THE WANGANUI CHRONICLE AND RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. “Vèritè sans peur.” WANGANUI, NOVEMBER 12, 1863.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 7, Issue 369, 12 November 1863, Page 3

THE WANGANUI CHRONICLE AND RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. “Vèritè sans peur.” WANGANUI, NOVEMBER 12, 1863.

It is but the veriest truism to say that not only the importance, but the vital necessity, of military roads throughout this island is universally admitted. Experience elsewhei-e has shown that the pick and the shovel have been equally as instrumental in maintaining the peace of a country as the sword, and no one caught at the value of the former as an adjunct to the success of the latter in our own case, than did Governor Grey on his arrival in Auckland two years since. “ On my arrival in New Zealand,” writes Sir George, “ I soon found that from the dense forests and impassable swamps which intervened between Auckland and the country inhabited by the Waikato tribes, and, from the want of roads and other . means of communication, it was impossible to commence operations against them with any hopes of success.” The road through the forests and swamps which lay between Auckland and the Waikato, was in consequence set about at once, but though the province paid the extra allowance to the military employed, their being put to this necessary work wits not sanctioned at home without considerable grumbling. Efforts have since been made to induce the natives, in various parts, to make roads tli rough their own lands at Government cost. Naylor, for instance, made one at Raglan, but it was eventually stopped when only a third of the way to the Waipa river, because of the objection which the King natives made to its going through their district, and similar projects in other

places were abandoned for the same cause. Last November the Government were desirous of making a road .from Oinata to Tataraimaka, and as the whole extent of it would run through unpurehased land, the Ministry deemed it advisable to take the opinion of the Attornej'-General on the right which Government possessed to do so. Mr. Sewell gave it as his opiuion that “the right of passage through a country, and ex necessitate the right of constructing all the ordinary means of passage, such as roads, bridges, &c., is an essential condition of sovereignty,” and “ that the Grown as Sovereign, by virtue of what is called its eminent domain , lias the right of making roads through such lands, in order to enable it to exercise its sovereignty.” Mr. Sewell, however, added, that as the Sovereignty was vested by the treaty of Waitangi in the Queen, who had only delegated to the Assembly the power of legislation over lands the native title to which had been extinguished, the Government possessed no authority at present to make the road desired. This opinion was forwarded to the Duke of Newcastle by the Governor, who requested that such instructions might be issued for his guidance, in relation thereto, as his Grace might deem necessary or expedient. The assistant law officer (Mr. Fenton) controverted this opinion, so far as it related to the want of power in the local legislature over native lands, arguing that the delegation of sovereignty was complete when the Constitution gave Superintendents power to make laws for the peace, order good government of their provinces. When Mr. Whittaker came into office in February, he confirmed Mr. Fenton’s view, and the Duke was advised accordingly. Only the answer to the despatch enclosing Mr. Sewell’s opinion had been i*eceived when the papers before us were printed, and in it the Duke says he “ should hesitate to admit, as a matter of strict law, that her Majesty had the power, without any legislative sanction, of appropriating for any purpose the acknowledged property of any of her subjects,” but even if it were true that the peculiar legal condition of New Zealand'! authorised the application of, this arbitrary principle, he is of opinion that the question cannot be dealt with as one of “ strict law.” Instead of admitting that the inherent power vests in her MaMajesty to make roads over native lands, he thus implies that Imperial legislation will be I'equisite to a greater extent than even Mr. Sewell had intimated ; what he replies to the more comprehensive opinion of Messrs. Fenton and Whittaker may in some measure, therefore, be inferred. The Duke goes on to state that, inasmuch as the attempt to make roads without the consent of the owners will, in any case, be likely to cause a revival of war in more than its original intensity, he is of opinion that the inhabitants of New Plymouth and other places should he without such roads, rather than risk imposing on the United Kingdom the cost, and on the colony the cost and dangers of a native war. “ I think (he adds) that her Majesty’s troops ought not to be employed in a war so originating ; and I think that, unless the colonists are prepared to assume its entire burthen they must be content to remain imperfectly provided with the means of communication, until they can persuade their neighbours, by peaceable means, to submit to what is for their common good.” If this were not penned in so grave a document as a despatch from a British Secretary of State, we should be inclined to think it was intended to be somewhat satirical ; but, as we must not adopt such a view, we may remark on the fallacy that pervades the generality of the Duke’s despatches wherever the settlers are concerned. The military roads are not roads made for the benefit of the settlers, as his Grace supposes ; the road to Tataraimaka was not to be constructed for the inhabitants of New Plymouth, but for facilitrting the movements and giving effect to the objects of the Queen’s forces. This island will never settle down quietly until the troops can move with safety and vapidity to any part they may desire, and the sooner the Duke knows this, and gives the Governor permission to use his customary discretion, the sooner will peace be established, and the more easily will it be maintained. The Duke of Newcastle never can write of the settlers except as a set of grasping, unpi*incipled individuals, who are never more delighted than when they are overreaching the natives. If he did but know the losses to which the settlers are daily subjected even by the mere uncertainty as to the future, and the friendly feeling with which the natives are nevei’tlieless everywhere treated except by an occasional blackguard or two, he would be no less surprised than grieved at the error which leads him so continually to misrepresent us. The present Northern war has assumed such comparatively gigantic proportions, the whole colony finding with amazement that an able general, with 5 000 British bayonets at his back, besides gunboats and other appliances, is obliged to remain for months at la standstill before a single position held by half that number of natives,) that his Grace may rest assured that wantonly to provoke a fresh war elsewhere is about the furthest remove from the colonists’ thought or desire. It is now clear that the sole principle which guides the Duke is a money one.: He lias no objection to making roads if it can be done without risking war, or without imposing any of the cost of it on the nation. He says, in so many words, if you like to pay for the war you may bring it on when you please, and do what you like with the native lands. But, under our present relations, while the enforcement of the Queen’s supremacy over native lands might possibly, or prob-

ably, create an outbreak where otherwise no outbreak would take place, roada must not be made into native districts, and a policy of expediency must alone be adopted. This is an apt illustration of what we wrote lately about the government of this country being, for a long while to come, necessarily obliged to adopt a temporising policy. No ministry can chalk out a line, however just, with any certainty of being able to adhei'e to it. The Governor must, to a great extent, be bound "By his* instructions, and what his ministers may r want to do, and feel that they ought to do, is in many instances obliged to be pared down or abandoned altogether. Road making was a great card in the policy promised by Mr. Domett last session, yet it has been entirely ignored during the recess. The Governor alludes in his speech to the necessity of the Assembly legislating on the subject, with a view to enable him to undertake the construction of roads on as extensive a scale as practicable “ at present.” Unless, however, the Duke can be induced to modify his instructions, we fear that no roads will be formed elsewhere than in those districts in which the native title has been extinguished either by purchase or confiscation.