KORERORERO TORONGA.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 June 1920, Page 11

KORERORERO TORONGA.

Tales tliat are told of Maori and Pakeha, by liigoa Kore

Written for the Taranaki Daily News. (Rights reserved.) THE KING OF NEW ZEALAND.

Had our rulers in their wisdom seen fit to recognise and encourage l'otatau in his dosire to correct our blunders in attempting to misrule his people, the history of this country would have taken another and a better form. To us Po-tatau and Ta*whi-ao 'Were each known as "The Maori King," to them as "The King," and why not!—the Maori lias long been quoted as a proof that is is not possible to civilise barbarians, but the unhappy quarrel with the Maori was the result of errors which would not have been made by wiser people than we proved to be. The task of civilising would have baen easy if thoy had been met in the spirit which they showed us. After the .Maori people broke into open revolt, our stock and houses, and isolated people were spared, except in tho case of a pitched battle. In the ' beginning, and until we taught them,, there was neither damage, robbery, nor murder. Eventually the quarrel was a question oi the depredations of Pakeha cattle and the killlag of Maori pigs. I refer only to the first war, afterwards the Maori became as bad or worse than his enemies. In 1862 they refused to attack our road parties so long as they were upon land which had been sold to the Queen. In 1840 we bribed each man with a blanket in order that he might sign a treaty which he could not possibly understand. Those alone who "explained" the treaty to a people who knew nothing of the complexities of governorship and sovereignty and had no words in their language to define such positions, could renlise the hopelessness of the task. We at one time appointed Native magistrates, one of whom, Te. Oriori, whoso legal acumen would do credit to Lincoln* Inn. made a limit of sixty minutes for the hearing of each case, at the expiry of which, to the minute, he delivered judgment. The execution he eflected in Maori fashion by forcibly taking possession. This crude method was eminently successful with his primitive people. A little civilisation soon made them idle, and idleness made them mischievous. The policy of briberv with Hour, sugar and blankets disgusted them with our rule, and a demand arose for the "clean, honorable administration of a King. - ' Our political propaganda was made through a "neutral" newspaper, "The > Maori Messenger," published in Maori and English. It endeavored to side with the Queen's subjects and the King Maoris, the Anglicans, and the Wcsleyans, the Governor and the Chiefs, with what result one may now only imagine. The new King endeavored to suppress the evils of rum by punishing the seller of poison, while the Government insisted .that tile poisoned victims were the real criminals. The result was that the police feared that the arrest of a drunken and riotous Maori, even in the city, would precipitate war. The desire to conserve their ancestral lands, and to avoid secret and dishonest sales on tho part of their own people, such as the Waitara sale by Te Tcira to Governor Browne, mjide it imperative that their own King should control all lands, as the only means of escaping the destructive quarrels. Te Heu Heu summed up the reasons of their desire to be "decently ruled like the people of far off England," in saying to Sir Ceorge Gray that "the riff raff of the whites loosed their cattle in the Maori gardens, made the men drunk, and the women dissolute, and then those who taught politics and religion took their land. The Maori wil fioon be eaten up and cease to be, therefore we will have our own King, yours being too far off to supervise you or us. Like Shilpi of the Bible we always regai'de<T the tongue as a constructor, not as with you, a mere commentator." One final attempt to abolish the sale of rum to his people was made soon after Sir George Gray returned to New Zealand, when Wiremu Tamihana demanded that the State records should bo searched. Memorials frota all the Waikato tribes were there found setting forth at the inception of tho King movement their cry to the Government for help to put an end to the trade. This had actually received the approval of the Ministry and the Governor; but some subordinate official pigeon-holed it, and the whole matter then stopped just short of action, thus confirming the Maoris in their opinion thst the Government cared more for their own revenue and (the income of many of their influential colonists than for the well-being of the Maori people. Potatau, the King elect, said his people "were in favor of the gospel of friendship and work for the people. The King of the Maori and the Queen of the English should cherish this and live in the same friendliness as though they were the Father and Mother of both races. A little work will produce food for the year, a little friendliness will produce sunshine in the heart for many wintry days." Despite oil protests made and good reasons given why a change of treatment was the only way to secure the loyalty of the Maori people, the Government turned deaf to all their pleadings, and threatened reprisals if the King movement was persisted in. If there is one thing to which a Maori is oblivious, it is a threat. The war of '63, though inevitable, was in the end precipitated through a natural misinterpretation by the Maori tribes. The news of the marriage of tho Prince oi Wales was celebrated in Auckland with rejoicings and huge bon-fires on all the hil] tops. These were believed to be the fires of defiance, and treated accordingly by the Waikato tribes, who, in accordance with their "rules of honorable warfare," first sent warning, then attacked all who ventured upon their land. Thus was the torch lit at our bonfire after its preparation by our vasodilation. What lamp has Destiny to guide Her children stumbling in the dark? A blind understanding—Heaven replied.