THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 1881. TAWHIAO’S VISIT.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2296, 12 August 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 1881. TAWHIAO’S VISIT.

A very interesting letter has been written to the “ Now Zealand Herald” by Mr. J. 0. Firth, on the visit of Tawhiao to Waikato. Mr. Firth is well qualified to write on the subject, having had communications with the chiefs of th& Kingites since the close of the war of 1864. Although Mr. Firth holds theextreme view that the change in the Kingite policy is due entirely to Providence, assisted by Major Mali, and gives no credit to the present Government, yet his communication is so graphic, and brings the narrative of events into so small a compass that it will be well t© call attention to it. Mr. Firth begins:— Xt is said that, about a quarter of 3a century ago the late Maori Chief William Thompson, desirous of bringing his people under the dominion of laws for the more perfect authority of European civilisation and English !a*r, devised a set of regulations, a copy of which he brought to Auckland ; but, after seeking in vain to gain a hearing from the Native Office, retired in despair to bis settlement*, and resolved to gather up the waning power of the chiefs under the central authority of a Maori ruler. After many meetings, the tribes, by Thompson's advice, assembled at Ngaruawahia and elected the warrior chief Te Wherowhero king of the Maori nation, under the style of Potatau. At that meeting Xe Kaihi, a Ngatihaua chief, a near kinsman of Thompson’s, with rare prescience, warned his countrymen of the consequences of such a step, and, declaring that the Maori king would be the ruin of the Maori nation, refused to acknowledge bis authority, and avowed his determination to remain faithful to the Queen of England. Sach is Mr. Firth’s account of theorigin of the King movement. And then he proceeds:— Nearly twenty-five years have rolled away, and to-day the broken remnants of the Maori nation have gathered once more at Ngaruawahia, under King Tawhiao, the son and successor of Potatan, to weep over the ruin of their cause and nation, and to avow their peaceful intentions towards us. In the interval they have fought a losing fight as brave men should fight it. Obtaining arms and ammunition with great difficulty, they maintained a long and fierce struggle against heavy odds, and against a largo contingent of the British army. Driven back, they abandoned the Waikato country and sullenly retreated, still nnconquerod, to the mountain fastnesses on the frontier.

For years they have maintained a rigid isolation, submitting to the deprivation of many luxuries which such civilisation as we gave them had made almost necessaries to them. They have refused all our bribes. For years they have disdained every overture made by successive Native Ministers. Strong in bis patriotism, the Maori King has treated all our blandish* meats with a sublime indifference, which, if it had not excited our fears, oculd hardly havo failed to win our admiration. For years this Native difficulty, as we justly termed it, has been a black cloud on our otherwise fair horizon. And not without reason. Consider the spectacle of these brave, sullen, and unsubdued Maoris from the frontier heights to which they had retreated, overlooking the fair plains of Waikato, containing the graves of their ancestors' and the homes of their childhood, now covered by European farms and villages, and lying completely at the mercy of men who had lost nearly everything but their lives, and how little they valued these, innumerable deeds of daring abundantly testify. Such a spectacle may well have exoited the gravest apprehensions of successive administrations, and rendered them extremely desirous to establish peaceful relations between the two races. A careful consideration of these facts will, Mr. Firth thinks, enable ns to value rightly the extraordinary event which has just happened in Waikato. The isolation and hostility maintained now for seventeen years has been broken up, and the Maori King has proclaimed his reconciliation by laying down his arms and peacefully visiting the settled districts. It is acknowled to be most difficult for men to rightly guage the importance of events happening under their very eyes. Their very nearness to the picture places it out of focus. So in the present instance, a few years hence it may be easier to realize the vast change that has just recently taken place with regard to our relations with the Maoris. The Native question has stood in the way of the settlement of the North Island, both directly and indirectly. It has hampered the whole colony, it has frightened away capital, it has been the htte noir of successive administrations. And now the Maoris have held ont the hand of friendship, and have accepted the hospitality of settlers who are living on the lands of their ancestors by the title of a confiscation they have never acknowledged. Whether Tawhiao may mean that he is willing to throw open the King Country, or whether he merely means that he frankly accepts the existing situation, is not of so much moment as the fact that he has declared that the Government have nothing to fear from his people. A black olond has been rolled back from a large portion of the colony. Where there existed distrust there may now be found confidence. And all this has been effected with no theatrical display. The sullen reserve of the Natives has not been conquered by petting, hut by a display of calm good sense. The Ministry may well plume themselves on their success in the south-western corner of the North Island, but this new triumph in the Waikato district is of still greater importance. It has, besides, the advantage of having been gained by no expenditure of hard cash, a decided feature in a commercial age.