THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, August 12, 1843.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 75, 12 August 1843, Page 298

THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, August 12, 1843.

Let journaux deviennent plus n&uiiiiea & mesore que lei hommet sont plus igaux, et 1' individualisme plui it •raindre. Cc lerait diminuer leur importance que de croire %v' ill ne tervent qu' & gturagtir la liberty : ill maintiennent Ucmliiation. > D« TOCQVXYILI.S. De la Democratic en Amerique, tome *, p. 220. Jouraali become more- necessary as men become more equal, and individualiimmore to be feared. It would be to underrate their, importance to tuppote that they terre only to secure liberty : they maintain civilization. Ds TOCODXTILI.X. Of Democracy in America, vol . 4, p. SOS.

It is an ungracious task to criticise the acts of our rulers when they afford so little room for commendation — so much for censure ; and, feeling this, we fear we have too often remained silent when the strict performance of our duty as -journalists required that we should be loud in our compl^dte. In truth, we dislike grumbling as much as^ we do grumblers, and would gladly believe that neither is necessary, but they (not the grumblers, but the Government) won't let us. We allude now to the Proclamation by bis Excellency the Officer administering the Government, which appeared in the advertising columns of last week's Examiner, and of which, we understand, a Maori translation has been printed for circulation amongst the natives. After setting forth in the preamble that " it is essential to the well-being of this colony that confidence and good feeling should continue to exist between the two races of its inhabitants :" it proceeds to " warn all persons claiming land in this colony, in all cases where the claim is denied or disputed by the original native owners, from exercising acts of ownership thereon, or otherwise prejudicing the question of title to the same, until the question of ownership shall have been heard and determined by one of her Majesty's Commissioners appointed, to investigate claims to land in New Zealand." On first reading this production, we imagined that our eyes had deceived us ; we did not believe that even Willoughby Shortland could be so shortsighted as to publish so injudicious a document. Is he aware of its tendency ? Can he still be ignorant of the most prominent characteristic of the New Zealander — his insatiable appetite for utu ? If he cannot plead ignorance on this point, we are at a loss to conceive by what motive he could be influenced in issuing so dangerous an

evidence of the weakness and imbecility of his Government. Not to exercise acts of ownership on arty land to which the Maoriea lay -claim I Where is the land to which they will not lay claim while a chance remain of their extortionate demands being complied with ? Surely the difficulties which settlers have to encounter in getting possession of their land are sufficiently numerous without adding to them by thus tempting the cupidity of the natives. A man may have cleared and fenced his ground, have cropped it, and built himself a house; yef-^f a I Maori should take a fancy to it, or shoitid Iwant money to purchase a blanket, or flour, I or tea, or sugar, and he too lazy to work for it, he has but to dispute or deny the sale of the land, and the unfortunate farmer must either satisfy his claim or submit to see/his house and crops destroyed, without the hopev of compensation, or of seeing punishment inflicted on the author of his ruin. We, of course, acquit Mr. Shortland of any intention to bring about such a state of things ;fbut, most assuredly, such \s the tendency of ftiq, proclamation ; and we should imagine that it would afford but small consolation to settlers to know that their ruin has resulted Irom Government blunders, and not from design. • \ The Nemiealand Gazette of July 26, i^ an article $ri|ih\s subject, has the following remarks :-«-\ / "If this document had the force of a law, its effect would be not only to enable the natives to prevent any further occupation of land.^rMt to require the settlers who have already clearM] and cultivated, to any extent, however great, tH turn off at a moment's notice. Lest it should] create any alarm, we think it necessary to inform our readers what is the legal force of this an- I nouncement. I

" Proclamations relating to such matters as this does, whether issued direct from the Queen or by her representative in the Governmental" this colony, have in fact no legal force whtti ever. All that -the Queen or her Deputy can* do by such a proclamation is to declare what the existing law is; they cannot alter the law or make any new law except with the assistance of Parliament or the Legislature of the colony. What was illegal before the proclamation is illegal after it ; and what was legal before is legal after it. All that the proclamation can do is to declare what is legal or illegal, and to exhort people to keep the law, or warn them not to break it, and to announce the intention of Government to punish them if they do. " If, therefore, the acts mentioned in Mr. Shortland's proclamation were illegal before he issued it, they are illegal now; if they were legal before, they are legal, now ; and the issuing of the proclamation gives him no additional power to punish or to award damages beyoncL what he before possessed."

This is all very well so far as it goes but, unfortunately, it is likely to be of but little service to settlers whilst so tempting an invitation to outrage is held up to the

lyes of our sable brethren. Whatever may be the law on this, or on any other subject on which disputes may arise between the two races, is of very little consequence in the absence of a sufficient force to make its authority respected by the native inhabitants. In our present critical position, Go-^ vernment is necessarily beset with difficulties : these difficulties, however, are but the natural result of its manifold blunders, and we do think — we sincerely wish we may be wrong — that this proclamation will materially increase them.

Mr. Tuckett has favoured us with a second letter, which will be found in another column. , We should he sorry to have it thought by Mr. Tuckett that we entertained a private pique or ill-feeling of any sort towards him \ but we would rather risk a misconstruction of our motives than allow his letter to pass without comment, as it might convey a false impression on a matter which we deem it important should be clearly understood. We are not more anxious to exculpate Mr. Spain than we art to make known the fact that the natives concerned in the massacre and preceding outrages are not the blameless beings that Mr. Tuckett would have us believe them to be. We therefore proceed to express our opinion that that gentleman is singularly unfortunate in the extract he has chosen, as corroborative of the report on which he founds his conviction " that they [the Maories] made an appointment with him [Mr.

Spain] to meet him at Port Underwood to investigate the land claims, and promised not to enter the Wairoo within the time appointed; that they kept to their engagement, and that the Commissioner did not. 1 ' The extract says that " the Commissioner agreed to hear the claims towards the end of June," and we are told by Mr. Tuckett, in language which will bear but one interpretation, that the natives "kept to their engagement, and that the Commissioner did not; 1 ' whereas, on referring to Mr. Tuckett's own evidence, published in last week's Examiner, we find that Rauparaha and Tfcanghiaita, instead of keeping their promise " not to enter the Wairoo within the time appointed," actually commehced their outrages in that district on the second of June, by burning Mr. Cotterell's hut, and, befordL 4^e time appointed to meet Mr. Spain, hid* imbued their hands in the blood of our countrymen. We cannot but think that Mr. Tuckett, by a candid admission of his erroneous views and an avowal that he has Jbeen mistaken in the native character, would appear to greater advantage as the champion of Truth than he does by reiterating his conviction, in spite of evidence to the contrary, that the natives "fought for their imagined rights." Does Mr. Tuckett mean |to assert that the deed of conveyance in possession of the New Zealand Company, V to the execution of which Rauparaha and Ranghiaita were parties, is a forgery ? or does he doubt the existence of that document ? If he knew that these chiefs were parties to the sale of the Wairoo (and of that, we presume, he might easily have < satisfied himself), he must have known that they did not fight for their " imagined rights ;" the New Zealander is not quite-N so dull as to imagine he still has a right to jretain possession of what he has sold and received payment for. Some misapprehension has arisen from the comments which we made in our paper of the 22d of July on the instructions given by Mr. M'Donogh to Mr. White to " stop all the surveys." It appears that MrV" White, on his arrival here, requested that the survey of the Wairoo only should be suspended> and did not seek to interfere with the progress of the surveys in otherJ districts. Our remarks were intended tc apply to Mr. M'Donogh's instructions, Sfhich make no mention of any particular district, but directs that " all surveys be 1 suspended." If Mr. White saw the impropriety of attempting to enforce his instructions to their full extent, we do riot see that our remarks on them were the less uncalled for.

An inquest was held on Wednesday last* on the body of a man named Charles Pound, who had been killed at the Motuaka. The deceased had been felling a tree, and Jjjpt having taken the usual precaution of cutting a little from the opposite side to tha£, on which he was working, the tree suddenly sprung, and killed him on the spot. Verdict, accidental death. Gardener's boat, for the safety of which fears were entertained, returned from the Wairoo on Sunday night last. We have been requested t6 state that the names of the following magistrates should have been affixed to the letter addressed to G. White, Esq., which appeared in our paper of the 29th of July. G. Dcppa, J.P. S. Stephens, J.P. — Thorns, J.P.

Superstition. — Superstition consists, either in bestowing religions valuation and esteem on things in which there is no good, or fearing those in which there is no hurt: so that this folly expreaseth itself one while in doting upon opinions, as fundamentals of faith, and idolizing the little models of fancy, for Divine institutions : and then it runs away, afraid of harmless, indifferent appointments, and looks pale upon the appearance of any . usual effect of nature. It tells ominous stories of every meteor of the night ; and makes sad inter, pretation of every unwonted accident : all of which are produced by ignorance and a narrow mind, which defeat the design of religion, that should make us of a free, manly, and generous spirit ; and indeed represent Christianity as if it were a fond, sneaking, weak, and peevish thing, that emasculates men's understandings, making them amorous of toys, and keeping them under the servility of childish fears ; so that hereby it is exposed to the distrust of larger minds, and to the scorn of Atheists.— /o^A GlanvUle.—>Dolby't School of Reform.