TAXATION.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IX, Issue 465, 28 March 1867, Page 2

TAXATION.

rco. v. In the Appropriation Act of last year, one of the most striking items is the 'sum of £29,986 15s. lOd. for Native Departments. To understand this jpart of our expenditure it may be necessary to go back a few years and ! trace the origin of the department. jWhen England colonised New Zealand, or at least when the British I Government determined to take the [matter under its own protection, the [idea was quite as much that of doing something, she did not exactly know what, for the natives, as of beneiUusg

the Europeans who might colonise the new dependency. The Maoris were an interesting race of savages, and the English people were anxious to try whether the new colony couid not be made a sort of school for the Maoris rather than a mere field for the energies of the settlers. It was on this account that the very beginning of our Gov eminent here was marked by the appointment of protectors of the aborigines, whose duty it was nominally lo see that no injustice was done to the natives such as the law would redress, but whose real employment very soon became the acting as a sort of intermediate beggars between the Maoris and the Governor. The natives were indeed a great deal better able to protect themselves than were their protectors, and they very soon shewed this by systematically making use of these officers as cacspawswbereby they might extract as many good| things as possible for themselves from the Treasury of the colony. Every-; body has heard of the old Flour and j Sugar policy of this colony, and a good I many of our readers have probably) seen something of its practical work»j ing. It may be explained as Laving! been a system of training up the na- ■ lives into habits of pauperism. If a) Maori wanted a plough, a horse, a! mill, be went at once to the seat of Government, if he was near enough,; or to the nearest representative of bis i own department if he was too distant, and made his request. Of course his request was granted, but this was not all. He was lodged, fed, and clothed while he was engaged in this important duty; and when be went home again, he would be able to tell his people how soft the white men were, and how very pleasant a trade they contrived to make begging. Such was the Flour and Sugar policy of this co» lony It was kept up for a good many years, and cost a great deal of money, but it was very succesful. No reasonable man could have looked for any result from the course pursued ex cept the degradation of the people upon whom it acted, and this was ex actly what had happened. From ; being truculent, independent, but withal . free-spirited and hospitable savages, ' the natives rapidly became a sort of; quarter-civilized race with the failings < and habit of paupers superadded to i the characteristics of savages. The I change was felt to be for the worse; c and, what was even more suggestive s of the necessity of some alteration, it was gradually brought about by the i interference of the colonists in the ma- i uagemeut of native affairs, and the t result has been the substitution of the * new Native department for the oiu c one. ,

This new department costs the Colony now -£30,000 a-year, so that i; is highly desirable the colonists shoulu know what they are getting for tbeii money, When Sir George Grey came to Mew Zealand six years ago, he found his old undisguised system ol dour and sugar at its last gasp. The colonists had got a large share ol power, and the Maoris were rapidly getting a smaller share of petting and pampering. The expense of feeding natives, and presenting them with ploughs, horse, mills, and boats, had been reduced within very modest limits indeed, and the only serious expense was that involved in the support of native schools throughout tbt country. The present Governor bad not the honour of founding the old system of native management by means of presents, although he carried it to a great height of perfection ; but be may lay claim, of unquestionable right, to thi new system, which is costing us A 30,000 a year to carry out. And this new system bears a strong family resemblance to the old one. It is true there are no bags of flour supplied with a view to nourishing the flame of loyalty, no bags of sugar for sweetening the cup of submission to authority; it is true there are no mills built, and ploughs and horses supplied to natives of influence ; but this need surprise us but little, when we consider how many of these were supplied in former yeais and how well supplied the natives are as a rule with these things new. The new plan is directed to precisely the same results by a different road. Instead of giving flour and sugar, we give the money which may buy these things, or, if the recipient prefers it—rum. We avoid the obnoxious charge cf making native paupers- by calling

them Chiefs of Runanga. Kareres Assessors, Policemen, and Pensioners, and we pay them for consenting to bear these names yearly salaries, varying from *IOO to *5 a year. Wo say they are paid for consenting to bear these names, and we say so advisedly, for in most cases they do no more for their money than this. There are 4*9 names on the list of these servants of the Government: and, without pointing out bow often they have been found in the ranks of the rebels, there is quite enough condemnation of the seem in the fact, which can be easily proved, that they are, as a rule, the worst behaved natives in their own districts who are thus, subsidised. Formerly we paid in Sourand sugar for keeping the peace ; lut since 1861 the system has been introduced of paying for the same in hard cash. I We are not now dealing with thaj question of bow far this was excusable! lon grounds of mere expediency. It] [may be that arrangements, which we | feel ourselves inclined to rise iu rebel(lion against, are capable of a strong defence on this gronnd. On this we i shall have occasion to speak when we come to the question, of what ought to be the course pursued in futnre; in the mean time we are only anxious to make the present position of the matter plain to our readers. That position then is this :—There are hundreds of Maoris, many of them of the very worst characters in their respective districts, to whom, under various names, we pay salaries which go to make up this grand total of J£30,000 a year. These chiefs of Runanga either hold no Runangas, or hold them for purposes the very reverse, as a rule, of useful; these assessors are, in very many cases, the most serious offenders against the law in their districts ; these Kareres carry nothing except lying toies of the prodigious defeats sustained by the Europeans at the bauds of the Maori insurgents, and fetch nothing except their salaries. The Pensioners are the only members of this vast fraternity who are properly represented by their titles, and as an instance of the pretences ou which such pensions have been awarded and conferred, we shall mention but one case: Twelve women have pensions of £5 each a year during life, because they were instrumental in rescuing some timber intended for a schoolbouse on the Waikato, which was thrown into the river by the rebels. Sixty pounds a year for perhaps dve-and-twenly years, for pulling soma timber out of the Waikato! Such are the reasons for which pensions are conferred: such is the system upon which i-30,000 a year of money raised from hard-working settlers by a ruinous taxation is squandered away 1 In all this there is no exaggeration. When we come to speak of a reformed system we shall have occasion to show a little more fully the beneficial working of the present one, which is allowed uy our politicians to remain a source of division and heartburning between the two parts of this colony.—Nelson Examiner, Feb. 14.