New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, JULY 1.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4766, 1 July 1876, Page 2

New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, JULY 1.

Ik his official report of the proceedings at the recent interviews between Sir Donald McLean and Tawuiao, Major Maze, R.M., who was present throughout, says:—“ln the meantime, there are not wanting evil advisers of both races, who, actuated by a false sense of patriotism, and in the case of European counsellors, from sheer malice, will continue to do all in their power to prevent the solution so much t 6 be desired by all well wishers of the Maori race.” Mr. H. T. Kemp, Civil Commissioner, who was also present during the interviews, alluding to the hope still lurking in the minds of a few of Tawhxao’s followers, of the restoration* of Waikato, says “ Although this hope has never, I think, been seriously entertained by them, I nevertheless, on the

other hand, feel persuaded thaU.it .has, however remote, been kept alive ,by persons having no'real interest in the peace and prosperity of the country, but actuated merely by a morbid, to widen the breach already unhappily made between the two races in these districts, and ‘thus destroy that confidence which seems to be indispensible to the wellbeing diE. the colony as a whole..”.' ' 5 < ■ - Those who have any knowledge of the state" of things existing on the frontiers, must be aware that, the statements given above rather understate than exaggerate the true position. For years past the disaffection and suspicion in the minds of a section of the natives have been originated and fanned by mischievous Europeans. Adventurers disposed to prey upon the credulity and ignorance of the natives, find a ready asylum amongst a people unacquainted with their antecedents, and these are aided and abetted by a few of the half-castes scattered about the North Island. Thus any malicious Europeans, burning to revenge some imaginary wrong, find ready to hand a plentiful sprinkling of pliant tools, prepared to embark in any mischief that holds out an immediate prospect of gain, or of temporary importance in the eyes of their fellows, however fictitious. A person who has lately set himself up as a maligner of the Native _ department, and has succeeded in achieving a questionable sort of notoriety, is a certain Mr. Alley, formerly of Napier. He is a man with a grievance. His complaint took the form of a petition to _ the House of Representatives last session, when the Petitions Committee recommended an official inquiry regarding charges made b> Mr. Alley against Messrs. Puckey, of Shortland, _ and Clarke, of Tauranga, of having instigated certain natives to drive off his cattle from land which he had leased at .Waiharakeke, Upper Thames Valley, near Ohinemuri. Colonel Haultain was appointed to hold the inquiry, and after giving every opportunity to Mr. Alley to substantiate his charges, he finds that Alley’s statements are “ entirely without foundation.”

Mr. Alley appears to have gone to Ohinemuri with his eyes open, and to have blundered into a bad speculation for himself, in the belief that he was doing a very smart thing indeed. There was a block of land which had not been passed through the Native Lands Court, and the ownership of which was disputed by opposing parties of the Ngatiwiatu and Ngatihaua tribes. Apparently regardless of all consequences to himself or to any one else, Mr. Alley leased the land from one of these opposing parties, whereupon the rival claimants held a meeting, and decided to drive off Alley’s cattle, lest the lessors should have established a claim to rights of ownership according to native custom. In fact, it was a Maori rendering of the famous legal maxim, “possession is nine points of the law.” Mr. Puckey, anxious to save Alley from loss, and possible danger, and, moreover, to avert any act “ which might complicate our relations with the natives,” wrote Alley a civil letter, informing him of the intention of the natives, and the fact that one section of theHauhaus “counsels the killing of the cattle.” The peace of the country seems to have been of little consequence to Mr. Alley in comparison with his private interest and the profits he hoped to reap from his clever, but unfortunately rather too clever, bargain. So Mr. Alley permitted his herds to feed quietly in their accustomed meadows, until one fine morning down came a chief of Ngatimaru named Kaeauna, and, sans ceremnnie, drove Alley’s stock to Hikutaia. Then he was inflamed with feelings of vindictiveness and rage, and indulged in all manner of charges against the very persons who had gone out of their official way to give him timely notice of his danger. Hence the inquiry. The correspondence shows unmistakably that Alley, like one of his distinguished patrons who holds a high provincial office in Auckland, is a victim to an impulsive and excitable temperament and a too lively imagination. In fact, he never had a leg to stand upon. When frequently written to by Colonel Haultain, and politely requested to furnish the names of witnesses whom he desired to produce, and to name a convenient place and day for the investigation, Alley wrote shuffling replies, detailing hearsay charges made to him by persons who had heard the statements repeated somewhere, by someone, to somebody else. While ho remained in Auckland Alley carefully shunned Colonel Haultain’s office, and when at last, after two months’ delay of his own causing, he condescended to put in an appearance at an inquiry at the Thames, he came unattended by a solitary witness and unprovided with a scrap of documentary evidence in corroboration of the scandalous charges he had deliberately made. But he made a number of hearsay statements, which were clearly disproved by other witnesses. After a patient inquiry, and after giving Mr. Alley six months to adduce evidence, Colonel Haultain reports that the charges are “entirely without foundation.”

In truth, Alley appears to havo suffered from a kind of hallucination, which, unfortunately, is not confined to himself. There are Europeans who, though comparatively or entirely ignorant of the native language and customs, actuated by sheer cupidity, rush into ill-considered bargains, regardless of disputed claims, or of endangering the peace of the colony, and are anxious only to secure, by a speculative coup, some advantage over more scrupulous competitors. These persons are not content to confine their operations to those limits within which the Queen’s writ runs. They find more promising fields in districts where the embers of jealousy and suspicion still smoulder in the native mind. Here, by tempting bribes and clever playing off of rival claimants, they may succeed in setting up a fictitious right, which may form the basis of a claim for compensation for losses which never existed beyond their own imagination, and they find powerful supporters and coadjutors in such men as have countenanced and lent - their influence to this preposterous claim of Alley’s. Alley seems to have been impressed with the notion that the Government ought, even at the risk of disturbing the peace of the country, to have sided with him; to have oppressed and despoiled the rival native claimants without inquiry, and to have exhausted all the machinery and resources of the country in protecting his invalid lease and his ■vmiserable handful of cattle. 'He appears to have found in Sir George Grey Ji sympathiser after his own heart, a bosom into .which he could pour lugubrious tales of the wrongs and sorrows inflicted by a cruel Government and a heartless Nativb department, without fear of wearying the, listener. .. ~ But the investigation held by Colonel Haultain is not without sequel. Alley’s preposterous claim , to compensation out of the public funds had melted away in thin air; but all was ; not lost. Sir Donald McLean had just visited Kai-

pihi and concluded a satisfactory" meeting with Tjwhiao, and ,here was a chance too good: to bo 105 t.,, No sooner ,was the interview : joyer than j Alley, boasting publicly .of 1 his mission, ,arid of the secret aid which he'expected from his sympathising and influential friend, hastened to Kopua,■'and; by'ah'iri’geniously-~spuri tissue of villificatipn, and male volence,at tempted to poisoh and strangle the first symptoms, of returning confidence and friendship in the minds of the KingiteA He did this under the pretence of completing a certain land purchase which probably only existed in his imagination. This is the man who has written letters to the Thames Advertiser and other journals, holding himself up as a sort of martyr, and this is also the class of men who are the professed agents and “ instigators” of the .Superintendent of Auckland, and whose cause is championed in the New Zealand Herald. We are not by any means an advocate for a bureaucratic system of government. We are averse to the rough and ready expedients which exist under many other less liberal and tolerant Constitutions than our own for effectually disposing of malicious and incendiary disturbers of the public peace, but we think it is to be regretted that some means have not been devised of bringing within the pale of the law persons who instil suspicion and hostility into the minds of the natives, and attempt to thwart, however weakly, the endeavors to promote the peace and welfare of both races, and the consequent prosperity of the colony as a whole.