclosing a copy of the refusal to Governor Sir G. F. Bowen, says that he concurs in the refusal, and proceeds to remind the ■ governor “ of the view of facts taken by the Imperial Government,” which in New Zealand, his lordship adds, “ may not be prominently brought under your notice. It is this”: -

A number of Englishmen, without any invitation or encomagement from the English Government, took on themselves to form one or more settlements in the islands of New Zealand. The Government of the day considered itself responsible for placing the relations between these British subjects and the Natives among whom they settled on a reasonable basis, and for seeming order among the settlers. It therefore acquired the islands by treaty from the Natives, and established a regular government in the settlements. The treaty did not render the English Government liable to the payment of a subsidy (as might be supposed from Mr Eitzherbert’s phrase), or any other onerous conditions, but merely gave the Natives the rights of British subjects, and bound the Queen to respect their territorial rights; rights, it may be observed, the ex is tence of which were perfectly recognised among the tribes, and which they were always ready to support by force of arms if necessary. The Government was amenable at first to the Home Government, afterwards almost wholly to the settlers. But it was never at any time attempted to make New Zealand tributary to Great Britain, or to direct local affairs in such a way as to produce any political or pecuniary advantage to this country. The colony was governed with a view to the real or supposed advantage of the inhabitants. In one part of the Colony, New Plymouth, a great and not unnatural desire existed to acquire part of the neighboring lands from the Natives. The Governor, holding as an Imperial officer the position cf protector of Native rights, but also anxious to gratify the desire of the colonists, took a step satisfactory to his responsible advisers, to the local Legislature, and apparently to the mass of colonists, though blamed by some as inconsistent with those duties to the Natives, which were in some sense Imperial. The result of this step, taken entirely in the interests and with the approval of the colonists, was a war carded on partly at the expense of New Zealand, but principally at the expense of this country. And the result of the war is, that the leading tribe of the Maoris is scattered ; that the power of the others is broken, and that large tracts of land to which the Government had no claim, and the settlers no access, except by friendly arrangement with the Natives, are confiscated, sold, and occupied by Europeans. It may be added, though not part of the argument, that meanwhile the number of the colonists has risen from 49,800 in 1857 to 218,500 in 18C7, and that of the Maoris is supposed, with more of conjecture, to have fallen from 50,000 to 38,500. If this statement is correct, it follows that the Imperial Government have not transferred to that of the Colony any obligation whatever, except that imposed on all of us by natural justice, not to appropriate the property of others ; that all the Imperial expenditure on the Colony has been for the benefit of the colonists, and a great part of it may bo viewed as the juice paid by this country for the territories which have been recently, and as I think unwisely, appropriated by them ; and lastly, that no part of the Colonial expenditure has been in any degree for the benefit of the mother country. So far, therefore, as there is any equitable claim remaining unsettled, it is not a claim on the part of New Zealand against Groat Britain, but the reverse;

a claim, and a very heavy claim, if we thought proper to urge it, on the part of the mother country against the Colony. Lastly, Mr Fitzherbert says that the Imperial Government “ insisted” on transferring the burden of its obligations to the Native race from itself to the Colony. What the nature of these obligations are, in the opinion of the home Govermrnent, I have already noticed. But I must add that Her Majesty’s Government view this transfer not as forced on the Colony, but on the contrary, conceded to the Colony in compliance with the direct and indirect demands of the colonists. The duty of protecting themselves against those whom they claim a right to govern followed as a matter of course, I cannot help observing, that if the opinions expressed at different times by my predecessors are correct, the present dangers are due not to the punctual performance of their obligations to the Maori race, but rather to their adoption of a policy which, fif not inconsistent with those obligations, was certain to appear so to the Natives affected by it. The Times (May 19) observes that Mr Fitzherbert, in applying to the Imperial Government for the guarantee, implies that the Government of this country took the initiative, for some purpose of its own, in acquiring the sovereignty of New Zealand, Less explicitly stated, this is the idea which constantly influences the minds of the colonists. They wish us to regard them in the character sustained by colonists in Greek and Roman times, when colonists were sent out from the mother city, and supported by military force, with the express object of territorial or political aggrandisement. It is a clear matter of history that the English colonies have a totally different origin. They have in no way sprung from the action of the Government, but have grown up, almost accidentally, from the spontaneous acts of individual Englishmen, who were simply pursuing their own interests. We sympathise with our countrymen in their difficulties, but we are bound to reject unreasonable and unjust claims. We do not even now repudiate all responsibility for the colonists. But the time has come when, as they have admitted in cooler moments, they are able to help themselves, and they ought to do so.