CORRESPONDENCE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 98, 16 March 1863, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Hawke's Bay Thv.es. Dear Sir, —I find that your issue of this morning contains a document of the very greatest im-

portance to the whole Colony, as well as to every one elsewhere, who takes an interest in its progress. 01 course I allude to the elaborate memorial addressed to her Majesty by the long-suffer-iug settlers of the province of Taranaki. The value of this document can scarcely be sufficiently estimated at the present time ; and its probable effect on the minds of our Home Government seems to be foreseen by Sir George himself, at least we may be allowed to surmise this much, from his precipitate visit to the province concerned as soon as the purport of the memorial could have become known to him.

It is not my intention to refer in detail to the memorial, as it is so lately in the hands of your readers, but I may mention that it contains a true and just view of the course of events that has led to the present lamentable state of affairs in the Northern Island of New Zealand, as well as in Taranaki, from the first misguided step taken by Governor Fitzßoy in 1844, who began the evil course of weakness and imbecility—of concession to native bounce and missionary influence, exercised avowedly from the first in opposition to colonization—that has been followed by his successors in office ever since. I have remarked that the whole of this Northern Island suffers in common with the province of r J L’aranaki, from the course of misrule referred to—a course which, so far as mortal vision can extend, bids fair to be continued until the colony is reduced to desolation ; our own province of Hawke’s Bay has from time to time afforded quite a sufficient number of instances in proof of this. Thoughtful men cannot help asking, “ Why is this ? Is there, and has there been, no other and better course of action open to those whom her Majesty has placed over us ? Or have our Governors been altogether incompetent, intellectually, for the office to which they have been appointed? Or, on the other hand, may we conclude that reasons of a personal and temporary character, founded on the well-known influence of the Church Missionary party in the Mother Country, combined with the eclat of being thought able to keep a semi-barbarous race from actual war with the settlers, no matter at what cost ! Is, and has it been, of more consequence to them, than the progress and prosperity of the Colony ?” But let the answers to these queries be as they may, the fact still is patent to all that the course of temporising with the refractory native which has desolated Taranaki, and bids fair to bring the rest of the Colony to a similar pass, is that com-se which is still being pursued, not only by the Governor himself, but by all that have authority. Each one seems to take his cue from the Governor’s policy, and the rule is to permit the rebellious native—intoxicated with the belief of his strength as compared with our inability to resist—to proceed to any length of illegality and mischief without let or hindrance.

The above train of thought has irressistibly led me to note the recent case of rescue in our streets, and the impotent reply to your remarks on the case, that appeared in the columns of the Herald the other day. The production of such a reply, whether from the pen of our Superintendent (for which belief there is good ground) or from one of his talented supporters, says but little for the cause it professes to support. Although it may be considered almost a work of supererogation, I am tempted to expose some of the absurdities of the letter referred to, lest it may be supposed conclusive from the fact of its being allowed to pass without challenge. First, then, we are told that the Maories were “ under the influence of liquors, supplied to them by their pakeha friends.” Hero at the outset we have a very pretty confession. May I ask, is there not a law against tin’s very practice of supplying the Maori with alcoholic liquor P But this sapient scribe passes it over as a matter of course. Is this law, acknowledged on all hands to be of essential importance to the welfare of the race, to bo set aside at the will of the publican or storekeeper like the Land Purchase Ordinance by the squatter, or only to be enforced “ when found necessary ?” But, secondly, the yhad “no special instructions to interfere.” So w r e may conclude that a policeman’s duty is to walk about merely, and let “ noisy, quarrelsome drunkards” disturb the public peace, and not interfere except on “ special instruction from some J.P.” Third, the rescue of a prisoner from the hands of the police is a matter of small moment, —“of common occurrence at home”—of course with tomahawks. See., and the offenders are allowed to get off unpunished. This will be a new thing to your readers, especially such as, like your correspondent, are natives of seaports, and who have always been under the delusion (?) that the rescue of a prisoner from the police was a very grave offence. Fourth, a magistrate has “ an undoubted right to counsel the police” to allow of the rescue by the offender’s friends, “ upon their undertaking that he shall appear when sober to answer for his rudeness'’ (sic). This right, like doctrine No. 3, is something new, and does not even bear the color of plausibility. No person has such a right —not even royalty itself; for though Majesty has the prerogative of pardon for a convicted offender under certain limitations, it has not the power to shield a prisoner once in the hands of the officers of justice from proper indictment and trial. In this case Mr. McLean could not have believed that any such promise would be fulfilled j neither-

could he regard tlioiii as sureties for the appearance of the prisoner, seeing that there -was and could be no bond entered into, and, further, they were one and all offenders, and ought to have been conveyed to durance together for their attempt at rescue. Fifth, it might have led to a war of races. Sheer maudling folly this. It is the weakness displayed in acts b'ke that of Mr. McLean that will surely bring this about, and we may fear very soon, too., The sooner wo show them that we arc in calmest to support and execute the laws, the sooner will they be found to submit to them ; while they find they can defy them, it will be madness to expect them to yield. Sixth, Sir George Grey is trying an experiment!! one that will take months to come to show whether it will succeed in part or not! !! If it does, we may hope ! it will be finally entirely so ; if it does not succeed even in part, then the sword. O ! most wise and philanthropic scribe, it is most true that such an experiment as you name is even now under the hands of that skilful operator you

name—an experiment in which the patience, philanthropy, and forbearance of the colony is being sorely tried. Much as wo read of the sufferings of certain animals placed by other natural philoaoukerx under the exhausted receiver of an. air pump, to discover how long it is possible for life to exist under such unnatural and unfavorable circumstances, when the victims are destroyed we may perhaps learn whether the grand experiment is partially successful or not; but does it not strike you that the two years’ trial and complete, utter failure hitherto of this same experiment, is more than enough without adding a few more months to the time P Seventh, the difference in the release of a prisoner before and after commitment has been referred to; they are so widely different that.no person has the power to advise a rescue, the only power and duty of one and all being plainly to aid the police. Lastly, it does not seem that Mr. McLean thought the recapture so very far beyond the powers of the police, with the aid of the settlers at hand, or why insist that his friends should give them promise for his appearance. But, Sir, though “Zeta’s” nonsense ends in this place, the affair did not—the Herald gave us in the previous number an account of the appearance of the ringleader of the riot in the town—of a solemn mockery sort of conference held with him by our J.P.’s—and his being permitted to go his way without further molestation, convinced that for the future, the Maori will is to be the only law for the race ; and having convinced the Magistrates that the honor of a Maori is a thing of far greater moment than the law of the Queen. I must beg a few more lines of space to refer to one more point of importance noted in the afore-mentioned Taranaki memorial, I allude to the despatch of September, 1861. This despatch has been referred to on several occasions, and it will be well to place an extract from it before your readers.

“ The necessity of supporting tlie supremacy of the British Crown can scarcely be overstated ; and if the employment of armed force bo requisite for that purpose, the responsibility must rest, not on her Majesty’s Government, but upon those by whom disobedience, amounting to practical rebellion, has been planned and encouraged.” This despatch does not advocate war to enforce the supremacy of the Queen’s Government in the event of its being capable of being effected by milder means, but as will be seen, scarcely leaves a choice in the absence of this condition. llow far Sir George has aimed at this is not, of course, to be known, but it cannot be asserted that one step has been made in this direction. On the contrary, in spite of this despatch and others to the same effect, we have a second king on the Maori throne, the flag floating over the whole race, (with, perhaps, an insignificant exception) and to all intents and purposes the Maori kingdom and the authority claimed for it, practically acknowledged by the Government. I am, Sir, Yours, &.C., A SETTLER. ' Xapier, 13th March, 18G3.