THE COLONIST. NELSON, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2,1860.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 308, 2 October 1860, Page 2

THE COLONIST. NELSON, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2,1860.

Again we return to the Papers on Native Affairs; and in so doing let us see how things progressed. In January, 1860, his Excellency writes home— * I bave accepted the offer of a chief named Teira to sell a portion of land, provided he could prove an indefeasible right to it." He has since done so, and part of the purchase money has been paid. 'I am told W. King objects, and that difficulties may ensue. However, /am not afraid; I have taken every precaution.' Then comes a curious finale: —'I trouble your Grace with the present despatch only as a matter of information, and trust it may not be necessary to refer to it again.' What other motives but that of information could he have to write, and what was the information it contained ? Why neither more nor less than that, so far from his chief Teira having proved an indefeasible • title to sell the land in question, W. King is pioved from the very outset of the affair, to have denied Teira's right to sell. This however his Excellency pooh-poohd, and tells his Grace of Newcastle it is all fagon de parte on the part of W. King. Acting upon this principle, it appears that the Chief Land Commissioner is dirt cted to write to the Assistant Land Commissioner at Taranaki, stating that the Governor, &c, ' has determined to accept Teira's title, and that he is to take immediate steps to make W. Kin<? and his party fully aware of the Governor's firm determination to complete the purchase, and that he is to set about the necessary survey; but in case of any resistance being made the survey staff is to retire, and he is to intimate to Lieutenant-Colonel Murray that the assistance of a military force is necessary, who will thereupon, agreeably to instructions he has received, take * military possession of the block [of land, we presume], and the survey be prosecuted under the protection of the troops.' Those instructions being, that, in case of any resistance on the part of W. King or any other native, he is to 'call out the Taranaki militia and volunteers and to proclaim martial law.'' All this takes place in the month of January last. It would appear, from the Colonial Secretary's letter to Colonel Mur-

! ray, instructing him respecting the extent to which the proclamation of martial law is to extend, 'that he is not to have recourse to that power unless, in his opinion it was impossible to carry out the wishes of the Government without doing so.* In the month of February the Governor writes to the Home Secretary, stating that, ♦contrary to the expectation I expressed in my last, W. King has resisted the survey of be land purchased from the chief Teira. No violence was offered, luV— but what? why— «the unsettled state of the tribes north and south of that district and the continuance of the king movement induced me to take every possible precaution to prevent bloodshed, the consequences of which it would be impossible to see.' Well, then, notwithstanding all his Excellency's pro^nostica tions, blood has been shed. And those consequences have followed which his Excellency says it would be impossible to foresee. He then enumerates the various steps he had taken as precautions rather than from any expectation of any serious difficulty. There then follows a very sensible and pertinent representation of the state of affairs at Taranaki from the Superintendent of that province to his Excellency, dated February 21st. But we have two despatches of his Excellency to the Home Secretary, explanatory of his movements, and his endeavor to get lan interview with W. King by asking him i to come to him, which however he seems to have declined; having, we presume, lost all confidence in the word of the white people. We next come to another despatch, of the 22nd March, No. 23, in which it appears that, 'notwithstanding his most sanguine expectations and endeavors on his part to avoid hostilities, a collision had taken place.' And then his Excellency arrives at the conclusion that the contest of W. King is merged in the far greater one of nationality.' This despatch alone would afford room for comment far beyond the limits of ordinary criticism; lor it is evident, from the whole tenor of his Excellency's observations, that he has shifted his grounds of contention with W. King and the right of Teira to sell this * comparatively valueless block of land,' and gone to the far greater question of what he terms the 'king movement;' which however, with all due submission, we think is a misapplication of terms; and that what is here termed the * king movement' is nothing more nor less than the endeavor of the existing native tribes to form a strong combination ol the nature of a 'land league,' with a view of stopping any fuither alienation of their territorial possessions; and we think we are fully borne out in our ■view by his Excellency's own view of the case, for in the tenth paragraph of his despatch he says:—' I now turn to what is in my opinion the real question at issue: the Maoris have seen with alarm the numerical increase of the Europeans, and recognise with bitterness of heart their own decrease, and that the king movement and the land league are only the practical results of these feelings. And tribes heretofore at deadly enmity with each other have all buried their tribal quarrels and are ready to unite to arrest the progress of the Europeans and throw off their dominion.' His Excellency then proceeds to state that the Maoris have taken, not only himself but the whole military force and their stereotyped mode of warfare, by surprise, and that now, as in all the former collisions between the two races, the skill and tactics of the natives always baffle the Europeans. In shoit, his Excellency, it would appear from the tenor of his despatch, had arrived at that point from which *it would be impossible to foresee the consequences.' And certainly, judging from the tone oi his Excellency's lachrymose despatch, he finds himself upon anything but a bed of roses. We next come to what we suppose is to be taken as an authentic report of what took place upon the original offer of Te Teira's land for sale, dated 12th March, in which, whatever weight may be attached to it, there is this declaration on the part of W. King:—'Notwithstanding Teira's offer, I will not permit the sale of Waitara to the pakeha; Waitara is in my hands, I will not give it up: repeating thrice I will not, and adding, ' I have spoken,' and then with his followers very unceremoniously took himself off. There is also this addiiional fact, that Paoro, a native, told the Governor that Te Teira could not sell the land he had offered without the consent of Weteriki and himself; but it does not appear whether they subsequently consented. So that, at all events, this does not appear to have been a block of land to which Teira had an indisputable title. ..-.-..