TAIWHANGA’S MISSION.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2531, 19 May 1882, Page 3

TAIWHANGA’S MISSION.

Mu Sydney Taiwhanga is now well on his way to England, bound on a mission which would considerably daunt a less enthusiastic and hopeful spirit. His intention is to protest against the carrying out of the Treaty of Waitangi. He is accompanied by two other Natives, one of whom is the son of the celebrated Hongi, The expenses of the mission are, wo are told by a northern contemporary, paid “by the grandchildren of Parore’s grandfather ” a relationship which we presume iu the Maori upper circles means first cousinship. The said expanses are calculated to amount to £3OO. Taiwhanga and his friends take with them presents of greenstone and whalebone meres, mats, &e., also baskets of Maori manufacture, curiously dyed, as presents for the Queen, to whom, in his petition (a copy of which has already been given in the papers), he affably sends greeting. Mr. Taiwhanga will invoke the aid of the Aborigines Protection Society and Church and Missionary Societies, and ho has also declared his intention of not appealing to the sympathies of the extreme Radical section of Parliament, but to tha moderate Liberals, as being the most influential and sound on the Native question. We are much afraid that there is heavy weather in front of Mr. Sydney Taiwhanga. He apparently represents no influential body of his fellow countrymen, and ha is little likely to obtain much attention from the powers that be. If ho imagines that he can alter the general system by which the colonies with repre-, eentative governments are looked to to manage their own Native affairs,hemustbe very sanguine indeed. However, he no doubt will enjoy himself in London, and will possibly be taken up by the Aborigines Protection Society, who are always on the look-out to capture some persecuted Native and show him round. The Queen, too, will be pleased with the greenstone and the mats. Only Mr. Taiwhanga must bo financially careful, because £3OO divided among three for a return trip to the old country, and expenses at Windsor Castle and elsewhere, will not go far. However, Mr. Sydney Taiwhanga is an individual not easy to be cast down. He is borne up by the mighty spirit within him. On one occasion, a few years back, he declared, at a large meeting in Wellington, if we remember rightly, that he was perfectly willing to die for Sir George Grey. That the veteran statesman has not called upon him to carry out his offer does not detract from its magnanimity. Perhaps Sir George Grey may yet ask him to commit the happy despatch. Much as King Frederic of Prussia impressed a fellow potentate with the extent of his influence by ordering one of his grenadiers to jump out of an upper window into the courtyard below, which the man immediately prepared to do, so tho death of Sydney Taiwhanga may still be useful to Sir George in the direction of strengthening his waning influence. For the present, however, if Taiwhanga can raise the wind in London from the Aborigines Protection Society, he may yet falsify our dismal predictions, and have a merry time of it in climbing the Monument, diving into tho Thames tunnel and doing tho Tower. In such a case, we shall transfer onr sympathies to the “ grandchildren of Paroro’s grandfather,” who may before long wish their £3OO safe back into thoir pockets.