“THOROUGH.”

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5402, 20 July 1878, Page 3

“THOROUGH.”

(From tho Otivjo l)a'dn Times, July 3.) The meeting at Waitara has closed, and. every genuine friend of New Zealand and' every colonist not blinded by political rancour, must experience a sense of sincere gratification at the final settlement of differences between tile races. To those not familiar with Maori ways there must have appeared much tbat was needless in the’ prolixity of the proceedings, and in the verbiage and strained metaphor that are essential in the negotiations of an untutored race. Civilisation is intensely practical and utilitarian, but it is only ignorance that prompts us to contempt for that tendency to symbol and fanciful which since time began has been characteristic of the human mind in a state of nature. To the unreflecting there has, in many a ease, been, food for mere mirth iu the quaint allusions to stars and mountains and the processes of nature that have been made to eonvey impressions and opinions of events proceeding, but the substantial results of all this word-paint-inn- are such as can commend them-elves to the most vulgar, grubbing mind in the country. . It-is difficult for a man unacquainted with the sentiments that control the conduct and the relations of nations to form au estimate of the- extreme difficulty encountered by chiefs like Ilcwi and Tawhiao in bringing to pass the existing state of things—a state on which their desires have for a considerable time been evidently very earnestly fixed. Not only had they a not unreasonable suspicion of pakeha encroachments, and of the ambiguous action of Government as it has hitherto been known to them, but a large share of .their sway over their clansmen "being based on the prestige attaching to tbeir-bitter resistance to European advancement, it must have been a task -of indescribable delicacy to conduct at once "satisfactory negotiations with the Government, and yet not forfeit that influence over their own people, without which negot’ations .would have proved abortive. A man of the shrewd intelligence of Kowi must have long ago known the advantages likely to arise to him from such a state of things as that now brought to pass. Probably he holds in his hands little under four or five millions sterling worth of land, and the enjoyment and the influence that should bring him have doubtless beeu no secret to him. Tho presence of the Waikatos on his territory would have made them partakers in any proceeds arising from disposal of his lands, according to the laws of Maori hospitality. As he had, as he admits, carried the torch of ’war from Waitara to Waikato, and caused that trouble which left the Waikatos and their Kim* exiles and dependent on his hospitality, he could not have driven the landless fugitives forth even if he had wished it. The satisfactory settlement of the King’s position, and tho proposed removal of that potentate and his followers in au honorable way to a portion of their ancestral lands in . the Waikato, mast have been to Rewi a matter of no ordinary interest, and the settlement of this was a preliminary that made comparatively easy the great achievement which has just been effected at Waitara.

But all this has been proceeding in the face of singular difficulties ; for not only had the great.Ngatimaniopoto (chief to deal with his own and the other tribes, but his efforts have been thwarted by the malicious and diabolical interference of the wretched Europeans whose interest it was to perpetuate the hostility and alienation- between the races. Our readers have seen some of the lying telegrams that have been from time to time transmitted by these, misrepresenting the native chiefs, aud especially Rewi, as being implacable, or sneering towards the overtures of the Government; and they appear to have beau as nothing compared to the influences directed towards the other side in order to influence the minds of the Maoris. We have seen how often Rewi has complained to Ministers and others of the falsehoods'that have been spoken in the newspapers about him, and about the interviews between him and Sir George Grey; and ws have seen how at length he has provided an interpreter of Ms own to interpret to his people exactly what transpired, so that no longer may they be influenced by .these wretched mis-chief-mongers, or himself bo- placed before the natives in a false and malicious light. If ever there existed ou the border-ground of civilisation and barbarism a lot of men who deserved lynching, it is these hungry dependents of a former" regime, who in native troubles, real or feigned, had come to see their bread and" batter, and who, by misrepresentation on tho one hand and the other, have kept" suspicion ever wakeful in tho native mind, and a chronic native scare in the minds of ' the settlers. Rewi. has taken the difficulty now firmly in hand, and although oven to the last these lying statements of • doubts and differences and difficulties have been disseminated by telegraph over the laud, we see the result in the expressive form of native imagery employed by the great Com-missioner-Chief when Rewi . says that Sir George Grey and himself are one, that they have loosed their hands off one another’s heads, and that Waitara is given to them. That all hostility is buried, and that reconciliation, complete and permanent, has been effected, are facts, presented in all the" expressive forms that the native tongue can frame, and we do not hesitate to say that tho cordial greetings and mutual congratulations between the thousands of Europeans and Maoris who assembled at Waitara to celebrate the event are worthy of the grand results of these most happy negotiations to tho peace, prosperity, and advancement of the whola'coiony of New Zealand. ■ As an illustration of tho malicious statements made, most people will remember how Rewi was represented as lambing at the idea ’of hoping for a railway through his country as a result of the negotiations then proceeding. This was represented as a tiling that could' never bo qntil Rewi and his old councillors had all joined the majority. It now turns out that not only does Row! desire a railway through his country, but offers to give all the laud required gratuitously. But is this all ? No ; but he has clone that which it ndver entered into the heart of any European capitalist to do ; ho has offered to make a present of os much land as will" pay for the construction of the whole of the Northern trunk lino of railway as far as it runs through Ilia enormous territory, extending from To Awamutu station in tho Auckland province to Waitara station in Taranaki. And this is the chief whoso hostility was stated to he so great that the desires of the Government for constructing the trunk line of railway through his land wore said to bo only met by a cynical sneer ! It is no exaggeration to say that no event like this final settlement of native troubles has ever been paralleled in.the history of New Zealand ; but it would seem that no event has over been productive of more intensity of party disappointment and chagrin. • •