NATIVE AFFAIRS IN TARANAKI.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 18, 27 May 1871, Page 2

NATIVE AFFAIRS IN TARANAKI.

[From the Independent, May 20.] We took occasion yesterday to refer, more in sorrow than in anger, to certain recognised opposition j°uinals, who having uttered gloomy prognostications which have not been verified, have never had the candour to own' their mistakes. We asserted that the gloomy pictures drawn by them of New Zealand under the present Government had had an effect in deterring many who would have made valuable colonists. The ignorance at home of New Zealand topography, doubtless, greatly contributed to this lamentable result. Leading articles in a Dunedin paper on the native question are assumed, for instance, to be as re liable, and founded on as exact information as those of a journal published in the very centre of LVlaoridom. I he public at home know very little of the internal divisions of the colony, and are apt-to be guided in their estimate of a journal more by the extent of its circula. tion than by the locale of its publication. Of the three papers, for instance, the “ Otago Daily Times,” the “ Hawke’s Bay Herald,” and the ‘‘Taranaki News,” the former unquestionably would be generally accepted by home readers as the most reliable, even on questions vitally affecting Taranaki and Hawke s Bay. It. is very much to be regretted, therefore,, that by every month it sends home in its summary the most perveited account of the actions of the Native Minister, and the most gloomy reports of the state of the provinces in the North Island. Its “ own” in Wellington, week after week chuckles over our ‘‘utter failure, ruin, and insolvency,” and the “ Times” reproduces bis letters now in the form of leaders (!) garnished with fresh horrors, or, what is perhaps still more deplorable, in the form of funny paragraphs ! The road-men who have not been paid out of 1 our impover ished Treasury have had their hardships bewailed, “ in pious horror and holy grief,” and the uncomplaining members of the police force have, through its columns, had their impecuniosity treated as an exquisitely funny item of interprovincial intelligence. Not one word of pity has ever been uttered for a province which, had it not been forth© blunders of the Colonial Parliament, would have had a landed estate, and yearly revenue accruing, greater probably than the province of Otago. There is a melancholy satisfaction (hut it is a very melancholy one indeed) that the same journal decries the importance, and sneers at the capabilities, of its own province. Leader after leader appears—resembling Kettle Drummle’s discourses with the heads of “ consolation” and “ the promised and expected deliverance” carefully left out, particular prominence being given to those of “ terror,” and those “ declaring the causes of backsliding and wrath !” It is very gratifying to contrast with this a journal closely identified with the Richmond family, and of course a warm opponent of the Fox Ministry. Published in Taranaki, its inspirations on the native question are not taken from “our own” correspondent, but from actual observation of facts occurring in the district. The qii'arum pars fid element shows itself in every line. It addresses itself to readers living in native districts, whose fortunes rise and fall with the good or bad administration of native affairs. To these frontier colonists the native question is the all-absorbing question of the day. Good Government in this one direction means to them peace/progress, and prosperity —its opposite is a synonym for war, rapine, and disaster. Every one of them is versed in a subject pregnant with such tremendous consequences to himself and his children. He is terribly in earnest about it, and no paper that would falsify facts happening round about his homestead would ever find its way twice within it. The “Taranaki News” is an opponent of the present Government. Be it so. Eloquently, in his noble farewell speech, did Dr

Featherston dilate on the advantages of political differences and party contests, and most cordially do we extend the application of his remarks to the region of journalism. Let the press speak out boldly and fearlessly on every subject, and keenly canvas the policy and criticise the administration of every colonial Government; but, for very shame’s sake, let us hear no mote about the personal appearance and the pecuniary circumstances of one Minister, or of the “ stealing-like-a-common-thief ” propensity of another. The “ Taranaki News” has often, in our opinion, too severely criticised the present Ministers, but it has never invaded the sanctity of their private life. As an opponent of the Government its criticism on their Native administration will be, at least, not too couleur de rose ; and, as speaking of what it sees and hears and knows, it will be accepted as a better authority on Native affairs than journals which blindly believing their “ own” correspondents, publish leaders on the dreadful panic (that was never known) at Taranaki, and the horrible massacre (that never took place) at Alexandra.,, We reprint elsewhere, therefore, the remarks of the I “ Taranaki News” in a recent issue, and ask our readers to note, carefully the calm and deliberate utterances of so unimpeachable an authority.,.