MR STAFFORD’S NATIVE POLICY.

Evening Star, Issue 2987, 14 September 1872, Page 4

MR STAFFORD’S NATIVE POLICY.

{From the Li/ttdton Times.) The new Premier intends “to make it his personal care to attend to Native matters, and would meet the Maoris face to face without the intervention of third parties.” There is more valor than discretion in this determination, and the question suggests itself, how is Mr Stafford to dispense with the intervention of “third parties”? Is he such a consummate Maori scholar, is he so thoroughly versed in Maori loro, Maori etiquette, and Maori customs—in a word, does he know the Maoris so thoroughly as to give the country a reasonable hope that he will succeed in governing the Natives and maintaining the peace -which Mr M'Lean has established on a sound and lasting basis? Time will show r , but meanwhile the general impression will be that Mr (Stafford has struck out a task for himself which he has not the peculiar capacity to accomplish satisfactorily. Indeed, it may be said without the slightest exaggeration that his proposal to undertake personally the management of Native affairs has already excited alarm and induced a vague dread of the ultimate consequences. The 1 Maoris know that, before he retired from office in 18G9, he proposed to “conquer a permanent peace ’ by means of borrowed money.. They don’t forget such things, and they will look with suspicion on the man who had at one time made up his mind to involve the Colony in what would have been a war of extermination. But there is another and far greater cause for apprehension. The rebel Natives, or rather those Natives who are still without the pale of professed loyalty, do not count for so much. It is the Friendlies, the neutrals, and the indifferent who have chielly to be taken into account. Mr Stafford—such is his character among the Maoris—has deceived all in turn, and has therefore forfeited all claim to their support or confidence in time of need. The danger is principally in this direction, and we do not hesitate to say that it is serious, though perhaps not imminent. What is Mr Stafford’s Native policy ? He informed the House that he had received a large number of letters from Natives, “ who all seemed to desire to have a Native Minister that could not speak Maori.” We do not, of course, question the truth of this statement, but we do question its accuracy and genuineness so far as the Maoris are con* corned. O.i the face of it, it is ridiculous, and Mr (■ tailor. 1 makes a great mistake if lie suppo os that any value will be attached 10 this alleged wish of the Natives ; or that to put the matter plainly, it will bo accepted as a voluntary expression of their opinion. From whom did these letters come ? Their receipt, as Mr Stafford has himself announced it, we do not doubt. But it is necessary to establish two ether important points—the names of the alleged writers, and the genuineness of the letters. Are they from men of any mark aud standing among the Natives? Did these men really write them ? And, if they did, were they written voluntarily and without anv Pakeha inspiration ? It is not our custom to indulge in predictions, unless they are cleai’ly warranted by the signs of the times and called for in the interests of the country, but we cannot help coming to the conclusion that Mr James Mackay junior knows something about these letters, and that he will be actual, though not titular,. Native Minister under the' Stafford rj’ijime. A knowledge, not only of the Maori language but of their minute and complicated diplomatic and social etiquette is absolutely necessary in. the mm who under - takes to govern the Natives successfully. Mr Stafford will soon find this out, and the thought forces itself into the mind that the Colony may unfortunately find it out too, and have to pay dearly for the discovery. The plain and startling fact is, that he is about to try another experiment in the management of Native affairs, aud on this ground alone, even if there were not many others of any equally strong, if not stronger, nature, there is cause for distrust aud apprehension.