Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. GISBORNE: THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 1883.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1302, 29 March 1883, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. GISBORNE: THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 1883.

By telegram from Auckland, of Monday’s j date, we received information of probable further complications with Natives in Wai- : kato, consequent Upon stoppage and | illegal detention of Mr. Huhsthgosf., a 1 Government Surveyor, and hte party, by a j Native named Mahuki and his followers. | Mr. Hursthouse had been instructed to ex- : plore the tract of country, laying between ; Waikato and New Plymouth, for railway I purposes ; his orders wore secret, and he did , not openly state that such was the ulterior i object of his mission ; the Natives, however, i suspected that such was the case, and on his crossing the bridge at Alexandra, at the out- j set of his journey, emphatically warned him j to desist from the undertaking. Disregarding these warnings, he and his party pro- ■ ceeded towards the Mokau River, when their I progress was arrested by Mahuki and others. The Hon. the Native Minister at once called ' upon the Constabulary (numbering 47) then ■. at Alexandra to be in readiness for action ; this force would be strengthened by the Te ; Awamutu Volunteer Cavalry, numbering 50 I sabres. Orders were also given to the Cod , stabulary engaged in road works nearObine j mutu 'Hot Lakes) to take the route. It j appears that Messrs. Hcrsthoi’se, Newsham, and Wilkinson arrived at Z lexandra. ‘ on Sunday, having been released by the i Ngatimaniapotos. Mr. Bryce telegraphed I to the chiefs of that tribe, thanking them ; • for their conduct in such release, and stated ) that he never intended to leave the question ! ‘ so entirely in the hands of \\ ahanui that ■ the law should not be vindicated. The out- | ’ rages on, and the barbarous treatment of, • Mr. HurstiioUsE had been so gross that it • was impossible that it could be passed over ; the ringleaders must be arrested, and it ■ Wetere and Wahanui could not do this, he (Mr Bryce) would take proceedingshim- j • self. The Natives met to discuss the tele- i gram, and it was stated that they would not ■ agree to hand Mahuki over to the Govern- ; ment. Such being the circumstances of the I case, we are naturally led to glance rctro- , spectively at the action of Government with ( • respect to the Waikato and Ngatimaniapoto i people, and we cannot fail to recognise tho j stern and unpalatable fact that 10,000 Im- i perial and Colonial troops, after a long and i arduous campaign, only effected ths acquisi- | ’ tion of the accessible portions of the district, ! ' leaving the Natives to retire, uncornjuered, I into the interior, where, for the last. , eighteen years, they have sulkily and j defiantly isolated themselves, and turned a stubbornly deaf car to all our diplomatic j j efforts towards bringing them under British ‘ rule. The recent preparations of the Native ; Minister to effect the arrest of these turbulent 1 i Natives, therefore assumed rather a meagre aspect as compared to what would have been I actually necessary to effect the purpose so i ostensibly set forth by the Hon. the Native Minister, who seems to have trusted more ro . his Parihaka prestige and subsequent humii liating diplomacy to carry out threats which i ■ could never have been executed without im- ' : perilling the peace of the Colony and lives : and property of settlers. Why those threats were so rashly made, appears to us a difficult question to answer, and would doubtless have £ roved so, but for the insane proceedings of laHVKT and his followers, A striking in- ! stance of the truth of the saying “Quern Deus vultperdere prius dementat/’ Mahuki and his followers, some 40 in number, most : probably under the influence of bounce and i ; rode, as we are informed by subse- i I quent telegrams, directly into the lion’s j mouth, and after commit:ing one or two as- ! units in approved savage style, were met and ‘ made prisoners by the Constabulary and : Volunteer Cavalry at Whatiwhatihoe, and j \ were lodged in the redoubt prior to being ’ : sent to Mount Eden gaol by train. Thus i ' ends another bloodless campaign under the ; generalship of the Hon. Mr. Bryce, whose wonderful good fortune would not appear to have deserted him. Had the hon. gentleman’s first intentions been carried out as announced, the consequences would have been i most disastrous to the country, and would ■ probably have resulted in the complete anni- ■ hilation of the small body of men on whom ' j would devolve the difficult, or, rather, to them, impossible task of arresting the offend era. We congratulate the country on a for- ' . tuuate and almost miraculous escape from ( the well meant but mistaken efforts of the i Hon. the Native Minister to create a war on

his own account, or rather on account of those who are busily pulling the speculatively financial Government strings. The puppets h*xc been saved the trouble of dancing by the suicidal action of Mahuki, to whom the hon. gentleman should be eternally grateful, his actions savoring, as Mr Torhock’s would put it, of “all the pomp and glory of war, and only 25 per cent of its danger.” Fortunate Colony to possess so able a Minister ! Fortunate Minister to handle the ribbons of so easily satisfied Colonuts ! But after all this storm in a tea-cup, the question occurs to us, why the hon. gentleman should h ive threatened the Native-, without first making every endeavor towards a peaceable solution of the difficulty, with measures which if attempted, could only have had the effect of plunging the Colony into what would probably have developed itself into a disastrous war, the result of which would possibly have been the extermination of the Native race. The present financial position of the Colonv appears to he viewed in a favorable light at Home, and we see no reason why our credit and lives and property should have been jeopardised by hasty action in this instance on the part of the Hou. the Native Minister, without first making every endeavor towards a peaceable solution of the difficulty. Stoppages of surveys by Natives interested in lands have been matters of almost daily occurrence for the last twenty years, but these, when even affecting the titles to lands have invariably been overcome In this instance the title to the land was not jeopardized, and it would so appear to be easier to deal with such a case than with those to which wc have just alluded, therefore we fail to sec why hostilities should have been threatened. Colonists have lately been subjected to far greater indignities than the stoppage of a Government Railway Survey, and have had to bear them without murmuring. Could this be the last straw that was to break the back of the long suffering Government Camel ? There is in old saying that “ When yon want to beat a dog it is easy to find a stick ” a war would doubtless have suited the pockets, if not the consciences, of those denizens of Queen and Wyndham-streets, who may be said to belong to the capitalist class of land sh irks, but would have proved completely disastrous to settlers in outlying districts throughout the North Islam!, wo therefore deprec .’c the hasty threatening. l ) of the Hon. the. Native Minister so long a* peaceful efforts to r.v<«rcome the presentohstrm-rinn r« m .in ■ n ? ■ <l. in order to give the H«m. the Na-ive Ministcr a precedent, which in.ty ’ >i-I 1 .’• i an interesting digest, wc will refer him t«» tin <-aseof Mr -Ix'tr.s Ma»kav, m in, in 1573 held the important post of agent fnr the < ■ neral Government in Waikato. This gentle-

man was in May of that Year iugrtrhetod io proceed to Kuiti, Tawhiaos headquarters, j to demand the surrender of a Native named ; PURTut Tr and hh accomplices in. the mur- ! derof T’Mothy St lliva*'. which took place ' in the previous April. Mr ALvkay was . treacherously attacked in his tent on the • morning after his arrival, by a uatiyc named ’ Rurv, who had murder for his object. Mr. i Mack av, fortunately, being more powerful I than his would be murderer, succeeded in I beating him off. This ofiieer held a much * higher rank than Mr and was j in the execution of a purely (hr/ernment, of ; police, duty, whereas Mr. Hi KsrHorsj);; mission was dependant nu the rhe ‘ Natives, o. fact which m beat shown by I he Hon. the Native MinisOer* rco«mt cherts to . negotiate for the permissive Minwey and con- i struction of a projected line of rail way from . Waikato to New PlyntuutlL Having thus! contrasted the two casus wk Would cull car- ; nest attention to the rOHuUs in *-‘ach, In Mr HubhtijoVoeS case, msr.i-J pivyiarutiotis are i nuidcq and hoatile action threoDjned, In Mr Mackay's case Rcru remain* at large to the ‘ present day, unmolested, ay.d unuisturbe i • by any fears of proceedings on the part- of • the Native Minister, It will doubtless be ; in tho recollection of oup readers that a few : months ago Tawhjao, the ao-eallvd Maori} King, ami a number of. his follower**, trav- ; . eilci through Waikato), as far as Mercer, : ! under the guidance of Major Mair, the (io- ; vernment Commissioner, a special train being i , provided for their convenience. Among the ; l distinguished individuals w ho thus travelled | ' »,t the expense of the colonists w’as Mr j - Mackay'-' friend Ri k».’. It was a curious • ! c.»incidence that at Waerenga, a place J j between Rangiriri ami Mercer, the special ■ | train conveying Major Mair, Tawhiao, | Ruru, anti the other King Natives | I was shunted, in order to allow the i ; ordinary passenger train from Auckland to i | pass. Mr. .Mackay happened to be in it, ! and was recognised by some of the Natives ; ' j i he special train then proceeded to Mercer. > During the passage Ruri; was informed that ' ■ Mr. Mackay had passed in the other train, 1 j a fact which so frightened him that after ar- | | riving at Mercer he bulled back on foot into | j the King Country, alleging that he knew ■ ; ?Jackay would kill hhn if he saw him, and ' - that he Was not safe "'out of bounds.’’ Drawing attention to the pardon extended | ' by Mr. Bryce to the blood-stained Tk. I i Kooti, aitd the very abject manner in which, i the Hon. gentleman forced his hand into ; the palm of that arch rebel and murderer, I and the very cautious manner in which Te ■ Kooti received his overtures, and “ taking • one consideration with another,” we are enI tircly al a loss to conceive what ■ there is in the stoppage and detention j of Mr. ID’Rsthouse ami his party to justify I the hasty* and vain-glorious threats of the ! Native Minister or his martial preparations j for plunging the Colony into complicated I difficulties. Thanks to Mahpj’s drunken- ■ ' ness, or madness, or whatever it was, the ; i Colony haej Been spared this disaster, but it ; is not Mr. Bryce’s fault that it has been so ■ spared. Mahcki’s madness has been tho ’ country’s gain, ami Mr. Bryce stiL retains | his laurels. But after all this mountain of . difficulty arising from a molehill of survey ; stoppage, we feel inclined to ask Mr. Bryce J whether he is prepared to arrest the intirI derers of lIMOTHY Scllivan, and Mr. : Richard Todd, who was treacherously shot ■ down while engaged in a,Government - .survey : within the boundaries of the confiscated ‘ territory of Waikato. Comparisons we ■' know are odious, especially to the Whitakeri K’').lK'T<in- Bryce regime, but it is a signi- ' licant fact that Mr. Todd was a Government * Surveyor, having no influence with the Government, while Mr. Huksthouse is a scion i of the dominant ' families of Taranaki, and may be looked ■ upon as being therefore under the special i protection of the Behemoth Bank of New i Zealand. Need we look for further reasons j I why Mr. Todd’s murder goes unpunished ! and Mr. Hcrsthouse’s detention is made a ' ! pretext for war ? Well ! we ask the question, ■ i and Echo answers in trumpet tones, “.Puri' j ’ haka.” I