Original Correspondence.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 543, 28 June 1851, Page 3

Original Correspondence.

To the Editor of the New Zealandcr. Sir, — Will you oblige me with an inch or two of your space, in winch to call the attention of the Editor of tl.e Muoii Messenger to a passage in the Southern Cross of this morning which appears to me calculated to have a very mischievous tffect on the Native mind,—communicated as ir, as well as other views adraticed in the Cross, may not improbably be to the Natives, in their own language, by persons holding the same eentirrents. I allude to the paragraph in the leading Article jn which the following sentences occur, amongst others of a correspondent character. " He himself (Sir George GriJy) tells his Council that the Natives inform when any attempt to smuggle spirits or ammunition is made, but that they give no notice wJien tobacco is mn. And wherefore? Because, they know as well as His Excellency that they pay p shilling to the Queen for every pound of tobacco they consume, and that it is therefore their intrest to encourage contrabandists. But, if the Natives bt> so eager to avoid the tax on tobacco, what will be their feelings when ihey find that they must — by tho new law — pay a specific sum to the Queen for every ihirt, blanket, pair of shoes, irou pot, &c, which they purchase." I offer no opinion on the design of this and the similar observations connected with it ; (or I judge no man's motives. I shall not even remark on its possib'e tendency to suggest to smugglers an extended field of "enterprise. I refer to it exclusively as re. ppects the bearing it may have on the Native mind ; and that bearing seems too obvioui to require further elucidation The Maori Messenger was undoubtedly intended to be — less a newspaper in the conventional under»tanding of ihat term, than— an educational organ, employing passing occurrences with a view to the dc velopment and inculcation of true and sound principles in the m'ndsofour aboriginal population. Amongst those principlei, loyalty to the Queen and subjection to the law hold a prominent place. It is therefore not unfair thac the public should expect that the Editor of the Messenger (who receivts from Sir George Grey's Gjvernment a salary which, in proportion to the work done, is a handsome one) will, in such manner as may seem to himself most judicious, impress upon his renders the duty of obeying the Customs' Ordinance ag well as the other laws of thp Colony ,— eren though he should not feel boutid so directly to counteract thp portion of the same article in which the Editor of the Cross chaiacteiises their Queen's Representative as " a man contemned, rejected, repudiated, and despised fiom one end of Ntsw Zealand to the other." yours, &c. A Fkiend of hie Maories. June 27th, 1851.