ENGLAND’S NEW ZEALAND WAR.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 6, Issue 290, 20 July 1865, Page 1

ENGLAND’S NEW ZEALAND WAR.

[From the New Zealand Advertiser, July 10.] The above is the title of a "’work which we received by the last mail from its author— Charles Hursthouse, a writer of several popular books relative to New ’ Zealand. The present pamphlet is in the forin of a letter addressed to the editor of the Times, and purports to have reached 'a "second edition. The author is rather a wide than a' deep observer, and exhibits sad ignorance on many points with which he professes to be profoundly acquainted. In the early history of the Colony he appears to be well versed* and his knowledge of the Maoris is much greater than that of many bona fide colonists. We say bona fide colonists, for though Mr Hursthouse professes to write on behalf of the colonists, and to express their sentiments, he has not been more than a temporary resident in New Zealand for the last sixteen years. In the years 1849-50, if we mistake not, he was an itenerant lecturer in England on behalf of the New Zealand Company, and has since that time, with the exception of a flying visit he paid t 6 the colony some years ago, obtained a living by advising intending emigrants on the best field to go to. His present work is calculated to do us a good deal of harm, seeing that it purports to express the views of the colonists generally, and not those of the author in particular. There is, however, one monstrous delusion prevailing at home with reference to the Maoris which Mr Hursthouse has most ably exposed~we refer to the prevalent opinion that the natives, who are supposed to live by the chase, require the whole of the lands in the North Island for their sustenance —an opinion which the present Bishop of Waipa twenty-five years ago, in a petition to the Queen, did his best to propagate. As we believe that it is this delusion which has done more to deprive us of the sympathies of a large portion of our thoughtful fellow countrymen, the views of Mr Hursthouse on this subject would, if not mixed up with other views which are more or less erroneous, deserve a wide publicity. It cannot be too widely known at home that the Maoris, unlike the red men of America, require in reality but very little land for their support, and that theire are millions of acres, of which they clainrto be the owners, which they have not only never occupied or used, but which they never could occupy or use, and which if unsettled by Europeans would remain for ever a 1 primitive wilderness. Mr Hursthouse; afterdating on what food the natives subsist, thffs replies to the allegation that the war is attributable to a greed by the colonists for lands which the natives require for their use ‘ l As to the allegation that the war is partly attributable to his real need or use of land; there is no atom of foundation for it—the truth, as we have seen, being that at the present moment he is the owner of millions Of acres of which he makes no manner of use—and the further truth being that he has so little real want of land that if the whole of our cultivations, like Taranaki’s beautiful farms and gardens, were abandoned to the ‘ noble savage’ to-morrow, be would again play the ‘ dog in the manger,’ and in twelve months show us the : spectacle of our hard-won pastures ‘ and , corn-fields again dressed in the .livery of barbarism, again jungles of weeds and desert of dock and thistle.”

Mr Hursthouse discusses no'less truthfully the causes and origin of the present rebellion. These may be described in one word—mismanagement. There never was a race of aborigines, in our opinion, which could have been so easily managed—there.perhaps,never was a race that has been worse managed. A total absence of firmness will better define the nature of this mis-management than any other words can do. The foolish parent and spoilt chili affords a more apt illustration of the relative positions occupied by the mother country and the natives, than any other that couli be furnished. Threats and sugar-plums have been tried alternately, and the Maories

have laughed at the one, and grinned at the mother country’s folly while devouring the other. Her usual practice has been to reward outrage by concession. Her early proceedings in this respect are thus referred to by Mr Hursthouse :

At Wairau, the Maori slaughters two of your Queen Magistrates in cold blood—he grants your Missionary-Colonial Office Governor an interview therein—his Excellency hopes he won’t murder Queen’s Magistrates again, shakes hands, and bows himself off—whereupon, the chuckling Maori proclaims his Excelency to the tribes as ‘HePaukena te Katvana* this Governor is soft—a taere pumpkin. At Taranaki your law Officer, specially appointed by the Crown, judicially pronounces after a solemn investigation in open Court that the Maori has sold and been fully paid for a certain 50,000 acres of unused, wild land, and will not be paid again—whereupon, the Maori rushes to his arms, threatens to destroy the settlement, and drive its people into the sea—your Missionary Midas hurries to the spot; and, for the moment, pacifies the Savage by tearing up the '■Judgment of the Court' and by giving him back every acme he had sold. At Kororareka, Heke, a shining missionary|convert, had waxed strong and saucy by bartering his pigs and slave girls °with lawless whalers for powder and guns—the Cus-tom-House came and crippled this trade—Heke’s ultimatum was ‘remove your Custom-House or/I burn down your town’—instantly your Governor and his Missionary-Officials swept away CustomHouse in New Zealand by stroke of pen, and sought to replace the public revenue of an infant Colon? just emerging,from the ‘Bush’ by a property-tax on rooms and houses!

Whether it be the disobedient child, the unruly school-boy, the mutinous crew, or the rebel Maori, we must not only convince him that we have the power to enforce our authority, but that we have the determination also. In the early history of the colony the Government would, probably, have exhibited the last had they been in possession of the first. Since the commencement of hostilities at the Waitara, it is the last only which required to be exhibited. The power alone, without the disposition to employ it, is of but little service. The unruly school-boy doubts not the authority of his master, he doubts only whether he ‘will resolve to’ enforce t. Who, that has observed the power of mind over masses, can fail to gee that the cardinal error of the Government has been a want of firmness—a want, rather of the position than the power to enforce it ? It has been unwilling to resort to measures which would prove merciful to the Maoris and beneficial to the colony. This unwillingness to adopt a course which would convince the natives that they could hope for nothing by resistance to our rule, has been the primary cause of our ill-success. Previous to the Waikato campaign, indeed, the natives bad good grounds for believing that they could get more from their resistance than from our forbearance, or rather they expected by the joint action of both they should secure more advantages than if they became peaceable subjects. Under the circumstances, therefore, it is not surprising that there are so many rebels amongst the Maoris, the only surprise is that they have not been more numerous. It was not umii \\ i Tako became a rebel that he was thought of any account by the Government, and any petty king chief was more petted by the authorities than an influential one who had always been loyal to the Queen. It is notorious that, as a rule, no chief or tribe was regarded by the Government until be or it became troublesome, and then in proportion to the trouble given would be the reward bestowed. Ngatuere got <£lo for knocking down a settler’s house on the Taratabi plain, but Rawiri Piharau got several hundred pounds, and several hundred pounds into the bargain, for refusing to denote the site of his reserve until a settlers homestead had been raised upon it. In short, the Maori rebellion, like most other rebellions, has resulted chiefly from mis-government; but with this difference while other rebelliors have been, with few exceptions, caused by oppression,' the Maori rebellion has been promoted and fostered by a want of firmness and a mistaken indulgence. As firmness never yet resulted from divided counsels, we might just as well expect figs from thistles. Our onlv hope for the establishment, within European districts, of one law for both races, lies in the withdrawal of the troops, and the placing of the whole of the internal affairs of the colony under the control of the General Government.