MR BRYCE BANQUETTED. He Declares the King Country to be Open.

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1686, 26 April 1883, Page 2

MR BR YCE BA N QUETTED. He Declares the King Country to be Open.

[«Y TKLISGBAPH.] ' New Plymouth, Last Night. The banquet last night to the hon. Mr Bi yce was numerously attended. Mi 1 Bryce, responding to his own health, 'spoke for nearly three quarteis of an hour, defining the policy he h.id adopted in native aflcius. He sympathised with the settlers in their complaints at being slandered in Southern parts of the colony, but said thobe who wrote the slander neither knew the distiiet nor the people He referred to a book recently published, entitled "A Histoiy of New Zealand," in which it is stated that during 1569 lie (Mr Bryce) murdered women and children. He had not seen the book, but should take steps against the slanderer. He asked them if they had ever heard of his doing such a thin?, winch he publicly denied, and branded the author of the book as a "liar, slandeier, and coward." He referred to some remarks of the late Bishop Selwyn, who wrote in defence of the European settlers' treatment of the native race. Mr Bryce then reviewed what had been done by his Government in the settle ment ol native affairs, and showed that ho acted as any other man would have done towauls Te Kooti if he had been placed in the same position. He praised the conduct of the native chiefs who had taken part in releasing Messrs Hursthouse and Newsham, and said if the amnesty proclamation had not been issued would Te Kooti have acted in the noble maiuiet he had done ? Ho said that the King country was now opened to Europeans, and there would be no further obstruction to surveys, roads, or railways. He said that the difficulty which had arisen at Cambridge had been thiough the legal profebsion prolonging the cases in some instances till the costs had absorbed the whole value of the land in dispute. He concluded by saying that the time would come when the Maoti could be trusted a*, any Emopean, when they would be governed without any special laws, or have other than European courts to apply to. In reply to the toast of "The Ministeis" Mr Biyce said in reference to Major Atkinson's national assurance scheme, that although the major was a little piomature, a century too soon peihaps, yet a scheme for the relief of poveity something similar to the one pioposed would in time be generally adopted throughout the world. Mr Hurathouse, in replying to the toast of his health, s.iid he was under a debt ofgratitude thechiefs Te Wehere and Te Kooti, who, had they beeu European friends of his, could not have treated him in a more thoughtful and kindly manner when he was released from' the fanatical Maoris who had tied him and Mr Newsham \ip. Major Brown, in replying for the colonial forces, said Governor Gordon, knowing that he (Major Brown) had left the colonial sei'vice as a native commissioner, had sent an aide do camp to him in the hope of obtaining grounds to bear out the assertions made against the Ministry regarding the treatment of the natives,, hub he had declined to satisfy him 3 for although he was a loyal subject of the Imperial authorities, yet he considered his loyalty was due to the colony first.