Untitled

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3480, 19 February 1880, Page 2

Wha.tev.er faults we may have found with the general policy of the (government we cannot help admitting that the treatment of the Maori difficulty up to the present bids fair to settle the Waimate Plains dispute without gji appeal to arms. They %re evidently determined to steer ! clear of the pitfall, in the intricacies of which the late Government feli ? and to deal with the colored race in the same way as with Europeans. Eigorous enquiry has been njade into the Waimate Plains difficulty, and convincing proof obtained that the natives have a grievance, not of sufficient importance certainly to justify their late lawless acts at Taranaki, but still # grievance, which with other matters had a deleterious effect on the native mind. To remedy this, two commissioners have been appointed to fully investigate these grievances, though jit would appear from to-day's telegrams fchajt Te "jyiiiti has some objection to the personnel of the eommisgion. Wo will hail with'feelings of taiisfaction ,the settlement of the affair amicably as the /nnintenanco qf our little army at L Jarihaka iy jn itself a serious drain on the Treasury—the ps,y of the men alone a mounting to close on £100,000 per annum 5 end the nnsatisfactory nature of our relations with the natives cannot jimprove pur position with, the outside world, $ud if} 3orae measure affects our prosperity.