CORRESPONDENCE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 45, 8 May 1862, Page 5 (Supplement)

CORRESPONDENCE.

Dogbeukit : This is your charge; you shall apprehend all vagrom men ; you are to bid any man stand in the Prince’s name. Watch : How if he will not stand ? Ho&beukt ; Why then take no note of him, but let him go : and presently call the rest of the watch together, and thank God you are rid of a knave. Much Ado about Nothing , Scene 111., Act I. To the Editor of the Hawke's Bay Times. Sib, — The whole business at Kohanga reminds one ludicrously of this scene : the Governor’s anxiety to make the natives understand that although he would rather they behaved like good children, yet if they will not, he will none of them. Possibly it may be beyond the power of an ordinary capacity to comprehend the subtlety of the said speeches. Were they translated into English there might be a better chance. Their chief merit probably is that very vagueness which may warrant any interpretation, according to circumstances. It is perhaps early in the day to cry out and abuse a half hatched purpose ; but the truth is that the colonists are sick to death of the subject. For 25 years the natives have been stumbling-blocks and rocks ot offence ; everthing that has been done has been as it were in the despite of the native difficulty. Admitting that they have made wonderful progress, and shown an aptitude for improvement such as to entitle them to peculiar consideration, yet, does not the fact remain that they have been treated by the British Government with unexampled kindness, such as never was accorded by any other Government to any people under the sun. It is true that opinions have changed during the present day, and that the sword is no longer regarded as the necessary precursor of civilization, or as the best method of settling a difference. It is true that ancient prejudices are giving way, and are being succeeded by a holy feeling of universal brotherhood : but there is a limit to benevolence at which it ceases to be virtue and becomes 'weakness. To this point I conceive we have arrived. Have not the real purposes ot colonization been made subservient to native interests ? Have not Governments, Imperial, General, and Provincial, cockered and pampered them until like the frog in the fable they seek to swell, and will get burst in the attempt? Have not the settlers throughout the country cordially seconded every effort for their benefit ? with what return let 'Taranaki answer! The natives owe everything to the colonists ; andwhatever benefit Europeans have derived from settling a nearly waste country has been shared by the Maories in a tenfold degree—from dugs or savages they have become men. Some ten or twelve years ago, their now chief advocate and parent head of the (native) Ministry wrote a book called “ The Six Colonies/’ and, writing of the natives, he says, “ the destiny of this people is summed up in the word—extinction,” and speaks of them generally as temporary difficulties, and only to be recognised in respect of our weakness and to be thrown over with the increase of our strength. Whence this change ? To return to the Kohanga business, the speeches of some of the chiefs would seem to them a glimmer of light on the causes that have led to so much difficulty. On the one hand, jealousy and alarmed selfishness, doubts of the beneficial results to them of the prosperity and numerical increase of the whites, a vague notion that they must make a stand in time or be swept away for ever, unsatiablo greediness that increases with whatever is gratified freely—the same feeling that is supposed to animate a Jew pedlar, who, on obtaining without debate the first price demanded, regrets that he didnt ask more; in short, a constant dread lest they should not get enough. On the other hand, a falsely suppressed superiority arising from the constant coaxing they have received on all sides, and a leniency even in strife, which can be accounted for only by the supposition fhat our military commanders have been ordered to frighten and not kill. Both efforts have signally failed; and these people claim, as the result of their superiority, treatment which is granted in pity of their weakness, and because they are favourite specimens of Exeter Hall philanthropomania. It is quite clear that they now regard us with distrust, mingled with contempt; and all Sir George Grey’s boasted influence seems at present unable to produce anything like cordial acceptance of his terms, although he does promise them all they ask, and more than they ask : promises them perfect immunity for all offences past, present, and future. “If he meet a thief, he will bid him stand,” but if he will not stand, he will take no note of him, and thank God he is “ rid of a knave.” Philanthropy is a great thing and a glorious, if kept within reasonable limits; but

what can be said of its aberration when it appears to aim at some such result as might make the subject of a cartoon. Imagine a sea beach bathed in a flood of yellow sunshine, and standing by the prow of a war canoe, drawn up upon the sand, an educated New Zealander; let him stand with outstretched arm and upward gaze as grasping the idea of a glorious future. In the righthand corner place a native hut, and scattered insignia of the pah ; and in the left corner a broken column, a gaping sepulchnre like the one by Roubilliac in Westminster Abbey, to the memory of a Miss Nightingale, only instead of the figures there depicted, imagine the figures of Bishop Sehvyn, Sir George Grey, and William Fox; round the column place a scroll, with the motto—- “ Non lugenda est mors, quara consequitur unmortalitas scatter emblems of British sovereignty, broken standards, moss and lichen covered cannon, and tokens of the ruin of the AngloSaxon. This sketch should afford an idea of the immortality desired by the present Governor and liis advisers. If it be so, it is time that the colonists knew the truth. As it is, our existence as having a right to a voice in the matter is ignored, and apparently we are reduced to the position of passive spectators, although we are of necessity the parties most interested in the result. The great system of the world—the work of one mind, one will, and one power, has ordained that each race should in its turn perform the task allotted to it, and retire when its work is done. It is permitted, nay, it is the duty of man, by careful analysis of the past, to acquire knowledge of the universal laws by which these changes are regulated. On the contrary, what one William Fox wrote as a “ soupirant” for political honors twelve years ago was, and still is, undoubtedly the truth ; and whatever change of opinions he may now express are the result, not of conviction, but of circumstance. It would occupy too much of your space to pursue this subject further, so for the present I am, Mr. Editor, Yours, &c., Quien Sake.