NEW ZEALAND.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 197, 21 October 1864, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND.

(From the Westminster Review)

('Continuedfrom our last.)

We have said that there never was a country more easy to govern. Those who are content to derive their information from official sources, and who forget that the temptation to exaggerate difficulties in order to enhance the credit of overcoming them is not invariably resisted, will remain of a different opinion. But some of these difficulties are imaginary ; others are overdrawn, and the rest are of the very creation of those who complain—who have set up their own windmills, in order to run a tilt against them. Government was an easy task, because the character both of the settlers and of the natives was such ns to make it so. Of the first we need say little, save that in social station, education, and intellectual ability, they ranked far above the ordinary average of colonial pioneers. Since the days of the cavaliers of Virginia, there has been nothing to equal, in this respect, the original body of emigrants to New Zealand. The-novelty of systematic colonization, as yet an experiment, had taken the fancy of the moment in England, and recruiting had been active among the better classes of society. All that was needed, to ensure quiet and happiness, was to have allowed such men to take care of themselves, and, as the sequel proves, of the natives also : to have reposed that confidence in them from the first which it has been found necessary to accord at last. For it stands upon record that they saw their way forward more clearly than did the successive officers appointed by the Home Government: the principles enunciated by the leaders of public opinion among them having made their way, one by one, and being at the present moment in practical operation. These same men, as many as are left, can now point to the frank admission made by the present Secretary of State for the Colonies, that “ he could not disguise from himself that the endeavours to keep the management of the natives under the control of the Home Government had failed and to their own refusal, in the session of 1862, to take upon themselves the responsibility

of governing the native tribes until the troubles induced by neglect of their advice should be allayed.

The mistake in regard to the colomats was tbe eupposed necessity of keeping them in statu pupillari; of “preparing them gradually”—the accredited phrase of the time —for representative institutions, in forgetfulness of the great truth that, (the longer Englishmen are debarred from the exercise Of English rights, the more unfit do they become for the performance of English duties. The mistake in regard to the natives was of a Sinai!ar nature. They were considered, not as men of like passions with ourselves, equally self-confident as ourselves, acting from the same motives, and eubjeet <to the same errors; feat as children. The Government forthwith proceeded to pamper the child, and the Attempt, far from winning confidence, was resented, f t was perfectly understood and appreciated. Yet, in our belief, there does not exist among uncivilized nations a more manly people, or more easy of reasonable guidance,—a people whose qualities, good and bad alike, afford a stronger leverage by which to mms them. Docile, because endowed with high powers of reasoning ; equable in temper, making it a point of honor to abstain at least from the outward manifestation of anger; imperturbable, and therefore patient under provocation, affording ample time to justify or make amends ; but dogged in resistance to force, and -nexorable, even to barbarity, when satisfied that the action is “ correct,” —that is to say, according to precedent. For the Maori is at once democratic and conservative in temperament ; paying to his chief —whose rule, if not altogether based upon opinion—very much less deference than is usual .among the islanders of the tropical Pacific ; but a slave to custom and etiquette, which are, to him, the unwritten law —the wisdom of his forefathers. Faithful to engagements at any sacrifice, until taught by us to break them, being accustomed to treat a bargain with something like religious reverence, and to consider that which is formally done as irrevocable. Even should the bargain prove a bad one, a Maori casts it off his mind, neither indulging in regret, nor giving himself the least further trouble about the matter. Apparently covetous to the extreme, because unrestrained by conventional notions of delicacy from asking, and because wanting in those finer feelings, only developed among long civilized races, by which covetousness is sometimes overborne; deficient, though not wholly so, in gratitude, because not accustomed to give or to exact more than is due. Where a native gift is more virtually an exchange, ostentation is generally the motive ; and in that case it is thought of the giver, that “he has his reward.” Teeming with vanity—the less offensive because coupled with perfect self-reliance ; full-blown with pride, which nevertheless will not hinder a great •chief—a tino rangatira —from begging the smallest trifle ; and not wanting m a certain chivalry of feeling, after his own fashion, though that fee not always identical in outward form with ours.*

We reserve for more special notice the chief characteristic feature of the native mind, by acting upon which the Maori might have been moulded like clay under the potters hands, —his keen, appreciative sense of justice. Not that the Maori idea of justice is absolutely co-cxtensive with our own ; for the word is used by us, conventionally, in a restricted sense. The abstract form of justice is the perception of equality ; the desire to equalize unequal quantities—to balance nnd weigh. With civilized justice must be included “wild justice,” which is, revenge. The Maori is a metaphysician born, with an instiue tive perception of the law of compensation. The ruling passion—the mainspring of his conduct, is to “ come off quits to be even with every man whether friend or foe. For everything but hospitality he must have an equivalent; blood for blood ; service for service ; for cession of rights. And with an equivalent, though not indisposed to try for more, he is certain, ultimately, to rest content. That upon which everything rests in Maoridom, the dominant institution, is UxtJ, f generally translated payment, ransom, reward; but which, taken in conjunction with its congener, uto, may rather be described ns “measure for measure.” This appears to be the real clue to most of the seeming anomalies in the Maori mind. It is this, for instance, which causes kind-

"* Sometimes it is. Lieutenant Brookes, who was killed at Puketekaure, bravely defending himself while entangled in a swamp, was to have been spared by the party with whom he was actually engaged, on account of their admiration of the courage ho displayed. He lowered his sword at last, in token of surrender; the assailants supposing it to be a feint, were considering among themselves how to take him, when he was shot by one who came up at the last, and had not held council with the rest. Such at least is the native account, which may probably be relied on.

At the time of the war in the North, the natives considered it “ incorrect” to hinder the bringing up of ammunition and supplies; for the want of them might spoil a fair fight. When joked about in by some officers, rather indiscreetly, after the making of peace, they answered significantly, “We shall know bettor next time.”

+ The following characteristic story is related by Mr. Brown, —“ An acquaintance of mine who has been settled, for some time among them, had on one occasion a dispute about the payment for some timber which the tribe had been dragging out of the bush for him; and as he showed no symptoms of acceding to their unreasonable demands, one of the chiefs, in their usual braggadocio style, advanced towards him, flourishing his arms, yelling, and looking as if he would annihilate him. This was more than John Bull could stand, and he struck the chief a blow with Ills ust WHICH S6ilt lixiTi i’ccliilgf fiiWSV. Tho chief &t> firg|j got move furious than ever, but soon calmed down again, as his friends thought he was to blame, and did not interfere in the quarrel. Next day the same chief came privately to the settler, and begged of him to give him half-a-crown, in order that he might show it to his friends, and tell them that it had been paid him as a satisfaction for the insult which had been offered to him. In this case, it was clearly his vanity that had been wounded; not the slightest degree cf resentment was retained, nor was there the least consciousness of offended dignity, either in the original insult, or in the still more degrading subterfuge to which he resorted to wipe it away." Under certain circumstances, governed by Maori etiquette perfectly comprensible to them, though hardly so to us, the victors give utu to the vanquished, as payment for losses, in order to end the war upon fair terns. This was the case at Kororareka, in the year 1837, when the Ngapuhi, from Whungaroa, Matauri, and the Bay oflslands,madean attack upon Kawltl and Pomare, at Kororareka. Hongi, a superior chief, fell; and though the assailants were repulsed, Kororareka, together with a large proportion of land as far as Cape Brett, was ceded to them. Tho perpetrators of the massacre at Wairau were surprised at our not claiming the land in dispute immediately afterwards, as k in for the death of tho whits chiefs. We cpuld have had it for the asking, for the demand would have been “correct." Far from attributing our conduct to forbearance, they only looked down upon ns as " unenlightened Britishers.”

ness, offered from simple impulse, to be so dimly appreciated by a native. For, not understanding why ho should he receive more than he is commercially entitled to, sae aaeks a motive, too often imputing an ignoble —fear or the hope of gain. Such a temperamgnt is (ungracious, but the advantage derived ffom it by the ruling powers is inestimable. No need for favor, of which there has been too much, in judicial decisions between the white man and the red ; none for gifts or for cajolery; nothing repaired of them but to fulfil their own engagements, and, among a nation of hard bargainers, faithfully keep the bargain driven by the Grown at Wakangi. After all, allowing for a few national peculiarities, they are in character much the same as the rest of us. There is mo mystery about Maori matters, as the periti — With purpose to be dressed in an opinion Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit, would have had others believe. Manners and customs must of course be studied there as they must elsewhere; but they are easy to learn, for secrecy is unknown to the race. And it is only fair to bear in mind that if their virtues are less conspicuous then it is because the possessors do not take the trouble to parade them ; while their faults are more so, because uncloaked. The Maoris do not care to whiten their sepulchres.

The story of the New Zealand troubles would be one mass of confusion, utterly bewildering to all but those who have been locally acquainted with the progress of events, were it not that our difficulties, apparently so diverse in charatev, have a common origin ; being all traceable, with care, to the same source. In one form or another, the contention has been, from first to last, about the Land. There were millions of acres to be fought for, and of fighting there has been no stint. Where the prey is, there the eagles are gathered together. A long period of desultory warfare, sometimes between governors and settlers, sometimes between governors and natives, now waged on paper, and now with lead, has closed in a struggle between the races for supremacy. We pass over the details of the dispute between tie Homo Government and the New Zealand Company in 1839, which for a long while so seriously affected the fortunes of the colony, with the simple observation that the cause of it was land. The object of the Company was to buy land cheap, and sell it dear. In order to create a market, they undertook colonizing operations. They succeeded, as they supposed, in purchasing from the natives many large tracts of land, defined by degrees of latitude and longitude; but, owing to haste and ignorance combined, obtained but a very questionable title to a small portion, and to the rest no title at all. But they had no difficulty in effecting sales in England It being clear that such irregular settlement of a colony could not be allowed, the Home Government, with some reluctance, determined to found a colony, and also to undertake colonizing operations. For this purpose, they prepared to form a rival establishment at the other end of the Northern Island, vrhere the Government also would be able to deal in land, without clashing with the Company. This may seem a very bare and downright statement of the case ; but, setting aside benevolent intentions towards the aborigines, and eliminating a sufficient amount of Blue Book verbiage, nothing else remains. Disguise it as they may, the Home Government joined in the land-jobbing race. The only real distinction was, that the expected profits realised at one end of the island were to go to the Company’s shareholders ; while those at the other end were to go towards defraying the expenses of the Government establishment.

The first step to be taken was to acquire the sovereignty of the country. And here let ns give all due credit to the English Government for the spirit in which they commenced the enterprise, and the ends which they proposed to attain, notwithstanding the woful falling off in execution. They undertook to acquire the country, without violence and without fraud, to civilize and preserve a barbarous race; to bring them peaceably into subjection to the law j assuring to them at the same time the full privileges of subjects of the Crown. But the land lay between the projectors and their object. To obtain a peaceful cession, the expedient of treatv was resorted to. This did not accord with the views of the Company, and was considered by a select committee of the House of Commons in 1844 to have been “an injudicious proceeding.” With this opinion we agree, but not upon the same grounds. It appears to us that a treaty was more than enough for the purpose : it encumbered us with difficulties that were never contemplated at the time, and was subsequently wrested to the disadvantage of those whose interests it was intended to guard. All that was substantially required, was a solemn declaration that certain native rights should be preserved intact: not a treaty, hut a guarantee. By adopting iheform of treaty, meaning thereby a campact between two independent nations, we subjected ourselves to all the incidents of treaty, hampering ourselves with the dogmas of international law. It involved us in a strange dilemma ; for the right of interpretation either belongs to thenatives, equally with ourselves, or else to the Crown alone ; the first conclusion rendering all government impossible ; the second, endowing theGovermnentwith the powers ofadespot* But the most practical objection is, that there was no Maori nation with which to treat; no recognized head or confederation of chiefs having power to bind those who withheld consent. Conse-

* Here is the main proposition on which Mr. Richmond (native minister in 1861) relies: ” In law, ns well as in fact, their territorial rights and obligations are not subject to the Interpretation of our courts. These rights stand upon treaties, of which the Crown itself is, rightfully, the sole interpreter.” The practical consequence is drawn in par. 121: “If the Governor had Jurisdiction, he was justified iu asserting it in the only practicable mode, viz., by force; in other words, the Governor being of right the sole judge of questions respecting native territorial rights, is Justified In enforcing his jurisdiction in the only practicable mode, viz.; by military occupation.” • * • • * Mr. Richmond has entirely overlooked tho consequences of his theory, namely, that if the treaty of Waitangi be (as his argument assumes it to be) a treaty in the ordinary sense, then the right of interpreting and enforcing the treaty must belong not to one party; but to both equally; that the natives are at liberty to resort to force in support of their view, as much as the Governor in support of his ; and that they cannot be charged with rebellion if they do so.—R&marks, etc., by Sir Wtlliam Marlin, p. 42,

quently, when, a few years afterwards, a prisoner of war who had not signed was hanged as a rebel, there was not wanting high authority for pronouncing the execution illegal, or, as some did not hesitate to say, a murder.

The first signatures were obtained at Waitangi —the Runnimede of native New Zealand. Not, however, without some difficulty, The main anxiety.of the natives was then, as it has been ever since, about the land. Accordingly, the “ entire chieftainship” [rangaUratanga\ of their lands, of their Icaingas, and of all their property, was guaranteed. Of this chieftainship, it must be observed, no mention is made in the English version of the treaty ; and it was for the exercise of this by Wiremu Kingi in 1860, that war was declared against him at Waitara. They, on the other hand according to the English version, were required to yield to the Queen “ the exclusive right of preemption over such lands as the proprietors thereof may be disposed to alienate.” The meaning of this the natives assuredly did not understand; nor would they ever have agreed to it had they perceived all the bearings of the demand. The stipulation was for the exclusive right of buying all the land; and in effect, though not in words, at whatever price the Government chose to give, and at whatever time they found it convenient to purchase. No such consequence oould be drawn from the corresponding words in the Maori version of the treaty, which, literally translated, are, “shall surrender to the Queen the purchase of those portions of ground as agreeable to any person being the proprietor of such land.” They were led to believe that the Crown was to have the option of purchase ; in their own language, the “ hokonga ;” * not that they should be debarred from selling at all, if the Government, as actually happened, was short of funds to bay with ; or that the Crown, being sole bidder, should have power to fix the price, and be thus enabled to acquire extensive tracts at the rate of a mite an acre, to be presently retailed at from £1 to £I6OO. f (To he Continued.)