TE AWAMUTU.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1995, 21 April 1885, Page 2

TE AWAMUTU.

Tub anxiously looked-for ceremony of turning the first Mid (if the main tiitnlt lino of l.iilwiiy is now hii Accomplished f.ict. Tho fact that two chicf i holding Midi a standing .unongthe Maoris as W.thanui .ukl Revvi took p.ut in it, amJ one of them actually began the woik <»f con^ti notion by tut mug tho (n«,t sod is significant. The native difficulty, tho gn-at obstacle to tho piogiess of thr not them ]ioition of New Znal. ind has app.uently been settled for .til time. A few je.m ago a solution of tho quctioii whs a thing to bo done sometime m the remote futuie, and the Iwuiei of isolation net up by tho Maoris themselves w.is thought to be so firmly fixed th.it nothing nhott of the death of the chiefs of tho old school would effectually break it down. Mr Bryco'n policy of hi nines* sapped tho foundation of the kirner, am] his Hiiccos.Hor, Mr Balluncc, has completed tho work. Thete w little doubt th.it the opposition of the Maoris to the m.iich of civilisation w.ih fostered and kept ahvo by uiiHcrupiiloiifi Kuiopeaim for piirjM>t«-« of their own, and to many of wliom a settlement of the trouble meant the loss of n lucrative appointment. A better ordei of things imw urev.n.s, and there are men in the Native IJep.titmeiit in whom tho country can place implicit confidence. Looking b.itk to the tin.c that Orakau was fought, and for several years after, where to all appearance:* the native* weio ;ik hostile ,i» ever, one cannot help being ntiuck with tho rapid ntridon made dm ing the List thiee year* toward* tho opening of the king country to European*. Nor ban this been attained by tho "flour and sugar policy" which was m« expensive to tho colony, but by a policy of firmness and justice, by treating the natives an if they were intulligout men instead of spoiled childien, and by .showing them conclutuvely tlmt tho (i»vernment has no Minister designs upon their land. I believe the present «tuto of affairs could have been brought about before, had the Maoris been left alono more. If there had been lew eagerness to ticat with them displayed, low pampering with expensive presents of flour, tnigar, blankoti, and other things, if instead of this they were told if they broke the law the^r would bo made amenable to it, they would have been lons bounceablo. Of course them are many who will way such a policy would have precipitated a war. No one knew better than the natives tliein«el\e the futility of going to war with tho Europeans. If they thought they had any dunce, of beating us, they would not ha\o w.nted foi us to t.iko the initiative. Why did they not tight when Mr Hryce turned them out of Farihaka and made prisoner* of their revered prophet Te Whiti, and tho gieat chief Tohu ? One of Te Whiti's most devoted followers told me at the tinio tho M.ions knew the utter folly ol attempting to cope with us. He said, " Hwe bimgone bundled men into tho held, the (jloveminent will bring two hundied, mid if we have two hundred, there will be font bundled ag.iinst us, and wo would bo annihilated.' As a matter of fact, the chaucu of a war with tho nativcn existed only in the imagination of cert.im people. In the early days of Hettlcment here, when wo vied to have a " panic " every two or throe month 1 ), the fiettlors giumbled very much at being compelled to leave their farms and man the redoubt* to guard against what they well knew wait only an imaginary tiouble, and I know for a fact that tho wivei and children of some remained on their farmi while tht men wore away manning the ledouhU. buflincmi wan hfatk in those da\,K, and it was it good thing for busine.ss men to have the HettlerH assembled three or four time* a year in the townships ; it helped them along wonderfully. Ido not agreo w itli Mr. Stout when he n.ud if tho natives did wiong wo ■hould tro.it them as wo would tre.it our own children. By no one would this nvutcm be more dmbked than by the M.inriß themselves. Inatcad of treating them in Much a manner, let im troat them as wo would the Europeans. There w no need to pamper them in any way, they can diHcnmmt'itn betweon right and wrong and if they offend nvto out the H.iine justice 'to them at to any othem of tho (^uern'H subjectJi, they will respect us all tho moie foi it. The fact th.it T.iwhiao not being present at tlie coiemony i« of veiy little importance; wo h.uo ,i footing on the other «ido of tho river, and he is jiowerlcss to stop us. While ho linn been wrapped up »n hi-, abnurd ideas of treating with tho English ( Joverninent, W,thanui had quiotly been anaiigiug mattcrK w/ltff thin ono, «nd wp have nowgot in tho thin end of the wedge t|mt will open tho country to Kuropnan Hettlemei<(( and enterprise. It in to be hoped that t)i» adjudioatioti of titlen to Imkl will »oon follow, for whan that in dono v>» may expect to «c« tlio country opoijcri to proHpectoi'H. If thero in gold thorn as reported, the ttooner it in dug for the better it will b« for nativoM «nd European*. —(Own correipondent.)