HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume I, Issue 13, 26 September 1861, Page 5 (Supplement)

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

The following are extracted from the reports of the debates by the New Zealander ; fiEXEItil AND PEOVTNCIAD GOVERNMENT OFFICERS.

Mr. O’Roeke moved the the following resolutions, which were carried, the house dividing on the first, the numbers being—ayes, 15 ; noes, 0. “ That there be laid on the table of the house next session, a printed return setting forth the names of the several officers who may be in the service of the General Government of New Zealand on the 31st December, 1861 ; the department in which they are employed; the date of their first appointment; by whom originally appointed; and the amount of their salary.” “That, in the opinion of this house, it is desirable that the Government should procure, and lay on the table nest session, a printed return, setting forth the names of the several officers who may be in the service of the various Provincial Governments of New Zealand on December 31, IS6I ; the department in which they are employed ; the date of their first appointment; by whom originally appointed ; and the amount of their salary. land nrnciiAsi; department. Mr. Bell submitted the following resolutions to the house. The first three were adopted unanimously ; Mr. Richmond and other members voted against the latter three, which, however, were carried. Ist. “That this house has consented to vote the estimates for the Land Purchase Department for the ensuing year, upon the recommendation of his Lxcellcncy's Ministers, and upon the express declaration by the Government that a complete revision of that department is necessary, and that every reduction in the total expenditure for the year will be made which the circumstances of the colony shall justify. 2nd. “ That, while this House has felt it its duty, in the present juncture of the colony, not to refuse to place in the hands of his Kxcelleuey and his Advisers the supplies for which provision is recommended to be made in the Governor’s Message No. 17, and has refrained from asking for even small departmental reductions in the estimates then sent down, the house considers it to be no less a duty which it owes to the just expectations of the country, to take the occasion thereby afforded of renewing the record of its deliberate opinions on the subject, in order that the same may be brought under the consideration of Sir George Grey upon his assuming the Government of New Zealand. '3rd. “That this house, therefore, declares its conviction that the time has arrived when it is necessary that a thorough and radical change shall be made in the organisation of the Land Purchase Department. ath. “lliat an indispensable step to reform must bo the total separation, so often insisted upon by tho House of Representatives, between land purchasing and political functions, so that, as far as the inherent difficulties of the case will admit, no officer of the Land Purchase Department shall ever be engaged in political duties. sth. “ That any reconstruction of (he Land Purchase Department on a satisfactory basis, necessarily involves an entire reorganisation of the political branch of the service, and that no such reorganisation will be effectual or satisfactory to the country which does not, while fully recognising and securing to the Governor both the initiative and the decision where Imperial interests ai - e involved, place the conduct of the ordinary business of Native Administration under responsibility to the Assembly. Glli. “ That while this house believes that provision will be made to whatever amount shall be requisite for organising the Native service on a sound and efficient basis, so as alike to retain the good will of the Natives and create the confidence which has never yet been felt by the colonists, the house declares its conviction that this house cannot justly be expected in any future session to pass estimates for perpetuating the existing system.” suFri/i. Mr. Fitziterbert moved, “ That, pending the final apportionment of the permanent debt of the Province of Wellington between tho two Provinces of Wellington and Dawkc’s Bay, this house will authorise, one of the moneys which will accrue due to the Treasury of the Province of Hawke’s Bay during tho current financial year, _ under the Surplus Revenue Act, 1858, an advance to the

Treasurer of the Province of'Wellington‘of Hie sum of £25U6, on account of the interest accruing upon such permanent debt, such payment to be taken into account on the first apportionment of the said debt as aforesaid, together with the advances of £2500 on the Uth June, 18G0 -, of £2500 on the 12th February, 1801; and of £3OOO on the 11th May, 1801, respectively, heretofore made by. the Colonial Treasurer on the same account out of the land-purchase sixths of the Province of Hawke’s Boy. Provided that such payment sliall not prejudice the question of account, either of principal or interest, on the final settlement of the whole question. 1 ’ A greed to. Messages from the Governor were received in both houses, intimating that the Civil Service Superannuation Act, —Canterbury and Otago Boundary Act, No. 2,—Standing Orders for Private Bills Act, —Otago and Southland Public Debt Apportionment Act, —Hawke’s Bay Naval and Military Settlers Act, —Diseased Cattle Act, — Customs Duties Act, —Lost Lund Orders Act, — Arms Act Continuance Act, —Registration of Llectors Act Amendment Act, —Public Debt Apportionment Act Amendment Act, —Protection of Certain Animals Act, —New Provinces Act Amendment Act, —Official Administrators Act, —Provincial Audit Act, —Auckland Representation Act, — Auckland Immigration Certificate Act Amendment Act, —Parliamentary Costs Taxation Act, — Law Practitioners’ Act, —Land Registry Amendment Act, —Survey Corrections Act,—Balncavis Remission Act, —had boon assented to by His Excellency in Her Majesty’s name ; and that the Nelson M asto Lands Regulation Amendment Act, — Auckland Immigration Certificate Act, —Intestate Natives Succession Act, —Picton Railway Act, — Pensioners' Claims Act, —had been reserved for Her Majesty’s pleasure thereon. THE NATIVE POLICY OF THE FOX MINISTRY. Mr. Fox said, Sir, the lion, member need not apologize for having amused the House, as he imagines himself to have done. I can assure him that it is an offence of which the House has never known him guilty ; he, of all men in it, contributes the least to its amusement ; his lectures being on all occasions “dry as the remainder biscuit after a voyage.” The hon. member has impugned the Native policy of the Goverment on the ground of its want of novelty. The Goverment makes no pretensions to novelty. We arc content to leave ‘"startling novelties” to Ethiopian screnaders, and to those ingenious gentlemen who, when iu these seats, used to consume endless reams of foolscap in inventing paper theories for enlightenment of tlio Colonial office. Sir, we have had during the last five years startling novelties enough. The New Provinces’Act was a startling novelty. The spending, by the General Goverment, of £36,000 of Provincial balances, was a startling novelty. The abstraction of the land sixths, contrary to the great compact, between the Nothern and Middle islands, was a startling noveltv. The Taranaki war was a startling novelty ; and a uovehy more startling than all the rest was the Taranaki peace. The present Government desires not to be distinguished by any such novelties as these. It will content h-clf by standing in the ancient ways—by walking in the beaten paths of honesty, justice, and common sense. If, by the exercise of those, it can govern tire country well, and contribute to the establishment of peace and prosperity, we shall be content to leave (he praise of novelty to tlio.se whose ambitious efforts have resulted in misery, in war, and the ruin of the Provinces. The hon. member for New Plymouth pretended, as the member for Wallace had done on a previous occasion, not to know what the policy of the Government is ; and he twitted the Native Minister because he declined to go into the details of the policy which he would advise Governor Grey to adopt. These gentlemen, .Sir, impute to me inconsistency because 1 formerly found fault with .Mr. McLean for refusing to develop a policy which lie asserted he had in his mind, when J now myself pursue the same course. .Sir, there is no analogy between the eases. Mr. McLean, at the time referred to, had practically been governing the Natives for six years —years of profound peace—with a Governor prepared to adopt all bis views and support him in all his plans. At the end of that period he had enunciated no system, had propounded no theory, had never acted on any principle. Where is the similarity between his position and ours at the present moment?—we, who took otfi.ee some six weeks ago, who arc daily expecting the arrival of a new Governor, and looking for the decision of Her Majesty's Government at home on the Native. Council Act of last session. It would be a strong proof of incapacity- in ns to propose the details of a scheme, as it was pi-oof of Mr. McLean's incapacity not to have done it during the long years of his unchecked exercise of power. But though wodecline to enter upon details, there is no doubt about our principles. Those we have once and again staled to the House, and no candid man will pretend to assert that he does not know what they are. But after the speeches of the members referred to, I shall be pardoned if I repeat those principles, and again impress them on the mind of the House. Sir, the first great principle on which we base our policy is this, that the Maories are men of like passions and feelings, and to be acted on by the same motives as ourselves. It may seem strange to bo standing up to assort that the Natives are men. But it is necessary to assert it; for the theory of the Native office and its practice have been to treat them, not as men, but as spoiled children !t is necessary also to assert that they are of like passions and to be operated on by like motives as ourselves ; for there arc those in this House and out of it, who see in the dark skins of the Natives a warrant for dealing with them on principles different altogether from those on which we should deal with each other. The hon. member for ,Christchurch has his theory of Asiatic origin, and finds followers who believe with him that because the New Zealander came from Asia, bo must bo governed differently from the tSaxon race. Never was there a more transparent fallacy. The hon. member for Christchurch is himself of Asiatic ork gin. His grrndsircs had a‘‘dark skin” when they walked out of the Ark on Mount Ararat, (grcaV laughter.) Hon. members may laugh, but I speak in all scrio usness, and my argument is a sound one.

If, by the lap 3e of a few thousand years, the lion member lias cast his skin, got rid of his Asiatic characteristics, ond advanced in the seals of civilization, till he has become a respectable Caledonian, why may not the one thousand years or upwards during which the New Zealanders have been absent from Asia, have worked u like change in them ? It lias ; and Ido not hesitate, to say that, of aU the races on the face of the earth, there, is nono which comes so near to tire Anglo Saxon in temperament, in mental and in habit of thought, 'i bis, then, is the first principle on which our policy is based; that the Maori is a iu:r of like passions and feelings, and to be governed by an appeal to the same motives, as ourselves. Tiro next principle vve take for our guide is this. That the great national movement which has been seething in the Native mind for years past, is not as tlie Duke ot Newcastle has been taught to think it, based on a desire to get rid of Uritish rule and British civilization, but to recognise in it the desire ot the Native race tor sclf’-clovation ; we bco in it an earnest longing for law and order; and an, attempt (not feeble or ill-directed, had it only been encouraged and guided,) to rise to a social equality witli us. This is tlie decision at which tlie Waikato Committee of last session arrived. Wo regard it not as a mere transitory agitation, but as proceeding from sources deeply seated, and likely to be of a permanent and growing character. If there be a wholesome sign in the condition of the Maori race, one feature which would lead us to hope that wo may rescue it from desiruction, it is to bo found in the great movement of the national mind, a movement as remarkable as any in history. We desire not to put down this movement; -but to separate what is good in it from what is bad ; to guide it, to develop it, to aid it, to avail ourselves ot it as the fulcrum by which we may elevate the race to the higher levels of civilization, and create among them the machinery of local selfgovernment. Herein our policy differs altogether irom that those who see in this movement nothing but disaffection to British authority, and who would crush it by force or suffer it to wither and die by “supremo indifference and neglect.” A third principle on wuich we would act is this—to use the Natives in working out the problem. Without this we can hope for no success. To impose laws upon them, to give them piles of statutes, to enact “Territorial Districts’ Bills,” or “Mixed Settlements’ Bills,” nothing will come of that; wo must engage them in the work themselves, and let it proceed from them. To (his end we look to the Itunanya or a native council as the “point d'appui ’ to which to attach the machinery of selfgovernment, and by which to connect them with, our own institutions. Tlie Native office shudders at the llunanrja, and sees nothing but evil in it. V. e see nothing but good, provided as the member for Napier says, we make the proper use of it. The liunanr/a contains the elements of local selfgovernment in itself—it is the parliament, the municipal council, the substitute for the press; and by its machinery tlie Native mind can bo stirred in a few days from end to end of the island, W e have no choice but to use it—it exists os a fact—it is part of the very existence of the Maori —wo can no more put it down than vre can stay the advancing waves of the rising tide ; and if wo do not use it for good purposes, it will assuredly he used against us for bad. 'These, then, arc tlm three great principles of our policy—to treat the Maorics as men, as men of like feelings with ourselves —to avail ourselves of the great movement of the national mind as one which lias law and order for its objects—and to encourage (he Simmina under legal sanctions. But this is not all. We are convinced that the foundation of our present unsatisfactory relations witli the Natives is the suspicion which exists in their minds that we desire to take their lands. This suspicion must bo remove!] at any cost: ; and we propose, as the first step towards its removal, to stop all purchasing of lands (ill some equitable system shall hare been agreed on between us. There must be no more of what the Maorics call this “teaming” about land —this sending up and down the country of subordinate officers of the land purchase department, to worry the Natives into sales—men, many of them utterly unfit for the offices they fill, and whose conduct is such as to degrade the Government, and overwhelm it with contempt in the Native eye. But when we shall have settled some cxitable system, then, as Eenata says, there will be no difficulty about selling land ; tlie Natives who wish to sell will sell, and no one meddle with them. But, besides this, we must absolutely separate the land purchasing function of the Government from its political functions. Never was there a greater mistake than the union cf those functions. Tho object no doubt had been to enable tlie Native Secretary to obtain political influence by the expenditure of the largo sums which passed through his hands as Band Purchase Commissioner, and which has been recklessly spent, under the name of “ground bait,” and as instalments on imaginary purchases. The.result is that, in the eyes of tlie Natives, the Governor has become a gigantic land broker, and every attempt to improve their condition is tainted in their eyes with the desire to take their lands. This House last session denounced the fusion of the two offices ; (hey have nominally, at all events, now been separated ; and it is part of the policy of the present Government to keep them so. Another object which the Government hopes to secure is tho abolition of that temple of mystery the Native Peeredary's Department. This will probably be effected by the sanction of the .Home Government being given to the Native Council Act, which, whatever other defects it may possess, has this great feature —that it will sweep away the present Native Secretary's office. To that office and its mysteries I attribute nearly all the evils of (he present crisis ; to its active powers of mischief and passive powers of obstruction, its secrcsy and its r:s inertia, 1 trace most of the calamities of this hour. Those, Sir, (hen, arc the leading principles of our policy. I decline to go into details ; and in doing so I feel that I have the tacit, but general concurrence of the Ilonse. On us will rest the responsibility of laying these principles before Governor Grey, and of aiding him in carrying them into effect; and this House will, I know, give tho. Government credit for tho sincere determination cordially and earnestly to assist him in the great work which he has beforo him. (Loud cheers.)

AUCKLAND. The Gold Fever seems to be prevalent in Auckland. There are at present six vessels on the berth, and more will follow, for Otago. Considering the authentic reports from the Southern gold fields it is not to be wondered at that the adventurous should leave their ordinary avocations in pursuit of gold. But the probable effect of this exodus on our labour market should not be lost sight of. No doubt many will return to Auckland, bettered in circumstances, while others, will doubtless find their -way back pretty nearly as they went away. But in the meantime how is the labour market to be supplied, if the drain on our male population continues for any lengthened period ? This is a serious question, and one demanding attention. We will doubtless have an active demand created for our timber in Otago ; but who will be left to fell and ship it? We do not wish to be considered alarmists, but the exigencies of the times require the exercise of forethought. Something must be done to fix a large population here. The final settlement of the native question requires this. The peaceful adjustment of the difficulty would be rendered vastly more probable by the presence of thousands of orderly, energetic men, such as are now' gathered on the Otago gold fields. The presence of the Europeans, in overwhelming force, in the Province of Auckland, would deter violence on the part of the natives, whose intelligence would instantly suggest that the proper course to follow w r ould be to conform to European habits, and compete in the fields of industry, with the white settlers. It is in the power of the government, we believe, to take the initiative in this matter, and thus at one stroke put an end to the King movement, and throw open the country to the Christian influences of civilization and commerce. We do no more than hint the matter to the authorities. It will not do to say, in the face of a daily diminishing population, “they are sure to return.” In the meantime the ordinary channels of commercial and provincial prosperity may become dry, and with a stagnant trade and diminished revenue, it wdll be almost too late to take steps to retrieve our lost position. A large population will unquestionably be permanently fixed in Otago. We are not envious at this fact, but on the contrary we rejoice at the prosperity of our sister province ; but we hope that Auckland will be enabled to maintain her pre-eminence as the commercial as well as the political capital of the colony of New Zealand. —Southern Cross, Sept. 17.