The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5393, 10 July 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 1878.

It appears that Rewi is likely to have as bad a time with the reporters and interviewers at Waitara as he had at Waikato, and that notwithstanding the fact of his having his own reporter, and his caution to the Press, his sayings are still subject to misrepresentation. The definite object of the meeting at Waitara has never yet been announced. There may. not in Rewi’s mind have been any definite object, when he told the Premier in Waikato that ho was going to challenge Wi Tako, Matbne tb Whxwhi, and other chiefs who had left the King to meet him there. On that occasion it is reported that Sir George Grey said, “I will go there too, send me a message when you arrive.” Rewi promised to do so, and upon a public occasion at tho Waitara he is reported to have been at pains to give this version of the matter in reply to and in correction of Sir. George Grey’s statement that he had come by Rewi’s invitation. Yesterday the Press Agency telegrams from Taranaki contained a letter from that chief, in which he says:—“l have seen a newspaper that says I did not invite Sir George Grey to Waitara. This is not correct.” In order to give this statement its true value it would be necessary to know how it was obtained, and who was the “settler!’to whom it is addressed ; but it is not at all inconsistent with the fact,* as stated by Rewi himself, that in the first instance the Premier was self-invited. Our Waikato correspondent, whose letter we published yesterday, gives a now view of the object of the meeting at Waitara, viz., a desire on Rewi’s part to test a prophecy of Te Whiti, the . Parihaka prophet, who announced that “if the prin- “ cipal parties to the Taranaki war “ could be got together at that Aceldama “ (Waitara) the Angel Gabriel would ap- “ pear and restore to life all who had been “ slain during the war.” We hope that we have heard the last, for the present, of these native meetings, and of the complacent arrogation by Sir George Grey of the possession of extraordinary personal power and influence over the native ' people. Wo believe that all that has been done up to this time in the way of advancement towards the final reconciliation with the,natives which we all. desire, could have been effected quietly, without expense, and without noise, by the Native Minister, Mr. Sheehan, if he had been allowed to discharge the duties which his responsible office imposes on him. As we have said, the settlement with Rewi is now a matter of business, and not of sentiment at all. It is a simple question of “ how much.” An over-eager negotiator will always be overreached in a bargain by a native, and the colony may in the end have to pay exceedingly dear, for the feather which the Premier shows himself so ambitious of putting iu his own cap. It might be remembered also that Rewi and the others have been rebels in arras against the Queen’s authority, and that it is to her Majesty ’s representative in the colony, and not to his responsible adviser, that their submission is to be made at last.