PARLIAMENTARY JOTTINGS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5536, 24 December 1878, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY JOTTINGS.

(From an Occasional Correspondent] of the Ilangiti&ei Advocate.)

The Hon. John Sheehan seems played out. He has returned from New Plymouth considerably crestfallen. He went there to do three things, and he seems to have done none of the three. First, he was to get Rewi to take him from Taranaki to the Waikato through the " magnificent tracts of land" over which the contemplated railroad to Waikato is to run. Secondly, he was to make final arrangements for the great meeting at Waitara in March. And thirdly—and not the least important—he was to get Hiroki, the murderer of John McLean, surrendered to justice. As regards the first, Kev.i's ardour about the railroad seems to have cooled down considerably. He didn't see his way to make the journey at present, was otherwise engaged, and thought they had better wait till the fine weather set in. Considering that it was the time of year when fine weather generally sets in, and it has set in according to its usual custom, this was pretty transparent. However, Mr. Sheehan had to accept the excuse and wait for a more convenient season. The "Ides of March " will perhaps bring the fins weather. Then the arrangements for the great meeting, when 0,1 l the preliminary twaddle which passed between Sir George Grey and Tawhiao last season (that is the proper phrase for such theatrical performances), were to bear fruit, and peace and prosperity to be for ever established. Here also there seems to be some hanging fire. The weather will perhaps not be fine then; at all events, it does not seem to be favorable now. The cards of invitation are not yet printed; nobody seems to know who is to issue them; the gentlemen who would be likely to take the chair and vice-chair, Tawhiao and Te Whiti, seem in no hurry to make the arrangements. There seems some chance that though the guests may be there in the persons of Sir George and the Native Minister, the hosts may not. What is to be done ? There are suspicions that Tawhaio is in the sulks at Bewi having been made so much of, arid himself " belittled." What will he say when he heam that Sheehan slept with Eewi at Waitara, and Rewi slept with Sheehan at New Plymouth; that Rewi had tea with the Mayor and afterwards went to the play ; that he hobnobbed with the civic authorities, and made speeches and was speechified. If he was jealous before, the king will bs rabid now, and in no humor for jollifications and pacification. There is evidently a hitch about this great March meeting that is' settle everything and bring on the millenium, and Mr. Sheehan has found it out.

Then what about Hiroki, and his protector Te Whitl ? Colonel Whitmore, when asked iu the Legislative Council why the Goveanment did not bring him to justice, replied that "they could have him any day they pleased, delivered at the nearest police station." Why is he not delivered at the nearest police station 1 Mr. Sheehan goes in for "personal government " in native affairs This is, we presume, a specimen of it. He must have passed within four miles of Te Whiti's.pa, Parihaka, where the murderer is supposed to be. Why did he not exercise "personal government," and go for him ? As far as we can gather he didn't even ask for him. Those who know the councils of the Parihaka natives do say that he would not have been given up for all "the personal Governments" that could be brought to bear. But what a failure the whole thing is ! " Peace is at last made," says Sir George Grey. Where is the evidence of it? A cold-blooded murderer flees from justice, and takes refuge with one of the leading chiefs, who are supposed to have made this peace. The Native Minister passes by and does not dare to ask for him. This is a kind of peace which seems rather hollow ; slightly one-sided. If a white man had murdered a Maori and taken refuge in one of our towns, how long would he have been unaßked for by the Maoris, "and how long before he was lodged in jail by us ? We could very well understand how any other Government than that of Sir George Grey might have thought it wise to temporise in such a case as this. They might have argued that the case was peculiar, that Te Whiti must be humored, that it was no use hurrying, that our friendly relations with those people were but recent, and wo must put up with a murder or two ; it was no worse than what happened every now and then in Tipperary, and so forth. But such excuses do not lie in tho mouth of Sir G. Grey's Ministry. They have boasted too long and two lond about their superior fitness to manage the nativeß ; they have paraded too often the wonderful negotiations between themselves and Tawhiao ; they have declared to posterity that peace has been at last made by them; and they have promised too great things from their "personal government." Besides which, in this particular matter, Sir Georgo Grey has committed himself to an extent from which ho cannot retreat without considerable humiliation. In 1876 a similar murder was committed on a European at Auckland, by a native called Wianiata.' It was a non-political murder, as j the Government tglla usHiroki's was, Wjniata ! escaped, and was believed to have taken ra-

fuge with the King, just as Hiroki has done with Te Whiti. - Shortly afterwards Sir D. McLean visited, the Kiug, for the purpoK ,->f friendly negotiation on the general bearings of the Maori questiop. <He did not see Winiata, nor had he any certain knowledge where he was. He did not.seem to have been at the King's pa. He did not demand his surrender, nor make his case the subject of discussion. In the following session, on July 6,1876, Sir G. Grey brought the subject before tho House of and in doing so mads one of the most Bevere amd vicious attacks on Sir Donald that ever was made by any one on a political opponent. But he did more. While Sir Donald's negotiation* with the King were going on Sir George wrote a letter to the King Maoris, denouncing Sir Donald's conduct in visiting the King while murderers. were under hia protection, and telling them that no civilised nation would send an ambassador to any other which was guilty of screening murderers of its fellow-countrymen ; and he denounced Sir Donald in unmeasured terms for having degraded hia country and dragged it through the dirt by visiting the King while he protected Winiata. Last year, however, we all know that Sir George and Mr. Sheehau found it convenient to forget this ; they not only visited the protector of the murderers, but they shut their eyes to the fact that at least four or five of the worst of them were present at the festive gatherings which they attended, and took an active part in the proceedings. There was Te Kooti dancing about with no other clothes on than. a breech-olout, singing out, "I am the man on whose head a price has been set;" Tapihana, thrusting his personal patronage on Sir George, and offering to lionise him about; Forikoruti, dressed up as a generalissimo, and heading the guard of honor which received the Ministerial party, while ethers were looking on, or taking apart moro or leas prominent in the procession. It is true that Mr. Sheehanhad the audacity to say last session that Sir George did not know that any murderers were present. But Sir George has never dared to say so himself ; and it is impossible but that he must have known it, and seen the murderers many times daring the several visits. This is merely one of those reckless assertions for which Mr. Sheehan is too noted when pushed into a corner, and nobody does or can believe it. Even if it were possible to believe that Sir George did not see the murderers, and know who they were, he knew that they were one and all not far off, in exactly the same position as Winiata was in 1876 —that is, under the King's protection. And now the Nemesis is redoubled' by the Hiroki case. This cold-blooded murderer is protected by Te Whiti, one of the great chiefs of the Wost Coast. The murder, we are told by the Government, had no political significance ; it was a simple act of vengeance for some private offence. And yet sir George Gi ey'a Government dare not even. demand him of his protector, and the red-handed murderer escapes the gallows which is hia due