Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1863.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 124, 15 June 1863, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1863.

We published in a late issue an article copied from the Canterbury Press headed “ Hawke’s Bay,” from'which article it would seem that some private correspondent of that journal has endeavoured to disabuse the mind of the editor of any misconception under which he may labor in regard to Major Whitmore.

That Major Whitmore is an improvement upon Col. Russell we most emphatically deny, and wo, as the representative of public opinion in this Province, and not of either private or party feeling, entirely repudiate the right of private friendship having anything whatever to do with the judgment passed by the people upon public servants.

That Sir. McLean acts as a sort of dry nurse to Major Whitmore, and in that capacity guides his tottering and uncertain steps with prudence we admit, but that the Major has really anything whatever to do with the Government of the Natives in this Province we deny. The Press forgets, in fact appears to be ignorant of the fact that when the Government instituted the office of Civil Commissioner, it was done with a view not to insure respect for the law or veneration for itself, but to be able, upon a feasible pretext, to command the services of a secret agent to carry on a system of paltry and beggarly bribery. McLean acts under private instructions from Government, and Whitmore acts upon private advice from McLean. Therefore we see that, in point of fact, there does not exist any real authority at all in the matter of the management of the Maories. Again, in the article to which we refer, the Press, with that sublime adherence to the purely visionary view of everything having reference to the Maories which specially distinguishes that journal, seems to have arrived, by a look at the map, at the conclusion that there is to be found in Hawke’s Bay an elaborate and perfect system of Government, by which the Natives, having a Governor placed over them, are at this moment in a high stare of moral training, and that they view with righteous awe the authority of their ruler. This, we must be allowed to say, is altogether a dream. The Maories think or care about as much for Major Whitmore as they care for any other man ; they look upon him, with justice, as a kind of pecuniary pump, out of which they can extract, by a very small amount of exertion, any quantity of loose cash, and they would as soon respect a mandate issued in the name of the Queen by that distinguished officer as they would respect a leading article

or a speech made by the accomplished and able editor of the Press. They look upon the whole European race as a fair spoil which fortune has cast before them, and they very prudently make the most of it while the opportunity lasts. What a sublime piece of indescribable rot! the idea of the Maories of Hawke’s Bay being induced to register as householders ! In the first place they have no houses to register, and in the second place they have about as much notion or idea of the real value or privilege of voting as the editor of the Pi-ess seems to have of the real state of the Natives themselves. Furthermore, if any attempt to place the Maories of this Province on the voting list was made, we would resist it, in the name of the legitimate voters, with a never-dying determination. We have nothing to boast of at this tune in the matter of the use of the franchise, but for all that, all freedom of election, and all real (and even unreal for the matter of that) representation of the people would be, by the admission of the Native element, utterly and hopelessly smothered. It is a notorious fact that the Maories look upon every office, every privilege, and every political liberty given to them, as just another means, added to their already tolerably large stock, of obtaining money from us. A Maori is remarkable for nothing in so great a degree as his desire to turn into cash anything of any kind or sort whatever, from any one of the seven virtues down to tire little matter of the sale of a pig. The Maories would register to a man, and vote like a perfectly organised municipal body, if McLean would hut use the magic word “ tdu.” Shake a handful of coins before a Maori, and he would follow you, like an old horse after a feed of corn, from one end of the country to the other, if you judiciously gave him a grain or two now and then. Of all the brilliant dreamers over a matter of stern and unpalatable fact, commend us to the editor of the Press. Dreams ! dreams ! all dreams.

This subject and the relative topics bring' us naturally enough back again to Major Whitmore. That gentleman has obtained, by some means unknown, a most surprising position in the eyes of the weak and imbecile Government which now, at this critical juncture, has got hold of the reins of power, and he has, in consequence, been appointed to command our local forces; aud this, too, without the slightest regard to the fact that Major Douglass, who now commands the detachment of the 14th Regiment stationed here, was already appointed as commander of the Militia aud Volunteers ; and moreover Major Whitmore’s appointment places him over the head of that respectable old soldier Captain Lambert, who has long held the position of Captain and Adjutant of the Militia of Hawke’s Bay. Now, Major Douglass is decidedly a preferable man to Major Whitmore, aud we are happy to be able to say that the people would turn out like one man under] that gallant soldier and gentleman Douglass, and submit patiently to be knocked into something like military shape, and we would, with the most laudable perseverance undergo that peculiar and trying ordeal through which all aspirants after military renown must go, the “goose step,” in order that that respected commander might pronounc 6 upon us the gratifying benediction, “ Well done, those good and faithful squads.” Lambert, too, we believe, is an expert disciplinarian, and an old and popular settler, and would make a good officer for our people ; but both these gentlemen, in the face, too, of the special rights by prior appointment to the command, are set aside by Secretary Domett in favor of a gentleman whom we do not know, and whose military capacity requires something more than a letter from the Colonial Secretary in commendation of it to give the person that worth which he ought undoubtedly to have established before he be entrusted with the responsible position of commander of raw levies. Until Major Douglass’ and Captain Lambert’s commis-

sions be formally set aside, we do not see how Major Whitmore canact, and we raise a protest against the suspension of those highly respected gentlemen in favor of Whitmore, uulesss good grounds for that suspension be produced and maintained.