MR. McLEAN'S SPEECH CRITICISED.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 14, Issue 710, 19 August 1869, Page 3

MR. McLEAN'S SPEECH CRITICISED.

[communicated.] Politicians and the general public looked forward with unusual interest, to a decla ration, by the Hon. Minister for Defence and Native Affairs, of his views on the present aspect of things, and his enunciation of the policy proposed by himself and ap proved by his colleagues. Mr Donald M'Lean has acquired a reputation for sagacitv, and for an intimate knowledge of all things relating to the Maori race, which -ecures for him a patient and respectful hearing in the House of Representatives and warrants us in devoting some space to the examination of his speech. There are ihose who imagine Mr McLean to be a sort of Heaven-born genius,—like Bon Jonson's " Bias," — " The very agate Of State and Policy; cut from the quar' Of Machiavel, a true Cornelian As Tacitus himself; and to be made The brooch to any true State-cap in Europe. He is invaluable! All the Lords Have him jn that esteem, for his Relations, Courants. Avises. Correspondences With this Ambassador, and that Agent. He'll screw you a- secret from a Statist So easy as some Cobbler worms a dog J" On the 4th inst. Mr McLean rose in his place in the House, and delivered himself of one of the most extraordinary, inconsequential, and unsatisfactory harangues on Native Affairs and the future conduct of the War, which it has ever been our lot to peruse. He has always been remarkable for recklessness of assertion, and know? well how to utilise the suppressio veri. T<< say that Mr McLean has shoyru himself to be a Pnilo-Maori of the most extreme kind is no news to those who have watched his career in this Province; but we question whether they were prepared to hear from him, in hii new position of a responsible,

Minister of the Ciown, a whole>ale eulogy of the Native ra«o, wlioin (he says) "are naturdly j -alous <>f the jnrisdicti >n of a foreign power 7" The burden of his speech is this,—That all our difficulties wi'h the Natives, all their antagonism and treachery towards u«, all the outrage and bloodshed, have been the result of our want of know ledge, ow misconceptions, and our mistakes. Scarcely a word of blame for the " noble savage," who is never 80 gratified as when he is tomahawking the too-trustful pakeha, or applying the torch to his homestead. Mr McLean says,—" We have invariably aimed at a great deal too much in New Zealand: we have had very ambitious projects." So, as a corrective, the Ministry propose to do, in future, too little,— and abandon " projects" altogether. Their policy is marvellously simple,—they will not attempt anything like stateroanship,— will be very thankful for their daily bread and accompanying coin,—will show how even Ministers can be content to live from band to mouth,—while the Defence Minister will sit calmly in his office, waiting, a la Micawber, "to see what will turn up." When a fresh outbreak occirs, or some horrible massacre has been perpetrated, he may send off to the scene of blood a handful of tho "demilitarised Colonial force"— the men whom the Premier (Mr Fox) the other day called "draggle tailed," "a mockery of a standing army," " a bastard soldiery!" The hon. gentleman (Mr Mc Lean) propounds a novel theory for overcoming existing difficulties: The policy of the Government is to be "non-aggres-sive; ' the Colonial force is to be demilitarised ; " the key to our action must be through the Friendly .Natives;" the North Island is to be divided into military districts, the officers commanding in which will not dare to move a step without first obtaining the sanction of the autocrat of the Defence Office. Such are the chief heads of Mr McLean's " Defeece Policy," —the peculiarity of which appears to us to be that the real element of defence— the power to cope with, and subdue, a foe—is practically shut out. We hold that is impossible to avert, for any great length of time, a struggle for supremacy between the Anglo-Saxon and Maori races j and it is worse thau folly to allow a mawkish sentimentality to decoy and delude us into a position in which we shall have no material guarantee for the safety of life or property, —in which we shall depend, on the one hand, on the faithfulness of what are called Friendly Natives, and, on the other, on the caprice of an implacable, relentless and savage foe. We quite concur in the following remarks oi Mr Stafford: —"If tht* Government really did demilitarise the Colonial force, they would commit a deadly evil, and plunge the country into imminent danger. They must have a fighting force, call it what they might, if life and property were to be safe. It was very difficult, even now, to infuse a sufficiently fighting spirit into the force, and yet it was proposed to make it more like an ordinary polict force." And this force, we are kindiy assured, is to be of a "non-political charac ter"! What that means we are utterly at a loss to understand, especially when we remember that political considerations have notoriously influenced the Fox Ministry in certain appointments, dismissals, &o , in connexion with the Colonial forces. Is it not well known that political considera tions —not to say political prejudices, and party spirit—have led to the dismissal of certain valuable public officers in the Pro vince of iiawke's .Bay, and elsewhere? Those who expect the creme de la creme ol impartiality from this very "non-political" Minister, will find themselves woiully mistaken. Our dependence is to be placed upon the friendly .Natives,—yet we are told that " the Government will be under the necessity of affording protection to our friendly allies, both in the interior and' at the Bay of Plenty." Perfection of reci procity! The E'riendlies are weak, so we must protect them. We are weak, but Mr McLean coolly bids us place our depend ence on these Friendlies: yet our entire force is to be so " de-militarised " as to be totally unfit to cope with a subtle foe, admitted even by Mr McLean to be " skilful in war, fertile in resource." The Defence Minister has a profound contempt for "new ehums." "Impracticable theories," he says, "have been propounded, frequently by persons recently arrived from .England " It may very properly be retorted that if a long residence in the Colony, or in a particular Province, only sorves to foster a spirit of narrow localism, and does not bring forth fruit in a more practicable scheme ihan that which has been evolved with so much labor from Mr McLean's mind, then the advantage of having an Old Identity at the head of ou; Defence Department is more than question able. Truly, Donald, thy 'mountain has been in labor, and brought forth a mouse," — ridiculus mus !

Mosrt affecting are the hon. gentleman's remarks with reference to the Native Lands Oou:t Act and his apprehensions that its operation may give rise to litigation and difficulties. " J he Act requires certain amendments," (possibly for the special benefit of Mr McL.an's Maori protegees) Then comes a tender, almost 1 chryuioae, reference to his friend 'iareha, upon whom it had been benevolently intended to bestow a turn of £<t,ooU, " which was to be laid out at interest for his benefit, from which he was to receive an annual income. The Government of Hawke's Bay hoped to bo able to carry that inten'ion into effect; but influences were brought to bear which resulted in his losing thai annual income." Really, Tareba ought to bo very thankfu to the Great v\ hite t. hief for showing such a deep, tender, fraternal interest in his monetary affairs. But, let us ask, What were the " influences which were brought

to t>e»r,"' to deprive our Superintendent's Maori friend of th< j desired annuity ? Were those "i-fluonces" legitimate or the contrary— legal or otherwise P If illegal or unjust, Tareha had his remedy at law, with the powerful influence of the White Rangatira at his back. Mr McLean prudently did not descend into particulars* but we doubt not many of our readers can fill up the mysterious hiatus. The poor Nativeare, according to Mr McLean, being iras properly divested of their Crown grants, and he thinks the Native Lands Act should be so amended as to impose restrictions for the protection of the property of the Natives. (By the way, Messrs. Richmond and Rolleston have introduced into the General Assembly an extraordinary Bill ;o "Prevent the Impoverishment of the Maoris,' —to restrict Maori credit, —and to prevent them selling or mortgaging their real estate! What next?) Never was such zeal on behalf of the Maoris displayed as is now shown by Mr McLean. Laws are to be made, altered, or abolished, for the special benefit of individuals like Tareha, Mete Kingi, &c, the last-named excannibal having recently informed the House that " This Island would never rest, and that the Hau-haus would never give; themselves up!" j Much of Mr McLean's speech insists on the great value of the institution of Chieftainship, and the evils which have resulted from the system of detribalization which, it is averred, has been progressing for many years. We venture to say that gentlemen whose opinions are quite as worthy of respect as that of the new Native Minister, take a view with regard to these two matters diametrically opposed to that which Mr McLean states with suoh apparent confidence.

The Government will, we are told, dur ing the recess, place itself in communication with the various tribes throughout the Northern Island, to see if it be possible to arrive at a settlement of the "great leading differences of opinion between them and the Europeans." This is certainly a nice specimen of sophisty —a neat way of dealing with horribly ugly facts. To the beet of our knowledge and belief, the " leading differences of opinion" between the Europeans and the Maoris are, inter alia, these fellow-settlers being murdered in cold blood : they object to their wives, children, and servants being tortured, slain, and devoured. 2. Europeans desire to live in peace, and to have quiet possession of the land which they have purchased, the stock and crops which they own, and other property with which they have surrounded themselves, —they do object to wholesale plunder. 8. Europeans object to their houios, &e, being sacked and destroyed by fire by infuriated, savage fanatics. 4. Europeans object to any Government permitting murder, outrage, theft, &c, to be perpetrated with impunity; and demand that culprits should be promptly and adequately punished. What kind of "settle mont" the Ministry expect to get during the recess upon these and other knotty points, we are at a loss to oonceive. Mr McLean, with charming simplicity, says,— " It is our intention to confer frankly and openly with them, and obtain such reliable information with reiereneo to the views of these tribes as may enable us to frame »omo measure for THEIR better government." Mark,-—all through hi 3 elongated oration, commencing with Hongi's visit to] George the Fourth, down to Tareha's! £4,000 and his lost annuity, it is assumed that the Europeans are, and muilly have been, in tlie wrong, and the Maoris in the rijht. Eebels are to be " frankly conferred with ;" the "views of [hostile] tribes" are to be respectfully solicited and carefully noted ; finally, some new measure is to be framed for the " better government" of a race whioh, for the last 25 y< ars, has in the main proved itself to be utterly irreclaimable, unreliable, ungrateful, aud ungovernable ! This scheme will not do, Mr Donald McLean.

Our apace does not permit; U 3 to touch upon every point in the hon. gentleman's lengthy speech. We have, we hope, clearly indicated our disapproval of the tone of nia remarks—exposed his sophistry —and given abundant reasons why the public should feel a total want of confidence in the entire scheme which he proposes.