The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5481, 21 October 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1878.

“ Honorable Legislative Councillors and “ Gentlemen of the House of Represen- “ tatives,” said her Majesty’s Representative on opening the present session of Parliament, “ I congratulate you on the “ fact that peaceful relations have at last “ been established with tho Waikato and “ Ngatimaniapoto tribes. Complying “with the pressing and frequently re- “ ceived invitations of the leading Chiefs “ of these tribes, the Premier and the “ Native Minister visited them on several “ occasions in their own districts, and met “ them also at Waitara. Papers on this “ subject will be laid before "you.” This announcement was made and this promise given on the 26th July last. We have ourselves urgently, and with what a courtly.contemporary would call “ nauseatin''” iteration, pointed out that tho Governor’s promise had not been kept, and that the “ papers” which wore to be evidence of the statement which her Majesty’s Representative had been advised officially to make, had not been laid before Parliament. “At last,” however, papers which bear the following official title have been presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by command of his Excellency:— “Waikato and Waitara Native Meetings.” (“Reports of Meetings between the Hon. the Premier and the Hon. the Native Minister and Natives.”) On the loth instant, struck apparently with amazement at the odd character of this State paper, Mr. Rol lesion, the member for Avon, asked the Premier in the House of Representatives,— Whether the statements contained in the report of the Waikato and Waitara native meetings, contained in Parliamentary Papers, G.— 3, are authorised and authentic? , . . The Premier said that the papers to winch reference was made wore the reports of the impressions received by competent newspaper reporters who were witnesses of what had transpired at these meetings, it was not customary to lay details of these transactions on tho table of the House—nor had such a course been adopted by previous Governments. To the best of his recollection, the terms that he offered to Tawhiao were correctly stated, but he had not read the papers through.

There are two points upon which his Excellency the Governor promised information to the members- of the Assembly ; First, as to the fact that peaceful relations of a new and exceptionally favorable character had “at last” been established with the tribes mentioned ; and secondly, as to the character and terms of the “pressing and frequently-received invitations” to visit them which these tribes are said to have sent to the Premier and Native Minister. On neither of these points is there the faintest glimmer of what can bo regarded as evidence in the papers before us. The Ministerial scissors have been used to clip from their own newspaper reports furnished specially to that journal by a Government officer, and to clip from other newspapers in Auckland and at Taranaki reports which, if not furnished by Ministers directly, were necessarily corrected by or for them before publication. It is of this State Paper, which, as we have shown, was to contain the evidence in support of the solemn official statement which the responsible Ministry advised the Governor to make—that the Prime Minister is reported to have said that “ to the best of his recollection the “ terms that ho offered to Tawhiao were “ correctly stated, but he had not read the “ papers through.” The remarkable success of their native administration has been the boast of Ministers ; the reference to it occupies the most prominent place in the Governor’s Speech on the opening of the Assembly; it is, we ■ think, not respectful to his Excellency, or creditable to the Government, to find the Premier thus shirking responsibility for the evidence which, in accordance with his promises, the Governor has laid before Parliament in support of the statement which he was advised to make, in regard to the now condition of native affairs. Of these affairs he personally can havo no knowledge. But this is Sir George Grey’s way. The Premier is of the class of man who in long years learn nothing and forget nothing; it is a real calamity-for himself as well as for the colony which we believe ho would serve well for the sako of his own name and fame if he knew how, that he was over induced to leave his dignified retirement at Kawau. An ox-Gover-nor become a democratic stump orator, and a furious and malevolent party man in the country which ho ruled as a despot for so many years, is a spectacle such as has never before boon exhibited, and, after our melancholy experience of its consequences, will probably never bo repeated in any British colony. Sir Georob Grey’s absurd pretensions to special inUonco with tike Maori people, whoso confidence ho forfeited long ago by his .crooked policy, have imposed upon him the necessity of making a desperate effort to justify those pretensions by results; ho has failed to achieve what he desired, and what was desirable in itself—a speedy and final settlement of the native difficulty ; and viewed in the light in which they are no doubt offered, as evidence of protended success, these papers aio nothing but a voluminous untruth. Enormously extravagant offers m money and in land have been made to Tawhiao without any reciprocal conditions on his part; these offers havo not been accepted, and will not be as yet at any rate. All the stories circulated about the opening of the country and the making of railways are pure fables. It is not so stated in the papers, but we have it upon much more

reliable authority that the only reference to railways seriously made in communications with Rewi was that Sir George Grey said to that chief; “Rewi, let me “.make a railway from Waitara to Wai-' “ kato, and you shall have the control of “it and all the revenue for a term of “ years.” The reply was, “This is not “ the time to talk of such matters.” There is a hill named Kakepuku outside the boundary of the confiscated land in Waikato, upon which it is said the Government desire to erect a trig station. The King natives, regarding this move as having some connection witli railway designs, do not acquiesce ; we are informed that Pckukutu and Nuku, with some armed followers, are now on the watch to prevent a surveyor from putting his foot upon that place. Wo desire to say no moro on this subject of Native difficulties than we may be obliged to do. They are known to exist on the West Coast, and on the East Coast, and will continue to exist in a more or less aggravated form there and elsewhere for some time to come. The worrying and teasing to which Sir George Grey has subjected the Maoris of late has had the natural effect of arousing their suspicions as to his objects ; they fear him even whilst his hands appear full of gifts ; whilst whimpering expressions of love for them are rolling softly from his tongue; whilst tears are coursing each other down his innocent nose, as if, like Prince Philarbte’s stag, his “ lacrymathingamy gland” was out of order, and the tears had become “mere habits.” His failure is complete.