A DICTATOR FOR NEW ZEALAND. Extraordinary Proposal by Sir Bartle Frere.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 210, 9 July 1887, Page 4

A DICTATOR FOR NEW ZEALAND. Extraordinary Proposal by Sir Bartle Frere.

Among the unpublished document? proeented to the Auckland Free Library by Sir George Grey appears the following remarkable scheme, which was .submitted to the English Government by fcJir H. Bartle Frere :— India Office, November 8, 1569. We received last week particular* of the military reductions contemplated by the Government of India. They involve the immediate discontinuance of active employment to a great number of Emopcan officers and "men, all in the prime of life and efficiency, and also the reduction of a groat number of efficient native officers and soltliers. Many of these officers and men have been specially trained in frontier sen ice «gainst semi-barbarous and active enemies in very difficult country. I oiler here no opinion as to the wisdom of any reduction. I merely regard it for the moment as inevitable. •At the same time wo have in the rewsan admirable letter from Lord Carnarvon, pointing out that England is risking a multitude of lives of innocent people, the ruin of a flourishing colony, permanent antagonism of two races of British subjects, -And great loss of national credit and honour ibr want of a few thousand men -u ho will cserve as soldiers for a few years in New •Zealand. India, in fact, wants to dispense with ■exactly what New Zealand wants* to ae•quire. Would it not be possible to arrange so •that both parties should attain tlieii object? All that seems tequisito i» that both parties should act in concert. 1. Let India say to the dKeers and soldiers she does not require — Officers and soldieis are wanted formervice in New Zealand. The Government of India desire now to dispense with the immediate &er\ Ilc^ of — officers and — men of H.M. English and Indian armies as shown in the Government notification of the . and up to that number oftei\s the following term-, to all who are willing to engage with the British Government to serve in New Zealand foi periods of say two, three, fivo, or more years : — 1. A free passage to New Zealand. 2. Indian pay and allowances at the rales drawn last month by each man, during "voyage, and for three months after landing In New Zealand. 3. Service under these engagements to count as service in India for pension, etc., to ail entitled to it by their existing engagements with the British or Indian Go\einments. 4. Officers or men accepting service in Kew Zealand on the»o conditions will not be entitled to any leturn passage from New Zealand to India oi England At the expjm-e of the Indian Government. 11. -The Biitiah Government should engage :— J. To make the agreements for service in New Zealand in conjunction with the Indian and New Zealand Governments. 2. To pay officers and men received from the Indian Government from the oxpiration of the three months' term after landing, debiting the amount as a loan to INew Zealand. 3. To appoint, in conjunction with the New Zealand Governmental Military Dictator, with full military and ehil authority «nder commission from the Crown to settle the Not them Island. 111. The New Zealand Government should engage : — JL To repay the loan advanced by the British Government, and to respect the engagements made with officer and men. 2. To otter, free or at u educed rates, grants of land, in properties varying according to rank, to all officers and men, natives of India or China as <well as Europeans, who after completing not less than ' two years' service under these engagements, c may take their discharge frojnJler Majesty's service, and agree to settle in New Zealand, _ By some such plan tiac -Government ol ilndia would get rid of the busden of officers jind men it does not need in less than si.\ • months, and moie completely than by any Other plan, consistent with the contentment df the men and observance ,of existing engagements. .The British Government wokld effect reductions in a manner whadb\v/te>yld secure a«olony, and ultimately set/tie ■ a. considera!j3.3 number of officers and men, in > positions ■where they would be a source <oi strength to the colony and empire in time to come, and this without ultimate .cost to the British taxpayer. Nc v Zealand would settle i2w Northern Island, and render it a peaceable tfivi&ion oi a gcept dominion ; and having reduced the turbulent natives to obedience, instead oi exterminating them (the inevitable alternativg), might not only seetms rfihean as a contended and loyal portion of Ike j population ing&iture. but add to tfoeni.aiijidimbei of valuable English colonists, vifch, possibly a sprinkling of natives of Indis^, .Ohiea, and Polyaegje. If peajpednd good order were reatat-sd to the Noufch.fni Island, its land and o£\tfz resources under a reasonably £>ood governing:, speedily repay aity iQit&ay really oec^otry to effect the pacifreatioji. But pQysgtfaent pacification and g&w} government ?xius>t be preceded by a ttjlesi" enforcement^ somebody's gupremacy ap'l unless that is Queen ViefconiiSA*itnaust, imtite Jong run, be that of some other power, -et jEuropean origin, and \vsill foe enforced ;by,^iprocess of gradual fillibusfcering, alternate jmassacre of whites aud Maoris, and uiti»;a/te exterminatioh of fchs latter. Under Queen 'yj^ioria's supremacy, per^ manent pacifiaatjipji ,and good government .are not only e&mpat/jUe with, but will be by,a due reg&rd for native rights, ? and by everything can conduce to $he permanent benefikaf iihe nativo popula#on. '^Vhat is now requi-red-is^iuch a moderated ( eefe£mate of nativo rights ,ancl possibilities ,as,piay be consistent with 6he fact that if things are left alone to .dijitft uncontrolled, ,th_e extermination ,ot whole race, ,with -jtjieir rights and ,Qap&i)ilities, ig, hui^anV speaking, inevitable. I believe a Military Dictacor to bo essential tp ifoe perfect success of Any such scheme, because absolute authority for a time, and responsibility— ultimately to the Crown and .the British nation, but, during the progress of events, only to God and his own conscience— is essential. I know that Her Majesty possesses many «uch officers, capable, with a moderate allowance of men and money, of reducing to obedience the whole Northern Island, and of giving reasonable security of life and property to all who live there - officers who may be safely entrusted with the necessary amount of aulhority.and who, Her Majesty may be assured, will exercise it with regard for the lives, property and rights of the poorest of her subjects, natives as well as Europeans.

Such a Dictator will nob be found among men who rely habitually on an Algerine policy of reprisals and village burning— of sotting tribe against tribe, and of driving out the devil of war by the Beelzebub of bribery and bad faith. But there are many accomplished soldiers who have tewed in India and China, and there learnt the art of civilising barbarous races in plac« of destroying them — an art in which which Englishmen employed in India, from the days of Cleveland to our own, have rarely been deficient. The officer employed should have ample means given him to make roads and to secure communications, as well as to light. A corps or two of Indian* and Chinese pioneers, trained to work as well as to defend themselves, would do much in this way. Every road, wisely planned and properly made, ought to pay for itself by the land it would open out. H. B. E. Frere.