MR GILLIES' LECTURE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 1026, 26 May 1871, Page 2

MR GILLIES' LECTURE.

TO THE EDITOR OE TIIE HAWKE's HAY TIMES. Sir,—l .suppose yon have lead the article in this morning's Herald—an article, I fear, like some others of a similar natuie which have lately appeared in that paper, not written bv its present editor, for he would scarcely have so far committed himself. The subject of the article is a lecture lately given by the Superintendent of Auckland upon that Province—or rather, it is a portion of that lecture - and Mr Gillies, the said Superintendent, is brought in as speaking in favor of the present Colonial Government, and, above all, of the native department ' Alack-a-day ! Oh, for the pen of Artemus "Ward, or the pencil of Punch ! Only la.->t evening T was 1 eading the said lecture, which consists of twentyone pages. In the early part (page 6) Mr Gillies speaks of the introduction of Christianity into New Zealand, in these words : " So early as 1814, that demoted missionary, Samuel Marsden, with a small band of associates in the good work of christianizing and civilizing the then cannibal natives, landed in the Bay of Islands, and from thenoe onward the good work progressed." —Then he proceeds to say what is given in the Herald of this morning,— "Not without- many errors and failures, not without; much we might wish to see undone, not without many false hopes and. representations, many ebbs and flows of the onward tide; but,

in spite of all these, the work of civilisation has steadily advanced, till we can now point to the territory north of Auckland as one iu which, though British law may not be paramount, still as due in which, with any reasonable degree of prudence on the part of the Government, no serious complications need ever arise to compromise the safety of the Europeans settled there, or to cause a deep rooted hostility on the part of the natives."

—Never for once touching on the present General Government, nor alluding to the native department. This he reserves for the end of his lecture, (pages 20-21). His very next sentence (after the one filched by (he writer of the said article) begins with : —" The first attempt at colonization took place at Hokiauga in 1826," and then he proceeds regularly to show its gradual growth and effects, as might be ex | pec ted. His heavy and withering attack on the present General Government and on the native department in particular, toward the end of his lecture, is well worthy of consideration by every thoughtful settler. He says :--- " Until the native department is swept away, J despair of the change just indicated " —wholesome laws for all alike— ** or of any other change for the better. I look around on the officers of that department, and 1 ask, — How many of them, from their intelligence, their judgment, their tact, their neive, or their general ability,—would be entrusted with the work of governing a turbulent set of Europeans 1 " - -And much more of the same kind, too long for your columns, but well worthy of being read with attention—especially coming as it does from the thoughtful Superintendent of that Province of New Zealand which contains the bulk of the Maori people. A good joke, indeed, to say that Mr Gillies' lecture "is tolerably strong testimony of die good results that have attended the administration of the present Government"! —Yours, <fce., Detector No. 2. Napier, May 24, 1871.