The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1881.

Kumara Times, Issue 1566, 4 October 1881, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1881.

The Native difficulty may by some be supposed to have a small amount of interest for residents on the West Coast of the Middle Island, but it is in reality a question of the most vital importance to everyone in the colony. Each and all of us have to bear an equal share of taxation in one form or another to defray the enormous expenditure going on in the maintenance of a standing army to overawe the Maoris at the Waimate Plains. I he question arises as to the necessity of such an

army. Some wrong-headed persons are of opinion that the Maoris are an inferior race, and must be " improved off the face of the earth," irrespective of right or wrong. Others, again, take it For granted that the Natives are in the wrong, and think that no time should be lost in bringing them to subjection. Many who have private interests at stake are anxious to see the Maoris exterminated, root and branch. There are also those who have never taken the trouble to inquire into the merits of the case, who know little about the matter, and who care less. The record of the cause of the first Taranaki war should make us careful in forming an opinion in regard to what is called the " Native difficulty." What has Jed to the present complication ? Nothing but the stupidity and perversity of successive Governments. It is a common thing to see the press in almost all parts of the colony refer to the Waimate Plaius as "confiscated lauds;" while the real fact is that there is not a shadow of proof that the land was ever confiscated, while there is good and substantial evidence that such a transaction never took place. Long after the land was supposed to have been confiscated, the Government made two attempts to purchase it from the Natives. Mr Parris, Civil Commissioner, offered on behalf of the Government five shillings an acre for the block, but the offer was refused. After that Major Brown, also on behalf of the Government, increased the bid to seven shillings and sixpence per acre. This was also refused. These facts are admitted, and cannot be denied. If the land was confiscated, -what occasion would there be for the Government to make successive attempts to purchase what was their own ? We have further evidence before us in the very peculiar fact that when a Royal Commission was appointed to consider and report upon the Waimate Plains difficulty, the Commission in distinct words, forbade the Commissioners to consider or inquire into the question of confiscation. This speaks volumes in itself. The immediate cause of the present trouble was that the Government had the whole of the land surveyed off into allotments, without leaving a single acre, or a part of an acre as a reserve for the Native residents. When the Waikato war concluded, immense tracts of land were confiscated, and as a matter of policy, every native had returned to him a sufficient area of land to live upon, and maintain himself and his family, thus preventing the subdued race from becoming wanderers on the face of the earth, and a perpetual menace to the peace of the colony. In the case of the Waimate Plains, however, the Government left everything in the hands of a staff of surveyors, who left no reserves, and were positively injudicious enough to run their lines through the Maori burial places. According to Maori custom, such places are sacred, and no greater outrage can be offered than to interfere in the slightest degree with the graves of the ancestors of the tribe; and yet this was recklessly done in defiance of all protest. As regards the ploughing done by the natives and for which so many were imprisoned, so far back as the time of King Alfred it was a custom to test the title of the land by ploughing it. Those who are well acquainted with the history of England know that. It has been stated, and so far as we are aware not contradicted, that the late Mr Higginbothara, one of the ablest men Victoria ever had, was the legal adviser of the Maoris, and that it was on his advice that the ploughing was commenced and carried on. The test of the law has never been applied to-the Act, except under the Coercion Act, under which the ploughmen were imprisoned. It is difficult to foresee the result of the present trouble. War may break out at any moment, and hundreds of lives be sacrificed. It is to be hoped that this may be averted, and that some peacable solution of the difficulty may be found ; but there is nothing to indicate anything of the kind sit" present. It is always well to look on both sides

of a question, and for that reason we have pointed out a few of the arguments which may be used by those who do not believe that the Maoris are altogether wrong in attempting to preserve the right to what they assert to be their own property and lawful inheritance.