SPEECH OF BISHOP SELWYN TO THE MEETING AT PERIA.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 80, 8 January 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

SPEECH OF BISHOP SELWYN TO THE MEETING AT PERIA.

This is I, the mediator of New Zealand : and this is my work, the work of mediation. X am not a Pakeha, nor a rnaori; I am a half-caste. I have eaien your food, I have slept in your whares; I have eaten with you, talked, travelled, prayed with you, and taken the holy supper with you. Therefore I say to you I am a half-caste, and I cannot strip from myself my half-caste character; it is in my body, in my liesh and sinews, in my bones and marrow. But, indeed, we are all half-castes. Your clothes are half-caste—-one part of them rnaori mats the other pakeha clothes. Your strength is half-caste—-in your heart there is rnaori courage, in your hand a pakeha weaj)on. Your soldiers are half-castes—the men are inaories, but their clothes are pakeha clothes, and the word of command is in the pakeha language. Your mana (sovereignly ?) is rnaori mana, but you have given it a pakeha name. Your creed is half-caste—a pakeha is the father, your heart the mother; the child is born, and behold, the faith. Therefore I say to you we are all half-castes, let, us live in one faith, one love, and under one law. Yes, let there be but one faith, love, and law—let theie be but one. I have not forgotten the saying of our father [Potatau I.] concerning faith, love, and the law. He did not say to us, let there be many faiths, many loves, and many laws, but let there be one. My feet shall stand firmly on that saying. I>o not say that I came here of myself. It was Wiremu (Tamihana) who invited me, and the liunanga of Waikato agreed that a part of this day should be for me to speak in, that all the tribes might hear my thoughts. Consider careful y, then the important things I have to say to you. I. Let there be one law for all. 11. Let the Waitara (case) be adjudicated. 111. Let Tataraimaka be quietly occupied by the Pakehas to whom it belongs. I. Let there be but one law. You have heard Tamihana's words concerning the letter of the Duke of Newcastle. I also will make it clear. If you wish that Matutaera and his Eunanga should make laws for you, you must submit your laws to the Governor, and leave it to him to make them valid, that they may be established as a law for us all, and be respected by pakeha and rnaori alike. 1 hat is how the Pakehas do. There is a rununga at Wellington, a runanga at Auckland, and one at Ahuriri - and each one has its head. They make laws for their harbours, for their roads, for their traffic, for their land, and for what else belongs to them—and when their laws are made they are left for the Governor to give authority to, that they may be a law for men travelling on the roads, and for ships coming into harbour. There is no unequal law, that respects persons. There is but one for all of us. Therefore I say to you, agree to the first of my propositions, that there should be but one law. 11. This is the second, that the Waitara case should be adjudicated. This saying is not mine only—it is thine, 0 Tamihana, and yours 0 Ngatikahungunu —it is ours, the mediators’. Sir William Martin’s, mine, and all the ministers’. It was thine 0 Tamihana, at the end of the fighting at Waitara, leave Waitara to be looked after by the law. By which law ? By the law of the Maori or the Pakeha? By neither, but by that of us all. This was your word, 0 Ngatikahungunu, If it be a bushel of wheat, a house, or a pig, it is adjudicated, but the land the greatest of all, has not been adjudicated. This was what we ail and our pakeha friends said long since. The wrongdoing of Governor Browne was that he did not lave the Waitara case adadjudicated. This is my sickness that the Waitara case was not adjudicated. The cure for my sickness is that it should be adjudicated. But Ly whom shall it be tried ? By you and us together. By some of you who understand rnaori laws and by some of us who understand the pakeha laws. There was but one man among you who did the wrong, Te Teira—there was but one man among us who did the wrong. Governor Browne. But you and we, the many, will set right the -wrong doing of the single man. Come, then, assent to my second proposition, that Waitara should be adjudicated, 111. This is the third, that Tataraimaka should be quietly occupied by the pakehas to whom it belongs. This is not a new saying. A little while ago, on my journey with Tamati Ngapora, in this very month of October, it was said by Wiremu Kingi and Rewi “ it will soon be

light.” When I went to Taranaki about this I was not believed. You have heard of what befel me there. I will not enlarge upon that now, that is completely finished. I and Hori Ngatai have made our peace, but tne irue cause of the heaviness of my heart is this, that my widows and orphans are living in poverty in the Town at New Plymouth ; they are not let to return to their places. Pliey have done no wrong, the widows atid the orphans. Let some of us go to put them back again on their places, ibis work is for you and me, 0 Tamihana, for, I have heard the saying of the Taranaki (tribe), “ Let Tamihana say one word. Give me then your one word. You will not withhold it. Nor will the many withhold their word. Let Tataraimaka he occupied quietly by the pakehas. (On this the Bishop looks towards Matulaera and takes off his hat.) 0 Matutaera, head chief of Waikato, I am urging you in the name of our father, who fell asleep in love; do you assent to the good things by which we may be made whole. (Then turning to TVirenm Tamihana.) 0 my son Tamihana, I am urging you in the name of our loving friend [Wetim Taiporutu(?)] whose corpse is kept in my grave at Taranaki ! Bo you agree to the means by which we shall be made whole. (Then turning to the multitude) —o you the tribes of New Zealand, who are living and runanga-ing here, I am urging you all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ whom we believe in and revorence, that you should agree to the means by which we may be made whole. [The italics are as in the copy, printed apparently at the Melanesian Press.]