The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, ,APEIL 14, 1883.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4454, 14 April 1883, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, ,APEIL 14, 1883.

We have no desire to stultify the operations of Mr Bryce ia settling native difficulties, bat some attention most needs be drawn to the fact that the " might is right" system of travelling over lands without the consent of its owners may lead to direful results. The' Native Minister—in a spirit of high-handed authority, and confident in the power of strength—proposes to follow his onward march through a couutrj belonging to other people. Temporizing has, in certain cases, proved a failure, but the wisdom of riding rough-shod over the rights of a people may be questioned; therefore, Mr Bryce, it appears to us, should wait a little before he proceeds on his tour through the King country. The meeting of natives at Te Euiti appears to W conducted in a very reasonable ma •

ner. The natives are very naturally dubious as to the amount of benefit to be derived by them from their lands " passing through the Court;" they are rationally discussing certain amendments which they wish made to the law regarding their possessions, and evince a disgust, which appears reason* able, at the way in which proceedings are carried on in the various Land Courts. The letter of the chief Wahanui—upon which so much discredit has been thrown— only asked for delay, to allow the owners of the land time to consider their position and even the victorious Bryce cannot say that such a thing is iniquitous. The natives, unused to the ways of the legal European submitted their lands to the courtsof the latter, so that ownership could be settled, and titles adjusted ; but the bitter experience they have gained is making them more cautious than they hitherto hare been. The lawyer and the oyster fable has been too fully exemplified in their case; they, in many instances, have presented their bivalves to the legal adviser they had to depend upon, and the contents have disappeared, while they have been left despondently contemplating the shells. The Maori is awakening to a sense of loss owing to his past carelessness, and sooner than see his land dwindle into dim insignificance, he wants to assert his rights in his own rude fashion. If the desire of the reigning authorities is that an equitable adjustmerit of the question shall ejasue, it is only necessary that the native mind should be shewn how the thing is to be done. So long as the tour of triumph now being followed is pursued, vexation will continue. It is reasonable in the face of present evidence to suppose that the recent trouble arises from the aboriginal's objection to be despoiled of his heritage, and until the existing system of "bnd sharking " is defunct, we most expect to meet with native difficulties. The Maori, it must be remembered, is not devoid of intelligence, and he is as much entitled to resist a robbery of his property as would be his paler neighbour. The attempts now made to coerce the natives are unwise ones, and although Mr Bryce may have a triumphant march over the King Country, the passage through will not have any marked beneficial effect; he w ill leave bitterness and enmity, where now only exists a righteous opposition.