The Evening Star MONDAY, MAY 15, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4123, 15 May 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, MAY 15, 1876.

Sir Donald M‘Lean, whose selfdenying and able administration of Native - affairs has tended so much to the permanent prosperity of New Zealand, was made the subject of a gross and unmannerly attack by the * Guardian ’ on Saturday. It should be hardly needful to notice so dastardly an article, for, fortunately, its virulent malice is excelled by its weakness; and, excepting to those who do not knew the facts of his administration, it is harmless. If there is any argument in it, or any object aimed at by it, the intention seems to be to prove that some Maori, of whom Otago never heard before, likes Sir George Grey

better than Sir Donald M‘Lean ; and, like the writer of the ‘ Guardian’s ’ article, would rather be led by him. As a matter of course the “ sugar and blanket policy ” comes in for the usual stereotyped condemnation. Sir Donald is charged with bribing the Natives, while Sir George Grey is lauded for conquering them ; and the people of Otago are expected to open their understandings to the reception of such trash, and to believe that the successful Native administration of the past seven years has been based upon a sham. Fortunately there has now been ample time to estimate truly the comparative value of the administrative effects of war and peace systems. When Sir Donald M'Lean took office with the Fox Ministry, he did so on the express understanding that the policy hitherto followed was to be changed. That policy was Sir George Grey’s, who had had every chance to bring about the pacification of the country. He bad British forces to assist him to conquer a peace, Ministers prepared to go any length in order to bring the Natives into subjection, and the efficient help of armed forces

of Colonists, who left reproductive industries to devote themselves to the dangers and dissipation of war. The very advent to office of the Fox-Yogel Ministry seemed unpropitious. Difficulties, partly the result of past mismanagement, partly of unexpected circumstances, met them on the very threshold of their administration. Judging from the preparations of the Ministry they superseded, a war of extermination was almost inevitable, the English troops were withdrawn, and a general feeling of alarm pervaded the whole Colony. Never did Ministry succeed to office under gloomier prospects. That they keenly felt their difficulties was evident from the steps they took to guard against them. They themselves had not realised the full value of the power of peace; and therefore they sent delegates to Great Britain to obtain military assistance in one shape or other. Every colonist of seven years’ standing remembers the discussions that took place respecting the troops that would be needed to fight the Maoris, and how opinion was divided between Ghoorkas and other semi-barbarous soldiery who were to be imported to stand between the Colonists and imaginary dangers.- It was soon

found that all this unmanly quaking was as idle as it was disgraceful to our nationality. Danger there was, but it proved to be the danger of mistake. Sir D. M‘Lean and his colleagues very soon found that defence was better than aggression, an t that the cheapest and best way of dealing with the refractory tribes was to shut them up in their own country, and let them alone until, tired of being deprived of the advantages of intercourse with the colonists, they submitted of their own accord. This was the plain common sense method adopted: this was the true policy followed. If in this our contemporary can discern either sugar or blankets, we imagine his sight must be incurably distorted; but we conclude, with more reason, that he does not know the meaning of the words he uses, or understand the subject on which he writes. It is very

easy to put together strings of unmeaning epithets, but very difficult to remove the impression of one fact. To facts, therefore, we point. Many of the events of the Maori wars have almost passed from remembrance. We may therefore be excused recalling them in proof of the courage of the Ministry so maliciously attacked through Sir Donald M‘Lean. Prior to their taking office the Maoris were treated as enemies, not as rebels: no Ministry had dared to treat them otherwise. If they were made prisoners, they were subjected to no greater penalty than being kept in confinement; they were merely badly watched,

and frequently escaped. We need only refer to the flights of different batches of prisoners from Kawau, from the hulks at Wellington, and, through seizure of the Rifleman, from the Chatham Islands. Former Ministries had not the penetration to perceive that this treatment of their prisoners induced the very evils they were called upon to grapple with. Instead of condemning them as proscribed rebels liable to be treated as traitors and murderers, they raised their prisoners to the dignity of heroes, whose names, instead of being execrated, were honored and made famous. But one of the first acts of the FoxVogel Administration, of which Sir Donald M‘Lean was a distinguished member, was tp bring in a Bill empowering. Government to punish, as traitors, Maoris found in arms against Her Majesty; and one of the earliest

administrative acts of that Ministry was to punish one of those rebels with death, and to imprison, with hard labor, a number of others : the memorials of whose punishment remain in various improvements and public works in and around Dunedin. Is this a “sugar and blanket policy 1” Perhaps the editor of the ‘Guardian’ can explain if that is to be understood by his absurd phraseology. Further : the Blue Books which record the doings of Ministries tell of the establishment of schools among the Maoris, in which English literature, English science, and English ideas are taught. The consequent beneficial influence of this system upon the Maori population and their gradual assimilation in thought and morals with the British Colonists need not be insisted on—they are self-evident. Were it necessary, it would be very easy

to adduce proof of the great advantages that have resulted to the North Island through employing Maoris to form tracks and roads that have opened up the country and deprived the Natives of the military strength of their bush fastnesses. Those works have been done unosten atiously, and at very small cost. The Maoris earned their wages. No herald sounded a trumpet to tell of the quiet triumphs of Sir Donald M‘Lean’s administration of Native affairs, nor is he a man given to boasting of them. All the more reason is there, therefore, that even a slanderer so imbecile as the ‘ Guardian ’ should not be allowed uncontradicted to misrepresent them. Everyone sees, and many substantially feel the greatly improved condition of the Colony since the waste of war was superseded by investment of money in public works and immigration ; and few will be found to deny that, but for the peaceful policy of the administration of Native affairs, with which the name of Sir Donald M‘Lean is inseparably connected, those works would have been impossible. Bagehot wishes that “the art of benefiting men had kept pace with the art of destroying them.”

Thanks to Sir D. M'Lean and his colleagues, it has gone far ahead in New Zealand j and in the future management of colonies of mixed races they have set an example that will form a precedent for all time. Sir D. M‘Lean’s name will be recorded in history, and his example pointed to, as an instance of the successful application of philanthrophy, justice, love of peace, and sound political philosophy in the government of a semi-barbarous race. He had a difficult problem to solve, but he has unravelled it, and the marvel is that anyone assuming to lead public opinion should be so lost to a sense of what is just and true, as to wish, for political purposes, to blacken his well-earned fame.