TAXATION.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 1, Issue 13, 1 April 1867, Page 73

TAXATION.

' ' no. v. - ' 1 In tie Appropriation Act of last year, | onie of the most striking itfems is the sum of 15s. lUd. fbr Native j .Departments. To understand this ( part ofour expenditure it may be ne- ( cessary to go back a few years and . trace the origin'of the department.] When : England colonised New Zea- | land, or at least when the British ( Government determined to take the . matter under its own protection, the ‘ idea was quite as much that of doing ] something, she did not exactly know what, for the natives, as of benefiting ] the Europeans who might colonise the ] new dependency. The Maoris were- * ah interesting race of savagaheflshd the English people were try whether the new' colony could not be made a sort of'school for rather than a.mere field gies of the settlers. It wasami£siis ] account that the very beginning of our • Government here was marked by the | appointment of protectors of theabo- i rigines, whose duty it was nominally to see that no injustice was done to the natives such as the law would re- 1 dress, but whose real employment very ‘ soon became the acting as a sort of s intermediate beggars between the ! Maoris -and the i Governor... The natives were indeed a great deal; better 1 able to protect themselves than were 1 their protectors, and they very soon * Bhewed this by systematically .awaking 1 use of these they might extract as many good ’ things as possib[e“for themselves from ; the Treasury of the colony. Every- : body has heard of the old Flour and ( Sugar policy of this colony, and a good many of our readers have probably seen something"-of- its practical work* ( ihg. It may be explained as having , been a system of training up the na- i lives into habits of pauperism. If a ] Maori wanted a plough* a horse, aj mill, he went at once to the seat of , Government, if be was near enough, < or to the nearest representative of his ( own department if he was too distant, ] and made his request. Of course his ( request: was granted, but this was not , all. He was lodged, fed, and clothed while he was engaged in this impor- ■ tant duty; and when he went home , again, he would be able to -tell his people how soft the'white men were; and how very pleasant a trade they contrived to make begging. Such was the Flour and Sugar policy of this co* lony* It was kept up for a goo'd many years, and cost a great deal of money, but it was very succesful. No reasonable man could have looked for any result from the course pursued except the degradation of the. people upon whom it acted, and this was ex actly what had happened. From beingtruculent,independent, but withal free-spirited and hospitable savages, the .natives, rapidly became. a sort of quarter-civilized race with, the failings and .habit of paupers superadded to the characteristics of savages. - The change was ; felt to be for, the worse; was, even more, suggestive - of the -necessity of some alteration, it interlerence of the in the, maxesult has.beeh of thei * /one;' ;'"vjy neyr ’ltray ■nowi>3o,QQom*year,; s so?: that dit is highly desirable the colonists ahould itaow what they are getting . for,their

money.' When Sir, George Grey came to New ■ Zealand l isix years ago, he found his old i undisguised system,, ;of fibur and ; sugar at its lastjgasp.: -?The colonists : had got- a .large ,share of pbwer, and. the:Maoris> were-rapidly, gettiHg a smaller’share; of petting and pampering. The; expense -of feeding natives, and ; presenting : them vyith ploughß,jhorse, mills,, rand - boats, jbad been reduced within -very.; modest limits indeed; ;and the only serious expense wasJthat. involved; in the. support of ; native schoiolsi: throughout: (the; country. ' The present Governor had not the honour, of:founding;:the;old system; of . native management: by means of presents, although ;be carr ried it to a great; height of iperfect tion; but he may; lay, claim, of un :2 questionable right,' to the new system; which is costing us 30,000 a.year to carry out;.: And this new- system bears a strong family resemblance to the old. one. It is true there are no bags of flour supplied with; a view to nourishing the flame of loyalty, ! no bags of sugar for sweetening the cup of submission, to authority; it is. true there are •no mills built,-and ploughs and horses supplied to natives-of influence; but this need surprise us but little, when we consider how many of these were supplied in former years and how well supplied the natives are as a rule with these things now.. The new plan is directed to precisely the same: results by a different road. . Instead of giving flour and sugar, we give the money which may buy these things, or, if the recipient prefers it—rum. We avoid the obnoxious charge of making native paupers, by calling them Chiefs of Bunanga, Kareres Assessors, Policemen, and Pensioners, and we pay them for consenting to bear these names yearly salaries, varying from £IOO to £5 a year. We say they are paid for consenting to bear these names, and we-say so advisedly, for in most cases they; do no more for their money than this. There are 449 names on the list of these servants, of the Government: and, without pointing out how often they have been found in the ranks of the rebels, there is quite enough, condemnation of the seem iu the fact, which can be easily proved, that they are, as a rule, the worst behaved natives in their own districts. who are thus subsidised. Formerly we paid, in flour and sugar for keeping the peace; Lut since 1861 the system has been introduced of paying for the same in hard cash.

We are not now dealing with the question of how far this was excusable on grounds of mere expediency. It may be that arrangements, which we feel ourselves inclined to rise in rebellion against, are capable of a strong defence on this gronnd. On this we shall have occasion to speak when we come to the question of what ought to ; be the course pursued in futnre; in the mean time we are only anxious to make the present position of the matter plain to our readers. That position then is this:—There are hundreds of Maoris, many of them of the very worst characters in their respective districts, to whom, under various names, we pay. salaries which go to make up this grand total of £30,000 a year.. These chiefs of Bunanga either hold no Bunangas, or hold them for purposes the very reverse, as a rule, of useful; these assessors are, in very many cases, the most serious offenders against the law in their districts ; these Eareres carry nothing except lying toles of the prodigious defeats sustained by the Europeans at the hands of the Maori insurgents, and fetch nothing except their salaries. . The Pensioners are the only members of ; this vast, fraternity who are properly represented by their titles, -and as an instance of-the pretences on which such pensions have been awarded ahd conferred, we shall mention. but one; case.: Twelve; women have pensions,: of £5 each a year during , life, because; they were instrumental in rescuing;: some, timber intended for a schoolhouse on the, was. thrown into 'the .nyerVby. the reSixty year for perhaps, fivo-aufl-,tweiity years, for pullmg some timber out . of thh I . stfoh . are the reasons foYwhichjpensioiis ard jconferred ; such is the system upon

yhich|£3o,o6d a f year .of-mbney- raised from hard-Workihg -settlers by a ruiboas 1 ! taxktioh ; is squandered away! In All _this ( thbre is no exaggeration. Whbn we come to spbak of a reformed system we, shall have occasion to show a little more-fully the beneficial working of the present one, which is allowed bybub politicians to remain a source of bud Heartburning between the two. parts of this colony.—Nelson Examiner, Feb. 14. -