THE VAN DIEMEN'S LAND VERSION OF THE WAIROO MASSACRE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 89, 18 November 1843, Page 356

THE VAN DIEMEN'S LAND VERSION OF THE WAIROO MASSACRE.

[From the Launceston Advertiser, October 19.] The promptitude with which Sir Eardley Wilmot has responded to the call of the New Zealand colonists for military protection evinces a decision of character from which we augur well. It was only on Friday last that the Sisters arrived in Hobart Town, with representations that the settlements of New Zealand were in such a state of frightful excitement, that the presence of additional troops were indispensable. His Excellency, in consequence, engaged a vessel, and on Sunday despatched a hundred soldiers, under command of Captain Nicholson, to the Bcene of commotion. Thus, in the course of a few hours, all was done which could be done in this colony to allay the fears and protect the lives of the inhabitants of an adjacent settlement. We cannot but lament that the present unhappy position of the European settlers in New Zealand has been brought upon themselves by one of the most faithless, ruthless, reckless acts of oppression on the part of the English that ever disgraced the national flag of any country. History affords but one parallel, and that is the ever memorable colonization of Peru by the Spaniards. When in earlier days, while living in the " land of the brave," we have read with horror and detestation the accounts of the heartless treatment of the Peruvians, little did we anticipate that we should live to deplore outrages, little less inhuman, and more treacherous, perpetrated by our own countrymen upon the New •Zealanders. But, alas! Spain is not the only country that has sacrificed her national honour to the idol Gold. It is, however, some consolation to reflect, that the acts of the New Zealand Company are not those of the British Government; but it speaks but little in favour of that minister who could tolerate, much less encourage, a scheme, from which no reasonable man could expect any other result than confusion, bloodshed, and national degradation. According to the law of nations, to the protection of which the New Zealanders were obviously entitled on the negotiation of their independence as a state by the British Government, the methods adopted by the British colonists to obtain the land of natives was a monstrous fraud — an unmitigated act of oppression, the assumption of the Government a palpable usurpation, and the supporting of such questionablyobtained authority by force of arms an unspeakable cruelty. It is no excuse to plead that the purchase money offered to the natives for their land was equal to any use they were making of it. While it was theirs, they were free, independent, and happy, ignorant alike of the artificial improvements as well as the artificial wants of civilization. The soil of New Zealand was to its proprietors enough for their maintenance — enough for their happiness. What have we done for them ? First, deprived them by hypocrisy of their possessions — and then taught them the value those possessions might acquire under the hand of industry. It was contrary to human nature to expect that an intelligent race of beings like the New Zealanders should fail to see in a very short space of time the delusion that had been practised upon them — equally unnatural to believe that a free, high spirited, and warlike race, on discovering the fraud, would fail to resent it. Their ideas of justice are natural and unsophisticated ; and we do without hesitation affirm that the mode of procedure adopted in the colonization of New Zealand has been, from beginning to end, a tissue of fraud, violence, and rapacity. This the natives now begin to see, and it may be relied upon that tt)e late affray is only a prelude to a series of devastating wars, which will end only in the utter extermination of the native tribes. Powerful and warlike as the New Zealanders are, they cannot stand against the disciplined force which a civilized power can bring against them. But will the British Government put forth its energies against this people, to protect a set of mercenaries who would sell their souls for gain ? If it does, the fate of New Zealand is sealed, and a blot will appear upon the escutcheon of Great Britain, that neither time nor circumstances can erase. If it does not, New Zealand must be evacuated as a colony, for the natives will nev it submit to the spoliation, unless compelled by force. [From the Hobart Town Advertiser, October 17.] The New Zealand Company claim 500,000 acres of land, which they pick out here and there, as may suit them — amongst the rest the valley of the Wairoo formed a desirable place for settlement. We cannot find that it was ever ceded to them at all — certainly the occupants of the land, a poweful tribe under Rauparaha, disputed their title— but agreed to refer it to Mr. Spain, the commissioner, who was to come to the spot on the 19th of June. This agreement was, one would think, binding on all parties. It is, insisted on as an aggravation of the offence of Rauparaha that he did not wait. But what are the facts ? Before the Ist of June the surveyors went down, erected a hut, set to work with their measurement — in course of which they placed a number of poles. This the natives supposed was taking possession of the land (perhaps they had been told so on a former occasion — for it is very evident that they have in many instances been treated like fools, because ignorant). They remonstrated, they were not attended to. They pulled down the poles, removed everything from the hut, and burnt it. It being, though dignified with the name of a house, a mere bulrush erection; all this, there is no doubt, with the remembrance of the results of the occupancy of Te Aro in their minds. So far, the law was decidedly with them. They were in possession, it was for those claiming a title to the land to make good their claim ; until then they were tretpusen. The house built on the land iras the property the owners of the

land. It was a civil, not a criminal question. The surveyors, instead of waiting for the Commissioner to determine their claims, proceeded at once to exercise acts of ownership— thus taking it out of his jurisdiction. A civil action in the Supreme Court was their remedy. But they preferred a different course of proceeding — obtained a warrant from a magistrate — one of themselves identified with their interests, and went with an armed body to execute it. Of this proceeding we have long since given a detailed account. Forty-five armed Englishmen proceeded to attack forty armed Neve Zealanders. A gun fired (it is said accidentally) by the English brought on a volley from the natives. The great body of the settlers fled, and attained a rising ground. The others were retreating on them when the natives came up and they threw down their arms. Just then the party on the hill fired, when the New Zealanders rushed and killed more than a moiety of their assailants. This was the first account. It has since been partly denied, but when we at a distance cooly consider the facts, and the evidence, it bears too much the appearance of truth. Meanwhile the Governor's proclamation has been abused in language the most vituperative, and, as it would seem to us, very uncalled for. The inhabitants of Wellington have been armed — batteries built — and every measure for protection carried into The Governor's maxim seems to have been fiat justitia mat Coelum. He did what he considered just and legal; but as the settlers by their own ignorance of law, and rashness, had brought on a collision with the natives — in which justice and law were both on their side — had been worsted in their attempt, and thus given increased confidence to the natives ; as he was bound to say that they were wrong in their attempt, and knew that this too might operate against them in the eyes of the New Zealanders, perhaps, exciting a spirit of revenge and retaliation, or it may be inciting these last to commence aggressions themselves, he sent fifty soldiers under Major Richmond, to Wellington, for the protection of the population.