WELLINGTON.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 59, 14 August 1862, Page 5 (Supplement)

WELLINGTON.

(To the Editor of the Advertiser.J Wellington, July 14th, 1862. Sir. —The following extract from a despatch from the Duke of Newcastle to Sir George Grey, is dated June 5, 1801, and is now laid on the table of the House, with other despatches ; “ I shall not attempt to prescribe the conditions of peace which I may think ought to be imposed or accepted, but I wish to impress on you my conviction, that in deciding upon these conditions it will be v our duty, while avoiding all unnecessary severity towards men who can scarcely be looked upon as subjects in rebellion, to take care that neither your own mission, nor the cessation of hostilities, when it arrives, shall carry with it, in the eyes of the natives, any appearance of weakness or alarm. It would be better even to prolong the war, with all its evils, than to end it without producing in the native mind sueh a conviction of of our strength as may render peace, not temporary and precarious, but well grounded and lasting. < “If the Maories acquire that conviction, and if they find themselves, as I trust and believe they will, treated, by the Government after their defeat with as much firmness and consideration as before much will have been done to secure the future welfare and harmony of the two races which inhabit New Zealand.” Contrast the spirit of despatches sueh as these, with the weak and ineffective attempt at administration of justice as manifested in Hawke’s Lay, first in the case of the Shirley’s, under the auspices : of the I’ostmaster General, whom the natives were taught to regard as the friend of the Governor (lloa o to Kawana), and him they regarded not, further than to pocket his award of £3O. Second, in the case of Mr. William Colenso, who was fined £5 for occupying Church property, in the Civil Commissioner's court; and third, in the Country settlers’ case at Waipawa, when the Civil Commissioner stated that he could not compel the Maories to abide by the decision of his court, though the country settler he could compel. The noble Duke proceeds to say, further on in this remarkably English despatch, that he hopes and believes that, from Sir George Grey’s well known tact, &c., in dealing with aboriginal natives, he will be instrumental in bringing about, in a peaceful manner, the desired end. When the Magistrates and Assessors were consulting apart in the Shirleys’ case, one of the latter, Renata, came outside, and beginning to light his pipe, said to his sable friends,—“lt’s all right. They are three muffs (the magistrates.) Tarcha is too many for them ; it’s all rigid and he would not condescend to go in again, for his speeeli was literally verified, in the results at least. The Court also gave its opinion—that throughout the Maories had acted very leniently, and with great forbearance ! ! Well, sir, how far the expression of such an opinion was likely to bo promotive of “a wellgrounded and lasting peace between the two races that inhabit New Zealand,” I will leave you to infer from events that have just happened, and are about a month old. The district is already burdened with a Civil Commissioner, a native 101., a Deputy Commissioner, and their staffs ; yet, in consequence of the encouragement given to them in the Shirley’s case, the natives seized and drove olf forty head of cattle, belonging to their old friend, a valuable and respected settler, William Couper, Esq., merely because ho would not comply with their extortionate demands. As settlers we have a right to ask, before our representatives vote a sixpence towards the'maintenance of a system, associated as it is, through its agents with degradation and insult, —Why has not the Governor’s policy been in accordance with those English views, embodied in this despatch, instead of bringing the colonists into that very humiliating condition they see awaits them, and which the course he has pursued, and the policy he has initiated, are the very means to bring about ? This, and questions sueh as this, arc questions that will be put to Ministers, with a plain and unflinching earnestness that will leave them no corner to creep into —no way to back out. Better, than to bo paying annually large sums to the aborigines, to enable them to gallop over the country in riot and drunkenness, sums that are the product of the hard toil, and harder sweat of the brow- of an industrious, an energetic, and a thrifty race — sums that, if voted, will bo wrung from the energies of an obedient, but unwilling, people, to servo towards the still greater degradation of a demoralized and licentious race ; better far, a thousand hotter, to leave them to the fate they are courting —prohibit any intercourse whatever with them —

enforce rigourously every ordinance in use, and form others to meet the emergency (for emergency it is) —and leave the natives to their own resources. Let them drink the bitter cup ; we have drunk it to the dregs. The noble Duke says, ‘-after their defeat.” Little could he imagine the effects of their having defeated us ! —and wo aro?now, enduring it. His Excellency would like to see the colony prosperous and populous, whatever the Ministry and their friends may wish. The Ministry and their friends, it would appear, seem anxious for the realization of an approximation to the poet’s idea of “the last man;” at all events, common sense and census returns point to this result, and at no very distant period. The Settlers are not anxious for war, but, rather than endure provocation and insult at the hands of Commissioners and Natives, they would prefer war as an alternative, feeling convinced that in the future war in New Zealand those scenes will not be re-enacted, which converted our fairest Province into a plague-spot—a mock war, a false humanity, and a hollow peace. Veritas.