THE NATIVE MINISTER.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1098, 28 April 1883, Page 3

THE NATIVE MINISTER.

The Hon John Bryce, Native Minister, in responding to the toast of his own health at a banquet recently gives in his honor at New Plymouth, took the opportunity iu a somewhat lengthy orati u of defending his action in the late Maori difficulty. He denied the accusation made against him in a book recently published in England, entitled ‘ History of New Zealand,’ in which it is stated that daring 18G9 he hud been virtually the murderer of Nativo women and children, and accordingly denounced the author as “a liar, a slanderer, and a coward.” With reference to Te Kooti he thought that had that chief been excepted from the proclamation more harm than good would have accrued to the country as far as permanent settlement was concerned, and that as Te Kooti did not mean to be taken prisoner without resistance ho would have summoned bis men to arms and thus caused a considerable amount of difficulty which could otherwise be averted. It was therefore Mr Bryce considered himself justified iu shaking hands with the Native chief, an act which he did in the interests of the people and the requirements of public duty, and for which he ha I drawn upon himself unmerited reproach. He had accorded the Native chief this friendly meeting in order to obtain from him some assurance of his future good conduct, and having obtained that his refusal to shake hands with To Koooti would hare been tantamount to declaring the amnesty a delusion, and would actually have stultified the effect the amnesty was calculated to produce. It was therefore absurd to suppose that he shook hands with Te Kooti merely from personal inclinations apart from public interests. Did these reproaches emanate from those who had relatives and friends murdered, he could readily enter into the “wild feeling of revenge” which prompted their action ; but it was not bv them tlut the reproaches were hurled, but by partisans. He felt sure that Te Kooti was anxious to submit to our laws and give no further trouble, and though the Maoris were inclined to be submissive yet the}' were likely to protest against the Land Courts held in Cambridge, where, owing to delays, the costs had amounted to sums so excessive that iu many instances the natives had got little or nothing for their land. He held the legal profession responsible in this matter, and considered it a disgrace to the Colony, and more particularly' to the law, that such delinquencies should be tolerated in a free country as those which had now taken place at Cambridge, He did not profess, of course, to make any personal imputation, but thought that if the legal profession did not sustain their own honor, and the Supreme Court did not exercise sufficient control, then another power higher than that would have to interfere and eradicate that which was most objectionable.