CORRESPONDENCE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 40, 3 April 1862, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Hawke's Hay Times. Sir,—The cry of “ New Zealand for the r imust be my excuse for asking—

What are the qualifications of the Maori race to entitle them to the position into which they are to he “ pitch-forked” by the authorities ?

A quarter of a century ago, they were savages, heathens, cannibals ; forced, by the paucity of natural products capable of sustaining life, to lead a migratory, roving existence, a strong tribe looked upon the territories of a weaker as legitimate hunting grounds in seasons of scarcity, and interminable and exhaustive wars would have, in the natural course of events, solved the native question on its own merits. Saved from this direful end by the (for them Providential) colonization by the whites, they seized with avidity upon doctrines which promised peace, and upon arts which yielded wealth : gifted with a crafty intellect, capable of close application to the purposes of self-interest, at once greedy, covetous, and imitative, they clutched eagerly at the benefits conferred by the superior race, giving nothing, or what was to them valueless, in return. Inquisitive, and with a fondness for legendary lore, without a religion other than a scoundrel dmmonology, one deified man only amongst the batch having a scanty reputation for doing good, small wonder that their excited imaginations yielded easy credence to the doctrines of a religion which held forth peace and plenty quiet lives made happy by blankets and tobacco. This adopted religion supplied at once a want amongst them, an idea in common, a conservative notion, an embryo nationality. Fostered and aided by the whole weight of the missionary party with the astuteness and perception of self-interest which is the distinguishing mark of their character, we have seen the realization of this idea in the native monarch Potatau I. We have seen a British settlement devastated under his flag, a Governor snubbed, and the British public cajoled by trite quotations from the Old Testament. On the demise of Potatau 1., his successor mounts the throne with the quiet and assurance of an established dynasty ; and as if to crown their triumph, we near another British Governor, with the strongest force at his disposal ever yet seen in the colony, with avowedly unlimited power at command, say to these rebellious savages—“l am come to you as a friend ! I seek no reparation for injury ! Ido not quarrel with your King !! !” Ihe translations of Scripture placed in their hands by the missionaries have been mainly instrumental in reducing their language, before consisting of various dialects, into one tongue, and have, at the same time, engrafted on it a mass of half Scriptural, half sentimental jargon, that either in the mouths of “Governors,” “ Superintendents,” or natives, sounds like the words of “ babes and sucklings.” In face of these facts, and it. must be supposed with a full knowledge of the materials with which he has to work, Sir G. Grey lays bare his plans, and unequivocally expresses his determination that the interests of the white population shall be no drawback to the development of the Maori, and hints that the present colonists (for we need expect no addition from emigration to this forcing bed of Maori nationality) had better fall in with his plans, and assist to the utmost in the realization of that dream of Exeter Hall—that vision of the great Macaulay, an educated “ New Zealander.” Three-fourths of those who have watched the progress of the country, will pronounce the scheme chimerical, and will say that these aborigines must, as others have done, yield place to the mighty onward progress of the Anglo-Saxon race, and will find abundant authority from “ Darwin” and others to prove it. As colonists, however, we have to “ act in the living present,” and combat difficulties as we may. All we can yet do is to watch, inasmuch as the solution of the problem lies really in the hands of the natives ; —whether they have the wit to know that they have gone far enough, or whether their avidity and greed will urge them beyond even the patience of Sir George Grey ; whether the Maori seigneur will forego his feudal sway, and be content with the proposed alterations ; and whether, as somebody before asked, the common native will forego the allurements of the brutal communism of the pah, for unless they do, and bring themselves into actual contact with Europeans, not forty with a “forty-parson power” to back them, will ever save the race from extinction. They contain within themselves, under existing circumstances, the certain seeds of dissolution ; and I doubt (whether the system works or not) if they will ever be anythin" better than sickly plants and “ conscious of the garden squirt.”

I have already trespassed too much upon your space, and will reserve what further I

have to say, with your permission, for a future occasion.

Yours, &c..

Quien Sabe