The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1881.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 4008, 2 November 1881, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1881.

Te Whiti is not as great a fool as he is sometimes thought to be, and however blinded he may be with his own selfimportance or his fanciful imaginings, it would appear he has sense enough to see that any trial of strength with the Government could have but one termination, namely, destruction to himself and his followers, and so he counsels peace. A telegram from Opunake says Te Whili and. Tohu addressed a meeting of 1500 natives on Monday, and told them there was nothing to fear, to keep together and not offer any resistance to the troops. In forcible language he said to his people, "If any were frightened and wished for their guns they had better shoot themselves instead of the white man, for resistance meant being killed like pigs." This line of policy is only that anticipated by those acquainted with Te Whiti and his followers, but ia what way the Governmnt will meet it, is not easy to foresee. Will an attempt be made to apprehend the Prophet and the principal malcontents ? and, by keeping them ia custody, destroy their prestige* and leave the great mass of the Parihaka natives without leaders. In time the people will probably disperse, and thus without bloodshed or violence an end may be made to the West Coast difficulty. If such a result be secured, the most violent opponents of the Government will give credit to the administration that has brought to conclusion a state of affairs not only injurious to the native people, in that it kept alive among them rebellious feelings, and prevented that intercourse between the races so much desired by all true colonists, and to the country at large in that it retarded its progress and prevented a large district from being profitably occupied. There is a great deal to be said on the sfde of the natives, and their case is putjforcibly by the Lyttelton Times in a recent article. The writer says :•—We are dealing with the weak and miserable remnant of a fine race, the original possessors of the soil. There is nothing to be proud of in the manner in which they have been made to retreat before the advancing tide of civilization. In spite of the fairest professions that have perhaps ever been made by a superior people dealing with aboriginal inhabitants, the historical record of the Maori race will uot be different from the

usual dismal chronicle of violence, dispossession and decay,. We haie cooped up these hapless followers of Te Whiti in the Waimate county for fifteen years, After many wars, we have admitted that they have rights to be respocted, grievances to be redressed, and promises to be fulfilled. We are always boasting to them of our superiority in religion, justice, enlightenment and money-making. Yet when we tell them witli insolent defiance that we must settle our people in their midst, we insist on their believing tliat everything must give way to this alleged need fur settlement. At this very moment we are preparing to assert this quadruple superiority of ours ; we are preparing to drive them into armed rebellion, which we make no secret is the necessary preiude to their disappearance by stress of war from the face of the eartli. No proceeding more arbitrary or high-handfd can well be conceived. We order them to accept our settlement of a difficulty that has puzzled everybody for a multitude of years, and we order it on pain of death. What wonder lhat they should refuse to recognise tins boasted superiority of ours P By the unseemly greed of land we display, wo encourage them to believe that our vauuted virtues, our religion, our sense of justice, our enlighteimeut, are all centred in the great pursuit of money-making. The original possessors of the soil received us kindly. Soon they made a treaty with us, and agreed to become tho subjects of the Queen of England. The gratitude they have experienced is of the color of much of the gratitude in the world. The least misunderstanding has brought the sword on their devoted heads. Their inferiority in the arts of civilisation has been powerful as a mark of derision, but without avail to save them from the punishment which shouid be reserved for those who are by virtue of the highest attainments responsible for their actions. And what fire and sword failed to accomp lish, the rum trade and the land speculator have labored unceasingly to bring about. At the present moment we are consistent. The sword flashes once more in the air. Once more the Natives are to be driven ruthlessly from their cultivations. Once more shall we see confiscations devised, under the pretence of war indemnities, to drive them from the lands of their ancestors.