The Thames Advertiser. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1874.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1872, 8 October 1874, Page 2

The Thames Advertiser. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1874.

The 'Southern Cross' is frequently exposing a lamentable amount of ignorauce in connection with native affairs, and as in the South, and even in the North, there are many who are apt to be misled by the confident utterances of a newspaper in the position of the 'Gross/ no small a-nouat of harm is caused. For the people in the South it may be well to trumpet to the world that the native difficulty is at an end, and that those who have been hitherto opposed to the progress of Europeans are eager now to forward the policy of railway and road making, but to talk in such a style is a mere mockery of us in the North, who are every day made to experience its utter untruthfulness. A few weeks ago, on the foundation of some transparently- absurd story sent by a correspondent, the 'Cross' announced that Tawhiao was willing to have the railway made through his country on the payment of 6d per foot of laud, and leading articles appeared gravely calculating how much this would be, and speculating whether the Maori King could not be cajoled into giving a yard for 6d, instead of a foot. This was sent through the whole colony, and the- Southern people seem to think that nothing more has to be done than to set about making the line. Of course those who know anything at all about the subject, those who have resided in a district' like this and have had experience of how the natives act, know that the story is tnero buukum, and for the'Cross'to contiuue insisting that it is true, when the fact that it is not true is causing stagnation and depression throughout the province,- is* unjust as well as absurd. -In its eager search for evidences " that the scheme of nationality by isolation has broken down," the ' Cross' has found , another proof, in the fact that a youug woman connected with the Kingites, has coiue to visit somo friends at Orakei. This is the latest proof that Tawhiao's policy of isolation has broken down, and that the native difficulty ia afc an

end. One evil effect of maintaining that there is no native difficulty is, that it brings the people of the South to support the Native Office in declining to take any steps to remove the evils and obstructions under which we suffer. When the' Cross' is engaged in proclaiming that the Kingites have the most friendly dispositions to us, and that Tawhiao is actually making suggestions in furtherance of the railway scheme, they are apt to set down as exaggerated, and as intended for mischievous purposes, the complaints we have to make that over whole districts of mountains prospectors are not allowed to walk, that the natives prevent us from making roads close to the town, and hold out threats that they will stop the navigation of the rivers. The tone taken by the ' Cross' materially assists the Native Minister in' pooh-poohing all our remonstrances. We believe that if the Aucklaud press had been faithful to the interests of the people of the province instead of to a political party, the Native Office would have been compelled to have taken such steps as would have placed this district at all events ill a very different position from what it occupies at present.