ENGLAND AND NEW ZEALAND

New Zealander, Volume XXII, Issue 2393, 1 April 1865, Page 4

ENGLAND AND NEW ZEALAND

We call our readers attention to a masterly letter from New Zealand in another column, which states the case of the New Zealand colonists as it has rarely been stated in this country. Unless Sir George Grey is speedily r> called we shall soon see either the Separation of New Zealand from the mother country, or the secession of the southern and undisturbed island from the oppressed and overburdened northern island of ! 'oth. And this will be the work of that spurious and utterly scrupulous bumanitarianism in this country which has supposed it would serve the Maoris by libelling the motives and actions of the colonists to an extent to which we do not remember any parallel in our history. Our conduct to New. Zealand has not only been unjustifiable but almost tionable .vt of cruelty or rapacity towards the Maoris on the part of the English settlers can be quoted in the history of the war .—Spectator. To the Editor of the “ Spect itor.”

Taranaki, November 9, 1864. Sir,—Perhnps at the present time, when the cost and circumstan es of the Maori war have drawn a lather unusal degree of attention to New Zealand affairs, you will allow a settler to say a few words upon the questions at issue between the settlers and the natives and between the colony and the mother Country. Of course I shall not attempt to enter into details in answer to the charges brought against the Colonists in th< ir dealings with the Maoris. It is at all times difficult to prove a negative, more especially if in the accusation there is no mention of time, place, or persons; and the word -of the accused does not go far towards establishing his Innocence. A large part of the English press and of the speaking portion of the English public have C illed the colonists of New Zealand, as o f ten as it was necessary to speak of them, 11 greedy,” “ rapacious,” “ oppressive,” and M bloodthirsty. Charges so grave deserved at least a specif! statement, and at first sight it seems Strange that no instances in support were given or invented. But the explanation lies in the mental Condition of that portion of the English pnblic to which 1 refer. They are willing to believe without evidence, and therefore none is offered to them. The presumption is so overwhelming that colonists desire to seize the land of their dark-shinned neighbours, and are completely free from the or-, dinary restraints of morality and honor that merely to acot se them of their favourite crimes is sufficient to ensure condemnation indeed to most people it would probably be as simple a contradiction iu terms to sp-ak cf an honourable colonist as it would he to speak of an honourable felon. ' ir, the New' Zealand settlers, so far as I am aware, have never o’ aimed to be more than ordinary Englishmen, but they are ordinary Englishmen, and with hardly an exception every one who has a voice in the conduct of public affairs here was born and bred in England, and there got his notions of right and wrong, which, whatever they are, are not a special growth of this under-world. I will state briefly one or two facts in relation to the province of Taranaki, in which I lived for the last eleven years, to Show how poorly we have succeeded in what is Supposed to be our particular business. This Settlement has been founded twenty-three years, and during that time the settlers have acquired 70,000 acres of land, every acre having been paid for and bought only with the free consent of all the Maori owners. The whole province contains 8.200,000 acres of the best land in the island, and it is inhabited by say 2,500 Maories, every Maori therefore, man, woman, and child, has on an average 85,000 acres of fertile land, or considerably more than all the grasping settlers put together. Say that each native cultivates or uses for grazing purposes five acres, the rem under, over 2,000,000 of acres, lies in a state of nature, untouched and untrodden, covered near, the coast with high fern or flax, and farther inland with dense forest, and producing no beast of chase, unless an occasional razor-backed pig or the Norway rat be so dignified These statements, which will hardly be disputed in their main Outlines, show that however goad the, will may have been, spoliation at Taranaki has been. a Wy slow and ineffe.tual process. Again, as to oppressing the natives, the charge is simply ridiculous. . For twenty years from the Joundafron of the settlement any tyrannical or bloodthirsty settler bad to keep ’his propensities carefully concealed. Before the war in 1860 it was a hard’matter to get a decision against a Moari in the magistrates’court, and in'serioas criminal cases, where the offender was S man of any note or influence, the magistrate wonld not issue a warrant, for fear of bringing on war or of making the importance of the law a little more manifest. It waste put an end to this state of things, and not to acquire 700 acres of land by an entirely new process that Governor Browne made war at the Waiters, and this is why he is honoured in New Zealand as no other has been. I may mention that throughout the present war there have been over 400 friendly natives firing among us, many of them supported by 'the sam> Government work which the settlers have been given, and they cany on their business, whatever it may be, with perfect freedom and in perfect security. No doubt the expenditure upon the war which has darkened our moral preceptions, already obscure, has quickened those of England, but there is one complaint—that though England pays for the army here the colony has the control of it—which sounds curiously in our ears now. For six months past the army has lain idle, remaining in winter quarters until the spring is nearly over, simply by the will of the Governor. In the country between this place and Whanganni to the southward there are perhaps 600 or 300 natives capable of bearing arms, by common consent the worst in the island—men who began w';<r upon us by murdering unarmed boys and men, and who have since distinguished themselves by their atrocities upon Captain Lloyd and his men. For three or four months past the Ministry, which is supposed to have he control of the army, has been urging the Govern r to begin the long-purposed campaign against them ; but the only result has been that His Ex- eilency, acting, achesays, on instructions from England, has just now i sued a proclamation offering terms of peace to all Uie hostile natives, and giving them till the middle of PecemT.er (cur, June) to consider the matter—terms which if accepted must inevitably lead to the re-

newal of the war hereafter, for the Maoris are not yet conquered, nor does the Governor propose to take any real guarantee for their future good behaviour. This of course he has done in direct opposition to the wi'l of th • Ministry and of the colony. It is an attempt to put a pancake over Groby Pool —to talk of peace while the spirit of hostility is as strong as ever and soreading to new districts. A plausible peace means to Sir George Grey reputation and promotion—to us stagnation and another war. But 1 think daylight is coming from an unexpected quarter. We have been lookking to the Westward, but the sun apparently is about to rise in the east as of old. Many of onr leading men have already made up their minds to face the dlfficu ty and overcome i‘ in the only possible way. They see that Imperial help administered by such an officer as Sir George Grey means only protracted ruin and therefore they mean to refuse the help if given only on such a condition. Our Houses of Assembly meet in a fortnight, and they will, I trust, demand the management of the infc rnal affairs of New Zealand - not of such portions of those affairs as the Colonial Office may from time to time hand over to them to be withdrawn at (leasnre, but of the whole, accepting at the same rime the necessary consequence, the withdraw of the troops. The remedy is a desp rate one, int there is no other. < f course war will be made to support war; as much laud as is wanted will ! e taken for military set' ler«, and to pay all other expenses. When this is done the philanthropists of England, hierarchy of New Zealand and the other promoters of Maori license, will have to congratulate ibems Ives on a result which the.r labours have largely contributed to bring about. But the Maoris will be subdued, not exterminated, and for the first time in the history of New Zealand both races wii be living under one law. This charge, if it takes place, does not, as I understand it, imply complete political separation from England. The disintegration of the empire is a light, nay, even a desirable matter, to men who, like Professor Goldwm Smith, hold that strength lies in disunion, and though it is doubtful whether an enlightened selfishness would approve it, such a doctrine may prevail. But if we are to separate, and England and her colonies are to go on their several courses, let it be by common consent, and not form mutual antipathy, brought about, as is likely to be the case with New Zealand, by bitter and unfounded abuse of men who have honestly striven to do thei - best under most difficult circumstances.—Yours, &c., A. S. A.