The Waikato Times. TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1877.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 721, 30 January 1877, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1877.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Ot whatever state or persuasion, religious or political * •# * * # Here shell the Presi the People's -right maintain, TJnawed by influence and unbribed by gain.

We shall not apologise to onr readers for not allowing even a single issue 'to pass without recurring to the " Native Question." Tits, importance-to the colony as a whole cannot be exaggerated:; and-to this district in particular it is most momentous. We -concluded our last article, after shewing the result of the war, by Asking our readers to strike a debit and credit balance of the results of the " flour -and -sugar policy." Now it cannot be denied that at the time that policy was inaugurated the condition of the country demanded its adoption. The exhaustion -which followed the making of peace at the close of ! the Waikato war was aggravated by a succession of desultory outrages by natives, and aggressive operations on our part, which in-, cessantly drained the country of the means required for the purposes of opening up and developing its resources. Small armies had to be continually employed in traversing the different portions the-North-ern Island in order to afford protection to its -scattered settlements and thinly populated districts. The natives were kept in a continual .-state of ferment, and their naturally warlike proclivities incessantly appealed to. It was neither one'thing nor the other. Neither a war which meant the settlement of the "question '! once and > for -all, nor a.peace which, having & firm, and substantial •basis, would result in mutual benefit to'both races. How -could a satisfactory relationship of the Maori with the European be established by Whitmoie destroying a few; villages, or McDonnell claiming a victory over two or three hundred Uriweras % The position was not altered or even affected, yet the operations were costly. Was it worth while suffering the loss of men like Yon Tempsky and Hunter for a result which -experience has -since shewn us to have been worse than useless % Then came the accession of the Eox-Vogel-McLean Ministry, in 1869, and next year the enunciation of the Public Works policy. It is not our purpose to touch upon this famous scheme ..(although we may remark in passing that we believe it to have been founded upon wisdom, notwithstanding that its utility has been almost entirely destroyed in its practical administration), except so far as it -affects our -relations with the Maories. Now, in order that a gigantic policy <of this description might be brought-to a successful issue, it became absolutely necessary that the appearance, at all events, of peaceful relations with our aboriginal neighbours should be preserved. Vqgel saw -at once that the large capital requisite for the proper development of his idea 3 could never be procured in the home market so long as the bug-bear of a native war existed; he therefore enlisted the assistance of the late Sir Donald McLean, whose instructions doubtless were to preserve peace at any price during the financial operations of the Government in the London market. A large sum of money was voted out of the loans for native purposes, and under the .protecting aegis of Yogal, the Defence Minister was entrusted with almost unlimited power in the disposal of' the money. The South was delighted. Year after year their pockets had beeu ■drained for <the purpose of providing the necessary war expenditure for the protection of the North. McLean was all in all to them so long as the natives were kept quiet. The borrowed money paid the piper, and there was no drain upon the

ordinary revenue of the colony, aud therefore no increase in their taxes. But the traces #f disease may be hidden and the disease itself remain, and this is, we fear, our own case. Still we gained something. We have gained this much. While the natives have, by means of the enormous bribes lavished on them, been kept in a state of quiescence, we have acquired large tracts of native land and partially settled them. We have been able to traverse the country and become iutid mately acquainted with its topography (an invaluable knowledge in dealing with any future outbreak) ; i we have effected telegraphic com- | munication nearly every | district of importance in New Zea land j we have pushed on our railroads and oar highways, and we have altogether materially weakened the powers of resistance of our semibarbarous neighbours. But upon the other hand, we must have spent in the last seven years nearly two millions and a-half on this method of settling the " question," and we are as far from a settlement as ever. But the worst of the debit side of •the peace policy remains to be stated. If the money only had gone we might spare it, but the prestige we have lost we cannot spare, and money can never replace that. The half fear, half respect, which alone will induce' a salutary effect in the native mind, does not exist, and what if contempt for us should have taken its place.? Frenchmen, when brought in contact with semi-barbarous' races, shoot them in hecatombs for the slightest attempt at hostility. This is the other extreme. We Englishmen cannot bring ourselves to this. God forbid we should try. firmness of which this is a gross exaggeration, and almost a parody, has been certainly wanting in our policy of the last seven years, aud the consequences of this deficiency must be placed to the debit of "the peace at any price policy." The present situation of affairs, and our future policy, will be treated of in succeeding articles.