THE HIKURANGI NEGOTIATIONS.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1308, 29 May 1878, Page 3

THE HIKURANGI NEGOTIATIONS.

[From the “ Waikato Times.”] To us in Waikato the offer made by Sir George Grey to the Maori King is one of even more significance and importance than to the colony at large. There is little that is novel in the* principle of the proposal, though it goes a step farther than has over been attempted by previous Ministers seeking to meet the Assembly with a plan acceptable t o the Maoris for settling the native difficulty. And here we may pause to allay a feeling of uneasiness which is wide-spread in Waikato. The Premier himself has no power to conclude a treaty with Tawhiao, and bestow upon him and his people Government lands and pensions. He may make the arrangement as he has done, but it must be dependent on the will of the Assembly for its ratification and conclusion.

It is hard, however, to judge of the character of the negotiations from the reports of the meeting which have reached the public through the medium of the Press. Nor can these he fully understood unless read by the light of what really occurred at the subsequent faceting ' with Rewi on Saturday last. The versions of the arrangement hitherto published arc'not 'such asAo have recommended the Ministerial arrangement to opr mind. It appeared to be a purely onesided affair. The colony, and especially the Waikato, waa asked to make very great concessions, but the quid pro i/un to be received in return was nowhere alluded to. The arrival of the Native Minister in Hamilton last night, and the opportunity afforded us of gaining some further insight into the character of the arrangement puts an entirely new complexion on the affair. If, as we have reason to believe, the concessions agreed to by the Premier will load to the almost immediate opening up of the country between Waikato and Taranaki, if Rewi and the Ngatimaniapoto chiefs shall be found willing to give the land for a trunk lino of railway, and be willing to sell blocks along the line to the Government for European settlement, than we say that these concessions offered by Sir George Grey on his part, capable of certain modification in detail to meet the wishes of both the Maoris and the European settlers, to which we shall presently refer —are not too great, and it will be our duty as colonists to waive many objections we might naturally have felt to the scheme, and reckon them as nothing when put in the balance against the interests Of the public at large, and the great advance in colonisation that ouch conoeesibnq on the part of the native;; as (hose above referred to wouid confer upon this district in particu hr. The principal objection to the scheme in the minds of the Waikato settlers is the location of natives on lands contiguous to European settlements, apd Ufa making over allotments iu our townships to the natives as perpetual endowments. The first moans a fruitful source of annoyance to (ho settlers in the matter of wandering cattle and pigs, in the matter of fencing, and in various other ways—the latter would fall hardly on our struggling townships, which, with the duty of self-government thrown newly and largely upon them, could i’l afford to carry out improvements, yet bo compelled

to forego the possibility of rating valuable areas within their bounds. And this, too, would apply to country districts also. These however, are difficulths which we believe may readily be obviated. The Maoris themselves will scarcely care to occupy a few hundred acres here a few hundred acres there within the borders of our settlements. From Karakaraki to the mouth of the Waikato on the west bank of the river the lands are little if at all occupied by Europeans, but_ are in many respects well adapted for Maori settlement, and especially towards the Waikato Heads. A largo tract there would be far more preferable to the Maori than small isolated sections in our midst adjacent to European settlement, and at the same time would not interfere with the latter.