The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. TUESDAY, FEB. 23, 1892.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3059, 23 February 1892, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. TUESDAY, FEB. 23, 1892.

Our Auckland contemporaries have raised a great " storm in a tea pot " in reference to the shifting of the Ministerial portfolios, and jumped at the conclusion that Mr Cadman had been snubbed. If we are to accept the statement of the AttorneyGeneral the changes are of Mr Cadman's own motion, and thcra is no reason to doubt the statement, more particularly as Mr Cadman frequently, before taking office, expressed the opinion that the Native Office should be abolished, and its abolition is part and parcel of the arrangements, The opinion expressed by Mr W. L. Rees, whose interview by a reporter is calculated, however, to give the impression that some political influence had been brought to bear in order to take the conduct of native affairs out of Mr Cadman's hands. That gentleman is reported to have said "Mr Cadman was from the first opposed to the Native Land Laws Commission ot which he and Mr Carroll were members, and he asked what had been done during the last twelve months to carry out the recommendations of the Commission, although the natives in the Urewera and King Country were anxious for legislation which would enable them to dispose of their lands" As we have previously pointed out, the most effectual means of bringing the largo area of native land into the market would be to allow the Maoris to dispose of their land to the highest bidder. Mr Cadman differs from us. If the change of portfolios means a change of policy in this respect, in our opinion, Mr Cadman can be well spared as Native Minister by his colleagues and the country. It has so seldom fallen to our lot to approve of the action of Ministers, that it is quite refreshing to havs found one of their actions we can thoroughly endorse. We have found it in the abolition of the Native Department. The time has passed if it ever existed when it was necessary that only a pale-faced " medicine man " should be trusted to deal with native affairs. We are inclined to the opinion that the Native Office isquite as much answerable for the present ui.satisfactory state of affairs as any other element or combination of elements. A department, of course, must have a political head, and all of us who have watched events through the long series of years over which the " native difficulty " has stretched can only have arrived at the conclusion that it was used by the " outs " to bring discredit upon the " ins," in fact was unscrupulously used as a lever to put one party from power or another in to the sweets of office. This has not been the case so much in late years as during the reigns of Sir D. McLean and Mr Richmond. The department has always been an ugly excresence, for the reason that Parliament has never had sufficient control over it. A cloud of mystery has always hung before its portals. In the days of Sir I). McLean practically the only control Parliament had was to vote or not vote salaries ■ and secret money; for the sum drawn under the latter head the Minister distinctly refused to render any account. It was supposed to have been expended principally on flour and sugar, the two necessaries from which the policy of the late knight took its name. As illus- . trative of the manner in which the department was worked in those days wo give the following story One of its officers had made a most egregious blunder and a friend suggested that he would discharged, the reply was : " Not I, they dare not, I know too much." That man was ' not discharged and is now holding a responsible position under government. If for no other reason a de- ' partnieiit with such, traditions as the above should be swept away. Mr Bryce was of that opinion, and he was certainly the Minister of all i others who evidenced by his policy ■ and demeanour towards the natives an earnest desire to bring about a

state of affairs which should remove even the semblance for the necessity

of the Department over which he presided. If wo are to take Mr Beeves' assumption of the control of native affairs as indicative that

tlie Ministry intend to deal with the natives in precisely the same manner as with the European subjects of Her Majesty, we hail his appointment with satisfaction. What in our opinion is required for the office is a man of good sound sense untrammelled by Maori tradition and custom. The time has surely arrived when the natives should conform to our customs and not we to theirs. Agreements and proclamations must of course be religiously adhered to, but in all cases where these do not intervene there should only be one law and as far as possible only one custom for both races. The natives should be encouraged to pass their lands through the Court, and when they have done so be allowed full license to deal with them as they wish, subject of course to a sufficient quantity being made inalienable to secure that they shall not become a burden to the State. The supposition that such is the intention of the Government is given colour to by the appointment of Mr Carroll who nas more than once spoken in the above directions. If our surmises are correct we have found one subject upon which we are at one with the Ministry.