NATIVE APOLOGISTS.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 2, Issue 103, 21 December 1868, Page 307

NATIVE APOLOGISTS.

Apologists for the fanatical and re hellions natives of New Zealand may be expected-to exist in the congenial atmosphere of Exeter Hall—where flourished for a time the persecutors of the man who, by a timely exercise of prudent severity towards a similar class of fanatics saved a British Colony from desolation—but that such should be found in the Colony itself is a fact which might seem scarcely credible. In England there has always been a large party whose sympathies are of so expansive a nature that they cannot regard the condition of the wretched, and miserable who might be found in their own vicinity,. but must seek abroad, and the farther off the better, for objects whereon to bestow them. ■' It matters not to such that , they have, dwelling amongst them thousands .of .their own rabe perishing in ignorance and vice-r-they know alt about them, but to trbuble themselves with them does not, enter : their minds—it; is such a vulgar, everyday affair; but only talk to; them of the “benighted, heathen,”, the negro, •or the -“poor gainn I bearing.^;. i< enchantment to the yiew,” ,

js Tlie natives of. New; Zealand es-' pecially attract the sympathies of i this party■ - • Ishiiiiia were ] cplbnizeSj when ' tales told pf: the treaGhery of the natives, of their de6ogng,; oif shore .the crews.* of British ■= ship«, their crael m and cannibal feasts, ;it “was easy ' to excuse “ Q r they . hay© ; shamefully treated' by somebody at > some time, and these'axe only - acts

of- retaliation ”-r-ahd this, doctrine has been so taughtfcha't there .axe many who firmly ;-believe the -Maori haa a: go^;reason; (to ©very act* of v can; commit ; . and who rare ; ever ready .to justify -him, and provide him with an excuse.

. But if we can regard the existenc® of su ch a class of persons in England wi+liput surprise, in view of the influences .and ; prejudices brought to bear upon their minds, we cannot - do so ' when ce find a similar class of persons in the Colony .itself! That there should be'such must excite our Wonder, and we become astonished at the ignorance' or prejudice which is to be found where better things might be expected. A notable. instance in "point may be given in the case of the Bishop of Nelson, a portion of 'whose 'speech we gave in our columns last week, together with a refutation of its fallacies by Mr O. Curtis. His Lord-' ship ; seems to have taken it for granted that the bloodthirsty band who, under Te Kooti, devastated the fair district of Poverty Bay and revelled in abominations top horrible to contemplate, must have had some, good reason for their conduct—some injustice suffered either in - their own persons or otherwise, from the hands of Europeans, and he goes so far as to take up an imaginary instance of hardship supposed to be suffered by the natives of the Thames district—which it is not reasonable to - suppose that Te ELooti ever heard of —as the probable reason for the outbreak, and advises us to remedy such errors ere we blame the murderers, nor be surprised when we break, faith with them, if they 'revenge themselves after their manner.' Nor is the Bishop of Nelson altogether singular, for, strange as it may seem, in the. neighboring, Province of Auckland, men are to be found who make light of the acts of tho rebel natives, and, so far as they dare, justify them in their deeds. They forget that these mien weretaken and that their deportation to .the Chatham Islands was in fact am act; of. clemency on the part of a - Government which might justly have taken- their lives. as traitors, clamor that they - were. - so sent without trial. !Some ofthem have even uttered these treasonablesentiments in the General Assembly, and others find ready admittance for! - them in the columns of. a leading journal, which.journal:itself does.; not care to hide its own bias in the same direction—counting; on the favor of that pseudo-philan-

thropic party in the Mother Country* before referred to. ; ; " It is in vain that the Maori race has been treated by the British colonist with libeiality •' that their claim has beeh admitted to the ownership of the-whole area of the Northern Isllnd—-by far the greater 'portion of • which they could: hot have even seen, much less , pos.! sessed by any right of occupation. that they have .been permitted to hold :all such portions as they i: have seen fit to retainwhile what" they havebeenpleasedto“alienate ” is the word-^—they h&ve been 5 ; well paid for, not once only, but. almost as often asfhfresh, lias? inadeanewdemand*\whpie-d^tiicts<

fairly purchased Kaye been resigned?: to them, and the purchase-money forfeited; they have- been afforded ‘

all the advantages of their nominal position as subjects, of' the Crown, while nohe.of ;the C ;responsi- ; bilities of such . position brought to-bear on them yery-i

SLe^fe^b^|^n^|!?ai;^iie^?S^e^^and tens of,'thousands’ o»wm" chave : beeh£ T de Voted. %ood';2_bulVall ; in vam ; f-”> Ifrtbe &o\*wer^ent'iaaHte^^^^^; 1 by' its protective: rtwgtibn I|rifes-to Save the raice from the • **urae;of; drink, r it is at brice; and.con- ■:. XtihXiallys'decried as'ltyrarmical l and clamor ; is Sy pthe^re^ended^^-Mends -of yield'^in'"both , ' it'bht. still in V 4t tbat settler accord•ihgJte thesej being : but the natural

-retaliatieti oFthe / 'Oppressed agaiihst Oppressor; -nor* can any thing | -Bhott of , the Euibpeah settlers f o ."ffiis ;; were - done,; themperhaps bvhrigelical V^ißS^^ : hii^it^}e^brouglit‘'to ; -bwn. v that sffsticediadMat u lefrplf' done rto