Hawke's Bay Times. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1867. MR. COOPER’S REPORT.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XII, Issue 513, 30 September 1867, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1867. MR. COOPER’S REPORT.

“ Nulliut addict us juror e in verba magislri”

Uniformly from the first establish ment of the Hawke’s Bay Times we have endeavored to show the inexpediency of that course of legislation which has resulted in the lamentable state of affairs pointed out by G. S. Cooper, Esq., in his report published in another part of this morning’s issue, aud brought before the Legislative Council by the Hon. Colonel Russell, on the 27th ult., and although to find that circumstances prove a person correct in his predictions of evil is at best but a melancholy kind of satisfaction, we have that satisfaction, such as it is. Those of our readers who have followed us in our exposure of the selfishness of the agitators in the North and South of the Colony, to whose efforts for the repeal of the restrictive laws relating to the unalienated lands of these Islands the Government most unwisely succumbed in the passing oi the Native Land Purchase Act, will remember our words ou that occasion, which we now quote :

In this Act we behold only another instance of Sir George Grey’s favorite policy of purchasing temporary quiet by the exercise of indulgence and coucess on—a policy that lias always hitherto proved itself powerless for good, and prolific of evil results, yet one to which his Excellency seems wedded, even though its full exercise fails, and always will fail, to satisfy the demands oi those it is intended to conciliate. [Hawke’s Bay Times, Jan. 16, ISGS.]

We have always regarded the preemptive right of purchase retained by the Crown over the lands of New Zealand in the much discussed treaty of Waitangi, as one of the most wise restrictions possible, and the surrender of that right as a cruel blow to the true interests of the native race, as it| also was a great act of injustice to the Colony. The retention of that right of pre-emption by the British Crown was an act of justice towards the native race no less than of expediency ; it was, in fact, to quote the words of Mr Justice Chapman, no mean authority on this question, “ The only rule, under the circumstauces calculated to give equal security to both races. The great mass of Hie natives, if sales were declared open to them, would become the victims of an apparently equitable rule, so true it is that it is possible to OPPRESS and destroy under a show of justice.” And again, “To let in all purchasers, and to protect and enforce every purchase, would be virtually to confiscate the lands of the natives in a very short time.” Governor Grey himself bore testimoney to precisely the same effect when protesting against the then illegal dealings with the natives by unscrupulous settlers. “ The future prospects of the Colony are becoming irretrievably ruined by the system, all hopes of improving and civilising the natives are being destroyed, the progress of the Colony retarded, troublous questions being raised concerning titles that can never be settled, and the root of costly wars planted, for it cannot be expected that the natives will respect the bargains they have made, when they find themselves and children impoverished by them.” Time would fail to give a tythe of the evidence produced, all tending to tbs SamC end, from such «*itnesses <*s the Bishop of New Zealand, the late Governor Fitzroy, Mr Commissioner Spain, and many others, predicting just such a state of things as that shewn by Mr Cooper as having resulted iu this Province, or being about to result, from the weakness and folly of the Government in yielding to the agitation of the interested,

The Colonial Government were not long in discovering that they had made a mistake in the unqualified way in which the titles of the waste lands were given to the natives under their Land Purchase Act of 1865, and hence the (to quote Mr Cooper) “ salutary legislation of last year,” which set some

restrictions upon the sale of certain blocks, and made the approval of the Government a condition of legal sale. So far they have done what in them lies to remedy a wrong, and this we willingly admit, in spite of the Auckland clique, but a retrograde path is always one beset with difficulties, and what could have in justice been withheld from the Maori people, can scarcely, after having been bestowed —however doubtful a boon it may be—be taken away again without giving some cause of complaint for its apparent injustice.