SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1892. THE PENSIONED KING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4118, 21 May 1892, Page 2

SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1892. THE PENSIONED KING.

The Maori potato is cooked. To Whiti has been pretty generally discredited a; a prophet, but in the case of this oracular utteranco he ran no risk of loss of reputation, since it was capable of very various meanings, and no limit of time was set by the seer to the fulfilment ol bis worda. We venture to say that the historic phrase is finding one fulfilment at the present time-though doubtless the seer himself would repudiate our interpretation, and decline to accept recent events as bearing in any way upon his presage. At all eveuts, the Maori potato is iu process of cooking at last. The solo surviving relio of the power of the Maoris to obstruct the colonisation ol their country has been swept into the limbo of thiDgs that have passed away, The so-called " King Country " is about to bucciimb to advancing European enterprise, arjd the" King" himself has become a pensioner on the European Government,

It ia possible that to the settlers of recent years the full significance of this event'is not apparent, In order to appreciate its importance, they must needs be taught something' ot the hjttory of past years ; how successive Nntiye ' Ministers have tried, and tried in yaln, to raise the aukati which debarred our eptry upon those broad acres in the North j bow a policy of severe indifference to the Natives; was succeeded by various phases of the" blanket "policy (and

how the cunning of the Native race

efealed alike the calculated inaction i Sir Donald McLean and the aa'nifold activities ot Sir George Jrey, Mr Sheehan, and Mr Bryce, thas been reserved for the Hon Mr )fulman, the Native Minister of th( iresent Cabinet, to achieve result' pinch were denied to his predecessors je has made the " King" respoc lire as arnan'of firm purpose jo hng made the Ijfalives a? a Wji'ol ■egard him as a Minister whose firm less is equalled by - bis conciliator; md self-controlling bearing toward ;hem, Probably no happier combina :iotj of the maviter in modo with Hi fattier in jfficial dealings witb. ths JJflO" Tawbiap—erstwhile tbe drunken, nov She refprrned rake, ajways the craft; Jiplomatist up to the measure hi understanding; Tawbia'o—tip las snibqdinient of the IJatiye sentiment of an idea wbudi V?,? an janduvipj hindrance to tjjp Pomnlefene'es o British colonisation; Iwhiao—th toidimfll friend of {be white man who might yet to his foe-tjj.o foe wit might yet be adroi% converted I friendship —bas been tangbt to yie) the condition of Native affairs in th dry light of fact snil eODJDjon sense He has listened, and he has beei convinced; at least, he has given over pledges which are quite as good a any inward conviction, so far as ou purpose is concerned, He will ni longer hold himself aloof in imagine! dignity like a sulky child; he wil place himself and his following unde

the jurisdiction and protection of British law, Th« country, in ffbiob it used to beflaid, the Queen's writ could not run, will in future, we'presume, be the scene of harmless R.M. Court functionß; and the head and front of all our trouble will eat the bread of the pakeha in the shape of a pension of £225 per annum accorded to him by

the Government of New Zealand, not without a touoh, we take it, of unexpressed contempt. Few Europeans a3 yet have had the opportunity of knowing very muoh about the actual nature and resources of the King Country. Lord Onslow himself, seeking to penetrate those mysterious lands, received something of a rebuff, it wo remember right, and was told in effeot "Thus far shall ihou.go, and no farther. 1 ' But if it be true-and we have the statement of the redoubtable Gaptain William Jackson Barry to this effect-that there is great wealth of minerals

beneath the soil, the opening up of this extensive tract of land is full of hopeful meaning to many a colonist. There is, we think, no reason in this particular instance, to doubt the information offered to ub by the muchtravelled Captain, since the general geological formation of the country would seem to point to the probability of its truth. If, then, tho resources of the King Country are as they are represented, we shall find that, the mam of the last Maori "King" being gone,.the miner and the miner's right shall reign in its stead',

There is no doubt that this very timely and gratifying success in Native affairs will. be tnimpetted forth by the Ministry to the House of | Representatives in Parliament assembled'; that it will be sought to cover over a series of abject failures, of promises broken, of injudicious and semi-illegal experiments, with the record of one bmajide triumph, We willingly admit the value of Mr Oadman's work/though we are dis-

posed to tbink that the Hon. Mr Carroll, the recently appointed Naive member of the Executive, has played no inconsiderable part in bringing it about, However, Mr Carroll is him

self tlie nominee of the present Government; and we are glad to think that one appointment of theirs baa been really useful. If the Ministry could only meet the House with an account of their conduct of public business during the recess in any way equal to the record of their administration of the Native Department, they would secure a tenure of office, almost commensurate with their anxious hopes.