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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IX, Issue 449, 24 January 1867, Page 3

Rifle Match Exteaoedlnary.— A rifle match has been shot at Dunedin, between twenry-two members of the Dunedin Cricket Club, and eleven members of the Rifle Volunteers. The Volunteers scarcely expected to win, seeing there were several good shots among the Cricketers, hut they did so by two points. The ranges shot at were, 200, 400, and 500 yards ; five shots at each range. The number scored by the eleven was 522. The highest score made by a Volunteer was 55, out of a possible GO. The shooting at the longest range was particularly good, one of the men, Gunner Muir, making sconsecutive bull’s-eyes.

Heath of William Thompson, and its Probable Influence on the Native Race. —The Nelson Examiner, of the Bth January, has the following article on above subject:—The death of William Thompson, the famous Waikato chief, is an event possibly of great importance, and certainly of great interest to the colony at large. Thompson was a renresentative man amongst bis people, and perhaps a better representative than any there is left. His career has been an eventful one, and it may be not uninteresting to trace its leading features briefly in this place, as it will enable us to comprehend better the sort of man of whom we speak, and the kind of position which he occupied amongst his people, and bis relations with ourselves. Thomson was the son of one of the most powerful, wily, and savage chiefs in the country, and, to the great 1 influence which this man gained over the natives of the centre of the Northern Island, the position of his sou may in some measure be attributed. Thompson himself was, as he repeatedly asserted in his various letters, a ■ man of peace. The warlike exploits ’ and barbarous triumphs of his father enabled him, during all the earlier part , of his career, to maintain and extend his influence without taking up arms at , all; and there is no good reason to , doubt that an appeal to force was the - last thing that Thompson turned to at any period of his life, For many , years of his life he was principally . known as a great supporter of missionaries and schools, and a very energetic ■ promoter of agriculture amongst his people, the effects of which could be seen by any one visiting the plain of Mata-Mata, at the head of the Thames, which might, some years ago, justly claim to bo looked on as the garden of New Zealand. Like all his race, , Thompson was a man with almost unlimited confidence in himself and his people. He acknowledged the superiority of his European neighbours, but he thought that, with a very few advantages, his own people could equal them. These advantages were wanting to them, because there was no power in the country to compel obedience to anything. Agriculture flourished in Thompson’s own district, but then drunkenness, vice, and lawlessness of every kind flourished also, and threatened to destroy the material prosperity which they accompanied. This is, in effect, with a very few emendations, Thompson’s own account of the origin of his support of the famous King movement in New Zealand. Thompson was an educated native, and the representative of the better aspirations of young New Zealand ; but when be engaged in the King movement he became connected with men who were uneducated and savage, and who equally fairly represented old New Zealand. From that moment Thompson was in a false position. His instinct was to set up an authority which was to reform and strengthen the Maori people from within, so that they might grow into a civilised nation, equal, as he fondly hoped, to their European neighbors; but the instinct of most of those with whom he worked was to form a nation which should perpetuate the reign of barbarism and lawlessness by shutting out their European neighbors from all near intercourse with themselves. This, we believe, will be found to be the key to Thompson’s career since 1856. This will explain much of the apparent jargon of his letters, which tallied so ill with the conduct of those professedly acting with him. He wanted one thing, and he was working along with men who wanted another. His objects were above the level of his own people’s comprehension, and those of his associates were exactly on that level hence he was invariably an unsuccessful man, and was dragged along in the 1 wake of men far inferior to himself. Thompson’s own feeling latterly was, ■ we believe, that his career bad been a j failure, and it dawned upon him at j ia>Si tiiiii u€ bud over-rated tile power of the Maori race to raise itself to ci- 1 vilisation. The best proof that this was jhe case is to be found in his efforts to * introduce European settlers and Euro-j pear, influences into tbs native territory still in i s ivs hands hut in tins he was 1 again in advance of most of his people, * and was constantly obliged to keep up i

a struggle against the hostile influence of the old Maori party. That he took part in the war, and what part he look are things well known to everybody; but tne warlike events of his life were its accidents, and were totally foreign to his natural tendencies. In these, therefore, he did not shine. He was never heard of a? a general be was never clearly ascertained to have engaged as a lighting man ; in fact he was not in his element in fighting and probably never believed in its efficacy. That with all these points of divergence from his people, Thompson should yet have had the influence he! possessed even to the last, shows plainly that he was in some way a representative man, so far as one part of the native character was concerned. This part was, we believe, rather its sentiments than its more practical objects and designs. The belief in the possibility of a united Maori nation was a strong point, perhaps the strong point in Thompson’s character, and the mass of his people liked the notion which flattered their vanity, and only disliked it when it required them to sacrifice their lawlessness and vice to its attainment. Practically, Thompson effected little or nothing for his own objects, hut it is easy to under- : stand how he retained a strong hold on the imaginations of a people possessed of unbounded faith in what they could do, while they were perfectly content not to stir hand or foot to do it. Politically speaking, the death of Thompson is, we believe, of far less importance now than it would have been at any previous point in his career. Latterly, his influence has been for good, and it is possible that the withdrawal of that influence may ' even now he felt. We do not, how- . ever, think it will to any great extent. When events rendered it evident even to the meanest native capacity, that the , dieam ot a Maori nation could never be accomplished, the main hold established over them by Thompson was gone. He could only, of late, appeal to a veiy different class of motives, and these required no such teacher as Thompson. He could point to the advantages of peace, but the evils of ,vtar were so self-evident on every side, that his people hardly required any one to point these out. He could speak of the benefits of having Europeans to lease their lands and pay them rents, hut the state of utter misery aud destitution to which they were reduced must liavo been, and must still he, the most powerful preacher of such doctrines as these. Thus, it seems to us, Thompson had outlived his special influence with his people, and his death will not affect our relations with them. Yet the event does give rise to some political reflections which might easily extend beyond the limit of a neawspaper article. Take him altogether the deceased chief was, no doubt, the greatest man of his people; and at one time he seemed their only hope of consolidating into a nation, which might, perhaps, have resisted the fate of colored races in contact with civilisation. That possibility had died out long before Thompson, no doubt; hut this event naturally brings the fact home to the mind as it was not before brought. The race of which Thompson was a great leader is rapidly passing away, and in a few years it will be gone, taking with it native questions, native wars and native policies out of the country. All that we have done has not arrested the operation of what seems to be an inevitable law of nature, and we may he sure that all we can do will at the most only smooth the couch of a dying race. It will be well for our statesmen to keep this : fact before them henceforth a little more than they have done, because it is of great practical importance to the colony in many ways. Native wars, : we believe, are almost past; native difficulties and native expenditure will ' soon follow these; and then the diver I gent interests of the two islands will 1 bo seen to collapse with the termination of their divergent circumstances. J In this way, we may k> content, to 1 bear a little present inconvenience, in ( the hope, in our own case, by no means ' so chimerical as that of William { Thompson, of founding in New Zea- ' land a great and a united nation. 1 Their Royal Higbnesss the Prince ! and Princess Christian are expected ! to take up their residence at the Frog- ' more House about January next, ,

The Goveenoe’s Yisit to Cantee - buey. —After an interval of rather more than fifteen years,” says the Times of the 19th January, “ Canterbury, the youngest of the New Zealand provinces, has been visited by his Excellency Sir G-. Grey. The welcome given to him on Monday from his landing at Lyttelton to his arrival in Christchurch was such as did honor alike to him why received, and those who Oucteu it, At all the principal points along the route, triumphal arches were erected, and the road was lined on each side, from the Heathcote to Christchurch, with old aud young, each alike anxious to catch a glimpse of Sir George Grey, who has been to most of them little more than a name, and to do honor to the representative of her Majesty.” The same paper, in another place, has the following : “ Since his arrival, the Governor has been quietly making himself acquainted with all that is remarkable, or that can testify to the wonderful progress made by the province during the last fifteen years. He has taken part in our amusements, aud has in every way made himself accessible, winning golden opinions from all classes. After visiting the tunnel at both ends, his Excellency intends to make an overland trip to Hokitika, whence he will return to Christchurch.”

State Aid to Religion.—An attempt to appropriate a portion of the public revenue of Canterbury to the purposes of religion was made in Council on the 20th ultimo, by Mr Barff, one of the members for Westland, who moved the following resolutions : —“ That respectful address he presented to his Honor, praying that the sum of .£I.OOO be placed upon the Estimates for the erection of places of worship in Westland, such sum to apportioned as follows : —To the Church of England, .£250 ; Catholic Church, .£250 ; Wesleyan Church, .£250; and Presbyterians, 250.” Tins motion was wisely navigated by 29 to 7.

Direct Transit route from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans,— From the New Zealand Examiner of :ho 30th October we take the following:—An interesting meeting was held oil the 24th October at the Loudon Tavern, for the purpose of receiving from Captain Bedford Pirn, R.N., a statement with reference to his long projected undertaking for effecting a direct transit route from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans —an object now of greater importance than ever from the recent opening of the Panama route to New Zealand and Australia. Admiral Young (Director of Royal Mail Company) was voted to the chair. The meeting was addressed by Captain Pim, Mr Hawksley, C.E., Captain Maury, L.L.D., Mr Gassiot, F.R.S., Captain Mangles (chairman ol the Royal Mail Company,) and others. It was unanimously agreed that the realisation of such a project is an urgent requirement, and would be of the greatest value to the commerce and policy of Great Britain. Captain Maury observed that this is in every respect the best route that could possibly be carried out; and although he knew nothing of the engineering part of it, he could state that it is superior to Panama as regards climate and harbors, and that passengers between ihe countries on this side of the Isthmus and those in the Pacific would save 700 miles in distance, and three days in time. Mr Hawksley, C.E., explained at length the engineering . - L .r.i __j _ g pcti't ui iuc uiiuci taiuiig, dim 6Api’6sS6Q his conviction that it is a most desir able object to attain. Upon the motion of Lieutenant-Colonel Money, seconded uy Mi’ Gassioli, it was resolved that deputation shall wait upon the Prime Minister and the Frst Lord of the Admiralty, with the view of submittingthe matter to Government.:

Mukdek by the South Sea Islani> Natives. —The missionary schooner Day Spring, which arrived at Sydney on the 30tb ult. from the South Sea Islands, brings intelligence of the murder of the crew of the small cutter Maria Jay. Captain Frazer reports:— " The Maria Jay, Capt. Unibank left Sydney, some lime since, for the New Hebrides, to trade with the natives. The vessel was only IS tons, and lefc the Island of Sandwich for one of the neighboring places, having engaged a number of natives, who rose against the crew, tour in number, and murdered them all. After two days’ absence, the natives returned with the vessel to Sandwich, where the crew of the schooner Sea Wich, with the assistance of some friendly natives, recovered the vessel,” —New Zealand Herald, 14th January.