THE OPENING ADDRESS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 58, 7 August 1862, Page 3

THE OPENING ADDRESS.

To the Editor of the Haudce's Hay Times. SiR, —The Ministry have now to prove that their “ policy'’ on the great question of the colony is successful, yet how quietly they hedge the question round ; the “ progress” already made “ will he found recorded in sundry reports from Commissioners, etc.,” says the Governor; hut their success has been somewhat less than it might have been, we are told, owing to the limited funds at the disposal of the Government. What a truism is this, although veiled in diplomatic language. No doubt the Government may safely be believed on this head. If with £50,000 at their command they succeed in “ bribing ’ a few tribes to acknowledge the Queen as their nominal sovereign, what more likely than that with double the amount they could buy more tribes over to the same point. No doubt the “ reports” of the different commissioners will be very interesting documents ; and if any one can be more so than another it will be that of the Commissioner to the Js[gatikahungunu, (unless indeed the Commissioner has followed the example set by the gentleman who for some time held the sinecure _office_ of Assistant Land Purchase Commissioner in this Province, and neglected reporting progress at all). How well it would look in the blue book, that the natives at Heretaunga had given in their adhesion to the Queen’s cause, and utterly forsaken their King; how loyal they are, how friendly to the pakeha in general and their friend the Governor in particular ; how peaceable and well disposed they are ; how ready they are to bow to the law of the pakeha at all times; how carefully they abstain from violence, and avoid giving offence to the settlers, &c. This, and a great deal more trash of the same kind, may have been written about our neighbours, and might perhaps be quite as true (or untrue, if you like) as many other things written and spoken about the interesting race to whom this land and our labour appears to be given as an inheritance. How anxious Fox was in 18G1 to get published a letter from Renata and others, denying that they were opposed to the Queen’s supremacy, (written shortly after “ the affair at Huitaneji, where, in their own words, Waikato had fallen, and was consumed') ; how eager he was to prove that these natives were loyal British subjects, as their own precious letter proved. Will he be equally anxious to lay before _ the Assembly and the public the last political document issued from Pa Whakaairo, in which, according to the Herald, the writers plainly intimate that, they are not content with being, as hitherto, independent in fact, but assert their inten-

tion to be so in name for the future. How all future cases of dispute are to be arranged by the Maori runanga, without reference to the pakeha magistrate at all; how all their decisions are satisfactory to the European litigant, while decisions of a Queen’s Court are never such to the Maori; hence for the future, seeing justice is more fairly administered by a runanga than by the Queen’s Courts, (for that is the inference,) the runanga alone shall settle all cases between subjects of Potatau and those of Victoria. Alter this there will be no need to pack the .Bench to ensure a particular decision; no more Courts a la Puketapu, where Maori plaintiff and defendant sit and judge their own caffse ; no need of any interference on the part of responsible ministers “trying their prentice hand” at humbugging the settlers, us Mr. Crosbie Ward did so effectually. But what a commentary is this on our Courts, in which justice has been desecrated to please (or to humour) the Maori, to be coolly informed now that a Maori Court deals more justly than a European one ! Yours, July 28th, 1862. A Saxon.