The Hawke's Bay Times, PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY AND THURSDAY. THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 1867. SPECIAL REPRESENTATION OF THE MAORI RACE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XII, Issue 504, 29 August 1867, Page 2

The Hawke's Bay Times, PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY AND THURSDAY.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 1867. SPECIAL REPRESENTATION OF THE MAORI RACE.

u NiiUiui addict Utjiiiuic in verba rnagistri”

A nv.vcmT, taken from the “ Parlianientar - Rebates,” cf the speech made by Mr M‘Leau on the question of the second rending of the Maori Representation Bill, will be found in another column ; and as we are unable to afford space for the whole debate, we ■dive a reply from another lion, member of the Council. These two speeches exhaust the question, and render unnecessary any fuller reportWe regard the question as one tn which a vast amount of quackery has been expended, and yet one that L simplicity itself. It has been too much the fashion to regard the Maori as laboring under certain disabilities or disadvantages, compared with the

more favored colonists, wliile nothing can be further from the truth as it is He is spoken of as if unrepresented n, the Parliament of the ceLny, when in fact, fully one half of the legislation if that august body has been for Li; especial behoof, aud be does not stand politically in any respect different from his European brother. His qualification as an elector is precisely the same, and there is nothing to prevent a Maori, as such, from voting at elections —representing any district in either the Provincial Councils cr tho General Assembly—becoming the Superintendent of a province, or even the Premier of the colony, more than exists in the way of any European. If it be said that bis social habit; stand in the way, we reply, so much the worse for the social habits, and | the remedy lies iu removing them and replacing them by better ones. To ilds the aims of oar would be Mam; sympathisers should be directed, rather than to anything winch lends to per petuate them. Wo should bo sorry to say one word in favor of shutting the Maori out from any right or privilege enjoyed by other British subjects ; ns sorry should wo be to advocate am me isure for endowing him with anv ■•pedal privilege over the rest, am! inis it is tiiat this Bill contemplates d dug. Tim price of every political privilege niu-l be paid alike by both races, iu duly qualifying themselves for their exetcisc ; and the privileges lare, or ought to be, a prize—the dmire ward for so qualifying, and its in Iducemont. To bestow special political privileges on the Maori race, in the absence of the proper qualification, is to offer a reward for idleness, worthlessness, and barbarism. Something like this conviction seems to have been felt in the llvuse when in committee on the measure, and thus ’.he material modification of Maoris ndy f..r Maori representatives was made. This was a necessary nmdifi ication, fur if Maori representation is deeded, on the supposition that there is some principle or iuterest uurepre-

Seated by the Maori sympathisers Jrefuly in the House, certainly norm but <i Maori can be capable of representing such principle. Anri we must not forget that the seconder of Mr arLeaa's measure has in his Executive Council a Maori member, who. pse are informed, works well with the rest, and is a source of gratification to bis people. We do net lind fault with Mr Williamson fur his armigciuent, ; hough we may regard it in a measure a? an absurd one ; if it pleases the Maoris, and dees no one else harm, let it exist, as many another neutral measure may,, but \£o do. not wantj

anything of so absurd a character in the Assembly of the Colony, particu larly in the House of Representatives, where the order of things should be business and not nonsense. We are unable to see any good that the proposed measure can be supposed to accomplish. Maori sympathisers, such as the Grahams, Williamsons, and, we will add,M‘ beans, can set returned.

and are there in plenty, without the need of special constituencies for their return. I: is an element that needs no strengthening, and yet it is only the adding strength to it that such a measure could effect. If Europeans were returned from such constituencies, men of just that class of feeling and opinion are those that would be returned. If Maoris are returned, it is to these they would look for directions how to vote ; for to suppose that they would cr could be identified with the interests of the rest of the colony in cases of general legislation is cut of the question. In fact, the same purpose would be accomplished, by giving those gentlemen who are known to have Maori sympathies, a dual vote, and in a much more direct and simple manner than by the proposed measure. If Maori representation must bo bad, let his Excellency call cue or more of the leading chiefs to the Upper House. This, it strikes us, would be more satisfactory to the Maoris, and, at the same time, more in accordance with their customs than the voting members to the Assembly by the exercise of the franchise, a system which they do not understand, and care nut to put in practice.