THE NATIVE QUESTION.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 724, 6 February 1877, Page 2

THE NATIVE QUESTION.

Sir, — A good deal of excitement having apparently been caused by the resent s action, on two occasions, of the representative of the Maori King, the present appears to me to be a favourable oppor- ■ tunity for examining a little into the mutual relations existing between white : man and Maori. Before slating my views, I may premise that I am a sojourner of but fifteen months standing iu New Zealand, and thereforo a comparative stranger, an J have no interest whatever in it. This, however, I take to be an ( advantage as it is proverbial thit apeeta- , tors see most of the game. \ In reading the notices and telegrams concerning; the late incidents at Pirongia j and on the Taupo road, I w s at once , veiy foroi -Jy struck by the tone of trepidation perceivable in all of them, and the \ strange repitiiion of such trrms as i " alarm," " fright," « frightened," il " trouble," and others of similar tendency, j and by the indications shown of the existence of a desire of immediately ■conciliating the perpetrators of those illegal I actions. Looking around for good and : sufficient reasons for the display of such an un-English degree of "ajarm," I con- j fess myself to be utterly at a loss. The government statistics inform us that the defunot Province of Auckland contains 81,100 white inhabitants and 25,000 : Maoris, and yet because these latter make i use of unwarrantable and threatening language and aotion towards the former, which no oue seems to have the courage ' to resent, I am told oh all sides that these 81,000 eiderant Englishmen, or aeonsidsr- : ab e portion of them, are u very much • alarmed!" There is an amount of poltroonery about these notices that makes ' me heartily ashamed of my countrymen ! as represented by the species New Zealander. I have been in a good many parts of the world, and have had a great ■■ deal to do with all sorts of native tribes i — few more, but nowhere have I seen or beard of such disgraceful cowardice exhibited by Englishmen in their bearing towards natives, or such intolerable license allowed to the latter. In Natal, where I have spent several years, there are 22,100 whites and nearly 600,000 Kiffirs living, as the Maoris, on land guaranteed to them, and subject, as the Maoris, to tbe -colonial laws. But from the earliest times the South African colonists have thoroughly understood that in dealing with untutored savages it is utterly useless to go in for the " moral suasion " line of business, for the best of all reasors, that they have always found a brickbat a much more forcible argument, and cne much better understood. The rtsult of the firm and judicious position assumed by Sir Theophilus Shepgtone — for

twenty years Daliro Moretary in Natal— Wward. tbe Kafflrs, is that m.j are MW "'"us? t/"lft **&*& OtaMd »ir .■""ft- £ v "•P*** »°4 ■hiatal nolioy £,"& StSISH .... irm 08, th-it amont? all tha srberfcn^ ar To bet T n the out the lenmh and breadth of wWoh is >U eve^wherrr oam i- an Bn glisbma°n 'i™Tv poured andobejed. Of course I know I shall be told-as 1 have been by many who have never seen anv colored people but Maoris in their Hvesthat the Maori race is a Buperiop race of aborigine to any other. £/«- «* tunirlL «f „ w . ave had more opporslieht^r hL^t 7 ?-' • * have no * * h ® Mwrifc£S T- at ,° Q . in Ba y in « that the deal wTth aid 6(! u Peo P le * ha ™ «* to Zulu K»ffl» d * When eo «»pared with the , courage, perso'? m ' 61,1 « enoe » Physique, activiV; a P nd X JSE2JSSL "* in a° WeS? 88g ° a P^P* W^* w^re u^warr?. U rf per Btatin « thJt there whose C V o ?* m «rderers, each of wnose hves are forfeit to the English law. hI. d ™ h ,V er f th< * Engli3hme g n7wouTd the elrtt "* ( °f ** ulto ™»* ™ d ° of the earth— at large in the « Kine " country Anothe s r e ' *J* trior of,i, Paperfcold us tbatkperpe! trator of the recent murder at Newmarket SSL^Tif ! fc the me^«gheld a Lttle tune ago between the late Sir Donald. McLean and Tawhiao. Surely comme^ SLS E dl8 g«-aceful facts Ib needless?" Under the new regime at the native office „.3,w«fS h ?P* d that a cowardly and undignified policy will be abandoned, and one firmer and more befitting the dignity and fbaraecer of Engli t hmen *t once lu ?' ,e Maori » Ust be shown, as the Kaffir has been, and the sooner the better, that the will of the Englishman, as -exemplified in his laws, "must and shall be obeyed. It is perfectly monstrous, and to a foreiguer must appear u XCe fri g,y ridieul ous, that a paltry handful of degraded niggers should be allowed to set at defiance all laws, commit murder with impunity, and generally conduct itself as if entirely independent of any other control than its own will. Surely in no other sprit of God's earth would such extraordinary and disgraceful proceedings be permitted. If any security for outlying settlers is to be ensured, a policy of firmness must at -once be enforced, and the majority of the law upheld at all times and under all circumstances. The present time appears to me to be peculiarly fitted for such initiation, and natives should at once be shown that the eoonists have little sympathy with any other line of policy. If the opportunity is not now taken advantage of, it will become daily more difficult to impress upon the Maori that English laws are not made merely to be broken. The irliosyncracies of *Exeter Hall visionaries should at once be repudiated, and equal justice meted out to white man and Maori; nothing else will ensure to the settlers the peaceable possessions of their own properties, as it is very apparent that the Maoris are beeoming daily more insolent. If the Government are "too incompetent and too ap ithetio to deal with the question, tho settlers should take the matter into their own hands, if they desire any security for themselves j surely tbe majority of the Auckland settlers are n> t so wanting in intelligenes and courage as to be unable to resent in a befitting manner the monstrous impertinences of a handful of pampered and conceited natives. I have a good deal more to say, but. I am afraid this letter is long enough for the present, and so leave further remarks for a future communication. — I am, &c, Impisi, Newcastle, January 30, 1877.