THE HAWKE’S BAY TIMES. NAPIER, THURSDAY, DEC. 18, 1862.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 77, 18 December 1862, Page 3

THE HAWKE’S BAY TIMES. NAPIER, THURSDAY, DEC. 18, 1862.

“ I have been to the countries of Europe, and I have seen the kings, each one who is sitting (or ruling) in that great country of Europe. The power, or jurisdiction of one king, does not overlap the power or jurisdiction of another king. From having seen these things, I first became aware that the idea of the natives in setting up a king for themselves was correct.” —Wiremu Tocice Rebellion*, when ignored in its beginnings, and permitted to proceed with impunity from step to step, can only be expected to assume formidable proportions, and that which could easily have been suppressed in its beginnings, when allowed to grow to maturity, can only be dealt with by a proportionate exercise of authority, energy, and severity. The kingdom of Matutaere, or Potatau 11, is, at length, become an established fact, such as it was foreseen by the late Governor, it threatened to become ; and though it has hitherto been convenient to Sir George Grey to ignore the fact, or to treat it as a sign of their desire for “ law and order” on the part of the natives, and as such, a hopelul movement to he directed and controlled (sic) rather than suppressed—we presume that even his eyes will now he opened to the truth and that he will he constrained to own Governor Browne not so far wrong after all. The mystery attending the late departures of the Ahuriri chiefs, and their stay in the Waikato district is solved by the appearance of the Gazette of king Matutaere and lila r’.-mnnll t. LL.L 1 “5 tfjixv.ii, x\j*. gvuviat miuiiua" tion we presume, has recently been issued hj* the native press, the gift of the Emperor of Austria, for a copy of which, in the original Maori, and a translation of the same into English, we are indebted to our contemporary, the Daily Southern Cross, which, in its remarks on the subject, draws a comparison between this spontaneous runanga of the natives, and that which took place under the auspices of a Civil Commissioner and the “ New Institutions"

It will be remembered by our readers that we drew attention to the Governor’s Maori runanga, in our issue of the 19th June last, and showed the farcical nature of that affair. —We now wish to direct attention to the striking contrast it affords to the whole proceedings of the late Maori Council, which bears upon its surface the stamp of sincerity and truth. By the publication of the document we are assured of the correctness of our previously-expressed convictions respecting the reality of the king movement, the entire abnegation of all semblance of submission to the authority of her Majesty, her officers, and her law's; and of the genuine state of the feeling w'ith which the Maori as a whole regards the European settler —on these several points there is now no further room for a doubt. With regard to the first point, the reality of theMcing movement, as such, and the consequent actual establishment of a rival kingdom, or ruling power, within the Colony, the fact of the meeting itself is proof sufficient ; but, we in addition quote from the speeches made and published in the Maori Gazette. W. Thompson said : “ It is sufficient for me to have set up the king,” &cW. Toetoe; (as before quoted) “ 'lhe power (mana) of one king does not overlap that of another king.” Hoera ; “ It will not be right for the mana of the Queen of England to override the mana of king Matutaere, it is not possible to yoke a horse and a cow (!! !) in the same yoke.” Surely nothing more than this can be needed to prove that the Maori king party has completely and entirely repudiated all pretence of submission to the Government of her Majesty. The discussion on the subject of expelling the European population from the Maori territory appears to have been of a somewhat more private nature than that relating to thr recently formed roads of Maungatawhiri and JVhaingaroa, which latter seems to be reported very fully. The almost unanimous voic of the meeting being that these roads should be stopped. It is observable in this connection that when the Ahuriri chief Paora Kaiwhatu (of Shirley notoriety) wished for information as to whether the roads in question were on the lands of the Maori or the pakeha, the reply given was to the effect that the land had been bought by the pakeha, there remained to the Maori, in consequence of a protest made against its occupation in 1854, a kind of mana over it which justified them in stopping the roads. Upon this lucid explanation, Karaitiana, likewise a chief of this district (and of grass money celebrity) stated his view of the question —“ that when a piece of the king’s land is mixed with land held by Europeans, all should be treated as the king's land.” Of course ! if they fed they can do as they please with the property of the pakeha, we may expect no other result than this. The decision regarding the expulsion of the pakehas from native districts is left to the Maories among whom they dwell, to be expelled or not, according to their good or evil appearance (behaviour) ; i.e. as they seem willing to yield to native tyranny or not. But perhaps the most important point discussed was the Taranaki affair—whether it should or not be submitted to arbitration, and here the ground uniformly taken by ourselves —that every day’s delay in dealing with that question—every concession made to the native race, only adds to its difficulty and complication,—that what could have been settled with comparative ease on the first arrival of Sir George Grey, can now only be decided by an immense expenditure of blood and treasure, —that delay in dealing W'ith the rebel Ngatiruanuis and Taranakis, who from the first rejected the proffered terms of peace at the bands of Governor Browne, only gives an appearance of justice to their cause, detaches from us many tribes who then w r ere walling to own the justice of ours, and adds to their side the wavering (ind tlicit wii-dit c to rw i

neutral—all this was pithily expressed, though perhaps unintentionally, in the figurative language of the Maori, by Kereopa, under the similitude of a sack of wheat, which then stood erect and securely tied at the mouth, and could, in consequence have been easily removed, but which has since been allowed to be untied, upset, and scattered all over the ground. “ Who is there,” said he, “ that can pick up the grains of wheat, and make the sack exactly what it was before ?’’ The concluding words of TV. Thompson are the expressions of one who feels that he has conquered, that the delay and parley with the rebels one and all has been a series of deceptive tricks to over-reach them, which they have been clever enough to understand and avoid. He shows, likewise, that if the king movement is really the evil that now seems to be made of it —it ought certainly to have been so understood at the first, but as it was not opposed then, but on the whole, rather approved of, as they would suppose, by the inaction of the Governor, and by the words of the Governor, to check or to demolish it now would give them a very plausible ground of complaint and opposition. So much for the most sapient idea of the Fox party —“ To give practical effect to what is good (?) in that movement while we persuade the natives to reject whatever in it may be antagonistic to the British Government (!) ought to be our aim. O tempora / O mores !