The Waikato Times. TUESDAY, DECEEMBER 3, 1878.

Waikato Times, Volume XII, Issue 1006, 3 December 1878, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

TUESDAY, DECEEMBER 3, 1878.

Equal and'exact justice to all men, Of whatever Btate or persuasion, religious or political. * * * * * Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Unawcd by influence and .tinbribed by gain. *

Post prandial utterances, as a rule, must be taken cum qrano sails. They are apt to shed a gleam all uouleur de rose on everything they touch. Still there are occasions to which such caution need not apply, and we are inclined to think that the remarks of. the Native Minister at tile banquet given to himself and the chief liewi by the people of Turamaki,was just one of those when each word, uud its application, would be carefully weighed before it was uttered. Mr Sheehan and Kewi too were speaking, not to a few gentlemen who had hospitably entertained them, but to the colony at large, and with a full knowledge that what was then said would be looked anxiously forward to as the first really public utterance, placed beyond question of cavil, made as to the relationship between the Government and Kewi. As Mr Sheehan said, his speech was a purely non-political one, and there is none who better knows or more fully feels, we believe, than Mr Sheenan does, that the question of our relations with the native race is too momentous and important a matter to be made subservient to political party purposes. There is no -getting away from the facts of the case - when Mr Shrehan, in Rewi's presence and uncontradicted by him, states that * c Ho could now i "speak with confidence ,of his nlleand he "was doing his best !■" to. lead his people in the same good " way. To show that Rewi was in '•earnest, not an Lour agj he ex".pressed his willingness to go home "and bow his allegiance to Her 1 "Gracious Mnjesty. A great future " was in store for Taranaki. The "land was infinitely better than in j " most parts of the colony. He con- ''? sidered the Goverment should do "all in their power to assist the "natives to settle population on " their land, and he would see sufTi- " cient reserves made, and a railway "to Waikato. He felt satisfied of " the support of Rewi and his chiefs "iu this, and he believed the rail- " way would' be completed before " the New Plymouth harbor, al,(though he desired progress and " hoped to see the harbor as well, but " they would have to look sharp, as " he intended with Rewi to take a " flying survey of the couatry " for the line." This is what the colony, and especially the settlers of the North Island have been anxiously looking for. The construction of the North Island Trunk Railway through the King Country would be a material guarantee for the future peac9 of New Zealand, and would place t ; iis portion of the colony, as regards agricultural advancement and settlement, on a fair footing wirh the Middle Island. If Mr Sheehan, as ? T ative Minister, shall succeed in effecting this, then we say that he will have earned the lasting gratitude of the colonists and that he will stand forth as the mnsfc successful diplomatist who has yet meddled with the troubled waters of native affairs.