(N.Z. Times.)

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 112, 12 May 1879, Page 4

(N.Z. Times.)

King Tawhiao has spoken, and has not failed to " snub" his visitors. He is the King in his own country. His power and * • mana " was such that the chiefs of the inferior people — the pakehas — have even come without bidding, ] and stayed without welcome, to Ihten to the words of wisdom which fall from his lips. The listeners have heard no good of themselves. The King says : — " I will not permit " Grey to manage these things in his " way :" and with perfect dignity, but with a grand show of indifference, adds, contemptuously, "He is sitting there "now." It was most essential that his Majesty should point out to the tribes the fact that the "great Proconsul" and his henchman were present in the crowd of spectators. Unacknowledged intruders at the feast, their glory com- J pletely eclipsed and overshadowed by , that of the great Maori King, it yrould have required a superhuman effect of | stoicism on the part of Tawhiao to goore them altogether. But he made

capital out of their presence in the most effectual manner. He said •• I will not have anything to do 'with Grey ; I will not consent to his management Let fighting be kept away, I will not hear of it." The cup of humiliation which Sir George Grey has bo wilfully mixed and prepared for himself was even then not full. Their host TJewi, the Ministerial trump card, who haa been badgered and pestered by Government messengers until he dare hardly open his mouth or look round for fear of being " sent to Coventry" as a traitor by his friends and fellow countrymen, appreciated the eloquence of King Tawhiao, and deliberately got up and, deserting his bosom friends the Minis terial party, went and sat down near Tawhiao. Te Ngakau, the King's chief counsellor, declared that the business of that day was over, and the meeting, after a few unimportant little i speeches, dissolved * * # * # ! We deeply, regret that these things have come to pass, but submit that it was but folly for the Chief Minister of the Crown afc such a juncture wilfully and deliberately to expose himself to the insults of a savage chief. Not that we attach any importance to the hard sayings or contemptuous treatment which he has sustained. Hard words break no bones, but this treatment will be emulated by every petty chief who dare defy the pakeha, from one end of New Zealand to the other. Ministers represent the authority and majesty of the Queen and of the white man's law, and every insult, implied or expressed, every slight or act of discourtesy which Sir George Grey or Mr Sheehan. have unhappily sustained in their own persona, tends to weaken the authority of the Queen and of the law over the Maoris, and to lower the pakeha in the estimation of the Maori." !