HAWKE’S BAY.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 121, 5 June 1863, Page 3

HAWKE’S BAY.

(From the Canterbury Press, May 19.) The recent files of the Hawke’s Bay papers bring us no intelligence of any interest whatever beyond the boundaries of that province. We have, however, private letters complaining of the mention made in this paper some time back of the new Civil Commissiouer, Major Whitmore, and representing him as a valuable officer, and as a great improvement on Colonel Bussell. The latter is not saying much, for several acts of the late Commissioner’s which came to our ears showed that he had no judgment whatever in dealing either with Natives or Europeans. If we have misrepresented Major Whitmore we are very sorry ; but we feel bound to say that we gave the opinion entertained by several of those in whose judgment we place reliance. Time will show what Major Whitmore is good for; and yet time will not, in his case, shew quite fairly, because it is impossible but that Mr. M’Lean, the Superintendent, should exercise such an influence as to render it difficult to measure what the Commissioner really has done. If anything were wanting to prove the absurdity of the state of the Government of New Zealand, it would be found in the present condition of affairs in Hawke’s Bay. Let us describe them.

The Province of Hawke’s Bay extends over a tract of country which is defined in all the maps. Within that area there are two populations, two tenures of land, two codes of law, two political Governments, and two systems of judicature, with different courts to each. At the head of one Government presides the English Superintendent, at the head of the other the Civil Commissioner for the Natives; and yet between these two Governments there is no line of demarcation—this being one district and that another. These Governments are not so much Governments over territory as over persons. We are not aware that the history of mankind can anywhere shew another instance of a system so ingeniously contrived for conflict as this—two races intermixed one amongst the other, with two separate Governors and Governments ruling over the separate individuals of the different races in the same territory. And the worst of it is, no one can define where the jurisdiction of the one Government ends and the other begins. No one, for example, can say whether a case ought to be tried or will be tried before the Civil Commissioner’s runanga, or the Resident Magistrate’s Court. But there is an additional and very singular feature in the Hawke’s Bay case. The two Governors seem to have changed positions, each being put into the situation for which he was less fitted, and kept out of that for which he was peculiarly adapted. The man who has made a name for himself as an authority amongst the Natives and in Native affairs is put over the English Government, and the man who knows nothing but English is put over the Natives !

The whole of this arises from the idea which has impregnated all our politicians, that the Natives have to he managed or governed in some, sense in which the English have not to be managed or governed. • The one sole mode of looking at these sort of problems rationally is first to ask ourselves— What do we want to arrive at ? To get clearly in our heads what is to be done finally. Now what we all want finally is that the English law shall extend all over the country ; no one will dispute that. In order then to get at this result, is it rational to build up a system of management which contemplates and must end in the perpetuation of two laws, two tenures of land, two governments, and two systems of justice. We believe the attempt to carry on a Go-

vernment which does not exercise its authority equally over all within its geographical jurisdiction must break down. In other words the Civil Commissioner will do nothing hut mischief. If Hawke’s Bay is to be successfully governed it can only be done by one Superintendent and Provincial Council, the Natives being fairly represented in that Council. If the Natives were represented, and felt they were so, the law could be carried without dispute throughout the district, because the Natives would feel that they were enforcing their law, not ours only. This is a wide question. It opens up the whole subject of the resolutions of last session. Those resolutions we may say have only as yet been introduced, they have hardly been discussed. It may take years to produce the result, but we have no doubt the day will come when their truth will be generally recognised. At Hawke’s Bay we are informed there has been a change in the Natives for good. They come more into town, deal more with the settlers, and work more than they did a short time ago. This is a pleasing fact. Hawke’s Bay has it in its power if it choses to solve the Native question for the whole colony.

What is their real grievance, apart of course from the difficulty of getting land ? Is it not that the Natives will not attend the summonses of the European Courts ? We wish Mr. M’Lean would just try and get the Natives to register as householders—which they can do independent of the question of title to land—and then get some Natives returned to the Provincial Council as members, and lastly maintain a strong force of well-armed constables to enforce the law, having Maories on the bench to try all Native cases. To those who say, all this is unreal, it is a dream, we reply—try it. At all events it has not yet been tried. It is no strange or novel theory, it is simply a belief in the fact that English law is the vehicle of justice, and is sure to be acceptable whenever and wherever it is tried for any length of time. Mr. M’Lean is in a peculiar position, he has a little New Zealand all to himself at Hawke’s Bay. There is no part of the Native difficulty but has its representative at Hawke’s Bay. He can solve there on a small scale what the General Government is trying to solve on a large scale. We are quite confident the General Government will let him do just as he likes, and we have no doubt the Civil Commissioner will take his advice. M’Lean and Grey are in the position of two doctors prescribing on two patients. Grey has the larger patient of the two, and the richer, but we should not be at all surprised to see the little one cured first.