PUBLIC MEETING AT ALEXANDRA. CONSIDERATION OF THE ASPECT OF NATIVE AFFAIRS.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 644, 6 July 1876, Page 2

PUBLIC MEETING AT ALEXANDRA. CONSIDERATION OF THE ASPECT OF NATIVE AFFAIRS.

Mr Hanger ford Roche stated that the^ object of the meeting was to give the| opiniou of the Mangapiko settlors on ttie| " Native Policy of the present Ministry."! He said this policy had been going on foil some years. Numbers of people here had! seen how it worked, and, have seen nothing but an immonse expense to the country, caused by sheer bribery and corruption, and squandering of l.irge sums of money, whioli have been charged to misuellanoousj expenditure, &c, putting down a lump sum) for thi-j, and a lum|) sum for that, without shewing how tho money was expended,' burrowing largo sums from the mother^ country, and squandring them ws3tefuUy.| This pjlicy, winch had gone on tho sarao| ft

v iy fur a c u -, Sdid Mr H ;oh<', 1 emindi me ii :i pot w'lic'i is kipfc simmeiinof, bat fche ire must not be allowed to go out, or the nl-,n 1 -, would slo t ) boiling, and the numbers )!' ])Coplo liolt.li.tisf lucrative billots in tiio Native office would losa them. But \v<s ire tuld, he continued, that Me must not jnquiro i-ilo the facts of this expenditure. $ umbers of men are getting large salaries iving on the f»t of the land, clothe 1 in iroadclot!) and fino linen, wliilst we nro it oar wits end to get money to pay them •.ml carry on the affairs of the Colony. .Vlul.st the Auckland province has beuii jompelled to lay on the obnoxious " Eduution Hate," wher<\ if ib had not been for fche lavish expenditure we might have had means to carry on " Education" without tlie odious poll-tax. And now for tlie meeting with Tawhiao. The whole thing is a farce, I know that Sir Donald McLean sent abjectly asking for a meeting byTeWheoro which was granted. He was met very coldly by the Maori King, who asked for Waikato back. Sir Donald refused, but offered him a portion of it, which Tawhiao refused insisting upon the whole, and Tawhiao lent the Dsfeuea Minister his cloak, after which, doubtless Sir Donald rtpired a Turkish bath. Sir Donald then returned to Alexandra saying lie had had a mast satisfactory meeting, but it must be kept very secret till the Assembly met. Numerous chiefs had openly stated hero that tlie wholo tb'ng was a humbug and a farco. Now, Sir Donald had a meeting last year with the very s imo result, ana 1 suppose the same clung will happen next year. .Now I wish til to thoioughly understand that I have aotuing to Bi»y agaiust the Defence Minister personally, only against his policy. When he offered the King a slice of Wuikafq, Tuwhmo refused, saying he wanted it all. Now, 1 ask you is il s;ojd policy ; to giro back any portiou of the confiscated , land? Ask the people who have been here since the war ; they know how ib would be, I say this temporisiujr policy is a great mistake, treat the natives houcstly and firmly like men, not like children with lolypops; treat them straight forwardly, but if you give them back a piece ot Waikato they will not be satined unle 3 s they get all luck. There are many people who a ay tlmt some of the murderers were present, but uothing whatever was mentioned on tho subject at the Lte meeting. It was very strange that the Defence Minister did not ask for them or mention something about them, Thero is something very cut-iojs abou'; it We are told we must be very careful how we treat the natives or it may bring on a war. Now we know there is no danger of a war, as tho natives have all to lose, and would rather retain what they have than run the r.sk of losing it by fighting. I propose there should be committees in the House to thoroughly investigate the proceedings of tho Defeace office. I have bora " Hansard" for October, 1875, No 21, where Sir Donald McLaan states the contingent expenditure of last year as follows :— Food, £3,035 ssfid;s fid; clothing, £4<J3 9s 4d; presents and gratuities, £1,153 9s 2d; payments to natives for special services, £728 7s Id; agricultural implements, £774, 7s 3d; medicaTeftmforts, £234 18s Cd. Travelling expennesfx 1,607 11s 3d; salaries, i#69 Us -id ; Maoii newspaper, £400 ; miscellaneous, C 1571 4s sd ; total, .£10,9G8 3s lOd. Many natives are receiving good salaries for doing vnry Ltth\ One person told mo ho got £150 per annu n to prevent powder being taken up by the natives. He said if it came under his notice he stopped it, but did not trouble himself to find it out. (Some confusion now ensued by several persons calling name, and saying it was false. ) Mr lloche said I am quite willing to givo the name ; it was Thompson (this was corroborated by more than one person in tho room, who haardThomps »n bay so in Bri^ht's Hotel, aud that he had the offer to be made a J l' at Kopu.) With respect to tho Maori newspaper, for which we piy £400, ib is c-dl«d the " Waka Maori." I will read you from ■*' Hansard " what a native member, Taiaroa, says on the subject. The" Waka Maori" was a Government newspaper. Many Maoris sent statements to the " Waka Maori," but they were uevor published in that paper.. If paper* were sent in against the Government thoy were rejected by the " Waka Maori" which said it would not print tliem, and for this we have to pay JgioO per annum. J find another item in " Hansard," namely, £24,2% 3s. 9d. for salaries of Europoan and Native officers, *nd £19,000 for Mative schools ; this first item is paid by Government to its supporters. Something should be done to reduce this expenditure. Mr Swanson proposed that instead of reducing the defence force by 600 men their should be n reduction in the numerous staff of officers, and I think so too. Look again at the farce which was played after Sullivan's murder costing the country £00,000. When wo sco huch intolerable waste, we have a perfect right to raise our voices, but no one has dared to speak about it, the Defenco Minister has succeeded in gulling the Southern members, but I do not think this should be allowed to go on any longer. Anottar great mistake is t?io land purchase system. 1 find in " Hansard," No 22, that Mr Shoehan in his speech openly charges the Defence Minister with purchasing largo runs for ' himself, aud if the heal of the department van do so, why not any clerk in his office who has every opportunity of obtaining the most valuable information. Mr Shee- ' han says:— "The Native Minister has roughly speaking acquired 20,000 acres of , land near Hawkes Bay equal in value to 200,000 in any other part of the North Ibland, except Taranaki. There wai a breach of the law as it then stood for which other paople have been puuidhed by lines and by being expelled from the laud there, there are live blocks varying from 1,500 to 5,000 acres each. In tho case of these blocks of Jartd acquired by the Native Minister, the usual battery of the public house was brough to bear with terrible effect. lam now referring to a statement mado by MiDavy, who kept a public house, where tho bulk of the giautcca all congregated, th.it

Im hail boon informed by the Native .Minister that ho might give civil it to these natives, so long as they had order*, either upon himself or his agent, Mr Kinross." Now, said Mr Hocho, is a vory critical timo for New Zealand. Wo have a chance of acquiring 1 irge blocks of land for settlement, which blocks must not ho allowed to get into private hands, or, the day will come when cur children will only be tenant farmers to these land owners. The Defence Minister is only a public servant, paid by us, and, if he skims all the cream, why should not his subordinitos? S)ine of these land purchasing ag6i\ts havn even bought in the names of their wives, and why should they not, as well as the Defence Minister 1 This land should be allotted to farmers from home, and, even if given to them for nothing, the rovenue that would accrue would pay the government. The land about the Piako is in the hands of five or six persons. Ido not speak of the swamp, but, of good land. I know one person there who has 11,000 acres of dry land, and has had ploughs work, ing for two years. We want men with small means as well as largo capitalists. Tho Ve-sey Stewart settlement is the sort of thing we want. Wo have fir more officials than we require ; I am told one for every twenty men. How can we possibly pay them 1 We are threatened with an income tar, and it is our bounden duty to curtail our expenses as much as possible. Why not cat down the immigration office, — what do we want with a General and Provincial Government Immigration office. Tho Provincial office to lid da it all. I have a word ti say of bogus meetings in the Waikato. Governmeat supporters call their friends, pass rts >lutions, and . c ay it is the public opinion df Waikato. I say it is not; it is a disgrace to the district for a few poople to get up a hole and corner meeting at a aouple of hours' notice. We called a meetiug of the settlers, and gave plenty of notice — not of a few hours, but days — and when our notice was out a certain storekeeper on reading- it insulted us by saying it was a, meeting to propagate dandelious. Now, I say this meeting is not to be ridiculed because it happens to be called l>y Betdeis who are not Government supporters. As 1 said before, Ido not speak against the Defence Minister, but his policy (which is all bribery and corruption) and liis land jobbing. Mr Koche then read tho resolutions, which have been already published iv our preceding 1 issue Mr Me Minn rose to second the first resolution, saying after the exhaustive spaech he had heard from Mr Roche, he had very little to add, but he wished to inform the meeting that the Government had expended £4000, in purchasing land on the West side of the Waipa far the purpose of presenting to the nitives. Now last general assembly a petition from the settlors on the wnst side of the Waipa was presonted to tho Government praying them to present the return of the AJaoris amorfgst the whites. Tue answer they received was simply an insult, shewing that the Government did not cara a jot for the settlers. When the Defence Minister came hero he, (Mr McMinn), saw him and asked him if ho intended to return the purchusod land to tho natives, as his doing bo would injure the whites greatly, and hinder settlement lie told him, Mr McMinn, that he dii not think io would hinder the settlers any way, but would rather bo a benefit to them to hare tho Mdories aimmgat them. I say, continued, Mr M';Minn, that it woul I have tho effect of driving many people away from the cwntry, for tho uativo ways are different to ours. The two races could uoi agree. Again, if settlers wished to buy land there, Government steps in, buys and locks it up, f>r privalo ]>erson9 cannot compete wi&h the Government in these purchases. If the land was all iv ouo block, I should not think much, of it, but the land is scittered among tho European property so, the Government actually expends £4000, to hinder the settlers, and drive them away. With reference to tho land at Taupiri, the natives watched the excavation of a quarry ami the setting up of a stonebreaking machine, nt n. heavy expense, and theu step in and say the laud is tapued, and the Defence Minister offers to fence il in, thus putting the eonntry to an expense of between ten and twenty thousand pounds. Mr Reynolds stated that the remark? Mr Roche had mado respecting t the meeting at Kaipiha, and the presence of Nynfeu there, wore simply untrue. Mr DulFjs stated that Mr Reyuolds could not provo that Nuku was not there, and, that sevetal people present heard Mr Reynolds challenge to bet a pcrand th.it Nuku was not at the meeting, which he declined. Some desultory conversation ensued ns to the resolutions being premature, when the Chairman called to order. Mr W Higginson — The resolutions were not premature. We cannot wait for ever for Sir Donald McLean to finish the present policy. After liekiag the Maoris and driviog them off the land, I think it very hard that we should have to pay them to allow us to s>top hero. 1 say it is not at «11 premature. Bee how the money is being wasted ; it is time to put a stop to that. Sir Donald McLeans polioy is not straightforward. Let him shew us what he does. Whatever needs hiding is not the clean thing. Mr Duflus — Allow me to say a few words. I have positive information that Major Te Wheoro was sent as a messenger to fish for an invitation, which he obtained. It has been reported to ice by natives thatTawhiao demanded restoration !of Waikato. The Defence Minister could not do that, but offered large poi tious of oue side of tho viver. I know a considerable quantity of laud has been purchased from Mr Aitken to give to the Maoris. Sir Donald McLean told mo he had a very satisfactory meeting, but some chiefs who were up there at the time gave me a very different account. My informants were Te Tuhi, Te Ngakau, Tawha, and others. With respect to Nuku being at Kuipiua, nobody can prove he w^s nut there. Tho (Jbairmin theu put thy question. l ( 'or the resolution, No 1 } k'J to I J. lie- ,

solution 2 was put by Mr H Roche, seconded by Mr Duffus, carried on the voices, their being only one dessentienfc voice. Ilcsolution 3, seconded by Mr Sage; carried unanimously. Mr W HiWinson moved the following resolution. " That this meeting is of opinion that the extreme party views and misleading statements upon political matters of the " Waikato Times" can only lead to the supposition thit it is one of tho paid Government organs of tho Ministry, also regrets the want of a reliable no\vspapor to represent the opinions of tho Waikuto people." Mr lioche seconded the resolution, remarking that the Waik.vto Times was not the month piece of the Waikato, anything of importance was crowded out, and on turning the other side of the sheet we find a whole, column occupied with " The boots have arrived, J Moses." We want fair and impartial reports of all meetings. Carried. There were 5i persons present. After the conclusion of the meeting Mr William Higginson and another gentleman engaged in a personal encounter in which, wo are informed, tho claret was freely tapped on either side.