THE GLOBE. FRIDAY. NOVEMBER 11, 1881. THE NATIVE CRISIS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2374, 11 November 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. FRIDAY. NOVEMBER 11, 1881. THE NATIVE CRISIS.

The critics adverse to the line taken up by the Government in the present Native crisis have, curiously enough, entirely omitted to take any account of the opinion held by the bulk of Maoridom on the policy pursued. They have inveighed in unmeasured terms against what they are pleased to call the inhumanity and injustice of the Government measures, and they have based a number of their arguments on the supposition that To Whiti, when saying one thing, has implied another—that while apparently inciting his followers to acts of violence, he has, in reality, been speaking in dark parables, with the sole object of bringing Kin claims before the Supreme Court. These critics have asserted that Te Whiti has been manoeuvring quite in accordance with Maori precedent, and that anybody who does not see that when ho says one thing he means another is extremely stupid. Now, in connection with the lucmbrations of these sapient critics, wa should like to call attention to a telegram which appears in another column under the head of “ Native Affairs,” adverting to the opinion held on the present crisis by the principal Natives of the East Coast. It will be seen that there is the best authority for believing that they utterly disdain all sympathy with Te Whiti, that they express great contempt for him, and that they hope that the Government will taka decisive measures to prevent his doing any more mischief; and, further, that they altogether appreciate the firm attitude adopted by tta Government. We have all along admitted that the Native theory on confiscation is radically different from our own, for that we admit of no law by which the failure to immediately occupy confiscated lands vitiates the title to them. On this point it is apparent that the only thing to ho done is to decide under what set of laws or traditions we are to live in New Zealand —whether under the Maori laws or the Queen’s laws. The Maoris on the East Coast are not likely to have abandoned [their popular traditions on this point, hut they have apparently recognised the fact that the Queen’s law is paramount and that two sets of laws, based on radically different principles, cannot co-exist at the same time. Moreover they evidently strongly object to the modus opcrandi adopted by Te Whiti. They are not among those who think that a man—even though he be a prophet—can well say one thing and. mean a totally different one. They do not admire or understand the manner in which Te Whiti has met the often expressed wishes of the Government that he would explain what he really wants, as they were most anxious to meet him half way. > Recognising the desire of the Ministry to do right according to the spirit of the Queen’s laws, they admire the firm stand it has made, and would have thought but little of it had it undertaken the hopeless task of satisfying Te Whiti’s ever-increasing and vague demands on its powers of forbearance and endurance.

The great interest attached to matters on the West Coast is apt to make men forget that the section of the Native race involved in the present crisis is bat a very small one —not more than one sixteenth of the whole —and that to attempt to gauge the popular feeling of Maoridom by special correspondents’ letters from Parihaka is ridiculous. Even before the crisis had assumed its present proportions, there were not wanting indications that To Whiti’s manoeuvres found no sympathy in other Native districts. Tawhiao has long ago declared that ha will have nothing to do with Te Whiti, and has strongly discouraged his people from being mixed up in any way with the prophet. And of one thing wo may rest assured, that nothing finds so much favor with the Native mind as straightforwardness. Now tho Government has acted throughout with the utmost candor, and would all along have been most glad to have found out what Te Whiti really wanted. It is To Whiti’s shutfiing and d&ngerona utterances —whether he has been forced by circumstances or has taken his own lead, it matters not—that have brought things to their present pass. All this ia deer and it will bQ found tha

Natives as a body credit the Governmen with its good intentions, and are not blinded by the prejudices of race to sympathize with the tortuous and dishonest windings of To Whiti s mail ceurves.

numbering THE STREETS. We have had several times previously to remark on the extreme inconvenience attending the present unnumbered state of the houses in Christchurch, and we have taken occasion to wonder that none of the Councillors are energetic enough to grapple with a subject that is not in reality at all complicated. By a judicious system, say, of lettering tho blocks and numbering the houses in each block, the slight difficulty to be met with through tho constant erection of new houses would at once bo overcome. It is indeed most puzzling to understand why no move has been made in this matter, when the public at present suffer so severely from the existing want of all order. Large sacrifices are made in other places to save the public the wear and tear consequent on looking for houses through long spaces of streets. For instance, in London, the Metropolitan Board of Works has recently renumbered Oxford street. Besides the actual cost of the operation, it has been calculated that this will cost the inhabitants at least £IO,OOO for alterations to shop fronts, stationery, &c. And yet there is no grumbling, although it is merely a matter of re-numbering, because the public convenience is served. Why, in the name of common sense, cannot something be done in Christchurch ? The cost would be comparatively small, and there is no question that the public would bo largely benefited.