The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 1887. THE NATIVE POLICY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1559, 1 March 1887, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 1887. THE NATIVE POLICY.

That Mr Bryce should feel annoyed at the success of Mr Bal lance's Native policy will not surprise any one. He went.very close on making a great reputation for himself as a Native Minister, and it is only human that he should teel anoyance at finding success attending a reversion of the policy which had gained fame for him. Mr Bryce came first to the front in 1881, when he resigned bi 3 portfolio because the Hall Ministry would not give him his own way with regard to Native matters. This incident would not hare enhanced his reputation greatly only for what happened subsequently. He resigned his portfolio as Native Minister on the 21st of January, 1881, and on the 4th of the following February Mr Rolieston was appointed Native Minister in his stead. Great things were expected of Mr Holleston's administration of Native affairs. Somewhere back in the dark ages of the colony Mr Rolieston bad served an apprenticeship to Native matters, having been employed as Under-Secretary, or something oi that* sort, in the Native Minister's Department, and it was expected that his early training would have enabled him to become a great Native Minister. These great expectations, however, were never realised. Before many months Mr Rolieston had made a complete mess of Native affairs, and in the following October the government found it necessary to beg of Mr Bryce to ceme back to manage Native matters as he saw fat. Mr Rolieston left the Native office on the 19th of October, 1881, a discredited Native administrator, and Mr Bryce came in on the tide of popular estimation as the only man who could manage the Maoris. He did manage them. Owing to tbe muddling way in which they had been managed before him he found them bordering on rebellion. At enormous cost to the colony he gathered an army of volunteers, arrested Te Whiti and Tohu, took them \\ox a pleasure trip round the colony, paraded them everywhere, treated them like lords, destroyed tbe Parihaka village together with the crops of the Natives, did several illegal things, and then passed a law giving him power to keep Te Wbiti and Tohu in gaol as long as he liked. He went to work libtj a second Cromwell, and of course he put down the disturbance, but it cost the colony a great deal of money, Everybody thought this was the correct way to deal with the Natives until Mr John Bailance came into power. He at once reversed the policy of Mr Bryce, and adopted what is generally known as the " One Policeman " policy. He reduced the standing army Mr Bryce had called into existence to a minimum, and thus effected great saving in his department, and though a great cry was raised against him he held firmly to his own way of doing business, Instead of overawing the Natives by riding about on a white horse amidst a forest of fixed bayonets, as Mr Bryce was wont to do, Mr Bailance 6poke reasonably to them ; listened to their grievances, promised to redress them, and very soon they learned to love and esteem him. Te Whiti again became turbulent, but Mr Bailance had him arrested very quickly, and instead of puradiug him through the calony he had him tried, convicted, and punished. Te Whiti was fined £IOO, which compemated thu country for the expenses incurred on his account ; on tbe Bryce plan tbe colon? would have to pay for showing him over it. It was bard on Mr Bryce certainly to have been shown up in the way he has been by the thorough and statesmanlike way in which Native affairs have been administered by Mr Bal anoe, He had made a reputation by a fluke, and for bim to exhibit a little petulance on fiadiog the wind knocked out of his sails is perhaps pardonable, although most people will not refrain from indulging in a smile at bis expense. Mr Bryce now consoles himself with predicting that the Natives Acts passed into law bf Mr Bailance will remain dead letters, So d|d Mr Rolieston assert that the regulations drafted by Mr Bailance for settling people on tbe land would not work, but Mr Bailance has settled people on the land by the thousand under them, and as he is loved by the Maoris so is he loved by dwellers on village settlement sections. To use a colloquialism, "The proof of the pudding is in the eating of it." We do not undsrstand Native affairs sufficiently well to undertake to give an opinion on the Nativs Acts referred to by Mr Bryce, bnt we feel certain that Mr Bailance knows thoroughly what he is about, and we have not the slightest doubt but that they will prove as successful as his land regulations,

In the beginning of bis administration Mr Bailance met with much opposition from the persons whose interest it was to keep up Native discontent. Thefla people profited a great deal by i he presence p{ the Armed Constabulary force j they had to supply them with lood and drink, and when t|),ey were removed by Mr Bailance the interested cereona raiaed a terror-stricken cry, and

urged that he was abandoning them to Native rapncity. Mr Ballance told them it was not the protection but the custom of the Armed Constabulary they wanted, and stuck to his " One Policeman " policy with the best results. These people do not like Mr Ballance, noither do the land sharks and others who lived upon trafficking in Native lands ; be has destroyed corruption and treated the Natives honestly, and the result is that peace, contentment, and goodwill reigns amongst them. The otherday when,on account of some superstition, two Maoris were killed by their tribe, and when Te Kooti was preparing to visit Poverty Bay, Mr Ballance's enemies were sitting down to make capital out of it. Mr Ballance sent word to Te Kooti not to go, and he obeyed. Does tbis not show the respect in which the Native Minister is held ? As regards Te Kooti's conduct, Mr Bryce above all others ought to be held responsible for it. Te Kooti is the greatest and most bloodthirsty scoundrel unhung. He was the prime movar in the Poverty Bay massacre, the most atrocious that ever was perpetrated, and yet Mr Bryce pardoned him and shook hands with him. And yet in the face of tbis he talks of Hiroki escaping punishment. VL'bere is nothing like brazening it out manfully. This is all that is left to Mr Bryce now, and he is making as much as he can out of it. It will, however, take more than that to dislodge Mr Ballance from the position ha holds in public estimation; no amount of bounce can do it, and it appears to us that nothing else id now left for Mr Bryce.

TRAVELLING BY SEA. At the Wellington Magistrate's Court the other day the second officer of one of the Union Company's steamboats was charged by the quartermaster with having assaulted him on the voyage from from Wellington to Greymouth. The facts were, according to the complainant, thit while ho was steering the defendant struck him a violent blow in the face and said that the voeuel was Dot beina - steered properly. In answer to questions put by the defendant he denied that he was asleep at the time or that the vessel was heading for the land. The defendant, on the other band, stated that finding the vessel was not being steered in its proper course, he went to the wheel and found complainant nodding. He pushed him aside and put the wheel hard to starboard but did not strike the complainant. The Magistrate considered the assault proved aod fined the defendant Is and costs. Such is the story told in the Wellington Police Court. If the evidence of the second officer with regard to the quartermaster nodding while in the discbarge of such an important duty be true, it is by no means a pleasant matter for those who travel by sea to reflect upon. Every now and again the colony has been shocked beyond expression by the news of some terrible shipping disaster, but exhaustive nautical enquiries have -elicited no satisfactory explication as to the cause. The case quoted suggests a too probable cause, and the thought that while one is quiet'y sleeping, unconscious of danger, some overworked seaman, unable to resist nature's demands for rest, iB nllowing the vessel to drive on to her destruction is one that jars terribly on the confidence of the travelling public. The story as told by the second officer no doubt weighed with the bench, for while regading the assault proved they only inflicted a fine of one shilling and costs. The seamen are k«pt hard at work all day loading and unloading at the various poits, and at night they have to attend to their duties as sailors. It stands to reason that they cannot work night and day without rest, as they are often required to, and it is probably to overwork of this kind some of the disasters are due.