G 0 VERNOR £ TE WHITI.

Patea Mail, 9 August 1881, Page 2

G 0 VERNOR £ TE WHITI.

R. S. Thomson, Normanby, advocates in a‘Wellington journal that the only solution of the West Coast difficulty is for the Governor to visit Te Whiti. Mr Thomson sets forth a gloomy and disquieting view of affairs on this Coast, and he writes as an authority on the desires and intentions of Maoris. He says, however, that he only repeats what he hears. A politician who sets up as a Maori authority is apt to hear only that side of a question which he advocates. Mr Thomson is better known here than in Wellington, and it would not be difficult to give personal reasons showing that Mr Thomson is peculiarly dissatisfied with recent decisions on claims to native land upon the Plains. A person who has made large claims and been disappointed in getting them, is not an unbiassed witness against those who rejected his claims. It seems to us fair and necessary to let this fact be known in order that Mr Thomson mayr address the public in his proper charac-' ter—that of a disappointed claimant to native land. When Mr Thomson asks the Governor to come to Parihaka, and make a treaty with Te Whiti which shall upset the settlement and allocation of land made by the Royal Commissionjgjie public will put their own value on the disinterestedness of such an advocate. To upset what has been done would be childish and mischievous. A certain policy has been laid down by the Ministry, and that policy is almost complete in the execution of details, while the pacific influence. of that policy is plain to all men. Having reached this final stage of the settlement, what do we see ? Pakeha Maoris still trying to put a spoke in the wheel, still scheming to keep the native trouble unsettled, lor it is by native trouble that land-claimers and pension-hunters have fattened hitherto. Among those who urged objections against Mr Bryce’s policy-on this Coast was this journal. Our objection was not against the giving of land to satisfy Maori claims, but was against the giving of enormous quantities to tribes who had no sort of title to land in this district. The Government have chosen not to go behind the native title, and have refrained from enquiring how certain tribes acquired any footing on this Coast. Ministers have treated all tribes as bona fide claimants, and have allocated to them vast reserves. This is done, and the tribes are sullenly contented, which is as much as could be expected. Now the work of pacification has been carried so near to completion, and the work is so manifestly successful, that we can all join in recognising the good results of this policy . which Mr Bryce initiated, and the credit of which attaches chiefly to him. But is it at this time, is it at the eleventh hour of success, is it when all serious difficulty is ended and done with, that the Governor is to come as a suppliant to Parihaka, and beg Te Whiti’s humble pardon for all that the pakeha Ministers have done, and ask Te Whiti to join in a new treaty for setting aside everything that was supposed to have been settled ? Is that what you Pakeha-Maoris want ?