NATIVE AFFAIRS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1278, 15 January 1883, Page 3

NATIVE AFFAIRS.

Tkt Pall Jfail Gaztlle and the 'Aj)enl- j Utneral ■ ' : > . The Pall Mall Gazette of. November < Bth had an article upon Sir. Arthur < Gordon's despatches to Earl Kimber- ( ley oh the Panhaka difficulty. The 1 article, .which was, entitled, A- Story j from a Blue book," blamed'the. New' | JZealand' Government in h<) measured. \ terms,..and coiiclude'd as follow?: < '• Our kinsmen 'in New .Zealand are ' their owii masters, and are as free to 1 do, these things aa if they< w ere French-'') men, Germans or Russians, • For. the • same reason-we ar£'no ; less free'to'corfdeum their offences legality and justice | ;.and .to deplore that they" should-'have ! been committed with tjie. :i app,robation ■ where, 'men. speak the 1 English language,:shear, the .English, tittup, .arid ought-to* be' ;of great Knglish ; traditions' 'of' t'e"f6i r eiice < TOrthe : wr|tten;law. : ', ; &£•*.' j Next dpy'.the .following -letter, ap* pe#Ad : :— •• 1 j s j i " 'A Story from a Blue-book.' j .''.TO...THE..EDITOK O?'THE iPALL;'MALL GAZETTE, . "Sir,-' Your .'Story from a, Blue- . book' isa ; little mixed, ' We liayq no more 'arrested some 1500,.', persons' than you haye-arrested. the Llama of Thibet. .We arrested Te Whiti and : half-a-dozen others, and told the rest to,gO,about their, business antl.'live quietly on their reserves, which they immediately did; It happened that we. took Te Whiti just about the time ypif took Mr Parnell,. One of your statesmen asked me, ■' Now. you have got Te Whiti, .what are you goiiig to do with him f But I said,' Now you have got Parnell, what are you going to do with Mm?—' Keep him out of mischief for a bit, and let him go.' . 'Just what •we mean to do with Te.-.Whiti.' You say this ' violent and high-handed step was likely to lead to a'general Native war.' That's just what it prevented. And you go on to' say that Sir Arthur Gordon thinks war was only prevented by Te Whili's forbearance. Just , the same 'forbearance' as you saw!the other day at ; Cairo, when 10,000 men cleared out at one gate as a handfurpf gallant fellows, came in at the ' pther.' In both cases the turbulent spiriCspt. that we were : determined .to staiiclno '• more'nonsense, and they had the good ■ sense to'give it best,' ','

> " The West Coast of New Zealand - has for years past been our Ireland, Like you, we have had to pass a strong measure of repression; like 'you, we put another at its side to redress grievances about land. You, pass a Coercion Ac.t and take up hundreds of ' suspects,' and detain them for months I without trial; we pass.oneamLtak.eup lit few- troublesome fellows,", whom -we don't choose to bother to try. You carve a big slice out of Irish property, to give,your tenants; we make reserves fcr'iTe.' Whiti and his' people,'-worth much more than a million. You let Mr Parnell- out of'Kilmainham, and he. is a power in the State; we let but T'6 Whiti, and trot him about the country" to see ouijlittle. sights, and reflect how much better it is to be at peace. • We copy your. acts. ;and your measures ;' only,/when' ytiu do a- thing it'is a 'great and: .benevolent .'policy', when wo do it, it is a -'-proceeding of extra*, ordinary-violence.' - Thai' is - not l fair. > •, Might it not have been imaginedithai; if our conduct to =Te Whiti was so cruel'| he would have, received-, thp sympathy of the'gi-eat chiefs'witli whom we were once at war 1 - Not } a ; bit.. of, it., ; The Maori : Kjrig and'the great tribes, have never been such-friends with us as they are now. 'The trial of Te Whiti would haye been a pure, farce,. I. hope, it, is riot impbi'tinent to say,, that* wd don't see you itfe i doing • much better when you bring Arabi to a

solemn trial and have to ask in Parliament. what on earth he is being tried for. Do give us- credit for a little common sense; We' were face to face: with an old 1 and :l very threatening trouble, bd have got rid of it without shedding a drop of blood. The two. .races are at perfect ■ peace, •" We i thought you in England would have Baidj 'Well done.' ; Certainly it was ( not from any organ of advanced opinion that we could ever have expected such words as, yours,—l • am, (k, ~

The Aqent : qeneeal, for New ' '' [Zealand."