PRIVATE EMBASSIES; AND THE VALUE OF NATIVE PROFESSIONS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 14, Issue 697, 5 July 1869, Page 3

PRIVATE EMBASSIES; AND THE VALUE OF NATIVE PROFESSIONS.

The following paragraphs are from a long and excellent letter in the New Zealand Herald on the subject of the late expedition of Messrs Firth and Davis to Waikato :- - If these embassies were merely the first rung of the ladder by which some men—goaded by innate egotism and inflated vanity—got into notoriety mistaking it for fame, or served simply as a medium by which they could air their wind-baggism, nobody need complain—more especially as the principal personages concerned pay the fiddler. But wdien we think that what is done in secret—letters written which were' never intended to see the light—may imperil the lives and property of the industrious settlers scattered over Waikato, and lead to complications which mean a shilling in the pound war-tax to all of us, the farce gets much too serious. Though powerless to create a peace, they are not powerless to embroil us. Any fool may pull down a palace, but it takes a little nous to build even a pig-stye. The burnt child dreads the fire, and with the history of the Pokaikai commission ftvsh in our recollections, (on which its audi or sat at once as accuser and judge !) and that led the natives up from grievance-mongering to the

perpetration of the long list of atrocities since committed, we may well be excused for feeling apprehensive of future danger. Even if professions of peace were made> whom do they bind ? and what is the guarantee on which labor and capital would again go forth under the shadow of the tomahawk, or within the spring of the tiger, whose claws would not be pared, but concealed ? —the bare word of a Maori, who would not, by the surrender of a Kereopa, give a fair test of his sincerity ? We have the peace professions of a Maori on record, and I will refer to them as a proof how much such assurances can be relied on. Among the Native Commissioners' reports on the state of the native race, called for

by his Excellency for personal information, appears one from Mr Parris. Mr Parris is not the first Native Office official who has been humbugged and cajoled by Maoris, so that the instance is as fair as any other. Well, Mr Parris, simple amiable man, informs his Excellency that things are very fair and comfortable along the coast belt Taranaki-wards, A runanga-house had been built and dedicated to peace, an influential chief being prominent in the good work—tins same excellent chief had further stated that the sword should be sheathed, and the year should be one of peace. Prom whose lips, think you, fell the thrice-distilled words of peace and good-will towards men? Titokoioaru's; and this was three months before Turoturo■moJcai When the White Cliffs massacre occurred Mr Parris met a deputation of Taranaki settlers ; looking along the row of gloomy distrustful faces, Mr Parris said, " I scarcely expect the settlers to believe in the sincerity of native professions after what has occurred ; but there is one Maori (calling the chief Mahau from the adjoining room and placing his hand on his shoulder) to whom I would trust my life." The native to whom Mr Parris would " trust his life," was the chief who prevented the Taranaki force being despatched to I Colonel Whitmore's aid, when that officer | tried to pin Tito at the great Ngaire swamp ! The force of folly could no further go.

How to Prevent Sea-Sickness.—Keep on shore. N.B. —This is a sure preventive. Sib David Mtjneo has returned to Nelson for a short time, in consequence, we understand, of sickness in his family.— Evening Post, June 28. New Zealand Medal,—The Pall Mall Budget, of the 23rd April, says that the Queen has approved of the design for the .New Zealand Medal. The die is being engraved at the Mint, and the medal will probably be ready fur issue in about a month or six weeks,.