STIRRING UP STRIFE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 41, 4 November 1871, Page 3

STIRRING UP STRIFE.

[lndependent, November 1]

There are certain minds “so constituted by nature” (to use Kinglake’s favorite phrase) that they cannot help using their utmost endeavors to bring about the very state of things they clamor most against. They believe a certain course of action is wrong; their opponents hold the same views; the natural deduction would be that both parties would unite to fashion the best measure to meet the case. Not so with these eccentrically disposed individuals; they do their utmost to force their adversaries to adopt measures which would justify a third unbiassed party in crying out that the interests of the country are being sacrificed. Such, we regret to say, is the case now with regard to the Manawatu question and the Horowhenua dispute.

A ray of sunshine has at last shot athwart the gloomy darkness which, pall-like, has so long hung lowering over the island ; wearied of defeat, of pursuit, of privations, the fierce tribes openly in arms against her Majesty one after the other have laid them down and given in their abject submission ; emboldened by the additional support they received from the present Government, the friendly natives have assumed another attitude, vastly different from that they held, when a disastrous policy made them waver in their loyalty, and when, while fighting on our side, they carefully threw away their bullets before loading. They have shown proofs of a different spirit, not only in their behavior in the field, but also in the tone they have adopted towards the so-called King. It is not so very long ago that many of. those who were considered our firmest adherents did not care to conceal their opinions and to avow they would not take our part against Tawhiao ; and yet now we see leading chiefs assuming towards him and his council a tone which three years ago they would not have dared to take. We see that we have at present peace, and that there is every likelihood of its continuance. It might then be thought that this, the summum bonum of New Zealand, would have been bailed, with joy by all parties, and that those individuals by whose pacifying endeavors such a happy result had been brought about would have met with their due meed of praise. Not so. There is no war in Waikato, Taranaki, or the East Coast; butthereis a squabble in Manawatu ; and so the tailors of Tooley street gather themselves together and say, “ Let us drive M‘Lean into making a blunder, and so drift into a disturbance, and then we shall have him on the hip for having plunged the colony into a war.” That is exactly how the case stands. With regard to the questions themselves, the Manawatu difficulty is one the very name of which is enough to frighten anyone who has anything to do with it, and we should be very sorry to recur to past events connected with it. Taking it as it now stands, it may fairly be thus stated:—Mr M‘Lean, to prevent haggling, and to bring the matter to a close, last November agreed to increase the native reserves, not, however, going beyond what ought to have been given in the first instance. Dr Featherston remonstrated against- the award, and the native owners, wide-awake people themselves, and well kept up to the mark by agitators, pretended to see in this a probable repudiation of the promises made to them. Sine illoe irce. That the trust reposed by them in the Native Minister has never been touched, is amply evinced, but they were induced to believe his engagements could not be carried out. Consequently they held koreros, &c., and stopped surveyors, though in a most peaceful manner. The result has been that a few grievances have been brought to light, and that steps have been taken to remove them. The question is one which the lapse of time has made more difficult to solve, but the present temper of the natives gives not the least reason for any apprehension of danger arising from it. We feel quite confident that the forthcoming visit of the Native Minister to

the district will remove all remaining obstacles. The same may be said of the Horowhenua dispute. It was a simple Maori quarrel about boundaries ; and had the claimants been allowed to have their own way there is but little doubt they would have resorted to the “ argumentum baculinum.” But here the maligned Government stepped in; and, in spite of what jealousy and ill-will can allege, calmed the turbulent feeling in existence by a judicious interference, and a careful abstinence from vague menaces, induced the contending parties to remove off the disputed ground, saw their proposals for disarmment meet with a ready response, and had the satisfaction to find that the disputants agreed to forego their ancestral ideas of having recourse to arms, and,instead, to refer the whole case to arbitration.

We think we are not far wrong when we assert that persons, interested or not, who egg on the Government to adopt more stringent measures (when none are needed) in these cases, may fairly be classed in the category to which we alluded in the first sentence.