THE KING-COUNTRY SETTLEMENT.

Waikato Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1461, 12 November 1881, Page 4

THE KING-COUNTRY SETTLEMENT.

Wjiilk iho Native cloud settling over P.inhaka has been becoming blacker and thicker, wo are glad to s.iy that the cloud which h.tsho long o\ershado wed the King country in tho Upper W.iikato ia gradually bi taking, and showing chaerful ghmpbu-, of l>Tuo sky. It fccins now to 1 test almost wholly with tho Government to ; ;iv nl itself of ii splendid opportunity to put an ab-olute end to tho sullen isoldlion ot tho King Natives which has for tho last fit teen yeans kept .ip.ut tho two races in the YV<ukato country, baired the progte-s of settlement, and has been a standing menace to the peace of tho who'o colony. Papers were presented, last he.ssion, to both Houses of the Gcneial Assembly relative to Tawhiuo's visit in August, List to tho Wuikato settlements. The significance of that visit, and the prospect which it presents of a pc »ceful solution of grave difficulties, cannot bo too highly estimated, Tawhiao represents the king movement which leagued together two-thirds of the Native race in practical disregard of our Government and our laws, and in a covenant not to dispobe ot their landb to the Crown or to Europeans. Tawhiao ia also the head of the Hau-hau superstition, which was adopted chiefly with tho view of Jonhccrating, as it were, the civil seperation of its followeis from ourselves. .Again, Tawhiao icpresentd a defeated and dibinhented ttibe, the mo^t poweiful and warlike tiibe in New Zealand, which, by force of arms, wo diovo out «f its ancestral home. The hubmw>ion of such a man is indeed an übjet ot supieme impoitance, if we value the peaceful and r ipid piogiess of colonisation in the North Island [lis submission is not as yet an ab-olute ftct. It is a voluntary proffer of lLCimilutiun, subject to undivaosi-d ti-iins. But eon-idunny' that the proffer louk"» fu'ii one who Iris M) long held aloof iioin us m uiiiin^akc'blo, tlioug'i p mho ,wit • trom-iii, and that it )i«»i» bctn ina'lo uii'l"i cncii'iibt.incoi vhich, are sliontr pio.>t"> of good t.uth, and of au c ane-t wiOi i >r .n-ct-pt.iuce ; we aro not ot o|iinio.i t l nt tl.e tm-ins, whou they aic known and di^cu'S-d, will be msiijieiablu obitack'>s to an union now, in it appeals, oarnostly de-nod. At all evon:.", ho far ,iv the p.i'M'is siiow, the cnoumst.auces aie mi. htliatlhc (/ovt intncnt would be in the lnghe^t dog-ico culpable, did it not at once < \uit itself to the ut'nost m continuing ,iud ]vv i rfi'('tmg tho grciit woik of [inie v, l.ioh Tawlua i has bcfrun, and now pi ifi^ in )t li aids.. We may by indilior(Mipo to tli'^o ovi'ituics fiorn liikiuangi, 01 by iolly at Pnih.ika lo»o an oppoititnity whii hw r> may iicor iccover. The pcarp aro p'ittin<r forth thuir tendei Made s m LTp])i r W.nkato but we in iy light a hiu at Wiiimata which may hi i-t both .md mako th.it '-olitade which the wise-acie/ of war would call peace. — Lijt'tlto)) Ttnii'i