THE GOVERNOR'S TERMS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 30, 23 January 1862, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE GOVERNOR'S TERMS.

(From the Southern Cross. January 7.)

Otj:: last advices from Waikato are interesting. The Colonial Secretary, after the conclusion of the meeting at Kohanga, proceeded up the river and on the ‘3oth ultimo, accompanied by Mr. Gorst and the Rev. A Reid, visited the native assembly at ITangatiki, Upper AVaipa. They are rccived most respectfully, a guard of honor being under arms.

After the usual preliminaries Mr. Fox made the following statement as to the intentions of the Government in reference Ip the natives and the terms of peace which he was prepared to grant them.

“ The Governor to choose one European and two natives ; the natives do also choose one European and two natives. The original dispute about Teria’s land to ho referred to this tribunal, whose decision should be final and conclusive.

“The Governor will not put down the King movement by force so long as the Queen's subjects are not. interfered with. “The Governor will not make roads on Maori land against the w,]l of the owners, but all Maori paths are to be open to Europeans, and no mails are to be stopped.

“ 1 be Governor will not make war to obtain the murderers, or to recover the property, but when the ofl'enders arc taken they will be tried.

“ The Governor will not buy land in future until the vendor’s title has been investigated by' the Runanga of the district appointed by the government.

“ Crown land at Taranaki claimed by the natives by right of conquest to be evacuated by them or a chain of military posts will be formed on the border.

“ The force encamped at Maungatawhiri not aggressive but to make roads and to restore confidence.”

W hatevcv the colonists of New Zealand may possibly t hink of such terms most men would imagine that the natives themselves had no right to complain of undue severity when such terms were olfered them. But we have long held that the more is conceded to them the more exhorbitaut do they become in their demands, and we were not deceived in this instance. The first position as to the settlement of the Waitara difficulty is we think everything that the most ardent supporter of William King could have desired, considerably more than we should have h-en willing to grant, but it does not satisfy a Air. Aporo, who addressed the meeting at the conclusion of Mr. Fox’s statement. “ Waitara,” said he, “is hanging on the hook of the gospel : we will not consent that it shall be tried by the law' which is an evil animal (knri kinoj as it devours many.” What the exact meaning of hanging on the'hook of the gospel is we are unable to say, but the tenor of the speech is pretty evident and its spirit unmisr.aKeame. xxOniing Min please un coa piicred natives. So long as wc were fighting them, there was much talk about their readiness to submit the question in dispute to arbitration ; arbitration is at last ottered them, and they want something else. There is, however, a deep signification in the words used. They willnot consent that the question shall be tried by law, “because the law devours many.” The speaker was a better reasoncr, as we see by his selection of words, than many of onr peaceful politicians. -He does not say that the “ sword” devours many, for the word appears to-him.superfluous.. Ea is perfectly well

aware that (here can be no law without the sword and so declines to consent to arbitration, because he knows that he would by so doing tacitly acknowledge the right on the part of the Government to employ the sword in carrying into the eifcct any decision which the arbitrators might arrive at. He therefore calls the law bad names and takes refuge in one of those expressions moaning nothing, but carrying a religious appearance about with them, which are so common amongst the natives, and which they are particularly fond of using when they arc anxious for ns Europeans to continue long-suffering for ever, but have no idea of suffering anything themselves on any account. But Mr. -Aporo does not appear to have quite exhausted the subject: another lion, member Moihi by name, arises in Ids place, and put this startling question—“ Why was not this tribunal proposed in (he first instance ! —do you admit, that Governor Browne was wrong r” The logic is inexorable. Mr. Moihi sees at once that certain premises have been conceded from which further deductions may bo drawn. If what was done by the government bo wrong ah initio —and wo conclude, he adds, that it was so from the change of juris, diction just proposed—let Air. Fox plead guilty on the part of Governor Browne. and throw himself and the authorities generally on the tender mercies of (he Maori. Let him allow that the Europeans are in the position of wrong-doers, and we are assoiled of all guilt in everything which we have done since the 17th March, ISGO. Report sayeth not how the Hon. the Colonial Secretary answered, but he possibly shrugged his shoulders and looked volumes, and passed on to those other clauses grateful to Maori cars, explaining what the Governor docs not intend to do ; how the King movement is not to be put down by force, bow murderers arc not to be apprehended advisedly, but merely to bo snared if they arc fools enough to rush into the net, how the soldiers at Maungatawhiri are not aggressive, and then ho propably wound up by dwelling at length on the subject of land purchases, and the policy, which His Excellency intends to adopt in reference to the same—a really good policy, and one which, if sooner adopted, might have been productive of much good, for with or or without political rights the native should be allowed a voice, and an overruling one when his heritage is brought into (he market. These are our last advices froiji Waikato, and we have refrained from comment on anything but facts. Our Colonial Secretary’s voice, is said to have surrounded sweet in the cars of the natives, and the tongue of the charmer was strangely seductive, more particularly when it told how stolen property was to be respected in the bands of the robbers ; how British troops had been sent out to “ restore confidence” to rebels ; how Taranaki was forgotten, and blood and treasure had been expended to found an independent hostile kingdom in the centre of what we once believed to bo a British Colony.