THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, MAY 4, 1882. THE KINGITE MEETING.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2518, 4 May 1882, Page 2

THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, MAY 4, 1882. THE KINGITE MEETING.

The policy of Mr. Hsll’a Government and the present one, in letting the Natives work out their own destiny without interference from the powers that be, is bearing fruit. As long as the Maoris were treated as an independent power, of which Ministers were considerably afraid, their attidnde was very different from their present one. They noticed the eagerness of the Grey Government to treat with them, and determined to make the most of it. They snubbed Sir George himself on every possible occasion and, naturally arriving at the conclusion that they had the game very much in their own hands, went in for extracting as much out of the Ministry as they possibly- could. But now the Kingites find that matters are altogether altered. There was no desire evinced by the late Ministry to score a sensational point by an arrangement with the Maoris, and no advances were made giving them an opportunity to play off their complaisance against a high reward. Con sequently they have found their own true level, and, however unpleasant it may be for them to realize that the Native question is not the overpowering question in these days, the lesson has not been thrown away. As the mountain refuses to come to Mahomet, Mahomo- has gone to the mountain. The present meeting shows that the Kingites are beginning to thaw. The fact that without a move on their own part they would be simply left out in the cold, has been too much for them. The gathering near Alexandra is close to European settlement. It will bo of a cosmopolitan, and not of an exclusive character, and the question to be debated will be, not as to the advisability of allowing Europeans into the King Country, but as to the conditions under which they shall be let in most advantageously with the interests 1 of the holders of the soiL All this shows the enormous strides made of late in the solution of the Native Question. The Ministry will be able, when Parliament ' meets, to point proudly to the success of their Native policy in all parts of the North Island.