New Zealand ITS GOVERNMENT, PROVINCES, CAPABILITIES, &c.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XI, Issue 487, 24 June 1867, Page 3

New Zealand ITS GOVERNMENT, PROVINCES, CAPABILITIES, &c.

[COMMCMCATED TO THE SYDNEY HERALD.] NO. 11. Whex, more tlian twenty-five year? .ag i, the British Government deter mined to undertake the colonisation ol New Zealand, very little was kuowi. about the greater part of the islands that were to form the new colony This was especially true of tin Southern Island of which little wasknown beyond the tales brought t<> Sydney by the vessels employed in hunting seals along its south-westerr coasts. With the northern part, at least, of the Northern Island the easi was somewhat different. A considerable trade had grown up along tin coast, between whaling and ever trading vessels from Sydney and the natives, who exchanged potatoes and dressed flax for calicos, tobacco, and (uufortunto'.y als") rum aud fire arms. In addition to this, missionaries bad obtained a firm footing m variouspopulous districts, and had already effected a great change in the general habits of the Maoris. The iuveferali and fearfully destructive wars which had been the ecu-taut occupation of the tribes from time immemoriu. were giving place to peace, and even to some material advancement. Cannibalism was almost, if not quite, ex tinct among them, and a strong desiie to learn all that Europeans could teach them, seemed to invite any attempt that could be made to civilize and ele

vale them. This was the attcrap made by England when the first Governor caiue to New Zealand in tin

year 1842. Colonists, however, hau preceded the colony. There were a considerable number of settlers at and

near the Bay of LI -mds when G ivoinoi Hobson lauded, and a considerable advance in civilisation had been made in She neighborhood known as the Ngajvahi. England's object, as I have said, in making Xew Zealand a colony was rirmcii.aily that the Maoris might benidi by the arrangement. With this view the treaty of Waitangi was made

between the aew Governor and a large majority of the Ngapuhi chiefs. The main feature of the treaty was that it attempted to protect the natives against tbe’r owa want of experience by forbidding them to sell any land to Euro£Xl'6|>l tuOStt Cumuiirs-olieu Oj t£i6 Government to buy. The Mart s were to be secured in the possession of their lands, rights, and liberties, and the Crown was to receive their obedience, and to be the sole purchaser of ! jand?. It would perhaps be diffi-! cult to point to any arrangement be-1 tween two different races the intention 1 of which was better, but the result of which was more certain to prove a failure. For twenty five years no obe- ■ dieuce has been rendered by the natives i to the Government, and after a twentylive years’ most unsatisfactory trial tiie scheme of Government land purchase . lias been finally abandoned. These things have tended to make the history ; of the northern province of New Zea- : land singular in many respects, and make a slight sketch of its history a! most essential to any one who would understand the position, and prospects i of the colony at present.

The town of Auckland was founded by G>vernor Hobson in 1842, as the capital of the new colony. It was situated on the very centre of the native districts at the point where the island : s barely six miles wide from sea to sea, and thus separated the tribes of the' Morth from those of the Waikato, whose cpiarrels had caused the annual loss of hundreds oflives. The number of natives in the province of Auckland was probably not less than 50,000 at j hat time, so that every piece of land! had at least half-a-dozen owners, alij more or less nearly interested in the! propelty. Thus laud was bought slowly' in the province of Auckland from the eery first, although always faster than any real demand to satistiy purchasers m the spot arose. The first Maori war took place in 1845, and was o quarrel totally unconnected with land, uid wholly dependent on our claim oi sovereignty over the country. At that time the infant settlement of Aucklam: was iu the greatest danger of destruelion. Every able-bodied settler was under arms for some time; but when all were mustered the force was so insignificant that, had lieke and 500 natives been aide to penetrate as far s uth as Auckland, it would undoubtedly havi shared the fate of Kororarika, the town of the Buy of Islands district, whirl was sacked and burnt. This dangei it escaped through the dissensions amongst the Ngapuhi tribes themselves and the town of Auckland was neve; attacked. Two relics remain to t; i day to attest the danger and its narrow escape. One is the annual pension oi -it2oo paid to the old chief Tannin Waka Nene, who prevented tie attack; the other is a high stone wall wide!; forms a sort of citadel in the centre oi the town of Auckland to this day, and which was built as a place of refuge foi the inhabitants.

From IS4G to ISG3 the progress o! the Province ot Auckland was stea k and even rapid. As the capital of the colony it had the advantage of a cer tain prestige to attract settlers, hut ii; iwed much more to its own sterlingj advantages. The fact that a Erg. : native population pressed upon the set-1 dement on all sides tended to concen i trate the population, aud rendered it a small farm province in which few solders possessed more than a few hundred acres of laud. There was also a large native trade, which increased the busi ness and importance of the town. Thus, agriculture instead of sheeptarming became the characteristic o! Auckland, and the class of settlers was quite a distinct kind from that to be iouud in the South, where tiro runholder and the laborer make up the mass of the population. The war of 18G3 was connected with the land question. Tne prices given by the Government were not large enough to tempt most of tin natives to sell their land; but they were quite enough to tempt one or two here and there. The consciousness ol oeing in a majority rendered die op ponents of land sales overbearing ; while the consciousness that the Euro peans were steadily, though very gra dually, spreading ever tbs count.y, made them alarmed for their own independence. Land leagues, Kum

movements, central runangas were no more than the various forms which these two feelings assumed at different .times, and in various localities. The

war of 1833. which still smoulder* i' l its embers, was qo more than ilia logical result of the treaty of Waitangi, which placed so many invidious distinctions between the European and the native subjects of her Majesty !r Pi*rt A «.-.»!»» \w w> r»»i Jnfan t/j « 1,, jl.uo uiaimuirnio tiwiv Sit *i»lvri : lC-5 10

favor the natives, but they only sufficed to keep up a constant irritation in the mind of the settlers, and to arouse to the full the suspicions so natural to the Maori, as to every savage miud.

The war I need hardly say, has jKfifir# tv»rvo£ IId1 ! J ‘’ (1 tO tllG T)l*osPpt prosperity of , 11 the inhabitants of the province of Auckland, both native and Eu r np n an. The early circumstances of the war led to a great destruction of property on the southern frontier which has hardly even now been re paired. A large commissariat expenditure stimulated to a very unnatural height the spirit of speculation in the town and its sudden withdrawal lias resulted in a general stagnation of the most serious kind. To the natives its, results have been even more deadly. The Waikato country has been swept of its inhabitants by the combined of war, disease, and want, til! what has been regarded us the most populous district in Xew Zealand can show only a few miserable and sickly .looking remnants of what once were tribes. la 1302 there were probably nearly 1300 men capable of bearing arms in Waikato ; in 18f37 400 would probably be an overestimate. Trie natives to the north of Auckland have not been in rebellion, yet the feverish excitement of the time has proved in-* jurious to them iu many ways. Drunkenness has increased frightfully, and has brought disease in its train, a well as violence and every sort of social disorder. Tims the cmuiiti'm of the largest province in New Zealand is by no means satisfactory at present. On i future occasion I almll endeavor t give some idea of the res urces ano prospects of the province of Auckland, is they are likely to atfect both the Ifuropean and native population when tiie present period of stagnation shall have passed away.