New Zealand.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 1, Issue 23, 24 June 1867, Page 145

New Zealand.

ITS GOVERMENTS PROVINCE CAPA

- wWfHB STOSST ’kattAlD.] , 1 ; 4 \: ;;; It is a common complaint in'Australia that ' peddle cannot understand . and take an interest, in New Zealand politics. The probability that the se condifact is thd res'ilt of tjelfirst leads me to attempt .the taski.of explaining, as far as possible; the position of New Zealand.; In, most people’s minds the War... with the Maories has been so completely the one. fact: about. New Zealand with,, which,, they are . acquainted that they feel little interest in the. matter iiow fhat the war seems atanend. A little more acquaintance with the facts of the case would pro bably lead to a different conclusion. New,Zealand ought to prove interesting to the people of all these colonies, tf it were only from the remarkable dissimilarity of her position and institutions from . their own. From its first foundation the colony ~'of New Zealand has-been a grand theatre of experiments. Some of these experiments have proved thon uglily unsuccessful; some have been productive partly ol good and partly of evil when brought to the test of experience, and some ol the most important and interesting are still in a state of probation. The phenomena of New’ Zealand

politics are« based upon two things—the physical peculiarities of the country, aud what may be termed the moral.peculiarities of its native inhabitants. It may.safely be said, indeed, that , the character of the country, or the .attitude of the Maories, have caused all the peculiarities that reader New Zealand politics hard to understand. To comprehend this it is necessary to • tear in wind . what the colony, consists of. Practically there are only two islands in New Zealand, the third being wholly unimportant, and as yet unused; but the length of these two islands is close upon nine hundred miles. The country stretches so nearly north and south as to afford very great variations of climate, so great, indeed, as probably to exceed the varieties to be found 7 in the vast continent of Australia. The country, upon the whole, is a rugged one there are plains, it is truej in parts both of the Northern and, Southern Islands, but they bear no proportion to the br- ken ground of hills'and val leys, which serves to render the country very-difficult of access. An immeuse extent of rugged coast-, containing but few.''.good harbours, may be regarded as the last physical peculiarity which has gone to determine ‘ the political position of New Zealand. ■'Wlteh colonists , first went, to New Zealand they found ; they could choose a home there under any conditions they liked. They could settle in the s6uth of "the; Southern Island and find there a country and a climate wonderfully like ■ the one they had left in Britain. They could- settle at the north end of the Northern Island, and a climate almost too softly temperate, and a couutry remarkable for a beauty which was all its o\yn. The consequence, wasthat the colonists did both. Some weut totbe extreme south aud founded the proviuces of Otago and Southland, while'otiitrs wfent to the extremenortU aud founded tliafc of Auckland. Between the two extremes about 5 half a dozen other provinces were foupded,. principally, by the New Zealand Company. In ’ this wayarost t hfc Yniine , provinces of ‘New.-.. Zealand other wbrdsi settlers, had / planted ’themselves at nine different spots or the f.cbast. of the, long . strip ■ of. lam forming- the colony; between thest sPP&'Y/fJib /; distauce - was ' great, tin oouMtfy w r as rugged and difficult ti penetrate* and the coast : stormy am faa* ifrp’ni inyidug-:tp ;i th;ie r ;iM'stei> ; ‘. Tfr< [settlers *were -in ■ fact 7 isolated; No

tbjsj, all;! .7 j>y : position,, they.Jwera still more ; so ' by; circum• Stances. j.feThe grassy plains and up shepherds •o4'«tlie settlers iu’thosedistrititsbiice'../. iyalleya; and isfand,drove the settlerstoagrieultural their position analogous* andtheyware

all ready to approve of &nypuhr-bV ! |?^ich^cach 1 district’ could .manage its ’ own: affairs 1 withoiitany interference from, the qthers. ■ The system of the Nd.W:Zealand- provinces .was invented to . meet this desire; - By it the colony was recognised as divided into nine distinct parts, having''a'federal rather than any clo3eruuion. Each province

>yas to own local affairs in its own way, subject to little more than a nominal control from the central Government. Io each province there is a Superintendent, who angers almost exactly to the Governor of a colony where no responsible Mini stry exists. In each there is a Provincial Council, which resembles in everything, even in its faults, a'colonial Parliament, and sometimes sits during four or five months'in a year, engaged in violent party contests rather than in anything more useful. As the reason of the creation of provinces was the diversity of the needs of the different districts, they have power to ueal with all local matters, even including immigration and the land laws <>f the colony. Thus in one province tlieeland is sold at two pounds per acre, iu another at one pound, and in a third at ten shillings, or even five shillings per acre.. Some provinces vffer land to induce immigrants to pay their own passages and come out to the colony ; others send home, large sums annually to pay the passages of a labouring population. The recog nised: functions of the Provincial Gu\ernments embrace, indeed, .what atfirst sight seems to be almost the whole range of duties that fall to a colonial Government. All public works, all immigration, all the administration of the . lands and the land fuud, even the management and control of police and prisons, are in the hands of these nine independent bodies in New Zealand, and are administerd very differently by each of them. To all these peculiarities of circumstance, .which could hardly fail to render of New Zea land a complicated and difficult matter, must be added the second great peeu liarity of that colony. In the Northern Island there is a large native population, owning the greater part oi the, land; while in the Southern Island there are but a handful oi Maories, so scattered as to be per fectly harmless, possessing no land beyond a few trifling reserves, set apart by Government for their use\ It is not to be wondered at that a colony/made up of districts so widely differing in nearly every respect, anti enjoying institutions so antagonistic as the provincial and colonial Governments of New Zealand, should be a puzzling problem to observers at a dis tance. The steps by which these districts are gradually becoming cou salidaied into something like the unity of a single State ; and the efforts now being made to harmonise the conflict ing schemes of government into one, are neither without interest nor importance to the neighbouring colonies, many of whose institutions are as yet iu an unsettled state.

' No. n. • When, more than, twenty-five years ag», the British Government determined to undertake the colonisation of New: Zealand, very little was . known about the greater part of the islands that .were to form the new colony. This t.was especially true. of. the Southern/Island of which little Was kuown beyond the tales brought to Sydney the vessels employed in hunting seals along its south-western coasts. /With the northern part, at least, of:the Northern Island the case was somewhat different. A considerable trade, had grown, up along the coast, between whaling and * even trading vessels from Sydney, and the natives, ,wlio exchanged potatoes and dressed flax for calicos, tobacco, and (uhfortunteiy .also.) rum and firearms. Ia additiun to this, missionaries had obtained a firm fooiiug in various populous districts, and;had already ef : lected a great change in the geuera ! habits ,of the Maoris. The; iuyeterau 1 and:, fearfully;. destructive;/wars> whici l .bj»d • > beehv fthe - eonst ant ■ occtipa iibi 1 uf/{he3r;.t»es'\.lfbui' lime imuieworia i were giving place to peace, and evei 9to some material advancement. Can

nibaiism im almost, if not quite, extinct among them, and a strong desire to learn all that Europeans could teach them, seemed to iavite any attempt

that could be made to civilize and elevate them. This was the attempt made by England when the first Governor came to New Zealand in th® year 1.842, Colonists, however, had preceded the colony. There were a considerable number of settlers at and near the Bay of Islands when Governor Hobson landed, and a considerable advance in civilisation had been made in the neighborhood known as the Ngapuhi: England's object, as I have said, in making New Zealand a colony was principally that the Maoris might beuifit by the arrangement. With this view the treaty of Waitangi was mad® between the new Governor and a large majority cf the Ngapuhi chiefs. Th® main feature of the treaty was that it attempted to protect the natives against their own want of experience by forbidding them to sell any land to Europeans except those commissioned by th® Government to buy. The Maoris were to be secured iu the possession of their lands, rights, and liberties, and the Crown was to receive their obedience, audio be the sole purchaser of their lands. It would perhaps be difficult to point to any arrangement between two different races the intention of which was better, but the result •f w'hieh was more certain to prove a failure. For twenty five years no obedience has been rendered by the natives to the Government, and after a twentyfive years’ most unsatisfactory trial th® scheme of Government land purchasa has been fiaally abandoned. Thes® things have tended to make the history :>f the northern province of New Zealand singular in many respects, and make a slight sketch of its history almost essential to any one who would understand-the position, aud prospects of the colouy at present.

The town of Auckland was founded by G ivernor Hobson in 1842, as the capital of the new colony. It was situated on the very centre of the native districts at the point where the island is hardy six miles wid ■ from sea to sea, and thus separated the tribes cf the North from those of the Waikato, whose quarrels had caused the annual loss of hundreds of lives. The number vif natives in the province of Auckland was probably not less than 50,000 at ’hat time, so that every piece of land nad at least half-a-dozen owners, all more or less nearly interested in the propetty. Thus laud was bought slowly iu the province of Auckland from the very first, although always faster than auy real demand to satisfiy purchasers ■m the spot arose. The first Maori war took place in 1845, and was a quarrel totally unconnected with land, and wholly dependent on our claim of sovereignty over the country. At that

time the inlaut settlement of Auckland , was in the greatest danger of destruction. Every able-bodied settler was uuder arms tor some time; but when all were mustered the force was so insignificant that, had Heke and SGO natives been able, to penetrate as far south as Auckland, it would undoubtedly have shared the late of Kororarika, the town of the Bay of Islands district, which was sacked acd burnt. This danger it' escaped through the disseusions amongst the Ngapuhi tribes themselves and the town of Auckland was never attacked Two reiios remain to this day to attest the danger and its narrow escape. Ode is the annual pension of &200 paid to the old chief Tamati Waka fseue, who prevented the attack the ether is a high stone wall which

forms a sort of citadel iu the centre of the town of Auckland to this day, and which was built as a place of refuge for tire inhabitants.

Erum 1846 to 1833 the progress of the Province oz Auckland was steady and even rapid. As the capital of tha cilouy it had the advantage of a certain prestige to attract settlers, but it owed much more to its own sterling: advantages. The fact that a iarga native population pressed upon *the settlement on ail sides tended to concentrate the population, and rendered it ft

small farm province in. which lew settlers possessed more than a few hundredacres upland. .. alsa.a largft. dative trade, which increased the business and importance of the town*

farmiilg: characteristic, of Auckland/ and the c!asS6f sbttVerpyw&s quite'addistinctykiod fromtbat/to: be found in the South, where theirun folder and the;labofer : Thaka war of, 18U3 was connected e witii the . land; question; ,T}tiC; prices s given by- the Governmentwere; not. enough to. tempt most of the .natives to sell tlieir land; but they -were quite enough to tempt one or two .here ami there.. The consciousness of being in a-, majority rendered the op-j ponents of ilaud;.sales overbearing.; jWhile the. consciousness that the Euro- 1 peans. were steadily, .though very gradually, : spreading over the country. jnade ;the;m alarmed-for .their own! in* dependence.., ; Land leagues, King movements, central runangas were no more , than t-he-,various forms which these two feelings assumed at different times, and .in various localities. The War of : 1803,; which sjtilJ smoulders ■ ii; its.embersi. waS.uo more tlmm the lu gical, result of the treaty of Waitangi. which placed so many invidious distinctions between the Europeana ml the .native-subjects of her Majesty. The distinctions were mil intended to favor.the natives, but they only sufficed tp-k.eep up a constant irritation in the mind of the, settlers, anil to arouse to the full the suspicions so natural to the Maori, as; to every savage mind. • The war I need hardly say, has been most injurious-.to the present prosperity of 11 the inhabitants of the province of Auckland, both native and European. The early circumstances oft:the war led to a .great ,d struetbin Of property on the southern frontier which has hardly even now beeu re paired. A large iCommissariat expem diture. stimulated to a very unnatural height the spirit of speculation in the town and its sudden withdrawal has resulted in a .general stagnation of the most serious kind. To the natives its results have been even more deadly. The Waikato country has been swept of its inhabitants by the-combined agencies of war, disease, and want, till What has been, regarded as. the most populous district in New Zealand can show- only a few miserable anil sickly looking remnants of what once were tribes. In 18132 there were/probably nearly 1800 men capable of bearing arms in Waikato ; ;iu 1867- 400 wouhi probably be an over estimate. The natives to the north of. Auckland have not: been, in rebellion, yet the feverish excitement: of the time has proved in> jurious to them in many. ways. Drunkenness has:increased, frightfully, and dias,brought disease in.its train, as well as violence and every sort of social disorder. . Thus the condition of the largest province in New Zealand is by n.O means satisfactory at present. Ou a.rfuture occasion I shall endeavor Lgive . some ddea of the resources and prospects..of the province of Auckland, as they are likely to affect both, the European ami native, population when the present period of stagnation shall have passed away. ,