THE TIMES ON THE NATIVE POLICY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6496, 22 December 1881, Page 5

THE TIMES ON THE NATIVE POLICY.

The Timer, writing on Oct, 27 of the projr cted march on Panbaka say*: The accounts of the dispute which have so far reached us are meagre and unsatisfactory, and it is, therefore, not easy to form from them a definite judgment as to the real merits. It is easy to understand the difficulty encountered by the Government in dealing with a man like Te Whiti—a converted Maori, who represent* himself as a new incarnation of Christianity, and exercise* unbounded influence over bis Native follower* through bis exalted notion* on the subject of their territorial right*. Te Whi ti In.* consistently refused to come to terms with the Government on the subject of the land* claimed by him, and be ha# constantly assured hi* followers that the downfall of pakeba—that is, of European usurpation—is at hand and will be wrought by supernatural mean*. It is only just to add, however, that he ha* generally discountenanced vfohncc, and professed to rely only on the jusiice of hie claim and on the supernatural aid he assert* hie power to invoke in support of them. It is very much to be feared that tho conception of justice entertained by a Maor prophet on tho subject of land will bo found very difficult to square with the views of European Colonial* and their ruler*. Tnc Maori recognises no individual right* ; the Colonist cannot admit the Native’s indefinite claims. “ Did 1 give my lands awai ? ” was the blunt question of Waywajsekappco, a Bed Indian Chief, to the Governor General of Canada. Similarly, when a member of one of the surveying parties in the district of Farihaka was stain two years ago bv one Hiroki, a follower of To Whiti, and the prophet was summoned to surrender the murderer to justice, he replied that Hiroki was not so guilty as the Government, for that he bod only slain a man, while the Government had killed the land. The Bed Indian and the Maori are alike in this respect, that neither can traverse the mental gulf which separates primitive from civilised races in all questions connected with land. The comparison is significant as showing the fundamental identity of the problem which all Colonial Governments have to solve in their dealings with tho primitive occupiers of the soil. It con, at best, only be solved by patience and forbearance, by strict justice and unswerving fidelity to engagemen s once entered into. The melancholy history of former ware in New Zealand is, fear, a proof that this mode of solution has cot been uniformly adopted. Nor can it be dezkd that the acknowledged claims of le Whiti and his followers were treated at one time with very scant consideration. It the dose of the Waikato war it vae found that the territorial rights of certain friendly Natives hod suffered in tho settlement then arrived at. Their claim was preferred and admitted, and though their original land was cat restored to them, it was agreed to cojv pvnsate them by a grant of reserves in another port of the confiscated territory. To the fouth of a given boundary the confiscated land was handed over to European settlers. It remained unoccupied to the north, and the above • mentioned claims were to be satisfied by reserves granted within this native u pale. ’ This engagement, however, remained for some time practically unfulfilled, and the Native discontent ci two years ago arose out of the fact that the land north of the boundery was being surveyed and advertised for sale by the Government, regardless of the Native claims. The proposed sale was abandoned, however, and the question dropped for a time out of European view. But the contemplated bad faith on the part of the Government cannot but have produced a mischievous effect on the Kinds of Te Whiti and his followers, and may very possibly account for the present difficulty in dealing with them. It would seem that the New Zealand Government has now reverted to the policy of surveying and selling the confiscated land* in the district of Panhaka. But to Judge from tho telegraphic account of (he Government proclamation, it appears that the question of Native reserve* has now been considered by the Government in a more generous spirit than was formerly exhibited. The dueouieut of Te Whiti and his followers is apparently no longer based on the disregard of them acknowledged claims, bat on the fact that the process of survey and sale is new being carried on in the district where they have hitherto been left very much to themselves. If this is really the ease, the claim* now preferred by th*m are deserving of very little sympathy. It is on® thine to respect their hist rights and loyally to satisfy claim* which have been repeatedly acknowledged and made the subject of formal agreement, but it is quite another to allow them to maintain indefinite rights over fertile territoi j, to which their only title is that which the Government has given them. The making of roads is. us the Government truly says in its proclamation, for the benefit of both races alike, and this cannot be suspended because the Natives prefer their own paths and their old way* of living in tho bush. The whole question, thus depends on the wav in which the Native claims have been satisfied in the parcelling out of the territory now being brought under Europeaa occupation and cultivation. We cannot but hope that much forbearance will bo shown, and that Native prejudice, end even Nat ive fanaticism, will be respected as far a# they can be respected without unduly impeding the progress of a higher civilisation. The Maori, like every other primitive race, is doomed to gradual extinction before tuc march of races whose right to exist and prevail i« so indefeasible in itself that it does not need Co be enforced by injustice, greed, or oppression. The Maori knows this himself, and his pathetic acknowledgement of defeat is part of tho tragedy of human nature. But though the result is inevitable, it is our manifest duty to sea that the process is kindly and just." It has not always been so in the past, and this is why, when we hear of Maori discontent, the suspicion suggests itself of h:gh-bandcd dealing on tho part of tho Colonial Government, Tho real solution of the Native difficulty is to be found in the progressive occupation of waste lands by European colonis*#. This is, no doubt, true, but tfie process is one which easily beget* abuse and injustice, as is shown in many a painful History of Colonial and Native wars.