THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1881. THE OPPOSITION AND THE NATIVE CRISIS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2356, 21 October 1881, Page 3

THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1881. THE OPPOSITION AND THE NATIVE CRISIS.

The Opposition ara sadly in want of an election cry, and they are evidently going to make the most of the action of the Government with regard to Native Affairs. The "Lyttelton Times" has this morning indulged in a series of articles intended to show that the Ministry are acting with brutality and injustice. The proclamation is termed a cruel and ridiculous one, patience is declared to have been cast to the winds, and a general charge is made that the innocent are to be involved with the guilty. A good deal can be forgiven in electioneering times, but there should surely be limits within which the most zealous partisans should confine themselves. We certainly hold than our morning contemporary has overleaped those limits, and has carried a certain description of party tactics to an unjustifiable length. That the proclamation is neither cruel or ridiculous will at once be apparent to those who read it. It is, on the contrary, a calm and impartial statement of the past current of events, and it gives to the Natives a fortnight to make up their minds as to whether they will accept the terms of the Government or otherwise. Surely there is nothing cruel in this. Then the "Lyttelton Times" declares that patience has been cast to the winds ! What in the name of common sense does the " Lyttelton Times" mean by patience ? The Royal Commission was appointed at the end of 1879, and shortly afterwards set to work in its endeavor to do ample justice to the claims of the Natives. It has never been pretended that the Commission acted in any way but that most calculated to prove to the Maoris that all demands that could either directly or indirectly be proved would be attended to. Thus affairs went on, and it became in time apparent that the principal bar to the settlement of the West Coast difficulty was the existence of the disturbing influences at Parihaka. Te Whiti was at first considered as a restraining influence, but in course of time he cast his weight into the scale of disorder. In January last Mr Bryce was of opinion that the then existing state of affairs should be tested by the seizure of Hiroki, the murderer, who was protected by the Natives. Many considered the situation even then strained beyond endurance, but the Government decided that no stone should be left unturned to obtain a peaceable solution of the question. For nine long months since then they have been trying to bring Te Whiti to reason, bnt with no avail. And now they are accused of impatience 2 " Captain Knollys," our contemporary says, " had reported that the distrust of Te Whiti was the natural result of years of disappointed leaning on promises of official character. As the offers made were but promissory, a just mind would have understood the attitude of the Native chief." If this means anything at all, it means that Te Whiti is not convinced of the sincerity of the Government, and that he looks upon their grants of land to the Natives as moonshine. But surely our contemporary is aware that some of the Natives are already in possession of Crown grants for the lands allotted to them. That is a tangible enough result. Then the proclamation itself is declared to be a fresh cause for Te Whiti disbelieving in the sincerity of the Government. Were is any finality to be found if an argument of {this sort is to be admitted P It is said that the innocent are to be confounded with the guilty, and it is inferred that anything done since the last war cannot deprive the Natives of their lands ? The real state of the case is quite ignored. The Government make certain proposals, conceived in a most liberal spirit, and say that if the Natives persist in breaking the law of the land those proposals will be withdrawn. Finally it is asserted that the Natives have every right to meet together, to feast and to do anything they may chose. The fact of their eating so many, waggon loads of food does not weigh with the Government. It is the result of these meetings that they have taken into consideration and with which they have to deal. It is the active obstruction and the general state of insecurity to the settlers that must be put a stop to. By special statute they have full power to deal with this question. The Opposition is behaving badly in this matter, and, even as an electioneering manoeuvre, their action is unjustifiable. Te Whiti and his followers are not absolute idiots, and they can well discern the real state of the case. They apparently have made up their minds not to recognize the confiscation in any way whatever. It has become a question as to whether, on the West Coast of the North Island, the European or the Maori is to rule: whether the Queen or Te Whiti is to be dominant. The Opposition recommend patience, so do the Natives. From different motives those two are desirous •f playing with each other's hands.

MR. TOOMER. Op the " Crash 'em " description of politician there are several sorts, but all are bent on bursting up things in general, though by somewhat different methods. There is the antiquarian Crash 'em, like Mr. Treadwell, whose modus operandi is to trace everything back to a remote antiquity, and attack it vigorously in its primaeval form. There is the philosophical Crash 'em, like Mr. Holmes, whose

plan is to deliver a philosophical platitude and declare that he takes his stand there, and woe be to him who thinks otherwise. And there is the ordinary Crash'em, who says he is not mnch of a scholar, hut that, if sent up to Wellington, he will very soon put everything straight. Such is Mr. Toomer, who has addressed a more or less sympathising audience, and is about to address others, respecting his candidature for the Stanmore district. The ordinary description of Crash 'em is common enough, and they generally work and speak just as Mr. Toomer did. Let us look into his performance. He began by denouncing class legislation, and declared they were all "in a sad pass;" but how or why he did not explain. Working men should be sent up to Wellington ; as for himself, he earned his bread by the sweat of his brow —an interesting statement, both from a social and a physiological point of view. All were entitled to the franchise; heavy duties should be imposed on imported articles; all large holdings should be sold in an off-hand manner, and so on. Mr. Toomer is thorough. He sticks at nothing. He does not waste the time of his audience in dissertations on mortmain and in elaborate arguments that all men are equal. And if only the electors send him up to Wellington they shall see—well, they shall see what they shall see.