The Evening Star FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3742, 19 February 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1875.

The arrangements nearly completed l>y the Hon. Hir Donald M'Lean for throwing open the Ohinemuri country to European industry must be regarded as another triumph of the peace policy begun something more than five years ago. What force could not effect, a sense of security on the part of the Natives and a recognition of the territorial rights secured to them by the treaty of Waitangi by the Government has brought about. Regarded in a merely financial point of view, it is no slight recommendation of a peace policy that it does its work more cheaply and much better than one of muri may turn out not worth onefiftieth part as much as it has been estimated at. It is not at all improbable that the richness of its gold leads and the untold lodes of mineral wealth reported concerning it have been colored by active imaginations, prone to believe that there must be something valuable in forbidden and unknown ground. But whether it contains mountains of gold or beds of sandstone boulders only, matters little in comparison with Che fact that moral force has conquered ; that the Natives are evidently desirous of removing the last barriers they have interposed between themselves and the colonists ] and that there is at length hope that the damage caused by the mistakes of the “ wretched past ” may be completely repaired. Wo are not among those who expect a sudden change in the national character of the Maories. Superior they may be to most uncivilised races, but yet they will not—nay, cannot—change their traditional habits oflify and thought by a single mental effort. They may learn much of Europeans, but they will have much more to learn before they can reach our standard. They do not inherit the aptitude for civilised life that has been transmitted from parent to child through centuries of generations. The adults among them have acquired fixed habits, and therefore it is to European influence on the children that a complete change of thought and action must be looked for. There are impediments to this that time alone can overcome. Assuming that it is possible to place _ all Maori children under British tuition they have to Jearn our language, and to acquire the ideas it conveys before they can realise the advantages of our present attainments. This must be the more difficult .to them, because their home and social intercourse are no assistance to their scholastic training. The poverty of their language does not enable them to converse on many subjects amon» themselves, that to us are familiar as our daily bread. A complete victory, therefore, of the white over the Maori can only be achieved when the latter’s language Las become dead ; when they have to think, to speak, and transact their business in the English tongue. Whether a remnant of° the race will be left to become thus British in thought and feeling seems somewhat doubtful. That so wonderful a stride has been made towards such a consummation in so short a time, notwithstanding the estrangement of the two races through years of war, is one of the signal lessons the world has yet received of the superior value of truth and justice, as instruments of conquest, compared with the brutality of physical force. There are spirits for whom ancient chivalry has its attractions, and who had rather rule or conquer through terror than through peace. I>o doubt courage and skill in war are very admirable qualities when called into action \ but the fiery courage of the soldier is not equal to the calm, enduring, intelligent courage of an enlightened statesman. The one faces the risk of death; the other bases his plans on principles frequently opposed to generally received modes of thought, and has to brave opposition, ridicule, and, very frequently, partial failures. He has to use the military as helps to maintain peace, and thus curb their natural longing for active service. While the combinations of a skilful general produce their result iu a few hours, days, or haply months, years of weary watching and anxiety await the plans of a statesman. The one overcomes matter \ the other moulds and fashions mind. Much as the Yogel-M‘Lean Ministry have done for commercial and industrial New Zealand, their highest triumph is their peaceful victory over the Maories. In other Colonies British supremacy is synonymous with Native extirpation. In New Zealand nature’s hidden workings may effect a similar result, but cur highest fame with posterity will be that an effort was made to save them.