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Evening Star, Issue 3261, 2 August 1873, Page 2

When the three million loan was negotiated, the greater part of which was to be devoted to conquering the Natives, the recouping to the Colony the amount of the loan by the sale of confiscated lands formed one of the most pleasing features in the dream of that day. The heavenborn statesmen of the period saw the charming scene in the distance, as well as the rough foreground—the one forming so fine a contrast to the other—but they overlooked the middle distance. They calculated the cost of obtaining the land, and the vahn when possessed; but they were awfully at sea in their estimate of the expense of retaining it when seized. The clearer views of the Ministries who succeeded those speculative politicians, have given to those lands a value they never before possessed. What was needed to render them available for pasture or settlement was security. Necessarily, on the border of a dangerous territory, the surprise to those acquainted with history is, not that so many years have passed since the lands were seized, before being made use of, but so few. It is

characteristic of the age in which we live that a few years of well-directed ffibrt achieve more than centuries in times gone past. Lord Macauley tells us that long after the union of Scotland with. England there was a large class of “ moss-troopers, whose calling was to plunder dwellings and to drive away whole herds of cattle.” And even after the accession of George the Third—a period of one hundred and sixty years —the seats of the gentry and larger farm-houses were fortified, and oxen were penned at night under protection of the battlements. But in New Zealand, even before the recollection of defeat has died away, and with the sight before the Maoris of settlers occupying the land they look upon as theirs, the confiscated lands are becoming available. Colonists are taking up and occupying holdings on the Waikato, and the debt incurred on security of them is in course of redemption. The Premier stated in his budget speech that he “ proposed to pay off ,£20,000 of Treasury Bills, issued on account of confiscated lands.” . . . “ The confiscated lands had yielded well during the year, and had enabled a considerable amount advanced with respect to them to be paid off. Indeed, the receipts during the present month would discharge nearly tlie whole of the liabilities, excepting the L 20,000 of Treasury Bills, which would be paid off during the year.” We do not know why the Maoris should be expected to be superior to the Northern English or Scotch in the period of the Union. In those days border fights were matters of course, and murder by no means uncommon, mainly because the notions of right and wrong were based on the idea of the stronger to seize and to hold. The wonder is, therefore, that, with land daily becoming more valuable, the Natives have become reconciled to occupation by the colonists. It is a good sign for the continuance of peace, and of confidence in the Ministry who have established it.