NATIVE AFFAIRS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 7, Issue 365, 7 April 1866, Page 1

NATIVE AFFAIRS.

(From the Haw'ke’a Bay Times, 2nd April.) _Dr. Feathersxon, ih advocating, or proposing, a return toi the exploded temporising ‘policy withthe Natives, appears to overlook ihe ; important truth that that policy itself stands first amongst the many that have : been tried and found to fail. It is, in fact, ■ the one far excellence that has had a fair trial, being the system upon which the Natives were uniformly governed (?) under the old Native Department, and which resulted in that state of feeling amongst the . Native race that brought about the rebellion MM all the prebent tronMef of the CplOny.

We cannot express in a few words the anxiety we feel as to the results of this retrograde movement, it being no less than a deliberate confession to the leaders of the rebellion of their triumph over us; of our utter inability to cope with or conquer them ; of the complete failure of our endeavors to establish law amongst them ; and what can result from it but a return to a similar or even worst state of things than that which gave rise to the outbreak at Taranaki ? We have never been fully convinced of the genuineness of the Governor’s late action against the rebels, believing it to result more from the necessities in which he has found himself placed by the policy of his Ministries, and the impossibility of his carrying on the Government without identifying himself in some measure with them, than from any departure on his own part from the well-known proclivities of his original regime; and if proof of the correctness of our opinion were needed, it is to be found iu the extreme ease with which he has been brought back to his former course of action. As an instance, we may refer to his late trip* along our coast on bis way to Kawau from Wellington, in which he was accompanied hy Te Ua, the great Maori prophet and high priest of Hau-bauism, and by two other of the leaders of the rebellion. There is something very remarkable, not to say instruc tive, as regards the intentions of the Government towards the rebels iu this fact. Te Ua, the acknowledged cause of so much bloodshed and trouble, was some time since apprehended on suspicion of being concerned in certain Wanganui murders; but instead of being put upon his trial, he becomes the honored guest of Her Majesty’s Representative, and accompanies his Excellency on his pleasure trips as the great lion of the day until the excitement consequent upon his capture and the indignation against his crimes shall have blown over.

Mr Stafford has not disguised his intentions on the Native question ; he has not pretended to have any hut the let alone policy ; he will not follow up Native political offenders, and will reduce our already too small and inefficient Defence Force. He will return in fact to the status in quo ante, and the silver spoon and sugar and flour policy will be revived in all its old glory, the pampered and petted now being none other than the most dangerous of the whole body of rebels and murderers. We doubt whether he and Dr. Featherston can confidently say, “ It will serve us our time; let posterity care for itself;” though, if they could, it should not screen so temporising a policy from its deserved odium. Our predictions regarding the new and costly bubble—the Native Lands Courthave been amply fulfilled. The Court at Napier has broken up, and the Judge has left the province. The warmest friends o the measure, and patrons of the “ noble Maori” will not deny that all that patience and good intentions could do for the cause was here done, and without avail. So far. as we can learn (for but little of the proceedings of the Court has been made public), in the few cases that have been settled, the land is vested in the hands of a few grasping chiefs, who would no more consent to the cutting up of the waste lands aud assigning portions to the body of their people than the great landlords of England would to have their properties so disposed of amongst their tenantry. We may reasonably conclude, from the failure of the Court here, which was looked to with much interest by the colony as a test of the workability of the new Native Lands Act, that that Act will require to be greatly altered, if not altogether repealed, by the approaching General Parliament. We believe that it will be found actually necessary for the Crown to do yet what it should have done at the very first —assume to itself the title of all the unalienated lands of the colony, and grant portions of them to the chiefs and people at' its discretion; that is, do’in'a direct and straightforward way what the Native Lands Court tries to do in a more indirect manneri

NAPIER WATER SUPPLY. (Prom the Hawke’s Bay Times, £th Apr!’.)

The question of the supply of pure fresh water' to the Town of Napier is one of the greatest possible importance. Year by year the supply from the rainfall seems to become less and less, while to the great majority of the inhabitants this is the principal source of supply. The past eighteen months has strikingly shown the peculiarity of Napier iu this respect by contrast with the rest of the Colony. From almost every other place we have read of frequent floodings of the country from excessive rain,—of excessive damage done to whole districts from the overflow of the rivers, and their destructive force, — while from Hawke’s Bay aloue complaints have continually arisen of a parched and burnt up country, and the sufferings of the flocks and herds, as well of the great inconveniences suffered by the inhabitants of the town from a deficiency of the prime necessary r, f existen ;p and health— pure water. As a rule, the sinking of a well is a great undertaking in Napier, yet one that many of the townsfolk have accomplished. Iu these the water is only found at a very great depth, and involves great labor with a windlass to bring it teethe surface ; and even then it is not what is wanted—being bard from the fact of its containing a salt of lime in solution ; though, in other respects, generally good, and so far pure. We see no reason why the system of artesian wells should not be applied to the necessities of the townsfolk. Wherever that system has been properly tested in other parts cf these islands it has been eminently successful, and we believe that it would prove the same iu our case ; but it is too much for any private individuals to undertake upon their own responsibility before the feasibility of the plan has been tested and proved. Let then the Provincial Government take the matter in hand, and by an experimental boring (say upon the Spit) set the interesting and important question of the practicability of a supply from tills source at rest; not that we see any reason whatever to doubt the success of the plan, which has many considerations in its favor, not the least of which is the well known fact cf the existence of a body of fresh water beneath the shingle—both upon the Western Spit and at the end of Hastings-read—surrounded in each of these cases by the salt water of the sea and of a lagoon, or the harbor; —thus showing the existence of alternations of permeable and impermeable strata of earth—the very conditions of the artesian theory.