NATIVE CLAIMS AND BRITISH RIGHTS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume I, Issue 1, 4 July 1861, Page 3

NATIVE CLAIMS AND BRITISH RIGHTS.

lo fks lUditor of the Huwktss Buy Tirncx. Sir, As, notwithstanding - the amount of taiic in the Colonial Parliament, and the mass 01 official anu non-official correspondence on the subject, the Native Question is still anything but settled, I ask the favour of being allowed space in the Hatches Jtau

l imes to comment on tne claims oi' the natives, and our rights as colonists. A person unacquainted with the course of events in New Zealand might suppose that the natives have hcon very ill treated ; seeing., that a number ot those who assume the position of “ protectors of the native race” arc continually dinning some grievance, real or imaginary, into the ears or the eyes of our countrymen, both in the colony and the mother country. The natives, too, following their loaders, have taken to letter-writing for the same end, —a few notable examples of which have appeared in the pages of your contemporary the Hawke s Bay Herald. Most of these grievances melt away like snow before the summer’s sun when carefully examined into. 1 do not mean to assert that the natives have no cause of complaint whatever, but for one real grievance they will set up a dozen imaginary ones. Thus, some people have set up a grievance and made a fuss about the prohibition of the sale of spirits to natives. Among tliose who hold this view stands conspicuous Mr. T. H. Fitzgerald, late M.G.A. for the County of Hawke, Ac., who, in his place in the Assembly, mentioned this as a grievance the natives had to complain of. I need not do more than allude to the well-known fact, that whether the prohibition is or is not of any practicable benefit, the object of the Government was one that commands respect, it being intended to prevent, if possible, that extinction as a race which bcfals the red man in America when he tastes the deadly cup of fire-water ; a doom which may be inevitable, but is generally believed to be hastened, by. intemperance. However, while Mr. Fitzgerald and others would, “ for the good of the natives,” repeal the Ordinance, and allow the natives to buy and consume as much intoxicating liquor as they think proper, the Waikato natives have a real grievance connected with the same subject, but from a totally different view of it. Ihey complain, and with justice on their side, that the Government allows white men to introduce and sell 1,4 poison’’ in their district. This was one of the subjects on which they felt sore, and expressed their views freely, before the King movement attained to any importance. One chief at one nmanga said, it white men would persist in bringing spirits up the river, lie would board tlieir canoes and destroy that portion of their cargo—lie would throw it. overboard. Oneoi the missionaries advised him not to- commit such an unlawful act, hut rather seek the removal of the evil through the Government ; lie consented, and tried by petitioning, hut in vain. "White men occasionally travel in the Waikato, and therefore there must he a licensed grog-shop; the inference being, that white men cannot travel without the aid of tlie bottle. Since the establishment of the King-ship stringent laws have been ■adopted, and heavy penalties exacted, for breach of the King's statutes. Grog is prohibited through a great portion of the Waikato, and any native found guilty of either drinking or having it in his possession has to pay a heavy line. Meanwhile, I regret to state that the Government persist in licensing (or did till lately) one or more grog shops-in portions of that district that 'are purely native. But to come nearer home, in this Province of Hawke’s Bay, uotw.ith, : standing Sir. Fitzgerald’s sympathetic wish to let them have grog ad lihitam, they have attempted to prevent (by heavy penalties) drinking among their people. A fine of five pounds is, I believe, incurred in some parts of this Province by any native guilty of intemperance. So much for grievance number one. Another of tlieir grievances is their not oemg allowed to supply themselves with any quantity of ammunition they think proper. 1 suppose no sane man will now attempt to maintain that it is expedient to allow a halfcivilized race like the New Zealanders to be armed with the best .and deadliest weapons that science has been able to invent and skill to construct, —for that is the real question at issue. Unfortunately for the colony, there are individuals who scruple not to sell the life’s blood of their countrymen for gold ; unfortunately Governor Browne was weak enough to relax the restrictions that had been placed by bis predecessors on the importation of arms and ammunition, and so give facilities to the dealer in blood; the result being that whereas before arms could only be had occasionally and at great risk, now they could be got in any quantity with little or no risk. It was an unlucky day for New Zealand that saw the relaxation of the Arms Ordinance ; its effect, being to burden the colony with an expenditure of probably half a million sterling. But setting aside the expediency of the question, 1 cannot see the natives could claitn as a right to be allowed to arm themselves. In what country in the world do the authorities allow their subjects