THE HAWKE’S BAY TIMES. NAPIER, THURSDAY, SEPT. 4, 1862.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 62, 4 September 1862, Page 2

THE HAWKE’S BAY TIMES. NAPIER, THURSDAY, SEPT. 4, 1862.

Of the acuteness and wisdom of these men, I feel bound to speak in the very highest terms. In all questions which I have heard discussed by them, they have argued with calmness and good temper! kept steadily to the point at issue, looked at the question from every side, and faced all its diiuculties, and hcve usually come to a Just decision. In their strongest opposition, they have never behaved with anything approaching to rudeness, it would be impossible to find a body of men with whom the Government could more advantageously consult upon the subject of laws and regulations lor the IS atives.—dir. G-ocat's HcjJoi't. A strikingly applicable exemplification of the fallacious reasoning that may result hum the adoption of erroneous principles is to be found in the eloquent oration made by Hr. Fitzgerald, on the occasion of moving the adoption pf his now celebrated resolutions on the native question, in the House of Representatives, an abstract of which will be found in our issue of the 21st ult., to which we must again refer our readers, and will 011 this occasion endeavour to 'expose some of the fallacies above referred to. Mr. Fitzgerald at the outset referred to the wonderful progress made by “ the race’’ in civilization, but soon afterwards the true extent of this advance appears to be that they are entirely dependant upon the European settler for all the comforts and conveniences of life that were almost become necessary to them —that, notwithstanding the examples continually before their eyes of the buildings of the colonists, they have so far neglect od to avail themselves of this advantage as to cause a Commissioner to report a chief of Lower Waikato, Noa, as confessing that their court-house must he built of raupo (rushes), as he did not know how to build a wooden house, and another chief as saying that if he could find sawyers he would have a wooden house—he coiild see the defects of a raupo building, hut his -people could not build even that. How comes it to pass, we would ask, that the natives are not expert at such ordinary work as they have seen the Europeans perform, such as sawing and building?—how is it that the account of them, written eleven years since by Mr. Fox, is equally applicable to them now as it was then ? As regards the degree of civilization attained even by the most advanced, it is very superficial and limited. In rescuing savage races from barbarism, there are three stages to be passed. First, they are to bo brought to tolerate the presence of the civilizer. It was not till after numerous massacres of casual visitors, and the expulsion of the missionaries more than once, that the New Zealander was got past this stage. Secondly, there is the stage of barter, when, impelled by the desire of procuring the luxuries and comforts possessed by the civilized race, they bring their food or raw produce to market in exchange. And lastly, there is the constructive stage, in which they learn the arts of civilized life—how toTnake for' themselves those things which they desire. The New Zealanders have got no farther than the second stage. They have, it is true, purchased a few coasting vessels, but they have never yet attempted to build one, not even a boat * They have a few ploughs ; they have never made one and not many have ever held one. A few of them carry their produce in carts to the place of barter, but those carts are made by English Cartwrights. In short, unless it be one or two about the mission stations in the north, or the whaling stations in the south, I do not know a single native who can do the commonest carpenter’s work, or has any acquaintance with any mechanical trade. A few

T,es vvo , r | { > fo, ‘ a yeur or two - on the roads cons( rutted by Ciovcninic-nt, and in the Canterbury settlement. In the course of this, some learned toe art ot stone-dressing, of which much has b'en made m onlc-al rcp ; >m. But if ihe Europeans r f ( ™ 10 leave hie ' >O-. nonow, I .** hi i/iur j.re-'ih' ei vit h a I to » -wAicu would ho lUcelu u> pievud (hi lays* of the nolle*, Into absolute c<-/V. uu,vj:it tls next dan. The opportunity for ha-W would (hen have ceased. They cannot con.t-n-t (; believe ! may safely say) one single | article o; uUM.v wni.-I,.they could not before we ! nTiL‘v. tiU'Di, skill as mechanics would be ! as it then was, to the fabrication of ; the scanty clothing, the domestic utensils, and i the 'varhke capons of savage life. . * They *. nil.!, or rattan- senna, canoes out of a tree. All ! otuOr bo.u.s by them arc bubc by Ibiropeaos. I Ihe mm is, lueir natural indolent disposition | (c»n.sfiiu-ii)!!;u lass:mde) [irevents them from event imitating the European in anything involving labor or skill. See them in their own plantations, oven when using the implements procured IVom the pakeha, mid in the immediate neighl-turhood of u settlement, acin, - !ly squat* mg mi tin; ground while they are nigging p. a round them. The very great advance in civihzai nm supposed hy Dir. EitzgernM. is nut to in- fmnd in fact more than the remark.i h!y intellectual character wliich he next refers t.-, ; but here he lias a mighty champion ra Jii'. Gorst, who speaks of the natives in terms wliich grace the head of this article ! ! Here again we must heg the indulgence of the reader, while we refer him to the report itself from which Mr. Fitzgerald quotes, when lie will find that it is not of the natives as a whole that Mr. Gorst is speaking or writing, as we might be led to suppose from the manner in which this paragiapn is n.-eo by nil’. i‘ Uzgerald, but of a few individuals, none other than -‘King Potatau’s ' council, and which is a very different aitair. Emy are—\> i Tarahawaiki, Honi i.a].'.:.i, lonia. W navapo, Pa tarn Tetuhi, f u...u.■ .I.a, W i karauma, Kepe le D.gahau, lai-.eiei ie i.;m, Kenenna, Hoera I’aonui. E’ext in the list of fallacies we meet with their great love of Justice —“ when they oppose us, it is because they believe that they are in the right,’’ and Mr. Fitzgerald proceeds to refer to a late murderous affair at Wanganui, and asks—“lf the white man had been killed, would we have taken it as quietly us the rdaones had duns, acknowledging tiiat our countryman was in the wrong? ’ Let the circumstances of the case he reversed (wliich we may suppose Dir. I’ ilzgerald intends) —suppose Lister had been rubbing the Maori, his neighbor, and had treacherously slabbed him when discovered, and had oecn killed by the injured party in consequence and in defence of Lis life, we, without hesitation, answer Yes, not one of his countrymen but would have endorsed tiie verdict “ serve him right,” though it had been friend or brother. But how is the case actually there now; we quote a letter from My or Cooper, viz.,— Wanganui, August G, ISG2. Sun— Will you kindly iniiuiat” to the Public, ll.ur Suh-H-i’iptioos an; being received at the Bank, and by Sir Robert Dougl;i» a and Capl. Xixon, for the Li.v.ors. liieso people arc compelled to give up their lavm. after yeans of labor, and on which thev were entirely dependant for support, owing to the death ot a Maori,killed by Lister in his own defence. Xo doubt, w-icii tne ca>e is made known through your paper, the public in general, and the lady public in padu-nl.ir, will come generously forward with sub-'cript ions, if only to coinmeinmorate the bravery ot Mrs. Lister in defending her husband's life. Particulars of tiio case will be found on the Subscription Lists. I any Sir, Yours, .to., T. It. COOPER. The fact is, there was good reason to suppose that although the Wanganui chiefs had declared their satisfaction at the result of the atlray, tuc relatives of the deceased Maori, in their Eve of justice ! would seek to execute vengeance upon the Listers, and in consequence they had been obliged to desert their farm and retire to the town for safety. So much for Mr. Fitzgerald's examples. For the rest, we charitably suppose Dir. X'itzgerabl has had but little dealing with the race, or he would be more inclined to endorse the views expressed by Mr. Harrison the next day—that “ so far from their being a ustlce-loving people, they were a shrewd, exacting, encroaching set of savages, who had always met concessions by further exac-

tions. Their love of justice is only to be i seen when justice tells for their benefit —then I indeed they are so very just as to demand ] the “ utu” to the uttermost, and to get their ( demands, too, as some of us at Hawke's Bay know to our cost, and to that of justice as i well. The next grand fallacy we meet in the course of the address has relation to the i rights of the native race in the property of the soil of the Island. It is not so long since we gave the whole subject a full discussion in these columns, and therefore will only now expose that part of the question alluded to by Mr. Fitzgerald. As may be supposed, Mr. Fitzgerald looks upon the I natives as actual proprietors, and presses in | the Treaty of Waitangi to his support as | recognising native ownership, because “ even i the Crown could get none of the land with- | out purchase.” But we have before shewn j clearly enough that the Treaty recognised i nothing more than a mere nominal and very ; o J I partial ownership, by claiming the pre-emp- ; tive right of purchase ; to recognise anything ; like an absolute ownership of the land on the j one hand, and to impose restrictions on its ; disposal on the other, involves so great an ‘ absurdity that we will not insult the good sense of our readers by further remark on I these points, but again repeat, that the lands over which even this partial ownership urns admitted was such as the natives could show ! a title to from actual occupation, and did : not in the idea of the Imperial Government i include the unoccupied wastes. Had the in- ; tentious and instructions of the Imperial j Government been carried out in their in- j tegrity from the first, none of the evils of the present complicated question could have occurred. But the cure for the evils of the present crisis prescribed by Mr. Fitz Gerald is none . other in principle than that which we have all along given, viz., “ to impress the abstract majesty of the law on the minds of the Maories —the law to which the native, colonist, Governor, and Queen must bow.” \ ery good this, but strange to say, he proceeds to advocate —not the enforcement of existing laws, that are openly violated by high and low, but their repeal—and this is perhaps the crowning fallacy of the oration. To repeal a law because it is set at nought, rather than to enforce it, is not the way to teach its majesty to the natives, but rather that it is something of but little consequence, which they may obey if they please, and if not, it cun be repealed. Such, according to Mr. Gorst, are the laws they already have, those of their runangas. But, why are these violated laws to be repealed rather than enforced? —especially when their stringent enforcement is the true panacea for the evils under which the Colony groans —which would really give the Maori a proof of the majesty of the law, quickly add territory in plenty to the demesne of the Crown, and so afford room for the expansion of the colony. Our arguments on this head are felt in high quarters to be sound. Mr. D. Bell, in his minute for ministers of November IG, 18G1, acknowledges our main position—“lt is.vain to preach obedience to the law to the natives in the case of grass money and cattlcqtrespass, while the Native Land Purchase Ordinance is openly violated by both races. The final fallacy of Mr. Fitz Gerald's speech consists in proposing that the compensation of our suffering fellow-colonists at Taranaki shall be made a charge on the colony, ‘and not on the rebels. He recommends a peaceful policy, so wide and comprehensive as also to give justice (?) to the native, while the Colony should feel bound to compensate the suffering settlers to the uttermost farthing. No details as to what is meant by the term “justice to the natives,” but as they believe they have a right to the lands of the settlers which they hold by the strong arm, as having taken it in war, aud they, from their extraordinary love of justice, would of course give it up ii it were _ not so> we may conclude that this is what is

meant, that they remain in possession, and their claims be admitted as just, (!!!) as the present aspect of the Natives should be taken into consideration when viewing their future prospects,” “ and we must win their entire confidence unless we are prepared to destroy them.” “ They would, if the alternative of 'war was offered them, purposely* accept it, aud then in self-defence the settler must hunt them from haunt to haunt until not a trace of them remained.” In view of the sentiments which we have endeavored to expose, it only remains for us to congratulate the colony on its escape from the danger it was in of having Mr. Fitz Gerald as head of its ministry, and that its General Assembly was not so far led astray by his eloquence as to adopt the resolutions which he proposed for their acceptance.