NO LICENSE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 190, 13 September 1909, Page 5

NO LICENSE.

To the Editor. Sir, —As the Iron Heel combination, which on the night of the Bth inst conceived it their privilege to further insult the patient pion -era of the Robe Potae; and as further, your report of its foolery only inadequately conveys the essence of my protest against its peculiar standards of propriety, will you kindly permit me some space to rectify the same, and to generally state what 1, and others to whom their proper pride and status is of infinitely larger importance than that of a few Nature's wasters whom these tyrannical imposters (very properly) claim kinship with, and classify us with likewise. Firstly, then, and what after an exhausting patience brought me to my feet, was, that the meeting, in dead of being convened, as the chairman. Mr Boddie, in his introductory remarks ! gave out as the reason of its presence: "That the gentlemen connected with j the no-license movement, were anxious to obtain information, that their efforts might be directed to an equitable ad- i I justment of the question." I say. in- ' stead of proceeding to attain this most ; I worthy object, and exhibiting said j i anxiety to "obtain" said information, j I speaker after speaker of the pretended i | anxious fearchers. monopolised and ; | wasted hour upon hour in distorting , history; issuing declamatory threats. ; if their iniquitous infliction were tarn- j pcred with: random assertions: in'er- ! sperscd with blushful stable jokes, j street arab chenvstry. fourth standard syntax shyssmally inferior to common school boy "howlers"; anttcular contortions, ridiculously comparative to Maori bakas. or similar depravities; j wearisome tautology; anguished teethgrit 5. and violent fist and palm concus- ! sions; high peroration screams; in ; short, all the franticsof the fad afflict- j cd of whatever creed or cult: together j with the same old stupid jargon to be } heard on Sunday nights in upper Queen I Street, where the great Proconsul, ' Grey, beholds with cold stone con- i tempt the harrowing antics perpetrat- j ed at his feet below; and a conspicu- ' oos absence of that dignity of mien and manner to be expect >d from all connected with "so noble an object," and the honour of their cloth. And when at last one speaker. Isitt, reiterated the threadbare faulty assertion, that ; th* Maori of the Rohc Potae, prayed j to be exempted front the whiteman's j curse, and I asked him for the wording j of that prayer ami covenant, he could not tell me! When I asked him who personally initiated that prayer, again a confused silence was the answer to my quest! When I further asked what Chiefs signed the covenant, if covenant there was, he could only stare ■ in ignorance! Upon which I remarked: "Just as 1 thought!" Further, when i he applied across the stage to Mr | Git to*, for assistance, that gentleman i could only stammer doubtfully: "Wa- | banui." And when I asked: "Who I else?" he also failed me! And there was darkness on the water; and all the starch went limp; and all the tones of dominance went flat! Upon which I continued: "Not only Wahanui, but Rewi Maniapoto, and another. But there was no Deed, signed nor presented; and Wahanui. before his death told me, that the verbal request was worded thus: 'Take the land, but WHERE THE LAND COURT SITS: introduce no liquor there.' Which your cult has distorted into: 'lntroduce no liquor into the Rohe Potae'; and so distort today." I have repeated exactly what happened at this precious meeting convened by "anxious" enquirers "for information." Not one question was asked: "Friends, what is your discontent?" Not one query: "How, can we restore your peace of mind?" And i because of this gross infraction of con- I tract with the meeting, that I wrath- j fully arose and denounced the whole ' concern a trick by which we were decoyed to listen to "buffoonery" by means of "false pretences." Mr Boddie was justly incensed at my denunciation; and I at once conceded his persoal repudiation; and promptly exonerated him from any such intent, an I concluded: "Not by you Mr Boddie, hut by that crowd there, we have been deceived." Mr Boddie is too honest, courteous, and courtly a gentleman to gain a point by subterfuge: and I here again publicly declare that be stands absolved. But there is more to be said: If Wahanui, Rewi, Te Kerenga, and Taonoi, so fevemtly desired the exclusion of liquor from these boundaries, why, when the mass of the people, the common tribesmen, repudiated even the LAND COURT PRECINTS arrangement.and in defiance brought it by pack horse load from Te Awamotu, and sold ; itopenly under these chiefs' noses, did they permit the sale? Because they bad neither the mana nor authority to prevent it. They could only speak and negotiate for their own blood relaions. Maori custom upon national questions, [ I to be binding on all, demanded what j we call a "referendum" of every tribe [ and subtribe. This was not done. i Hence it follows that wbat these | chiefs requested though highly laudable and proper, was null and void. and was binding only on their own ( immediate relations: and they knew this, and so asked for exclusion only at LAND COURT SITTINGS, where tbeir mana in some minor degree was not resented. Hence, further, what these clerical, and other, enthusiasts have so long impudently asserted is piffle. My character; my taste; my sympathy and ardour, for the advance of the Maori, is too well known, that this my indignant protest against sham humanities can be distorted into a desire to degrade, and force, upon the Maori a thing be does not desire, that which used in moderation is one of the greateft comforts and medicaments for the recuperation of the toiler, and, otberw ise, a corse. Wbat t insist upon is, that be be endowed, with us, with the power to, by a local option vote, de-

clarc what hr. as a man, thinks is bcsl for himself. We have pampered, anr: spoon-fid. snd degraded the crentun to saturation—to his decay. The day has arrived when he shall be cman-i----pa ted from his swaddling clothes; when he shall f-el his responsibility to | the dominant (lag. and not, as now. | only call on its shelter in the day of storm; when he shall shoulder his end of the log of Empire with alacrity j and pride, and not, as now, with i grudge and stint; wh°n he shall feel ! that wc demand this of him as his friend, not, as now, his master; when his brown skin shall be no bar to our friendship and affection; when we, the master minds must no longer juggle with the thing we call our conscience, and like sane human beings recognise that we have assumed duties we must enact with cheerful alacrity to the sub-dominant coloured races committed to our charge. And, finally. I ask: Which of the creeds or churches, during the many years I have sought to achieve these absolute necessities, have backed me up one shoulder clap; one word of cheer? And in bitterness of soul I ask again: "Which of them will help me now?" Vale.—-I am, etc., W. 8., Te Kuiti.