THE Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, 16th FEBRUARY, 1865.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume V, Issue 225, 10 February 1865, Page 2

THE Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, 16th FEBRUARY, 1865.

Hostilities with the rebels on the West Coast having actually commenced, we may consider that the Weld Ministry, or rather the Governor, is now committed to effect the complete subjugation of the natives in rebellion, and we may at last be allowed to hope that this will be effected in a satisfactory manner. At all events Sir George Grey has one more of those favorable opportunities which have so often been afforded him, but which he has allowed to pass unimproved, of reducing the race to the dominion of her Majesty, and placing it under the obligation of obedience to British law, and submission to its penalties, even as is the case with their fellow-subjects of the European race. The farce of the “ new institutions,” (as the system of Government for the quiet or “ friendly” natives is called) must undergo an entire lie-modelling if it is intended that our authority over the natives is to be anything more than a mockery. Up to this time there has not been any actual control over even the most (professedly) friendly, hut the Commissioner has always found himself forced to submit to their will, as in the recent murder of the old man charged with witchcraft, and to leave the guilty unpunished. Or to allow the. semblance of a trial to result in the immunity of an offender from punishment, the law being actually powerless against evildoers. It is supposed by many that the natives to the north of Auckland being quiet, and called friendly, are under the rule of our laws, but this is by no means the case. The prevailing system of quieting the turbulently disposed by a place and a salary is in operation there, and this acts more as an engine iu their hands for the oppression of others than for the maintenance of law and order amongst those people. Wo have recently heard of one of these favored officeholders, who, being summoned for the amount of a debt, set the court at defiance, and, amidst much abuse of bis creditor, pocketed his salary, but did not pay.

We cannot blame the authorities for allowing such matters as these to remain as they are while there are tribes in open rebellion to subdue, but we do trust that while the work is in hand it will he done effectually, and that the whole race will be brought to understand that the law of the Queen is supreme, and must he submitted to by all her subjects, Maori as well as English, and in native districts as well as in the settlements of the pakeha. Till this’is done, though we may indeed have a hollow truce under the name of a peace, we certainly shall not have one that is well-grounded and lasting.