THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOOK P.M. Resurrexi THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1879.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3188, 8 May 1879, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOOK P.M. Resurrexi THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1879.

The probable results of the native meeting commenced yesterday cannot be at all estimated from the speeches delivered then. It was only a tentative meeting at the best, and so Tawhiao considered it, from his recommendation to the tribes to, consider well what.be said, and having given his thoughts full deliberation to' come to the meeting on the morrow and announce their views, whether they coincided with his own, or were recalcitrant. What he did was to make an assertion of what he considered to be the rights delegated to him. He maintains by inheritance his position as lUng, and few people^ can be f6und r who .will differ from the gist of his assertions, unless such were intended to claim an undue extension of those inherited rights. When he asserts that all the land is his, he speaks as the guardian and representative of his people, and not as an individual

—an assertion of baronial right. When he says that he is opposed to all roadmaking through his land, he only repeats that which many a man in Great Britain asserted when railroad surveys, and lines were constructed and formed through their estates; but there it appears to us the limit should be fixed. If the natives object to sell land by all means allow them to retain whatever portion of their estate they choose in their possession, but there they should stop. This is the way to look at the matter from.an abstract or legal aspect, but unfortunately legal or abstract views of right or wrong are not dominant on this earth, hence the introduction into our affairs of "policy." What we cannot obtain as a legal right, and'where we have to avoid making use of might, policy alone can gain an advantage for us. Tawhiao yesterday said he wanted to fight bo more; he wished fighting put for away from him, and, as far as we are concerned as a people, we cannot afford to fight; we must keep peace at any price, as we want another loan for the prosecution of our public works; and should a shot in anger be fired our credit would be materially depreciated and the difficulties in the way of raising a loan' be almost insuperable. It would be idle for us to think that English moneylenders would reflect that, from Maori extirpation, enhanced value would be given to their securities; the very scent of blood would only make them more

wary in lending, and indemanding a higher rat© of interest. Then it will be seen that in order to have money " wo must keep peace," and money, it is very evident to all, we must have. It is idle for a few people living on the frontier, or those who would wax rich by bloodshed, to clamour for war; they have no claim to be heard, no right to be considered, and they will simply have to bide their time like people in other parts of the laud have done. Patience and firmness, tact and humanity are specially needed at this present juncture, and these qualities the Premier and the Native Minister evidently possess. We hear at times a cry, and an ignorant clamour to kill the native people off, but let our readers think for a moment what it means; let them reflect on the position the Maori occupies in the mind of Englishmen of all classes; let them remember that, like the sons of Israel, they have been singled out as a peculiar people—the dark skinned race, in the Southern waters, that men of all creeds and shades of opinion j have been led to pamper and instruct. These things being remembered (and especially when we know that the miserable earth hunger of our New Plymouth brethren first brought the Maori in late years into collision with the whites), men may well pause and consider who would be the statesman, willing to issue such an order for extermination, who was callous as to public opinion, and heedless of the infamy and obloquy that would cling to his name. Happily such a thing cannot be done in a corner, although many men say of the. Maori as was said of the fig tree of old, "Gut it down, why cumbereth it the ground." There seems to us no reason patent for any immediate hurry for the construction of the Auckland and r Taranaki railway. If it is not commenced this next financial year; it may be the year following '\ ; and, as the people at Parihaka were : told in reference to the Waimate Plains, " the pakeha can afford towait:" ; and it is better to lead and guide, than drive. England, in 'the present century, has gained nothing by fighting, that she could not have obtained by waiting, because all things come to those who know how to wait. Of course there will be a suppressed feeling of satisfaction among a certain class, at what Borne term the inauspicious opening of the meeting, but we can say to those who have the colony's welfare at heart, ""wait," and see what the meeting brings forth. Fools, only belong to the class of men who rush to such hasty conclusions. r . - .._,,.-.,,.....,„. !