Untitled

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 7, Issue 360, 22 March 1866, Page 1

• The letter referred to appeared to. the laat is«us of thlc Journal—Ed, H.BX , t , x

aud to be then fit for enjoying and managing a constitutional government. Nothing short of a miracle could secure such a result. Look at past history; does the historic volume show us any single instance of any race of people hounding in one generation, or in one century, from barbarism to civilisation. Civilization is a plant of the slowest growth. Take our own or any other nation that ever existed. Look at the ancient Batons; did 25 or 35 years* contact with the Homans place them on a par with their conquerors. Were they qualified to accept, understand, and carry out the civilisation and the Government of the Romans. Undoubted not; and is we trace the stream of history we see that it is the labor of centuries rather than of years to divest a people of their manners and customs and ideas, which they and their forefathers have, generation after generation, practised and entertained. The whole current of thought, and springs of action have to bo entirely and thoroughly changed. A generation can only be partially improved, the process must go on through many generations. And then again, there is the great diversity of race to be overcome, a difficulty all but insurmountable. No uncivilised and savage race ever was of ever can be fitted foe the institutions of a constitutional Government like ours in one generation, neither can the distinctions of race be obliterated so speedily. To throw a constitutional Government then, before such people, is simply to throw pearls before swine. Let us now take a rapid glance at tha position and practices of the turbulent Negroes in Jamaica and the turbulent Maoris in New Zealand, and of the mode of treatment adopted in both classes—and the results. Some thirty years ago, the Negro was a slave, and "had liis freedom bought at the oxpease of .££0,000,000, to the British nation, and ruin to many planters. He was then made a freedman, and allowed equal liberty with any white man, without any previous training or preparation. The Maori, about the same time, was introduced, to a considerable extent, to a new civilisation—to new modes of thought—new practices—new laws. Both had, unfortunately for thorn selves, a number of friends, who painted them in bright and false colours —who petted them on Missionary and Anti-Slavery and Aborigines’ Protection platforms—who told them what noble savages, what a fine though down-trod-den race they were—who taught them to despise the whites, and lock upon them as cruel taskmasters, and land-robbers, and sent men among thorn who eft-limes in effect preached ill Will instead of good will, who blew the flames of Jealousy that slumbered in the hearts of the slave and savage, instead of driving the white and colored races together by words of amity and good will. Rankling yc lousy of the superior was thus lodged in me breast of the inferior race. Tales of oppression were constantly told to They began to believe them. They cast a longing eye ou the property of the white man, the result cf patient labor, detested alike by Negro and Maori. And they determined upon a general rising to drive the white man into the sea. They strike terror into families living in the country, -cause them to flee for their lives into the town ; the Maori murders such settlers as ha can, and threatens the city of Auckland; the i Negro plans a general massacre and commences a little too soon by setting fire to a Court-house containing a let people and murders these as they attempt to escape. The blacks then prowl about in gangs and murder all they can, except the woman, whom, they in their savage cruelty, spare for their own diabolical purposes. So far then the tragedy in both Islands might have been written by the same author, and enacted by the same company. But now the parallel fails. The Governor and the officers in Jamaica brace themselves up for the occasion. They know the designs of tho blacks; they have seen the first bloody act played. They to ant tho lives of their white brethren and of their brown brethren as worth saving. They determine to uphold the dignity of their Queen, and enforce her laws. They see crowds of murderers pursuing their cruel work; they smite them down in their path; they check their progress; they try them

•nd punish them without delay. A terrible crisis demands extraordinary measures; they put large numbers of those who are seeking to kill others to death; and the rest of the rebels are cowed by this well-timed vigor and severity. The lives of the white and mixed population are saved; the rest of the tiegro population are saved; the fierce war of races is at once brought to an end; and the cost and miseries of a prolonged war are saved space and time. Sharp, short, and decxsslve has been the operation. It was planned by a master mind—it was carried out by a man of firm and determined will, Governor Eyre.

In New Zealand tbe opposite policy was pursued. The Maoris were pampered, they were mildly entreated not to kill our kinsmen, they, were taken prisoners, they were allowed to escape; murderers were pardoned, convicted murderers even. They had peace proclaimed. They shot the bearers of the proclamation. They slaughtered white men and woman whenever they could. Many battles have been' fought, many lives of both races lost, an enormous amount of treasure spent, the mother country and the Colony embittered one against the other, as also the residents in the Northern and Southern islands, and a legacy of debt is entailed upon the Colony which presses most heavily upon it while the Maori has suffered largely also. Can any sane man doubt as to whether Governor Eyre has not been more merciful to the bulk of the black population of Jamaica by signally punishing the rebels, at the very outset of their murderous career, than Governor Grey has been to the Maoris by the dilatory and slow and so-called kind manner in which he has acted. A murderous rising in Jamaica is immediately checked, in New Zealand it lasts for years. We contend that the former policy is most merciful to the rebels, that it has saved number of lives, and a vast amount of treasure.

“Petting panthers,” to borrow an expression of Mr liadcliffe’s, ia not a very wise mode of proceeding, unless you can always keep them secure behind strong bolts and bars. It is all very well for people at a distance to say they are innocent noble animals, but those near them had better look carefully after them and keep them safe, fur should they unfortunately break loose * and begin to prey on meu and woman and children, lire rifle must be allowed to do its work, no matter what humanity-mongers who are out of harm’s way, may say about the matter. As Sir Francis Head says: “ The most merciful, and I firmly believe, the only possible way of subduing it (the rebellion) would be by a prompt and vigorous exercise of martial law, to put it to death whenever it bad broken out within the reach of the Queen’s authority, and simultaneously to terrify it to death throughout the whole of the remainder of the country, where slumbering all ready to break out. How many fellow creatures it might be absolutely necessary to shoot, execute, or flog, to secure the blessed victory of peace, of course depend on the character of the conspirators.” Exactly so, and a taste “of the cat” applied by an A.B. seaman to the backs of all the Maoris we have taken prisoners, before they were free or allowed to escape, and “ a prompt and vigorous exercise of martial law” would have been estimated in a rather different manner by tlienoble savage, than have been the potatoes, and flour, and tobacco he has had bestowed upon him at our expense. The fellow who Lad once received fifty lashes would be very careful not to hazard receiving a second fifty, and Ids friends would not he particularly anxious to obtaia the same marks of our friendship towards them. Every flogged Maori would have been a missionary of peace among his brethren.