“THE REAL CAUSE OF NATIVE DISTRUST OF GOVERNOR BROWNE.”

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 68, 16 October 1862, Page 4

“THE REAL CAUSE OF NATIVE DISTRUST OF GOVERNOR BROWNE.”

To Hie Editor of Hie Hawke's Bay Ti mes. Sir, — As the Eight Honorable Colonel A. H. Russell, when he proposed to buy off an opposition native by conferring on him the dignity of an Assessor, (duties, nominal; emoluments, ,£SO per annum,) showed, perhaps inadvertently, that he understood the right method of working the peace at any price policy ; so his patron, Mr. Crosbie Ward, let out an ugly fact or two in his reports and memoranda on his proceedings in this district. Take for instance his admission that it would not be possible to enforce the award of a Court of Justice against a native, although a decision in favor of a native and against a colonist is to be rigidly enforced ! Mr. Ward advises that no attempt be made to enforce the law against a native at present, but that at some future time, when a Maori runanga, (in which the native litigant will probably occupy a seat on the bench to judge Ids own cause, according to the precedent established by Mr. Ward,) has decided a case in favor of a European as against a native, then perhaps an award may be enforced saf. ly ! Wise Mr. Ward ! When a native decides against himself, then, perhaps, but only perhaps, for it is by no means certain , the award may be curried out! Another of Mr. Ward's statements deserves more attention than it has yet received. He reports, that the natives distrusted the Government “ because they had sundry disputed claims, which they feared the Governor mi"ht undertake to settle by force, as he was attempting to do at Taranaki! - ’ The real truth lays here but thinly disguised. Whatever our politicians might say, they knew well, and we all know, that nothing could be less probable than for Governor Browne to attempt to take any land by force from the natives. Hence at first sight we might decide that the natives were afraid of a shadow. If we did so decide, we should err. It was no shadow, but a sternreality, that the Hawke’s Bay Natives feared ! It was not that they had cause to fear any injustice. No ; the wrong lays on the other side. Let us recall to mind how tilings stood here before Governor Browne made that declaration at Taranaki, which he unfortunately was unable to cany out as he wished. The natives were independent in all but the name, being Queen’s subjects only when anything was to he gained by it, but independent at all other times. To say nothing of debts, which we all know a white could not recover from a native, there were some cases of violence to individual whites, unpunished and unpunishable, except at the risk of a collision between the two races. Besides this, there were sundry cases of resuming possession of land after sale to the Crown, and many attempts to break old agreements. All these cases had to stand over, lest they should cause bloodshed. There was further their own feuds, with which we arc not so directly interested. Thus matters stood, when the Governor said at Taranaki, “ Maori terrorism must cease, and the law be supremeadding further, if any native killed another, he should be apprehended and tried in the Queen’s Court; no man not owning should be allowed by violence to prevent, other men from alienating their land to the Crown. It was “ this determination” that scared the natives of Heretaunga. This was a direct blow at their independence. To make them submit their quarrels to the Queen's law rather than to the musket and tomahawk, indeed! No wonder they were alarmed. They might well say, if the Governor makes Ngatiawa at Taranaki submit to law and order, how long will it bo ere he deals out the same terms to Ngatikahungunu at Heretaunga? This was what they feared, and quite naturally

too. The conclusion at which they arrived was quite sound. What more logical sequence could be anticipated than that the law would he enforced at Heretaunga after it had been successfully introduced at Taranaki ? Yours, &c., A Saxon. Ahuriri, Bth October, 18G2.