THE HAWKE’S BAY TIMES. NAPIER, THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 1862.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 59, 14 August 1862, Page 2

THE HAWKE’S BAY TIMES. NAPIER, THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 1862.

Arguments against tlie adaptability of the “ new institutions''' for native government, drawn from a consideration of the wellunderstood character of “ the race"’ (and such arguments have been neither few nor weak), are for the future rendered unnecessary, as we can now appeal to facts, —facts provided for our examination by the oflicers specially appointed by the Governor to introduce the system amongst the natives, and which officers will readily be acquitted of any exaggeration in the statements they are found to make of their non-succes. Truly may the handwriting of old, “ MF.XE, TEKEL, UFIIARSIX,” be applied to “ the policy,” for its greatest opponents have never attempted to jircdict lor it a failure so complete as that exhibited in the reports of the Civil Commissioners, and certainly no further condemnation is needed. In a Minute, of date Oct. 18G1, Mr. Fox lays the blame, to a great extent, for “ the present unsatisfactory relations between the natives and the'Government” to “a suspicion that has been created in the Native mind that all the acts of the government, originate in a desire to get possession of their land.”

We may say in addition that the policy that has since been pursued towards them has not tended in any degree to lessen their “ suspicions,”—and to the Maori, —who knows nothing whatever about disinterestedness, neither can be made to know anything of it, the lavish expenditure of Government money on those tribes that have the baseness to profess a loyalty they do not feel, and to accept the Government pay for such profession—the policy is certainly the most open to suspicion that could well have been pursued. The natives know full well—as well as we know—that there is no reality in the professions of loyalty that are made by Queen’s men, Assessors or otherwise. Testimonies and facts to prove this can ho adduced to almost any extent; of the Queen’s natives at Whatnyaroa , (one of the districts where the new institutions are being tried,( and where, (as it appears) they have not failed to hear fruit as evil as could he expected. A witness says : —“ These men are false to the Government, they are only trying to get money.” Of the Assessor himself the same witness says: “ That man is a thief.” Another, a chief, (Patena) Imped that Mr. Gorst would not be deceived by any one who might come to tell him he was for the Queen; they were only greedy lor the Governor’s money, and all (in reality) were determined to oppose him.” Mr. Gorst plainly shows in his report that there is no feeling of loyalty for their acknowledged king amongst the tribes who profess to he under his sway, and examples are given, (some of which have before been made public) where, on the slightest pretext, a tribe, a haj>u, or even a single native, will turn to the Queen. The Nyathvhauroa hapu which lately deserted the king party, is an instance in point. This desertion was occasioned (as it will ,1)0 remembered) byMAn adverse decision of the king’s runanya concerning their claim to a certain eel fishery. And a certain half-caste is told of, named “ George Gage,” who, when summoned by the runanya claimed exemption on the ground of his being a European, hut when summoned by Mr. Gorst, he went back to the natives who refused to give him up as “ he had long ago consented to be a Maori and a subject of the king.’’ It is, of course, needless to say that the loyalty of others would he found to fail as readily if subjected to an equally severe trial. It is perhaps well for the Colony that these valuable reports have been made public before the pernicious policy of paying for native quietness and professions of loyalty, and a spurious and insecure truce, founded upon these false professions, has received the sanction of the General Assembly. After these documents are read by the people’s representatives, we think there is small likelihood of their being deceived by the expressions of satisfaction with the rate of progress made by the system, which the ultra-Maori party may make ; —truly, it can be hut little that is needed to satisfy such, but whether the guardians of the public purse will he so easily satisfied is altogether another question. AVe cannot close this article without presenting our readers with the following description given by Air. Gorst of the ordinary habits of a people, described by one authority as “ Maori Gentlemen,” and by another as “ Maori Nobility’’ “ entitled to a full and equal enjoyment with ourselves, of civil and political privileges, to a share of the administrative government of the Colony, a participation in the honors of the Legislative Council, and the House of Representatives ; of all other Legislative bodies, and all the courts of law in the Colony” ! !! Could we not place the Government entirely in their hands ? “ I have no means of comparing the samtaiy conunron oi mio Natives with wliat it may have been in former days; hut there is a frightful amount of scrofulous disease in every village, especially amongst the children ; and as long as they persist in sleeping crowded together in leaky and smoky hovels, wearing the one filthy garment day and night

in the severest weather living on a meagre diet of potatoes, which they diversity by sudden wild feasts of putrid maize, there is no mystery in the causes which are destroying the race. Unhappily, they are spending their remaining strength in resisting the only help which may save them. The education of their children is now totally neglected ; they are left to run about the villages with the dogs and pigs, wild, naked, and dirty. Not only has the number of children in the Mission schools decreased by more than half, but almost all those village schools which gave so much promise a short time ago have come to nothing, and there is no effort and no desire to see them revived. And that there may he no hope of saving the young generation from growing up in ignorance and barbarism, the parents are firmly resolved that they will not accept the assistance of the Government or of Europeans in doing that for their children which they will not do themselves. A law lias been passed and agreed to by them all, that gm fresh European schools or schoolmasters shall he allowed within the King's dominions ; to this law even William Thompson himself confesses that he has agreed. His own school at Matamata has dwindled down from sixty children to less than a dozen; and though he regrets its downfall, and would himself do anything to restore it, lie positively refuses any assistance from the Government. Unless this state of things is very speedily changed, the next generation of Natives will he even worse educated than the present, and as ignorance increases the anarchy of the land will become still more dutivult to cure." ‘‘The Natives in this neighbourhood, once the greatest wheat-growing district in the Waikato, are now planting scarcely any wheat; they have sold nearly all their horses and cattle, and most of their pigs ; their houses are fallen into ruin; their clothes are ragged; their mills, ploughs, and threshingmachines are left to go to decay, while the owners are travelling about to “liuis'’ and “tangis,” or spending their days in sitting watching a boundary-line that they may pounce upon stray cattle. In the coming winter there will probably he serious scarcity of food. At Peria, in November last, WilIrS’in Thompson and his tribe were living exclusively on fern-root; they are the most generous and hospitable of natives, but at that time they had not a pig or a potato either for themselves or their guests. The Natives themselves are quite aware of their increasing poverty,and are eager enough for wealth; hut steady productive industry is the only way in which they will not seek it. At liangiaowhia a law has been passed to stop all farther sale of pigs, potatoes, ami corn to Europeans ; partly to secure a sutiicient supply for themselves during the winter, and partly because it is intended to lix a higher scale of prices, in order to gain more money for that which can be spared/’ “Avery common wayofacquiring properly is by the appropriation, on slight pretexts, of the property of the Europeans. Horses, cows, sheep, and guns have changed owners in this manner. They are sometimes taken with forms of law, the party alleging injury being commonly the judges. The 000 sheep taken by the Natives at Tuapaki were seized because one of the Natives themselves, who was engaged as shepherd, drove 100 of the sheep for his own convenience upon their waste lands; they will not let them go under TTOO. As there are not more than a dozen Natives at Tanpaki, the share of each, when the spoil is divided, will be considerable. There is hardly a European in the district who would not leave if he could take all his property safely away with him ; hut all have pledges in Native hands, and they hold on in hopes of better times, when some part of what, has been taken muv be recovered.”