MR BRYCE AT WANGANUI.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue 59, 25 March 1881, Page 2

MR BRYCE AT WANGANUI.

» Mr Bryce addressed his constituents at Wanganui on Wednesday last. In the course of that part of his speech referring to native affairs he said — Everything went on well till September last. Till then we continued to advance and my plan had proceeded without interruption. I admit there was a panse then, and I am now coming to the divergence between myself and tne majority of the Cabinet. What I ought to have been permitted to do at that time was to have paid a visit to Te Whiti. I ought to have gone and seen him with such a force at my back as would have commanded respect. I ought to have gone, in point of fact, with as large a force of the Armed Constabulary as could have been collected together, and I ought to have said then to Te Whiti, "This is a very small country, too small to hold two separate authorities. If you are the man of sense some people suppose you to be, you will see that for yourself, and you will also see which of the two authorities must prevail. Either the Queen or you must prevail, and I must see the authority of law shall from this time forth prevail at Parihaka as well as elsewhere. " I would have told him that he could no longer be permitted to harbor criminals— that such a thing was fraught with danger to the community. I should have told him that particularly he could no longer be permitted to give refuge to murderers, and I should have told him that there was one murderer there who must be arrested, and that I had come to arrest him, and then and there I should have arrested that man. You will not expect me to declare the plan I had made to render that arrest effective, but I have little doubt that it would have i effective. If To Whiti had quietly ! consented there would have been no ne- ; cessity for the arrest of Te Whiti himself except this— that it would have been the one thing necessary to destroy his prestige among the Maoris— his prestige so far as it was hostile to our authority. But I am bound to say this— that if he had resisted I should have arrested him with as little hesitation as I would have appro- ± hended any other person who resisted the^ law. Whether he resisted or not this step would from that tinw foith have placed him under the control of the law, and his mana, so far as it was hostile to us, wonld have been severely shaken. Ido not think he would have resisted. He would have seen perfectly well that his means of resistance were too weak ; that our power was too strong. He would have known as well as I knew that within ten days I could have concentrated 2000 men upon him, and another 1000 within another ten days, and he would not for a moment have entertained the slightest idea of resistance. If he had resisted, aud I am bound to dwell upon it because I know the point had weight with my colleagues, I should have arrested him, and that, I believe, would have been the best thing whioh could have happened for the solution of the West Coast difficulty.