NATIVE AFFAIRS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1894, 19 March 1880, Page 3

NATIVE AFFAIRS.

[By Tele&baph.]

[pbom oub om cobbbspondent.]

WELLINGTON, March 18.

The Government have reoeived several telegrams to-day in reference to the Parihaka meeting, including some from the Native Minister. All agree in representing the attitude of Te Whiti and Tohu as entirely peaceful. The real purport of the remarks made by Te Whiti is Btu tod to be that the Europeans by sending the armed constabulary on to the Plains, with warlike preparations, are trying to provoke the Maoris to fight, in order to have a good excuse for confiscating their land, but that the Natives were aware of the supposed trap and would not fall into it. All this was couched in metaphorical verbiage, but the most authentic reports agree in attaching that meaning to the expressions used. It is notorious that PakehaMaori agitators have been persistently endeavoring from the first to instil this view into the Native mind, and it is evident that they have been so far successful. Te Whiti, however, declares that " the floods have subsided, and will never again come on earth " that is to say, Maori wars are things of the past, and will not recur in the present day. He adds, in explanation of this, that " the Natives would not step outside the lines he had marked out for their conduct." He has said there is to be no fighting, and fightiug, therefore, cannot be. That is his view of the situation. Tohu's speeoh, as telegraphed in brief, is apt to be misunderstood. So far as regards his remarkable allusion to the Armed Constabulary and their road-making, that "all that meant war," he expressly used i; in reference to the Europeans, as it implied that it was a warlike and war-provoking proceeding on the part of the latter, and not that it " meant war" in the sense of the Maoris resisting. Tohu's speech, in fact, was an echo of Te Whiti's utterances, and points most unmistakably to the gradual modification of his prophecies. 8a far, therefore, the favorable aspect of Native affairs remains unchanged.

[PBB PEES 3 ASSOCIATION.] The "Post" to-night Bays: —We understand that Sir Wm. Fox and Bir F. Dillon Bell, two of the Royal Commissioners on Native affairs, have presented an ad interim report to his Excellency the Governor. The nature of this important document has not yet transpired, but it is rumored that it deals with certain matters brought before the Commissioners, in regard to which they found no difficulty in an iviDg at a prompt decision. We believe that the Commissioners state their opinions in respect to these matters, and supgest that great public benefit might arise from giving immediate effect to the various recommendations made by them, which would produce a markedly favorable impression on tho Native mind, and have a large amount of influence for good ; showing as it would the desire of the Government ar<d of Europeans generally to deal out swift and even-handed justice to both races alike. So far as we have been able to gather, it is thought that if instant action be taken in the direction suggf Bted, it will be likely to induce a strong reaction against the influence of Te Whiti, whioh might be very desirable just at the present time when the prophet's great meeting at Parihaka is taking place, by the practical proof it would offer of the good faith of the Government and their determi-

nation to mete ont strict justice regardless of nationality. It is not probable that the precise nature of the Commissioners' recommendations will be made public for a few days, owing to the absence from Wellington of His Excellency the Governor. AUCKLAND, March 18.

Nothing was done in speech-making at the Orakei mceting,*owing to the non-arrival of the Kaipara chiefs. The time was occupied in canvassing Te Whiti's speech, which _ they thought meant war. Wiromu Tameti has arrived from Mercer, in the place of Te Wheoro. He says that Tawhiao has called a meeting for to-morrow, at Kopua. Te Wheoro has gone there, and he requested Wiremu to represent him at Orakei. The latter says that Tawbiao's design in calling the chiefs together is that they shall endorse the policy he will again enunciate, viz., that all the tribes ahull rest quiet.