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South Canterbury Times. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1881.

“ The ploughing difficulty near Otakeho has been satisfactorily settled,” Thus saith the Hawera correspondent of the Press Association, wiring from that place yesterday. It is one of the general instructions to the agents of the Association that they shall confine themselves to facts and offer no opinions ; but here we have a decided opinion telegraphed all over the colony. We do not make this remark with any intention of pointing out that an agent of the Association has ignored or forgotten bis instructions,,but to call attention to the opinion itself as one worth some consideration. It can hardly be the opinion of the agent alone, the naive manner in which it is expressed implying that he had not the slightest doubt of its correctness —which he must have had if he had not known that a similar view was entertained by others. But by what others ? After reading the whole of the telegram, which we published last night, one can scarcely avoid thinking that the person who sent it wa* a witness of what he describes, or received his information from first hands. And then arises the question, whence did he obtain his notion that the ploughing difficulty has been u satisfactorily ” settled. Surely not from the man who has been deprived of his land. Was it from the Native Minister, or the Minister’s party ? For our own part we cannot think the difficulty has been at all satisfactorily settled, if the correspondent’s account of what took place and the agreement entered into between Mr Hunter and the Maoris is a correct one.

The case appears to be this :—A Mr Hunter purchased a piece of land on deferred payment, and went to work upon it, leaving his wife and family at some older settlement for a time. The Maoris came down and ploughed up his land, or some of it, and apparently also sowed it. On the arrival of the Native Minister in the neighborhood Mr Hunter interviewed him, and asked what he should do. The Minister admitted that the Maoris were in the wrong, and offered to procure their removal or arrest if Mr Hunter wished-it. The latter, however, foreseeing that if be did desire such a thing and caused it to be done, he would certainly incur the odium of the natives and possibly bring about a general disturbance —in either case rendering his occupation of bis land difficult or impossible—wisely demurred to do anything of the kind. At this juncture a third person;

Captain Wilson, intervenes, and suggests that the Maoris should be allowed to retain the land, and pay, which they were willing to do, a portion of the crop to Mr Hunter as rent. After some consideration Mr Hunter accepted the proposition, and with the peacemaker, Captam Wilson, went to the Maoris concerned in this particular ploughing, and after some haggling with one of them, the proposal was accepted by them also. This is called settling the difficulty " satisfactorily.” It is a complete throwing up ©f the sponge, a manifest admission by Mr Rolleston of one of two things : either that as Minister for Lands he has allowed land to be occupied by settlers which belongs to the natives ; or that as Native Minister he cannot keep the Maoris within reasonable bounds. But perhaps this attitude of the Native Minister towards the case of Mr Hunter may be explained as coming under the “ let-alone policy ” of dealing with the natives, which has been so highly lauded for its success in the past few years. That policy has been successful, simply because there has been no occasion to do anything else but let them alone, they having behaved pretty well on the whole. But if they are going to be troublesome, the policy will not be found to work so sweetly. Besides, if it is a good policy, sound in principle, it will bear extension, and our petty and grand larcenisfcs, wife beaters and murderers may claim to be dealt with on the said-to-be-prored-to-be-admirable “ let-alone ” system. One passage of the telegram we have taken as a text is very suggestive; Captain Wilson said (or said they said) the Maoris “ had no other ground to cultivate.” Is this the secret of all the trouble about fencing and ploughing—that the reserves made for the Maoris are uncultivable by them, so that they are obliged to trespass on lands assigned for settlement in order to raise a sufficient supply of food for themselves? If Captain Wilson’s statement is correct it looks very like it. We have no personal knowledge of the country, but from what we have heard the only land in that district capable of cultivation, without a previous great expenditure of labor, is on the the Plains, and this land has been sold to white settlers. What, in such a case were the natives to do ? Everybody knows they claim the land, and that being the case, if they had need of it they would naturally try to use it. The very fact of their cultivating it shows that they have need of it, for it cannot be supposed they would go the trouble of fencing, ploughing, and sowing merely to assert a claim of ownership over it. The ploughing difficulty is yet a long way from being “ satisfactorily settled.”

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SCANT18811001.2.6

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2662, 1 October 1881, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
891

South Canterbury Times. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1881. South Canterbury Times, Issue 2662, 1 October 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1881. South Canterbury Times, Issue 2662, 1 October 1881, Page 2

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