THE KING COUNTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 93, 25 April 1900, Page 2

THE KING COUNTRY.

(Hawke's Bay Herald.) )ok telegrams yesterday reported a ale of Crown Lands in the King 2ou»try. There were nearly a thous.nd applicants for sections, and allowng for the fact that many applied for ;wo or more, it still indicates that a arge number of men are prepared to mdertake the pioneer work of settlenent in a district into which, less than iwenty years ago, it was not safe for a European to venture. " The Queen's writ did not ran there," Tvas the deslaration Of a Minister of the Crown, n warning a venturesome party oi »old prospectors not to cross the aukat\ ine. In those days he who would have seen bold enough to prophesy what ha< aappened in the closing year of the :entury-would indeed have been re jarded as an optimist. As a writer o in interesting article in the Neio Zea and Herald points out, only a com paratively few years ago, it was thi ;entre of Maoridom, and was probabl; mique in its way, for it was, in fac ind in law, a savage kingdom within i British colony. It is only seventeei fears since Mr. Hursthouse, a Govern nent surveyor, tried to make an over and journey from Auckland to Tara aaki, but was captured by the Maori: lot far from Te Kuiti, in the Waikat* listrict,and was tied to a tree when ie remained until he was released by i lumber of friendly natives. Accord ng to the writer in our Aucklaw namesake the King movement origi sated with Matene te Whiwi,of Otaki lear Wellington, who first preached thi federation of the tribes and the elec lion of a King. He marched with hi followers through the North, hotb irging the plea for union, and prophesy ing that the Maoris would be annihi ated if the tribes remained divided Many listened to him, but feuds am tribal jealousies stood in the wa' )f his scheme. He surmounted th" lifliflulties, however, and in 1854 i >reat meeting of the tribes was held md man after man swore on the sacrec ' mere" that no more land would b( sold to the white man, and that he wh< jroke the pledge should be slain. Thi acred mountain of Tongariro wai :hosen as the centre of the regioi ivhioh was to be Maori territory fo: ill time. The election of the firs ting was a great undertaking. Eventu illy, Patatu te Wherowhero, a Wai cato chief, was chosen, and his corona iion took place at the village e Sgaruawahia, in the winter of 1865 M!any of the natives really believec ;hat they, with their new king, anc ;tieir kingdom, would drive the whiti nen into the sea, and hold the lane ihemselves for ever; at any rate, thei vould isolate themselves from the in raiding race, and steadfastly maintaii iheir nationality. But hostilities broki >ut between the two races, and, as thi rears passed, the borders of the Kinj Country were pushed back. Whei :he war was over, settlement still ensroached on the little kingdom and th< 'mana" of the King rapidly fadec iway. And year by year advance has )een made, until now the King natives ;ell their lands to the Government, md they are openly advertised for sale, ind applied for without any fear that he title will be disputed, or their adrent resented. " The Queen's writ" low runs over every acre in New Zeaand. May we not draw from that a lopeful augury of what will happen at the Oape when British rule is ostab lished over the whole of douth Africa