Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba maglstri. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1869.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 14, Issue 730, 28 October 1869, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba maglstri. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1869.

We recently published, from the columns of an Australian contemporary, an abstract of a lecture on "The War in Hew Zealand and what led to it," by the Rev. S. Ironside, a recent New Zealand colonist and minister of the Wesley an Methodist connection. While this lecture gives a most truthful, and consequently fair, statement of the case, it stands in striking contrast to the statements of Bishop Selwyn before the British House of Lords, to which we referred in our last issue. The Bishop appears in his usual character of apologist for the Maori, and wishes it to be distinctly understood that " it was not the colonists only, but the natives, whose interests were concerned;" and on the ground alone that the natives confided in the British Government to put down anarchy and bloodshed, according to the contract of 1839, he begged the Government to pause before refusing its aid. He also indicated that the " unfortunate proclamation that the natives might sell their lands to the Crown only " was the primary cause of subsequent troubles, apparently forgetting, or ignoring, the wellknown fact that it was by the special desire of the native chiefs concerned that the stipulation referred to was inserted in the Treaty of Waitangi, and not, as he would have it be lieved, that the whole of the soil of New Zealand might be transferred in the quickest possible manner from

the natives to the Crown. He must be aware that for years after the first settlement of New Zealand the natives were far more anxious to sell than theOown, on the part of the colonists, was to buy the waste lands, and that for those years at least all the teasing was on the part of the natives, the most civilised and best of whom were always desirous of a more rapid transfer than the British Government, in its character of guardian of native interests, were willing to effect. It was, indeed, as was plainly enough shown by Mr Ironside, Bishop Selwyn himself who first made the unfounded charge against the colonists that they had a covetous greed for the native lands, and it was at that very time ably refuted by the same gentleman who now again exposes its fallacy. But we know that the body of which Bishop Selwyn is the representative—the Church Mission party in New Zealand—did always ?et themselves against the Crown's preemptive right, and it is unfortunate for them that the reason for their opposition is so plain,—"Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth," —many of this body having been, before that time, as a rule the great purchasers of the lands ot New Zealand. No : it was not the pre-emptive right on the part of the Crown, nor greed on the part of the colonists for acquiring the lands of the island, led to the troubles in New Zealand. It was rather the action of those officials to whom was entrusted the task of executing the law against offenders, but who, instead of doing their duty, availed themselves of their posi tion and official knowledge to break the law for the purpose of enriching themselves • -practically teaching the natives that the law was a farce.

Law breaking by the officials on the one hand, and vacillation on the part of the Government on the other, at length produced the result that we. all deplore, in contempt of authority and rebellion. We shall conclude by a reference to the singular kind of assistance the Bishop recommends to be afforded to the Colony. He thought a " flying body " of about 500 men, under the authority of the British Government, yet acting in conjunction with the Colonial Government of New Zealand, should be ready at any moment to go to any part of the colony whenever a crime had been committed—not in any way to protect the settlers in possession of their land, nor to be mixed up at all with the land question, but merely to arrest murderers. This would be all that is needed, and he did noi think that the Colonial Government could ever maintain such, a force! He made this appeal on the ground of mercy to both settlers and natives of this distracted country.