SYDNEY TAIWHANGA.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1334, 26 July 1883, Page 3

SYDNEY TAIWHANGA.

The Hawke's Bay " Herald ” of the 28th ult. gives a most amusing account of an open-air meeting, , held bySydney Taiwhanga, in Napier. He bad with him a book filled with clippings from European and Colonial newspapers, another containing the Treaty of Waitangi, a history of England containing the text of Magna Charta, and a volume of proceedings of the Aorigiues' Society, from all of which be quoted largely. _ Sydney first addressed the Maoris. The Maoris (he said) had certain grievances which they wanted redressed, and it was his object to teach them to do so lawfully, and not by force-—that 11 the pen was stronger than the sword. 1 ’ For forty years the Maoris had tried the sword, and had been beaten, and lost the lands into the bargain ; it would have been better if they had taken the pen in hand at first. He urged upon the natives the necessity for being united, for without unity they would be weak, and would never get what they usked for ; as the pakeha proverb said, “ Unity is strength. 1 ’ If they kept within the law they were sure of redress, But that redress would not be obtained from the Colonial Government—no fear, not if they tried for a thousand years. All he asked for was fair play between man and man, black or white. There were plenty of rumours about his charactor which were put in the papers. There was a law of libel and for defamation of character ; the newspaper men should remember that. He treated those statements about him contempt, Taiwhanga then proceeded to read a letter he had received from the Aborigines’ Protection Society while in England. A lively altercation then took piece between Sydney and Messrs Grindell and Locke, in which the latter accused Sydney of surveying five acres for fifteen, and of including a whole Maori population and children yet unborn in a list of children attending his school ' Sydney retorted that it was a case of the kettle calling the pot black. He then went on to say that he had his license of surveyor taken away because he opposed the land-sharks, and £3OO worth of instruments “ went to pot." As to the school returns, he was told that all the grown up people were interested in education, and even children unborn, so he counted them all. The meeting at this point suddenly broke up.