THE ABORIGINES PROTECTION SOCIETY AND ITS INTERFERENCE WITH NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 6, Issue 332, 14 December 1865, Page 1

THE ABORIGINES PROTECTION SOCIETY AND ITS INTERFERENCE WITH NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS.

(From the Home News.) Theke Fas existed for many years in England a very small voluntary association of philanthropic individuals, called the Aborigines Protection Society. It is well known by name in all the colonies and by its action in some of them. The Society numbers very few persons, but it maintains all the paraphernalia of a large body ; it collects in10rmahon, keeps up an extensive correspondence with the colonies, issues printed reports, addresses and manifestoes* and holds an annual public meeting, like other benevolent institutions, eenerally at Exeter Hall. The object of the Society is plainly avowed in its title—to protect aboriginal tribes against tbe encroachments of the white man. Jt is based upon the assumption that the contact of the white man which ought to brim* improvement and prosperity, brings, on the contrary, nothing but wrong and wretchedness and ciueltv ; and it wholly excludes all recognition of the inevitable law of gradual absorption and ultimate extinction of the weaker by the stronger, the bar-

barons by the civilized, which governs all human progress. If the Aborigines Protection Society were to set itself against colonization, and endeavor to persuade mankind to forego all future enterp rises and conquests, and to Jive to the end of the world on one n&tal spot, making the rood of earth which once supported its man, maiutau countless generations as accumulating rolled on, the said Society would bo taking a%ery absurd hue of conduct, but it would at least have the advantage of reasoning consistently on wrong principles. Or, if it admitted colonization as a necessity growing out of the expansion of nopuW tmn, and addressed itself to the better regulation or the process, so that the advancing steps of the white man should be every where guided by justice and humanity, the Society would be justified in their labors by the highest sanctions of morality, a*thouga the influence of an organized body of any kind in matters of such grave political and social importance would be still open to serious objections. But the Aborigines Protection Society does not adopt either of these courses. Ifc assumes the functions of adviser to all distressed tribes, and we are compelled to add that, with the best possible intentions, it gives the imfortunme natives the worst possible advice. Instead of seeking to ameliorate the inevitable evils incident to colonization, it devotes itself to the extremely dangerous function of counselling the natives how to avert, overcome, or correct them. Ifc speaks a languag o to the natives which the natives can hardly avoid interpreting to the disadvantage of the whites, and the obvious result of its meddling is that it invariably succeeds in itnpieshng upon the native a keener sense of his wrongs than he had before, and in inflam in» the hostility between the two races, which it is the duty of ail philanthropists to endeavor to solten and abate. A late address of the Society to the Maoris are advised not to sell or lease their laud, and, by way of precluding the possibility of sufli transactions, they are urged to pass a native law prohibiting individuals from parting with their property, even when tiiey wish to do s°o ! They arc recommended also to encourage marriages for the sake of increasing the race; to cultivate the wisdom of the serpent and the harmlessness of the dovo (which the Aborigines Protection Society evidently thinks it a very easy thing to do), and to establish a printing press for the purpose of “ print their own thoughts.” All this is very silly and childish, and, and betrays a total want of practical knowledge and common sense; but it is calculated to lead tue poor people to whom it is addressed into fresh troubles, to render their situation more deplorable than ever by inspiring them with false views and false hopes, and to increase a hundred-fold the diliiculties of a peaceful and equitable settlement between the colonists and the natives. Por these reasons, it is very desirable that the real status and character of the Aborigines Protection Society should be made known amongst the Maories, and that, above all things they should not be allowed to suppose that it represents the opinions of the people of England, or even of any appreciable section of them.