NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS. (From The Globe.)

Otago Daily Times, Issue 86, 24 February 1862, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS. (From The Globe.)

The philanthropist-) are in power in New Zealand, and a a great experiment in government is about to be tried. A sort oi" sentimental admiration of the Maori prevails, und even Sir Willinm Denisoa, whose letter we printed yesterday, .sjeins to be carried away by it. The Bishop of New Zealand, in » moment of "indignation, declared that the colony had been established to protect tho native race._ Sir William Denison proposes that the end and aim of our policy should be to raise these savage tribes "to the rank'of a people." In the .same spirit wrote William Thompson, perhaps the most powerful Maori extant, when ho said that he did not wish to expel Queen Victoria from the Northern Island, and that all he desired to do was to make the Maori master of his own territory ; in .short, to raise the Maories "to the rank of a people." The policy suggested by Sir William Denison in 18C0 is said to be identical" with the new Ministry. If so, the aim _of Mr. Fox is to offer the Maories institutions which will set them up v.s a nation ; and if the offer is refused, to unlit them. But if the aim of the new government and its advisers is to raise the Maories to the rank of a people, the process is oxtreirely simple. Leave the Maories alone. Permit them to elect a King, to establish any and what institutions they choose ; permit them not only to refuse to sell, but to prohibit the sale of land to' Europeans. Settle the frontiers of the new Maori State, and provide a,machinery for keeping up international relations. Thus the Maories would become, a ''people," and the policy announced by William Thompson, and advocated by Sir William JJenison, would be realised. There is only one drawback to this—it is impracticable. Moreover, whilo setting forth these aims the philo-Mabri party cannot be brought to admit that the Colonial Government is to take no further part in the Maori country. Their programme involves something like Maori independence ; yet their machinery provides for European guidance and control; nay, for the full recognition of that sovereignty which William Thompson denies. How this programme can be carried out without leading to the most deplorable misunderstandings we are at a loss to conceive. The Maori is either independent or dependent. If he be independent let him alone. If dependent, deal with him as a subject of the Queen. Sir William Denison says, that "he is the subject of the Queen, and aa such is entitled to have his rights respected, his feeling considered ; he has shown aptitude for civilisation which ought to be encouraged; his efforts to raise himself in the social scale should bo assisted." We grant all this with one reservation-; that the Maori, at present, questions the premises and denies,that- he is the subject ofthe Queen. " The Maories," as Mr. Richmond wrote atthe end of lastyear, '.'assume a position outside the law. No man can have the benefit of a jurisdiction to which he refuses to submit. It is in vain to reproach the Government with the nonapplication of the principles which the natives reject. It is exactly because they reject those principles that questions between them and the Government assume the aspect of questions of peace and war. At the present moment the desideratum is to bring the Maories within the pale of the law." Thus Europeans could be imprisoned at the suit of Maories, but Maories could not be imprisoned at the suit of EuroI peans. Resident magistrates have refused to issue a i summons in civil cases where the defendant was a inative. "The European plaintiff is compelled to a s n c of right or of interest in the native debtor." In criminal cases the authorities have had to " negociate" for the surrender of a native -delinquent. " Least of all are the natives inclined to endure any judicial, or other interference, with questions of territorial claims." This is the position of a race which Sir William Denisou describes as brought under a a variety of humiliations by their position as nominal subjects of the Queen. Sir William Denison is hardly fair to Mr. Richmond, upon whose views he comment. He says that Mr. Richmond's policy would annihilate the native race. Those assertions are easily made, but it is an undoubted fact that the object contemplated by the late Ministry and the Governor in the native policy was the preservation of the native race. "To have saved ;>.!iii civilised the native race," said Mr. Richmond, " Would deserve to he reckoned among tiie highest achievements of a Christian civilisation ; " and, in answer'to an attack from Sir Win. Martin, Mr. Richmond distinctly states that " there arc no politicians in New Zealand who maintain that the natives can only be governed by demonstrations of physical force, and that in our dealings with them justice may be dispensed witli as a needless refinement." The question which the new government, as the old, will have to settle is this—how can the Maorics be brought within the pale of the law ? Whether that can be done by native or European machinery matters little, providing the deed be accomplished. The natives are not all of one. mind. On the land question itself many would sell, if others would let ihem. The turbulent chiefs, like William King, enforce an opposition to land sales. Now. if the natives are to be treated as subjects of the Queen, their right to sell land must bn protected, and if it is not pre r tccted, as in the case of Teira, will not the new Government, like the old, run the risk of war? Indeed, does not the new government menace the natives with vigorous war unless they assist in carrying out the views of Mr. Vox and Mr. Mantell ? In considering this question brond'.y we must never lose sight ofthe fact that the active native party is distinctly, contending for nationality and independence, for boundaries and Kingship, for sovereignty, in short. It is for the trovrrnsnent to determine whether it would be desirable to permit the realisation of that project. _' The Waitara war sprang from' an attempt to carry-it out on a small scale, and if there is a new war it will arise from the same cause. This is the element in New Zealand politics with which every Minister, Governor; and Legislation must reckon. The real question is, bow can'you overcome the turbulent, party, preserve tiie unimpeachable sovereismty ofthe Queen, and*the interests of a noble European colony, withouS'injury to tho permanent, welfare of the natives ?, >In the pursuit of this object, common to the late,as well us tiie present colonial government, it remains to bo seen whether it can be accomplished without resort to force. ■'■.■■-