The Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1878.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 551, 6 February 1878, Page 2

The Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1878.

When that result of an alarming " sweat of intellect," the Native Lands Bill, was introduced during the last session of Parliament by the Attorney-General, and it was pointed out to that gentleman and his colleagues that there was nothing in the measure to entitle it to the.support of the House, it was urged that the natives were anxious that it should become law. This assertion somewhat surprised those who thought that they knew something of the native mind. Their experience had taught them that the native owners had been humbugged and bamboozled until they began to hate the face of a white man, and would be delighted with any arrangement whereby they would be secure from the wiles of land schemers. The Government for years past have kept bad company amongst the natives. They seem to have only associated with those whose minds had become seared, and whose natures had become gross and corrupted by Government grog and sweetmeats. These are the men.

who, having accepted the bribes and wasted all their own substance, were willing that the last acre of their brothers land should be sacrificed. But theae were not the men in whose hands was the disposal of the lauds and the destinies of the Maori people. The fountain head is at Te Kuiti. It is there that the Maori diplomatists reside. The policy of the late Goveernment, and that which has been pursned for a number of years lias been to merely skim the surface of the pool rather than encounter the difficulties of diving to the bottom. They have propitiated men who3e friendliness was more an incubus than otherwise, whose grog score from the commencement of the chapter has cost the country an alarming sum, and helped to swell the amount of our national debt, whilst it has demoralised and pauperised the native population on the confines of civilisation, and rendered it necessary that it should be supported in a great measure by the Government. These wretched, besotted creatures, while in their cups, swear allegiance to the Queen, and in their sober moments seek to become drunk at Government expense that they may maintain a loyal spirit. These are not like the men who rule the destinies of the Maori race. All that will shortly be left as evidence of their existence will be the debt that

was incurred iii file operation of sweeping them from off the face of the earth ; but they are- the men upon whose authority advocates for the late lamented Narive Land Bill asserted that the provisions of the Bill would meet witli the approval of the native races, who desired that land sharks should be allowed to negociate the purchase of land with the natives. We, on the very best authority, state now what we stated when the Bill was brought before the House, that native feeling was in favour of treating for land direct with the Government. The undemoralised natives have as lively a notion of the value of their land a3 hare Europeans, and when their land 13 alienated, the native owners must receive a fair quid pro quo, and negotiations must be conducted with soberness and fairness, or the result will be disastrous. No more pot-house proceedings, in which the principal actors were the representative of some respectable land monopolists and a representative or representatives of a native tribe from whom the agent's employers had instructed him by means, fair or foul, to wrest their land. A few pounds deposit, an order for rum ad libitum, and a score at the storekeeper's, generally sufficed to land the unsuspecting native representatives in the meshes of tbe intriguer. The land would be ultimately secured by the Christian speculator, who was wont, with a religious step and his service under his arm, to repair twice each Sunday to his church. Many of the bond fide native owners would in all pro-

bability not get a sixpence of the purchase money, the majority, if not at all, of which would find its way into the tills of the publican and storekeeper of the village. This is a state of things that would have been perpetuated by the Bill that was thrown out last session, and which its advocates asserted, in their extremity, was desired by the native owners of the North Island. They did not, of course, mean those natives with whom Sir George Fergusson Bowen so often sought an interv'ew, but in vain ; those men who were once interviewed by Sir Donaid McLean during a course of many years, and whose prayer was that Waikato might be returned to them. These are the men who are admittedly at the head of the native race, who can make either war or maintain peace, and who, a few days ago, applauded the efforts of Sir George Grey, Mr. Sheehan, and others, in preventing, by opposing the Native Lands Bill last session, the establishment of a system of indiscriminate native land purchasing. The Opposition journals, which, fortunately, are greatly in the minority, may ridicule Sir George Grey's visit to Tavthiao ; but there are few men who know so well as Sir George Grey and Mr. Siieehan what is necessary to be done in order to establish our relations with the natives on a substantial basis. Maori customs necessitate the observance of certain forms of speech and customs that may appear to those uninitiated in Maori matters to be very ridiculous ; but upon strict attention to which might depend the satisfactory issue of the business in hand. That Sir George Grey's visit will be productive of good and permanent results we have not the least doubt. If it should have the effect of hastening the opening up of the magnificent interior of the North Island, and ultimately settling a portion of the many millions of broad acres now lying waste — and we believe this possible—those who now scoff in their ignorance will then be necessitated to join in universal thanks to our present Premier.