Untitled

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume I, Issue 2, 11 July 1861, Page 5 (Supplement)

them openly repudiate that treaty, and decline to be in any way bound by it, it follows as a natural result of their conduct that they fall back on the inherent right, which is '■no right at all as regards the large tracts of unoccupied land in this island. The pro-Maori party of course will not approve of the conclusion at which I have arrived; but they will scarcely attempt to argue that one party la L/uUuu lO 1110 Sti'lCt i6liuS ui u at the same time that th r other declines to admit his part of it. The advantages derived by the natives from us have been very great, and it was the most stupid conduct imaginable in them to attempt to drive us away bodily, after they have been such gainers by our residence among them. Or has it heen our truckling so much to them on all occasions that has led them to conclude that we would submit to anything, and pay any price, rather than resist their encroachments ? Possibly so. While they have seen individual Europeans (when there were but few in New Zealand) show the only qualities that a savage ever regards, which may he summed up in the word pluck, our conduct as a community, and the conduct of our rulers, has been such as to well lead them to conclude that we are a race of cowards deserving to be slaves to them. But I must apologise for this digression, and in my next deal with the question about which so much talk has heen uttered in this district during the past two years, and on w T hich some of the pro-Maori party consider they have a real grievance ; that question is of grass money, which I will, with your leave, comment on, and shew whether their claims are well founded or fallacies. Yours, &c., M fVN UHIM. June 28th, 1861.