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Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 188, 26 April 1860, Page 3

Mr. Thomas Carlyle mentions that a witness in a court of law defined a respectable man to be one that keeps his gig. If iu a similar way a person who keeps a horse may be considered a gentleman, then the great proportion of our maori friends are entitled to that designation, although the sight of them on horseback rather suggests to the mind a proverb more pithy than polite, which would assign them a place in society considerably lower and a destination more miserable still. So far however from there being any objection to their being so designated, there is high au- ] thority for calling them even noble ; provided the additional epithet be applied which was used in a letter that appeared in our columns some days ago. ‘.The writer of that letter having had 17 years knowledge of the natives must be accepted as a good authority, and as his prepossessions are said to be in their favor we may believe that he does not go beyond, but rather considerably modifies the expression of, his own inward conviction when he culls them “ gentlemen savages”—Let us not forget the name. Their external courtesy and decorum, their scrupulous attention to forms and ceremonies which might well put one who looked on these things as the expression of an inward feeling off his guard are not to be counted on. They may appear gentlebut they are really savages. It might have been thought that 20 years of intercourse with Europeans and a course of instruction nearly as long from Christian teachers would have done something towards civilizing if not christianizing them—but it appears from one of their own warmest friends that all this contact with what was higher and better has only rubbed off the ugly excrescences of their nature, and polished in a slight degree the external man. At heart they are still savage—-and so if left to themselves would relapse into their former predatory and anthropophagous habits. As we have received a nearly similar description of their character from another missionary, and as these gentlemen are naturally inclined to put the fairest construction on. the conduct of their native friends that is possible, the unwelcome conviction is forced, on us, that the late Governor Sir Geo. Grey, must have formed a mistaken estimate of them when he declared—“ that he believed that out of the native population estimated by himself at nearly 100,000, there were not more than 1000 who did not make a profession of Christianity ; and though he had heard doubts expressed about the Christian character of individuals, yet no one doubted the effect of Christianity upon the mass of the people and that, if Sir Geo. Grey was thus mistaken in their character, the leading principles of his government so far as it concerned them were fallacious and therefore dangerous. •He has already, in acts if not in words, confessed his mistake. For, called to govern a people who are also “ gentlemen savages,”— who are also many of them under missionary influence—who are also the slaves of their own miserable superstitions, hut. bolder and more expert in warfare —while he has used all peaceful means to promote civilisation among them, he has crushed opposition with a high hand, and has used measures to gain the mastery, which, if employed here when he had the opportunity, would without doubt have prevented the present distress and bloodshed. The present Governor has now happily entered on a course which, if pursued to its end, will as effectually subject Maori land to British rule as .Sir Geo. Grey has now subjected Kaffir land. *

The fighting may or may not soon be over, but we Know what will be the end of it. Whensoever it may end, there will hang over the land for some years the shadow of a fear, that will tend, to prevent immigration'on any large scale,.nnless Government, do something that will not only put down the present disturbance, but remove the fear of future risings. Nothing will do this so effectually as a system of good roads throughout the whole island, which will leave the natives no large territory to fail back on in case of a war, but will enable troops with ease and safety to penetrate to their inmost retreats and fastnesses. The first care of the Homans, when a new territory was added to their empire, was to open it by military roads. But such roads, if constructed here, would be more civil than military. They would do away with the necessity for soldiers. They would* ensure the peace of the country far more certainly than all the troops and cannon that could-be introduced into it without them,. They would be the channels of a

peaceful ami lucrative intercourse, which would make war too expensive, too certainly ruinous—even for Maorie3. The large staff of engineers at present on their way out to survey the island, gives a reasonable hope that the Government may, if it please, now secure the laying off of such lines of road. The heavy expenses of this war must carry home the conviction, that the penny wise and pound foolish system of policy hitherto pursued here has not been economical, and that money.spent in this way will not be lost. For the support of such roads, and it may be for the interest of the capital expended on them, an impost should be laid on the proprietors of the lands through which they pass. There can be no objection to this. The Maories are British subjects, entitled to all the rights and privileges of such individuals—one of which is, to grumble at taxation ; and if they do not like the enjoyment of this privilege, they may free themselves from the impost by selling their land. The Government is ready to buy it—and a little pressure of this kind would soon dissolve the great land league, so far as all practical purposes are concerned. And their being British subjects makes it furthor reasonable that they should be underßritishlaw.Therc will be no mixture of the two races until there is the same law for both. There is so at preseut nominally, but in the case of the Maoris it is not enforced. They are allowed to govern themselves by their own laws, and hence to a certain extent the idea of a Maori king has gained strength among them. Let this mixed system be brought to a close. Let a clear and simple statement of our judicial code, so far as it affects them, be drawn up and circulated among them, and if there were the easy access which a good system of roads would insure, the law thus made known could be enforced. The natives would thus be taught to look practically to Englishmen as their lulers, and the unwholesome influence of troublesome chiefs would be undermined and destroyed. British authority being thus paramount, not on great occasions merely, bu» in all those trifles which “ make the sum of human things,” 'such a disturbance as the present would be impossible.