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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5157, 2 October 1877, Page 2

Aooondealof alarm has, we regret to learn, been created in Wanganui by the action of certain natives who on Sunday morning last were reported to have ordered Captain Montgomery off his land in the neighborhood. The telegram announcing this fact, published under the head of “ Telegraphic News” in our issue of yesterday, was of the usual sensational character, and conveyed as usual an exaggerated and distorted view of the occurrence. The incident was no doubt uapleasant for Mr. Montgomery and his family, who are, we believe, strangers comparatively in the district, and as such unused to native ways ; but it proves to be nothing in fact but an attempt to introduce the Hawke’s Bay policy of repudiation into the Wanganui District. The leader in the affair it appears is a man named Takairangi, who has been in Wellington for several weeks (since the commencement of the session), and who has been in constant communication with the Hawke’s Bay party here, and probably has thought it right to profit by their instruction and .example, and to attempt, although in an inartistic and blundering way, to raise the wind upon his own account. Mr. Woon, the Resident Magistrate, has, we are informed, reported to the Government “that Takairangi gave Captain Montgomery notice to quit his farm ; that he (Takairangi) claims the land as his, and talks of trying the question in the Supreme Court, but denies any intention of resorting to force ; that the object is to try and exact some further payment for the land, and that there has been much unnecessary alarm.”. This is reassuring in so far as the particular case is concerned. But the particular case is a symptom of a dangerous malady industriously propagated amongst the native people, in every district of this colony, by the Hawke’s Bay party and their advisers, and by their newspaper the “ Wananga”— the malady of discontent, of greed, of suspicion, and of disloyalty to the Crown and to the Government of the colony. Probably when it is too late the folly of making the native question in any shape the ground of a political party battle in the House of Representatives, or of attempting to wield such a two-edged implement as native discontent against political opponents, will be fatally apparent.' The example of families flying in terror from their homes for refuge in Wanganui from the threats of a native who has been loafing in the lobbies of the House of Representatives, with his allies, for weeks past, may serve as a warning of the effect upon immigration and settlement in this colony, upon our credit out of doors, and upon our progress at home, which a native disturbance even of a small and local character may have. It is very easy for gentlemen like Mr. Wakefield, who are removed from all danger to person and property from such a disturbance, to speak with contempt of “dirty” Maoris ; but here is the fact that one of these “ dirty” Maoris, profiting by the lesson which Mr. Wakefield’s allies have taught him, can by merely writing his name upon the house of a settler, and by the mere terror of his savage presence, —although, as we see, he means no other violence than an attempt at plunder by legal means, —drive women and children from their homes on the Sabbath day and putin peril the character of the colony abroad as a place where the occupation of the settler may be pursued in peace and safety. Short may be the true friend, and not Codlin. Mr. Sheehan or Mr. Wakefield may be better qualified for the discharge of the duties of Native Minister than the present holder of that office, but it is not, as we think, necessary to take the course which the Repudiation party is taking to demonstrate the fact. It is a very dangerous game, in which larger interests than those of the players are unhappily involved.