THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1881. AFFAIRS AT PARIHAKA.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2371, 8 November 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1881. AFFAIRS AT PARIHAKA.

The greatest uncertainty hangs over the coarse which events are likely to take at Parihaka. The arrest of Te Whiti and Tohn on Saturday was hut the first of a series of measures on the part of the Government, having for their object the settling once and for all of the Native difficulty in Taranaki. That difficulty is one of long standing, and it cannot be expected that it will be cured except after severe labor on the part of those who have taken the matter in hand. The opening operation was despatched with a neatness and completeness worthy of all praise, and it is to be presumed that the same thoroughness will mark the remainder of the work to be done. But the difficulties yet to be overcome are very great and will tax to the utmost the faculties of the Ministers. If all reports are true, moreover, not the least of the obstacles to be met with is the opposition to their plans encountered in the person of a certain high functionary who has apparently adopted his own. reading of the Native question, and has taken the part of the small irreconcileable party which, for political purposes, has of late been doing its best to hamper the movements of the Ministry. We do not mean to say that the Governor is swayed by the same motives that have pointed out the line to the irreconciliables, but nevertheless he appears to have embarked in the same boat, and it is not everybody out of New Zealand who will have sufficient information to recognise that he has taken up his role from the want of a thorough knowledge of the history of the Native question, and from a feeling that in some way he is in these seas the embodiment of the extreme philo-Native party, who start with the supposition that, when any aborigines and Europeans come into contact, the former is invariably right and the latter invariably wrong.

In reviewing the events that took place on Saturday, after recognising the excellent manner in which the Government programme was carried through, the next thing that will strike the attention of the public will be the admirable deportment of Te Whiti and Tohn under very trying circumstances. Nothing could have been more dignified than the manner in which they surrendered themselves; indeed, their leave-taking of the Natives in the pah had in it something verging on the affecting. The newly-made prisoners adopted the tone of persons who were being sacrificed in some just cause, or had been arrested on some misunderstanding, which would soon be cleared up. Now, “deportment” has seldom been appraised at its true value. People are apt to look upon the science of deportment as an inferior or a minor science, whereas it is nothing of the sort. In one celebrated instance it had the effect of canonizing a man for upwards of two centuries. Charles the First was a monarch whose word could certainly never have been said to have been as good as his bond. His views on the royal prerogative were of the most aggressive character, and perhaps he was, taken all round, about as undesirable an individual to occupy the throne of a constitutional monarchy as could possibly be imagined. But the manner in which he bore himself after his capture had the effect of blotting out his misdeeds in the public mind and gaining for himself, or at least for his memory, such advantages as may bo attached to an annual service in every Church of England church during the space of two hundred years. This at least may bo said to bo a recognised triumph of “ deportment,” and would, if it stood alone, raise the art to a respectable footing. But there exist hundreds of instances in which “ deportment” has succeeded in blinding the public to the real merits of a case, and in throwing over past misdeeds a very convenient Toil. Now, in the case of Te Whiti and Tohu it is within the bounds of possi-

bility that superficial observers may lose in (reading the narrative of their arres and their skilful retreat from amonf their friends, any remembrance of th( fact that these two persons had less than two months before uttered such inflammatory speeches that the colony, knowing their influence considered war to be imminent; speeches of such a nature that many settlers wore unwilling any longer to trust their wives and families in the open country; and that these speeches, moreover, wore followed by more aggressive acts on the part of their followers than had taken place for many a long day, which acts were supplemented by a general demeanour on the part of the Natives which caused the most general alarm. It will be well at the present juncture to call attention to the speeches of To Whiti and Tohu at the September meeting at Parihaka, because, when all alarm has subsided such utterances are likely soon to bo forgotten, and it may serve to remove any possible idea that Te Whiti and Tohu are being hardly dealt by. In Te Whiti’s speech on that occasion we find the following amongst other violent utterances :—“ All our talk to-day -is of fighting, and nothing is now left but to fight. The peace that existed is now passed away; there is no peace now.” “ Go, go, all of you, and look upon me as your protector. Take your arms, and the blessing of the Atua will be with you.” “ What I am saying today is for the ears of all the people. It is only talk to-day, but I send for the pakanga (war) on the land to-day, on to the land sold by the Governor.” And Te Whiti concluded his speech as follows: “If they bring guns, take your guns likewise. If the Pakehas come and say it is the Governor’s laud, and lift hands to defend it, strike them down.” Tohu, for his part, commenced thus :—“ I have little to say to-day. All my teaching has been peace on former occasions; to-day the talk is pakanga (war), and nothing else.” The two speeches throughout teem with sentences serving to show that a new departure was to bo made by no means favourable to the cause of peace. That the Natives were encouraged by these utterances to renewed acts of obstruction is now a matter of history. They at least did not look upon them as purely allegorical, nor have Te Whiti and Tohu the slightest right to expect the public to accept any version which altered circumstances may induce them to assert is the true solution of what on the face of them aro violent invitations to take up arms. In judging of the present situation, the public will do well to recollect the feeling in the country in September, before the Government had commenced to bestir itself in right earnest.