WEST COAST NATIVES.

Patea Mail, 28 November 1881, Page 1

WEST COAST NATIVES.

Dr. Buller’s Opinion. Continuing his remarks to Foxton electors on the native question, Dr. Duller said : Our treatment of the NATIVES ON THE WEST COAST had been, to his mind, a miserable piece of inconsistency from first to last. He had nothing to say against the principle of confiscation ; nor had the Natives, with whom the law of might has ever been the law of light. We conquered, confiscated, and took possession of the Waikato, and they quietly submilted. We claimed to have the land on the West Coast. We confiscated it all on paper ; and we occupied it as far as the Waingongoro river. Beyond that, after the fighting had ceased, we did not attempt to hold possession. For seventeen long years we stood aside, and never exercised, or attempted to exercise, any act of ownership. Was that, he would ask, consistent with the ideas of complete conquest ? On the contrary, we had tacitly recognised the revival of the native title. The Government had sent Commissioners into the confiscated country to buy up the native claims. Formal deeds of cession to the Queen had been executed by those natives who were willing to sell, and the purchase money had been paid over in due form. The bulk of -the natives had refused to sell at any price. They had acted in every respect as if they were the owners ; they had leased portions to Europeans ; they had cultivated grass themselves on the land, and in one season alone had received as much as £5,000 for grass seed. And all this time the Government of the country had stood by and made no sign. WAS THAT CONSISTENT with the idea of complete conquest? Nay, more. Both Sir Donald McLean and Sir Edward Stafford, speaking in their places in Parliament, had declared that this part of the confiscated territory was practically abandoned. And then, after seventeen years of withdrawal—of mutual admission of the Native titleafter every other expedient to obtain the land had failed, apparently thinking ourselves now strong enough, we declared that this land was ours by right of conquest—that we had been sleeping on our rights for all those years—and we proceeded to survey and take possession. Could we be surprised at the resistance of the Natives, or at their receiving the passive sympathy of all the tribes throughout New Zealand ? Was it not rather a matter of surprise that the resistance had been of so pacific kind ? It was hardly necessary for him to refer to the fencing operations—to the capture of 200 unresisting prisoners, their detention in prison for some two years without trial, their subsequent liberation, only as it now seemed to be captured again. But we had allowed things to drift on, from bad to worse, till now we found ourselves face to face with a DIFFICULTY OF CONSIDERABLE MAGNITUDE ; for, whether the natives should fight or not, the position had become one of extreme embarrassment to the Government. Of course, it could not be tolerated that a thousand or more disaffected natives should assemble themselves together at Parihaka, as if for unlawful purposes—menacing the district, keeping the whole colony in a fever of suspense and anxiety, and necessitating the keeping up of a little standing army for the protection of the settlers. Whosever fault it was that we had drifted in this state of things, the nest of disaffected natives at Parihaka must be dispersed at any cost, for the peace of the country requires it. Se took it to be the duty of every good citizen to give the Government all possible assist* ance and encouragement under very diffi* cult circumstances. This was not the time to ask whether we had acted wisely or not in the past; and if any wrong had been done it would be for Parliament hereafter to give relief. Of all things on earth, we must teach the natives obedience to our laws. It Seemed to him that the assertion of the supreme authority of law in the capture of Hiroki, the murderer—* although rather late in the day—was alone worth all the cost of the recent expedition to Parihaka.