Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1863.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 125, 19 June 1863, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1863.

It is decidedly cheering to notice the cordial manner in which the leading papers of the Southern Island take up the cause of the settlers in the Northern Island as against the entire lawlessness and anarchy which has resulted amongst the Natives from the blind pursuit by Sir George Grey, of that conciliatory policy which he has for so long a time insisted upon as the only true way of reconciling the Maories to the acceptance of our laws and institutions.

But while we may congratulate ourselves upon the fact that the papers published in the sister Island warmly and with vigor press upon the Government the necessity of inflicting condign and severe punishment upon those tribes who participated in the horrible murders of our countrymen at Taranaki, it is a matter of some astonishment to find that those journals discuss the subject of our relations with the Natives, and in short the whole Maori question, in a manner which shows at once that, however well and ably they may write upon and ventilate the matter, they do so from a point of view which renders it impossible for their opinions to have much weight with those who are practically and painfully acquainted with the real state of affairs.. It is evident at a glance to the unprejudiced observer who has come in contact with the Maories, that the Canterbury papers are but indifferently acquainted with the character of that people. If we were to be led by the views accepted and promulgated by the Press, and by the Lyttelton Times, as touching the Maori, we should immediately conclude that all the cardinal virtues, and all manner of righteousness, wisdom, and refinement were to be found, cultivated, and brought to the highest state of perfection, amongst them.

Such a delightful idea of the character of our brown brethren, we regret to say, cannot be accepted or entertained by that class of men who have gathered painful experience and practical knowledge of the Maori as he really is, and who have very little hope of ever seeing him as he really ought to be.

That there may be instances of great virtue and of great goodness to he found amongst the natives of New Zealand, we are not disposed to deny, hut that we, ourselves during a long course of years of frequent intercourse with these people have not met with one of these desirable characters, we are compelled to confess, and we therefore, with justice, consider that they are “few and very far between.”

It is but just, especially at this peculiarly critical period in the history of the Natives, that their characteristics, their manners, their customs, and their habits, should he looked upon with calm impartiality, and weighed in a fair balance, without prejudice, and without favor. For it is hut too plainly discernible that the day is not far distant when the trial for mastery in this Island, between us and its aboriginal owners, must take place, unless that people be seized with

an apathy and indifference to their fate, which will render them callous to the result, and unconcerned as to the effect of the Europeans obtaining without a struggle that control over them which we so much need. It is not likely that a people who are already keenly alive to the startling fact that while they, the original owners of and possessors of the land, are rapidly and surely, decreasing in numbers and in strength, we, the foreigners and intruders, are as rapidly increasing in numbers, and increasing also in power and in wealth, it is not likely, we repeat, that they will quietly and without a desperate struggle see the inheritance of their ancestors gliding rapidly and perceptibly from under their feet, and occupied by a stranger and an alien people.

Yet while we are desirous that the most strict and impartial judgment should be given upon the character of the Maories, we must confess that it appears to us, biassed as we are by our own experiences of them, that the result of that enquiry will be that excepting in the eyes of that class of people, who have a constitutional veneration for all sorts and conditions of savages, there will be found but few, very few, if any of the less theoretical and more precise people, but will consider that the Maori is incorrigibly bad.

That this race of people are singularly intelligent is undeniable, hut we contend that although there can be no doubt as to that, yet that shrewdness and intelligence of a high order, are the peculiar features in the character of all savage and half-civilized people. And for a sufficient reason. The mind of those persons who from their infancy upwards are compelled by the nature of their habits to be constantly on the watch, and constantly struggling to obtain in some way or other the means of living, are by this constant strain and demand upon their faculties, infinitely more quick and apparently intelligent than are the mass of people, who have the fortune to belong to a more advanced state of society, where the wants of life are supplied by machinery, and where the very necessity of intelligence is almost subverted or obviated by some mechanical contrivance.

It is a curious fact that the more highly civilized and refined a people are, and the greater the altitude of knowledge at which they have arrived, the intelligence of that people seems to be wholly concentrated in special and individual instances, and that, by consequence, there arise minds of such vast magnitude, whose comprehensive intelligence is so great that they may be said to be the concentration and the receptacle of all the wisdom of the nation to which they belong. Natural acuteness may be found in abundance and of luxuriant growth, where the artificial stimulus of education has never been applied, and on the other hand, when education is pursued, and brought to the utmost perfection, there the great body of the people are comparatively dull of comprehension. A savage shews indications of shrewdness, and of keenness of perception and of the use of the animal faculties, which is perfectly astonishing and almost incomprehensible to his more civilized, refined, and highly-educated compeer.

But, unfortunately, intercourse with the civilized nations does not improve the com! ition of savages. By no means. We teach them just enough to show them their ignorance in a strong light, and to render them unhappy and discontented with their lot, hut we are not able, with all our skill, to alter their understanding and minds in the course of two or three generations, or to make them fully comprehend and appreciate, and make use of all the knowledge which we ourselves possess, and which we are willing and anxious to impart to them. That is impossible. Therefore the fiat has gone forth, that from the face of the land of their fathers they shall disappear, and like the races of men and of animals, which existed at remote periods in the history of the earth, they must pass away, and give place to a people, and

to a state of things better fitted and better ableto make use of the abundant stores which the Creator has provided for the spread of knowledge, and for the progress and expansion of Nations far advanced in the arts of civilization.

It is our way in dealing with these savage nations, which in the course of time fall within our influence, to cut away all their own institutions, —institutions which were well adapted to their habits, and to the state of feeling which is to be found amongst them, and to endeavour to graft on the old stock our own and entirely inapplicable institutions and incomprehensible ways of thinking and of acting. But we have not yet succeeded in doing so ; nor shall we ever succeed. Figs will not grow upon thistles ; by their fruits ye shall know them.