The Globe. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 926, 13 June 1877, Page 2

The Globe. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1877.

In a recent issue of the New Zealand r lerald, attention is drawn to the letter feeling which now exists among the Natives. The change, however, is : iot attributed to the meetings which Or Pollen has held with Eewi and Te Ngakau, during the last few months. On the contrary our contemporary says that the " Taupo fiasco must have taught our new Native Minister his mistake, and he is not likely to renew .he attempt he then made, which probably is a good thing for the country, and for his own reputation. These native gentlemen are not to he lubricated into good humour when nothing else hut words are given." The change in the mood of the natives is attributed to the report that the Government are going to introduce a new Native Lands Bill, one of the provisions of which will be to legalise the purchase of native lands by private individuals. The minds of the natives are relieved at the prospect of the Government being about to stop purchasing lands, and hence their more peaceful mood. We hope the report is true. The proceedings of the Land Purchase Department during the last few years have not been such as to inspire confidence in the wisdom of its officers. Hecent Parliamentary disclosures have shown that the native lands agents have frequently brought the Department and the Government into very false positions. Charges of corruption have been freely made, and not in all cases disproved. It is evident that the native land transactions of the Government could not have heen much longer carried on without bringing the Ministry into serious disgrace. Not only is the system a false one, but the manner in which it has been carried out lias been bad. Tears ago, as a matter of policy, it may have been necessary to exclude land jobbers from having dealings with the natives, but that time is past. The Government have now acquired certain tracts of land, which it was thought necessary to possess from a strategetical point of view, hut that being done, the Government have, we think, acted wisely in determining to throw the market open to private individuals. The natives will gain by it, as they will get a better pi"ice for their land, and the danger of a native disturbance should be entirely removed. Large tracts of native land at present almost entirely unproductive will no doubt pass into the hands of Europeans, who who will takecare that they are put to reproductive use, and the result will be the introduction of a settled population into districts from which Europeans are at present almost entirely excluded.

On the other hand the hopeful tone of the Hera Id when speaking of the present state of native affairs is not maintained by the telegrams published in the Times of this morning. The Auckland correspondent of that journal gives currency to a report that there is danger of disturbances in Poverty Bay, and that the natives of the district are in traitorous communication -with Te Kooti. Such a report has been in circulation for some days, but what amount of truth there is in it, we have been unable to ascertain. From the same source we learn that the Waikato Maoris have also become bouncable since the reduction of the defence force there took place.