The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5390, 6 July 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1878.

Wb have been seeking for light in regard to the results of the recent native meeting at Waitara, and, behold, it breaks upon iis in a flood from an unexpected quarter. We reprint in another column a leading article from the “ Otago Daily Times,” in which it will be seen that what has puzzled us in common with many other ordinary observers has been rairacuously revealed to our contemporary. _ have been, as we said, vainly threshing piles of verbal straw and winnowing bushels of literary chaff, as well in the official reports furnished by Ministers’ private secretaries to the Ministers’ newspaper, as in the reports furnished by puzzled correspondents, including “our own,” to various journals, in search of a grain of tact; but excepting the symbolical surrender of Waitara to “us two,” and that Rewi had loosed his allegorical hold of the Premier’s hair, nothing else was clearly discernible. Sweetness is not the usual accompaniment of our contemporary’s light, and it is wanting on the present occasion ; the flame is a little lurid perhaps, and smoky, savoring of the faggot and the tar-barrel rather than of oxy-hydrogen; it is fit for burning heretics to “ Greyism” and—the editor’s fingers; being strong and hot*, it is not without a certain usefulness at times. Rewi and Tawhiao, the “Times” informs us* have been long yearping “to bring to “ pass the existing state of things,” blit the .task has been one of “ indescribable * 1 delicacy, and has been thwarted by the “ malicious and diabolical interference of “ the hungry dependants of a former “ regime, all of whom ‘deserved lynching’ ‘ ‘ at least, ” “ All is, however, right now, ” says the “Daily Times;” “the Coramis- “ sioner-Ohief Rewi, and Sir George “Grey are one. They have loosed their “hands off one another’s heads, and “ Waitara is given to them.” Those who suspected that Rewi had any narrow objections to railways and roads will now be surprised tolearn that he eagerly desires a railway ; that he will give the neaessaiy land for the purpose, and not only will ho do that, but he has offered-to make a present of as much land in his immense territory as will pay for the coat of making the whole of the northern trunk line

from Awamutu to Taranaki. The distance, we believe, is estimated at about -120 miles, and at £6OOO a mile the gift will represent £600,000. If this were true, onr contemporary would be right in declaring that “no event like this final “settlement has ever been paralleled in “ the history of New-Zealand.” - : Of course, if it were true,- it would be a subject of great rejoicing. The difficulties which we have in accepting as gospel all that our contemporary preaches are these :—ln the first place the complaints which REWi made as to the misrepresentations of what he said at the meeting with Ministers in Waikato were against the official misrepresentations made by Ministers or their secretaries and reporters. None others were allowed to be present on the occasion ; and it was to protect himself against a repetition of that wrong that he armed himself at Waitara with a reporter of his own. A good deal of indignation has been expressed by the Auckland specials at the disclosures which we have made regarding their proceedings. But - the relations of the Government with the newspapers that take their money for advertisements will be necessarily suspect, and when it is known that the Auckland specials travelled with the Ministers who provided entertainments, transports by rail, by steamer, and by horses for them on the same terms as we now do the Government advertising, that is “gratis,” we are warranted in assuming that the independence of the “specials” is notgreater than that of the journals they were said to represent. The memory of our Otago contemporary is, perhaps, failing, like that of Sir George Grey, or it would not be necessary now to remind him of those things. In the second place, we noted that Rbwi made a point of contradicting Sir George Grey when the Premier said that he had come there by the invitation of the “Commissioner-Chief.” In the third place, Rewi is not the owner of millions of acres, nor of the whole of the land between Awamutu in Waikato and the railway station at Waitara; if the Ngatimaniapolo, his tribe, owned all the land, —which they certainly do not, — the statement that they were about to make ns a present of more than six hundred thousand pounds worth of it would require confirmation. It would be well on the whole, we think, for the sake of the common interest, that all this “gassing” about personal influence should cease. It is an unfortunate craze of the Premier, and can only be mischievous. The settlement of our differences with the natives, and especially with a man like Rewi, is a matter of business, and not of sentiment at all ; and the jargon about “stars” and the “milky way,” and all the rest of it; is just “fudge,” pure and simple. Rewi wants to get his land, Otautahanga, back from Mr. Tolb in the first place ; we may take it for granted that that has been promised to him ; and he wants to be let alone, to manage his own affairs and those of his tribe without interference by anyone; that also no doubt has been bargained for. He has kept the peace for years past when it was threatened by the Waikatos, and he will continue to' do it if we let his lands, and himself, and his tribe alone. If Rewi is rich enough to be able, and willing, as the “Otago Times” says, to make the railway from Waikato to Taranaki at his own cost, he is not likely to need such a bribe as a house at Waitara and a title of “spurious” honor, such as a seat in the Legislative Council 'would confer.