Spirit of the Press.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 6, Issue 300, 24 August 1865, Page 1

Spirit of the Press.

THE POLICY OP THE WELD MINISTRY. (From the Daily Southern Cross, August 17.) A glancb at the debates in the New Zealand Parliament now in session is sufficient to give an idea of the position of the colony Nearly everything brought up has a suspicions look about it and seems to point to a reign of extreme misgovernment. If we look at the proceedings for only one day, we find such a catalogue of subjects as the following : —Mr Yolkner’s murder—the Panama Mail service—the Native Commission—■the Electric Telegraph. By each one of these subjects hangs a tale of mismanagement and folly such as would hardly be credited out of the colony—such too as it may be hoped will hereafter be looked back to in New Zealand itself with wonder and half incredulity. The subjects which we have ifuoted at random from the reports are am excellent illustration of the ruling cha-racteristics-ef the present Government’s policy, These characteristics we take to be a judicious blending of rashness and imbecility. The fact needs but slight elucidation so far as any one in the colony is concerned, for the results flowing from it are manifest on every side of us. The discussion about Mr Volkner’s murder was not one that entered into the merits or demerits of the Government in the matter, but merely regarding the causes that led to that lamentable event. But the fact is highly suggestive of the state of things in the colony under the Weld regime, that the Government seemed inclined ou the whole to regard the murder •of Mr Yolkuer as a political act, and yet seemed by no means embarrassed in speaking of it by the consciousness that the murderers had received no punishment—that, indeed, no attempt had been made to punish them by the Government. Nor is this the only suggestive point about the case. In reply to Mr Wilson’s inquiry whether there was no way iu which the estates of the murderers •could be made responsible for a pension to Mr Volkner’s widow, the Prime Minister made the reply—which he seems to have regarded a very final one indeed, and as •comfortably disposing of the whole question —that that would involve confiscation! There is something unusually suggestive, we venture to remark, iu such answer as this. It w..uld involve confiscation; then of course the thing is out of the question. It would never do to dream of confiscating the poor Maori’s land at Opotiki to make it-pay for the outrages they may have committed, and then it would involve force to put such an edict into execution. This is the way in which Mr Weld looks at the difficulties now surrounding us. He really seems to fancy that by such devices as Maori commissioners and Maori ruuangas he has a chance of governing when he has utterly lost of sight of justice and mercy in his scheme. He does not seem to see that the first step towards peace is, as his great supporter Mr Fitzgerald is so fond of putting it, giving the natives confidence in him We do not know that the only way in which a Maori can gain confidence in any man or in any Government is to see him or it bent upon doing justice unflinchingly. The grand mistake is that, while this has been the cry of those who best knew the natives all along, the South has, by some peculiarity in its eyesight, distorted our meaning into the very reverse of what it is. While we cried out for justice, the South persisted in fancying we were crying out for land, or for meat contracts, or something of that kind. No doubt, the contractor liked his good contract in Auckland with the same liking shown by him of Wellington, or him, for that matter, of Canterbury or Otago ; but the people of Auckland were not contractors. They, on the contrary, were losers iu every way by war, and their only cry was for justice. Justice, however, is not the less justice that it demands confiscation or any other unpleasant thing. The losing Sight of this simple fact is the main cause of the evils now threatening, or actually injuring, this part of the colony. With our present Government, however the

evil is no single one. It is not the one weak point in an otherwise strong mind that we deplore, but the utter weakness of every kind and shown in every manner that meets us at each turn in reviewing their conduct. If Mr We d felt a horror, such as he gives some signs of feeling, at the thought of confiscating any more land in the province of Auckland, aud yet showed that he had serious objections to murder and outrage ia the province, and was eager to suppress such evils when they did occur, then it would be possible while condemning his policy to respect the man. It is when we see the imbecility which refuses to do anything to prevent or punish great evils, almost outdone by the rashness and folly which characterise his attempt at what we must suppose he means to be the agents of great good, that we begin aright to estimate the talents and gifts that adorn the Ministry now holding office in New Zealand. No subject can be broached which points to anything active being undertaken in Auckland whieh does not call farth a reply from the Premier in which he may be said to give his almost empty cash-box a significant rattle. Let the question be changed to the construction of a telegraph cable across Cook’s Straits, bringing the Southern Ministers within hailing distance of their sheep-runs at home, and the hand which shook the cash-box is still, the tongue that hinted hardly at taxation begins at once to speak of a bright future when such expenses will be thought of nothing of. If a doubt is started as to the justice dealt out to the Waikato militia, and a hint dropped that something should yet be done on their account, the immediate reply is, Yes, gentlemen, but we have no money. Not so if the Panama line destined to bring business to Wellington is mentioned. That, indeed, is a worthy object upon which to lavish money by hundreds of thousands ! This is no exaggerated view of the present attitude of the Government and Southern party in the House. Economy is the cry, and this cry is supposed to cover every deficiency when the North is concerned. But if a Southern interest is in any way affected, the word “ wise” is at once prefixed ; and, by a wise economy, we are told, is meant an economy which refuses to waste money in protecting life and property in the North, but does not for an instant refuse to lavish money on all sorts of schemes to increase the wealth and convenience of the South. And our members can do but little to stay this course. A few wrongs they may prevent where the wrongs are active; a few extravagances they may check where they are palpably extreme, and where no Southern interest is involved in upholding them. But this will he all. No redress is to be looked for in the most essential particulars of our wrongs. Murders will be winked at still, as they have been winked at so long—if only they are committed in the province of Auckland. Outrages will meet with all the encouragement which entire impunity can give them, so that no citizen of the Empire Province is the sufferer. This is the meaning of the Weld policy of economy, and there is but too much reason to fear that it is a policy of which the majority of the New Zealand Parliament will, tacitly, at least, approve. It may be said, what then remains for Auckland to do ? Is it possible that she can remain quiet under the circumstances, and allow herself to be sacrificed to the policy of economy which leaves her to destruction ? To this question it is easy to answer “ No,” in any note of all the scale of negation. It is, however, less easy to suggest what else she is to do. This much, however, may be safely said, that it is not large words and vague abuse of other people that will do anything for the province iu its critical position. On the contrary, to cultivate unity of feeling, and to endeavour to render more practically useful what little political organization we already'have, seems to us, at least, a small step in the right direction. Little more can be done as yet, for the simple reason that nothing ought to be set about that might even seem to be of an aggressive character so long as a hope remains that the Assembly may yet cultivate a true economy, extending to life in the North, as well as to enriching the South.

THE PETITION (?) OP W. THOMPSON. [From the New Zealand Herald, August 16.] Om readers have before them the petitioa of William Thompson, the rebel chief, which has been laid upon the table of the House of Representatives by a member of that House, whose opinions on native matters may be said to be but one shade less objectionable than those of Thompson himself. A more indecent and impudent document was never used wherewith to beard a legislative body, than the petition of Thompson now before us. From it we gather the feelings of the natives at the present moment, and from it may be seen the baselessness of the vision of peace on which the plans of his Excellency are laid. The despatches of Mr Cardwell instruct the Governor only to treat with them as defeated rebels, and yet neither do they—for the petition of Thompson if taken as anything, must be taken as their rebellion or defeat. “ The word of the Maori/’ he says, “ is still the same as in the begining ” (that is when he commenced the rebellion), and the reason why no change has taken place in the native mind is, he says, because “ we have done no wrong on account of which we should suffer, and our lands also be taken from us. The only cause that we know is, that our parent has been provoking us.” He then goes on to show the provocation alleged to have been received by the people of bis race. The first of these is, that when we discovered a deep laid plot to overrun the outsettlements of this province, and even to bring murder and pillage into the streets of Auckland, that we “ placed redoubts of soldiers on the banks of the Waikato.” It was known that to the Thames natives had been apportioned the work of firing the city which a simultaneous attack, led by Thompson, was to have burst in upon the settlement and city' by the old Maori track to the eastword of the Great South road—that Thompson himself had written to the tribe advocating an attack upon Auckland in the simile used, that “ to kill the eel you must get to the source of the stream”—all this was known, even to the very day of its intended execution, and now our measures of self-defence to avert this attack are advanced as an act of aggression on our part. The second cause of provocation is one equally worthy of comment, and we earnestly recommend it to the attention of those who ascribe the present rebellion of the natives to a desire to obtain “ law and order.” It is the location of a Magistrate (Gorst) in the midst of our settlements to create confusion, -and the bringing of his house to Kohekohe, The next causes of provocation alleged are driving back of the rebel Moses, and the capture of the equally guilty Isaac®and his tribe. Then follows the grand climax of of aggression, the crossing of Maungatawhiri —the piece of strategy which at the time alone saved our settlement from irruption and rapine. This act Thompson dares to stigmatise as a crime—language which the presenter of the petition. Mr Fitzgerald, considered respectful!—So much then for their contrition for the part which they hare taken as rebels; let us now see how far the language of the petition indicates their appreciation of the position of “ defeated rebels” or even as Mr Fitzgerald would say of defeated patriots. “ Friends,” he says, “ is it true that there exists a proclamation of the Governor which says that his fighting at the Waikato is at an end ? It is true that such a proclatiou exists, it is very good; but first, let all other things be finally arranged, namely, let the boundary be taken hack to Te la. This is the condition approved by me for putting an end to the war. It peace is made upon these terms of the Governor which have now been proclaimed, I shall not be thoroughly satisfied, because the root or the cause of the war was the laud.” Nor while petitioning the House does he throw himself upon the mercy of the Grown. He is as defiant as when according to his confession he nerved himself for the fight after the affair at Kangiawhia—and is even now if we may judge from the following, prepared to do battle for the “ King.” “I will now tell you of things related to the King. When I set up that King I did not intend that his authority should be thrust upon the Europeans. No, only upon the

Maoris and upon the lands which remain to us. Now at that time we were urgent to elect our King, and even unto this day toe still hold on (to the King). It will never be given up even unto the end. It will by no means be put an end to, whether good or whether evil ( comes out of of it).’ 5 Does Mr Fitzgerald call these defiant threats respectful language ? Is he not in fact, aiding and abetting rebellion in the steps which he has taken in relation to this very petition ? Is he not an accessory before the fact to the consequences which may result from a refusal to yield to Thompson’s threats ? Thompson endeavours to turn the tables upon us, and in respectful language politely informs us that we are “ murderers.” He recounts the murders of which he alleges we are guilty. There are a few “ murders” of which, we regret to say, we are guiltless, and that is the hanging of the principal movers of the rebellion as they came into our hands, William Thompson himself amongst the number. We need not here point out the falsity of Thompson’s charges. Rangariri was indeed a murder, but of our own gallant men—quarter was given to the rebel garrison and the Maori prisoners when there were the identical 200 of Kawau notoriety—the fattened pampered prisoners of the Marion hulk—the present free men who now are with Thompson and other rebels in the Upper Waikato. Rangiawhia—the second alleged murder—was the field where our gallant Nixon was shot in the very act of endeavouring to save a number of worthless scoundrels in a native whare. They were not women and children whom our local cavalry charged and routed oyer the hastily thrown up palisades at Rangiawhia, nor can we be charged with murder if, instead of falling into the trap of storming Puterangi, the General outflanked the rebels and took them, at Rangiawhia, in their rear ; neither the driving forth of Moses and the capture of Isaac are open to cavil. None knew better than Mr Dillon Bell who expressed such pleasure at Thompson coming by petition before the House, that he, as Native Minister, wrote and told these men that they were guilty of treason in the Kohekohe affair. That they were guilty of overt rebellion at the time they were treated as Thompson complains of, is also a matter of history. In fine we recommend the careful perusal of Thompson’s petition to our readers. It shows unmistakeably the utter absurdity of those who cry peace ! peace ! while there is no peace. Read it by the light of the recent and still continuing outrages occuring on the East Coast, and in almost every purely native district in the district in the country, even in the Wairarapa, in the Province of Wellington, where but a week ago the European settlers were threatened with wholesale massacre, and we have now before us the incontrovertible fact that the war is even yet but in its infancy, and that it will be continued unrelentingly, so long as civilisation demands that Kingism and its attendant native barbarities, including the Hau-hau supersition, shall be abandoned. THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS'. [[From the N. Z. Herald, August 17.] As will be seen by reference to the full report of the proceedings of the House of Representatives which took place on the Btb, and which we publish to-day, an indirect attempt to prevent due publicity being given to the proceedings of the house was made by the Premier in a proposal to exclude the reporters of the public press, the House having the debates reported by a staff paid by the Assembly, and revised by a committee of the House. Copies of these reports it was proposed should be supplied at a fixed charge to the newspapers. We need hardly point out that such a proposal is a direct attempt to infringe upon the liberty of the Press and the rights of the people. In the first place the reports would be liable to the suspicion of having been cooked previously to their being made public; and secondly, it would be in the power of the Government to delay the publication of the reports on measures before the Parliament, to such a time as would prevent the expression of public opinion

feeing heat'd on the measures under discussion. Until they had been hurried through and had become law. The proposal was warmly taken up by Sewell, Weld, and Fitzgerald, and condemned by Stafford, who indeed pointed out the unworkable nature of the arrangement. The last shred of liberty would indeed be gone when any party in power in the House could legislate in what would be neither more nor less than a hole and corner meeting. The peg on which this attempt to ride despotically over the political rights and liberties of the colonists was hung, was a complaint of Mr Sewell that he bad been misreported. Mr Sewell, the Premier, and Mr Fitzgerald, are all well known as cavillers at the reports of the Press. The, stern matter of fact science of shorthand stands most awkwardly in the path when, on an after-thought, they wish to deny what they have once said —or, to view their motive as leniently as possible, when they wish to be thought to have said that which they afterwards see they ought to have said. If these gentlemen wish for correct aud faultless reports let them obtain the sanction of the Assembly to establish a special staff, which may compile the speeches of members as official records-—aud whatever value they may have outside—be taken as ex cathedra testimony within the House. Let them do this, but let them beware how they endeavour to enslave the public by attempting to infringe upon the liberty of the Pi ess.