The New Zealander. DAILY. AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 1865.

New Zealander, Volume XXII, Issue 2390, 29 March 1865, Page 3

The New Zealander. DAILY.

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 1865.

tie jua!, and fear not; Let all the ends thou ai.n'st at, he thy Country’s, Thy Ooo*f», 'lrnMi’s.

I.v the Provincial Council yesterday Mr. Kino postponed his m >tion respecting steam communication with Coromandel in order to amend it. The consideration of the estimates in committee, and the Citv Board Act Amendment Bill, were postponed on the motion of Mr. Carleton. The adjourned debate on the Rural Police Bill, was resumed, and on the motion of Mr. Wynn the bill was thrown out by being ordered to bo printed that day six •months. The consideration of the Onehnnga Improvements Bill was postponed in order to obtain the feeling of the inhabitants as likely to be expressed at a public meeting to be hsld this evening. Messages No. 81, 85, and 8S were received from his Honor the Superintendent, relating respectively to the £I,OOO forfeited by Vickery & Masefield on account of Blandford’s contract; the question of the Provincial Secretary’s observations respecting the dismemberment of the Province ; and proposed additional sums to be placed on the estimates. The first was taken into consideration, and gave rise to a lengthened discussion, which resulted in the carrying of a resolution, moved by Mr. Wynn, that the Railway Board of Commissioners should return the amount, and not the Provincial Council. The debate on the Wairoa Falls supply of water was further adjourned, on the motion of Mr. W ynn. Mr. King obtained leave to bring in a bill to close up one road in the parish of Wairoa, and to open another in a different part of the same parish The same hon. member obtained leave to bring in a bill to repeal the Industrial School Act, 1861, Mr. Newman’s motion, charging the Provincial Executive with a breach of privilege in publishing a letter in the Provincial Gazette, signed by Mr. F. D. Fenton, and a notification, signed by his Honor the Superintendent, caused a long discussion, and eventuated in a ‘count out,”

Mr. Fitzgerald is undoubtedly- ~e of the ablest men in the Colony. He has a mind fully capable of rising above the partial and narrow views which are commonly taken of questions affecting the welfare of the country, and of grasping them with that breadth and fullness of comprehension wnich is so necessary for him who would merit the name of statesman. This power Mr. Fitzgerald unquestionably possesses: it is to be regretted that lie does not always use it with earnestness and singleness of purpose. It is certain that the Colony does not trust Mr. Fitzgerald as a debater of his eloquence and a statesman of his calibre ought to be and might be trusted ; and the reason is that we newer feel certain that he will not sacrifice those clear convictions of what is due to the country as a whole, to which his own calm judgment wonld inevitably lead him, to some narrow and local object, by the accomplishment of which he may be able to attain a brilliant although brief celebrity, and the applause of a province, instead of the gratitude of a nation. When Mr. Fitzgerald happens to devote himself to the task of analyzing and expounding a really national question, without having any special interest in it other than what belongs to every citizen, we are obliged to admit that he handles his subject with skill, perspicuity, and force. His letter to the Times on the state of New Zealand, is by no means deficient in these qualities, and although he does not quite succeed in shaking off the narrowness which belongs to a Middle Island view of the war, we have no difficulty in assenting to much that he says. Mr. Fitzgerald begins by combating the opinion so commonly entertained in England, that th« colonists are “ a greedy and “ rapacious race, whose sole object is to “ destroy the natives, ami to occupy the “ land in their room j” whilst Sir George Grey stands “between the natives and their “ oppressors, and is only hampered in his “ benevolent designs by the greed and vio- “ leuce of the Colony.” Mr. Fitzgerald, as a consistent opponent of the war throughout, does not deny that the coarse pursued by the colonists has been such as to bring upon them the imputations to whicli they have been subjected, but he insists upon it that the blame docs not belong to them alone, and that in this respect no distinction can be drawn between the action of the colonists and of the Governor. He assures his correspondent that the people of England can have “ little idea of the galling effect on the colony of that perpetual cry that Sir G. Gret is the saviour of the Natives, and that to him alone the Government must look for that fair and righteous dealing which the colonists are not disposed to accord.” Mr. Fitzgerald, after a full experience of Sir George Grey’s policy, now denounces him “ as the sole cause “ of the renewal of the Native war, and as “having pursued a course of conduct which “ has destroyed the last shred of trust and “ confidence which the hostile tribes enter- “ taiued in our faith and honor.” In support of this positlou, the writer states several facts which have frequently been brought under the public notice. First, Sir George Grey’s expression to the Natives, that he intended to dig round the Maori king, so that he would tumble down, is brought up in judgment against him. We think this clause in the indictment might as well have been left out, for surely such an open exposition of his intended game as this, would argue rather an -excess of candour than of treachery. Next

[ comes the making of the roafl to Mangata- ! whirl, and here we confess ourselves altogether at issue with Mr. Fitzgerald. We quite agree with him that the natives necessarily lo >ked upon this road as a preparation for war, but we do not think that it was therefore wrong or inexpedient. On the contrary, we are inclined to look upon it as one of the very best, and wisest things which Sir George Grey has ever done iu this country, and we strongly suspect that if Mr. Fitzgerald lived in the Northern Island he would think so too. The making of this road was a merit which was peculiarly Sir George Grey’s own, for it was a measure from which the Stafford ministry had previously shrunk at a time when the Superintendent of Auckland, who saw its extreme importance, was ready and anxious to have it carried out. The effect produced upon the native mind by a proceeding of this sort could not be other than wholesome, and if nothing of more doubtful tendency than this had ever been done, we should not now have to reproach ourselves that the war was due in any way to our own bad management. The next thing that Mr. Fitzgerald mentions is the celebrated bullet-proof schoolhouse which was sent up the Waikato ; and here there is little answer to be made. Whoever was the author of this measure, there can be no hesitation in utterly condemning it. ft is difficult to see how any one could have expected success from such a plan. The strongest point in his case against the Governor, Mr. Fitzgerasd reserves until the last. The one flaw which more than everything else accounts for all the failure which has attended Sir George Grey’s measures, is the delay in investigating the Waitara question and in giving up the land. We are not now going to discuss the old Waitara question. We agree with Mr, Fitzgerald that that war was a mistake, but whether it was or not, there can be no doubt that to pronounce the retention of Waitara an injustice, and yet to retain it; to re-take Tataraimaka, and yet hold Waitara all the time, admitting that Waitara ought to be given up, looks very like a concealed intention to bring on war somehow or other. Call this a blunder, call it treachery, or whatever else may seem appropriate, we agree with Mr. FitzgeraLd that it was a great calamity to the country, and extinguished the last hupe of peace. But when Mr. Fitzgerald comes to speak of the march to Waikato as a wicked invasion, his arguments do not bear out his conclusion, for he himself admits by implication tint the Waikatos were in a state of incipient revolt from the time of the invasion of Tataraimaka. From this time we believe that peace was hopeless, and the invasion of Waikato became a necessary measure. The merits or demerits of Sir George Grey will be more fairly considered when the Maori war lias become a matter of history, but in the meantime Mr. Fitzgerald has earned the thanks of the colonists by his spirited demonstration that the war has been the policy of the representative of the Home Government, and that that government cannot evade the responsibility. We shall consider the remainder of Mr. Fitzgerald’s letter in another article.