MASTERTON DEBATING SOCIETY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 888, 1 October 1881, Page 2

MASTERTON DEBATING SOCIETY.

. MR BBiOB's'vWLIOT. . ;Thj number of members in attendance W evening was rather!limited,, owing pobahly : 'tothe. meeting'not having been advettiieiariiiuaLi^MtT, O.D'Aroy toofe'fhe 'chair,in'the''absene* of the President, 1 ' and 'after tha minuter had been ; ead and/;cor^med,.pna new member Km admtiair? f : \rfi -: ut '■■:■■ ■■ . Mr Arnold jPpened the debate Mt«

whether'" The pqlipy of Mr Bryce on the Native question ,wm a-Bourid one.' 1 : He had been but a comparatively abort time in the colony, but Had'heard of the natives and of the native policy of Mr Bryce, and considered that Mr Bryce had proposed the beat sohema.for dealing with the native difficulty. Mr Bryce wai a man of long colonial 'experience, he understood the natives ai wall mßi did; Europeans, and wai therefore thoroughly fitted to deal with them. Mr Bryce.iaw that the natives were-amostintelligent race, and,would take sugar and blanket! as long, as ■they could proouro,th«m by: bounce, and fee thought it was time to put a stop to moha rotten' state of things. He proposed to march to Parihaka and bol.lly vindicate the laws, instead of jumpering natives like children. If Te Whiti would not give up the murderer 'he (Te Whiti) would.have been taken prisoner, and thus ended the natire difficulty by cutting off ito head and leaving the natives like a ship without a rudder. Other colonies were laughing at us for being a'raid of the Maoris, as a handful of them causod an, expenditure of thousands annually to a .yrhite population of many times their number." Had.Brype taken his men and settled thenative question as he had proposed to do, there would now have been no trouble on the Waimate Plains. Te, Whiti had been said to-be a quiet man, but, if any white man stirred up as muoh strife as he, a trip to Micaiah Bead would be inevitable for him. If anyone.did.wrong under Te Whiti's orders the prophet said they had interpreted his initruefione wrongly.. He thoueht Bryce would yet have.to. be; oalled on to settle native affairii," ' .

Mr Woodroofe, in replying, said he had several years' experience of the native race, and-also of the dealingi of. white men with them. He was opposed to Woodshed, and did not believe in Bryce's policy. Judge Martin, in Auckland, bad stated that two things were constantly raising up strife, and they were women and land, and he alluded in strong terms to the dealing of white men in the landi of the Maori. 20,000,000 aeres at the rate of 400 acres for a penny had been purchased in tho. South Island,, and natives were now starving in that island. He asked if that could be considered fair dealing. If the natives had jnstioe they could olairn all the landbaok again under English laws, as it had been bought under its value. If any race had been treated with cruelty, it was the natives of New Zealand A number of New Zealand settlers had been the orTieourinua of society, and some of them had bought bacon and other things trout the natives lor bright farthings {or sovereigns. He spuke bitterly of the Missionaries, and claimed that the natives were a most intelligent race, and understood the difference between' fair aid unfair dealings. They had acted towards ui nobly and fairly, while we had defrauded them with cruelty. They took,the blankets aud sugar with the feeling that they deserved plenty of them for their wrongs, and instead of the Maoris being wolves, as stated by Mr Arnold, it was the w'hitem'en who were the savages. He alluded to the wreck of Lord Worsley, whonths Maoris bravely rescued all the

passengers (rem the wreck, arid this while the ttoopi were killing their country* men in another part of the Island. They did the samo Rood action to another ihip. This proved they had a noble mind. They fought for the land at Waitara to prevent themselves being robbed, and there was not a man amongst us but would do the

same, Mr Bryce held that war should be carried into Parihaka. This would have been a terrible catastrophe, and therefore he Btood alone, and resigned. The white men had proved to be the natives' curie, and he did not blame the natives for wiiat they had done.—(Applause.) Mr Maathope held that the native race

instead of having been badly treated by white men had been most remarkably well treated. With regard to the nobility and kindness of the natives he. Instanced the wreck of a ketch, which the Maoris

watched drifting into the bay, They be came impatient, andbonrdad it, taking the four men who formed its craw whore and killed and eat them. Also the oata of the Missionary named Faulkner, whose Bjei a chief scooped out and ato; alio of the boat's crew who were pounced upon by the Maoris lying in wait, who ate two at at once, and kept the others to fatten; one escaped because he could not become adipose. With regard to natives starving in the South Island, he was in a position to say that such was not the case. ..' The . Government had laid off large reserves for them, and these had beoome so valuable through white men's industry that their owners lived in affluence from the rents. With regard to the price given to the Maoris for their land, he considered they had been paid in excess of its value to them before the white men came. He submitted that Maoris were in a better condition in every respeot now than when, the white man first saw New Zealand, and pointed out that the natives wire unable te walk freely about the land before the. white men came for fear of being oanghl and eaten by a dusky brother. (Applause and laughter), He apologised for net being able to refer to Mr Bryoe in the lime allotted to the speakers. Mr Park took the negative side and held that Mr Bryce bad no aotnal experience of Maories. He held that Mr Bryoe worked with Major Atkinson in native matters in order to keep up an expenditure in their respective localities.' He did not believe that to have captured Te Whiti would have deprived the Maories of their head, and instanced Te Kooti, who became a horo after escaping from the Chatham Islands and'had.thrown white women to pigs after outraging and killing them. The-expetf diture at Parihaka now on the armed, constabulary cost £4OO per diem, or the cont of 60 aores eaohday.: If they had advanced on Parihaka, Hiroki would simply have slipped into the King country where the whites' dare not follow him, and they could not have arrested Te Whiti ft* he had broken no law. Mr Grundy was in favor of Mr Bryce's' policy. Te Whiti had centred a lot of natives at Parihaka, and harbored thieves' and murderers. The natives committed depredations and defied Government' id punish them. A new comer in the colony came to the conelusion there was something wrong-either the whites were, afraid of the. Maories, or they we Tory tender hearted. It could rot be admitted that we were afraid of them, and the time for Sbeing lenient had now gone by. Bryce had gone to work in & statesmanlike manner. He had arrested all the young men who would have been likely to have defended Te Whiti and caused bloodshed, and then, everything being in. readiness, he would have surrounded Parihaka, demanded Hiroki, and if re-, sisted have taken Te Whiti. The fighting men away, there would have been no disturbance, and this he felt would have been the bestpolioyin the interests of the oolony, The present armed foroe was. oosting £1 per day to look after each' Maori at Parihaka, and ibis wai'yaluing. the natives a Uttle'tob highly.: ',:;' : ' ' Mr Hogg ipnke in the negative. He. stated the present state of affair* had been brought on by: the Native j ipbiicy of the Grey administration, in jforcing the Plaint into • Hh* J • «*rlrtt in order' to ; replenish •: their -empty: coffers; 'They \ hm ; seen their error and reotified, theljh blunder in office.' The present Ministry had not aoted fairly either with the Natives or with Mr Bryce j they had f showed the'

white feather all along, and would neither drive the Natives of the soil or preteot the eettlerij By leading so many men to the front the Goreraraent wen dennrin| them of their Votes, and thus prerent. ing them from helping to put a itop to. ihe preient itite of iffairi. ' The, Maeriei. wereright tofifht ferthi loil in wbioh laytheboieiof their-fore.f«h«». v W»::- • fact w«i| howtf tifj thVwfloltjwtoorwai whQ ; 'ica'ril ' • ; .inorderto.obtain,a.Ur({ii«p.*n(iitarein $ .. ; their Prerinee. The Maori that the.iettUr ! ■' Te Whiti wai Major Atkin«on|f[Mr : >\, Hew w«i allowed an'eitemion bf time of fire minutei, and made out) case against tho Government,' and the ■ land sharks, and eat down amid applause.]: : Mr R. Brown said it did nptcMtter where white men went they. alw»i hid • Native difficulty. He thought'the GoT«rniiiont htd mada a miitake iDinpriitrt* . in? Maeriei and then They ihould hare exported :tW» aa freiu most or Ohriity Minatrili,! Al* though the). Maoriei had beei h'Mshly treated, Bryce's pMioy would havS been -. the heitat; the time'he adrooatei if.! Mr Hall believed in kindneis in djslinn with the taiorii, and held that and blanket policy; would notj cost ut mueh as the present armed one. j 0 ; Messrsßoydhouse and Price supported . Mr Bryee'i policy;' the latter holflinejthat •; ' " it wai tuoh men as Mr Parrii aud iftheri,.' who 1 lived 1 Nv native affairs, whpjwerl /.;.;'*'' responsible for the trouble .with,jthe'.'.:'." Maoris.;. Bryce Wiihid to X.";V (h . r " natives thefif Government iaid

do a thing it would do so. IS! ■', : Mr Arnold replied, and the Gnairman \'• put the question, which he .declared oarried by 6to 4.' - j ;;; ! , The next subjeot for diicuiiipa is,, / {".Whether it is desirable te return's) aup*, >-' porter of the present the next election,. Mr Hall affirmative,! Mr Hogar negative. . . i v j '.,