MIS-GOVERNMENT IN NEW ZEALAND
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MIS-GOVERNMENT IN NEW ZEALAND
THE CAUSE OF
THE NATIVE REBELLION.
THE New Zealand Colonists, now numbering about 150,000 souls, who have established many respectable sea port and inland towns and villages, who have a large area of land under cultivation, extensive pastures teeming with flocks and herds, with a revenue of one million pounds per annum, and an export and import trade, contributing largely to the commercial prosperity of the mother country, are not a little surprised at the absence of correct information displayed by the English press, and especially by many members of Parliament in their debates on New Zealand affairs, who with one or two exceptions are totally in the dark on the subject of the "little war" existing in the Colony, upon which they are called to legislate.
The cause of this otherwise unpardonable ignorance, has for some time past been perfectly understood by the most enlightened public men in the Colony, and some few leading men in England are beginning to see through the dust and fog raised by interested adventurers, the opponents of truth, to cloud the political vision of British statesmen.
The truth is, a conspiracy has long existed in high quarters in the Colony, having its counterpart in the mother country, for the support of a systematic scheme of fraudulent deception, practised on the British public, and on British statesmen. A few men of wealth and influence in the Colony have united themselves together by a solemn compact, perfectly understood, though not expressed in so many words, to do all in their power covertly to defame the Colonists, eulogise the Natives, and blind the eyes of the public. Motives easily comprehended operate to unite many underlings in the Colony with these few wealthy and influential men in the same cause, which if triumphant would inevitably retard for many years the progress of the Colony, and end in the extermination of the native race.
However we may deprecate the motives of these men, we must at least give them credit, in the propagation of their peculiar dogmas, for their industry, perseverance, and duplicity, which would do honour to a company of jesuits. This conclave consists
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partly of ambitious and designing adventurers, actuated solely by self-interest; and partly of amiable dupes, the tools of the former, who use them to advance their political designs, taking advantage of their mental weakness, and peculiar idiosyncrasies on the question of Native rights and liberties.
The opinions they hold in common, and which may be termed their political creed, are as follows:--
1. The natives can do no wrong; that is, political wrong. They may rob the settlers, commit murder on defenceless women and children, which acts they admit are wrong and indefensible in the abstract, but perfectly justifiable on political grounds, under their peculiar circumstances.
2. The "Treaty of Waitangi" is strictly binding on the British Government, and all the natives are entitled to live under its protection and enjoy its privileges, but it does not in the least bind the Natives, who can violate their part of the contract with impunity, without losing their claim to its beneficial clauses.
3. The native population, now about 50,000 in all, men, women, and children, possess the fee simple of every rood of land in these islands (a trifle larger than Great Britain and Ireland), the nature of their title is peculiar, they can always sell it to any individual, and even occasionally to the Government without extinguishing it, as by a peculiar sort of right it reverts to them again, or becomes the property of some other chief when sold to an European (this is a peculiar privilege they wrung from Governor FitzRoy at Taranaki, and lately from Sir George Grey, at Waitara.
4. Although the sovereignty of the country was ceded to the Queen, and the natives became British subjects, yet the chiefs are allowed to retain what they call their "Mana," or jurisdiction over their tribes, which extends to all the property of every individual of their own tribes, as well as to chiefs inferior in power to themselves. This authority, the assumption of which is at direct variance with the sovereignty of the Queen, creating in fact an imperium in imperio, is perfectly justifiable in the case of the Natives of New Zealand, who are not at all bound by the Treaty of Waitangi, but can assume to be British subjects or not for the nonce just as the occasion suits them.
5. Human nature amongst the New Zealanders has assumed a different degree of development to anything ever known in the world before; consequently all the experience of ancient and modern sages, both sacred and profane, on the art of Government, must be set at naught, and living as they do in the Antipodes, all the rules must necessarily be reversed; for example, a book which
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all Christians revere, teaches that Magistrates and those in authority should be a "terror to evil-doers, and a praise to them that do well"; but in New Zealand they are deputed to reward evil-doers with flour and sugar, and to treat well-doers with contempt; this is the grand secret, and has always been the rule during Sir George Grey's management of the Natives, and is fully endorsed by the clique.
The above are the fundamental articles of the creed of the Philo-Maori sympathisers, who, under the pretext of doing justice to the Maori, are united in the cause of defaming the Colonists, and exalting the virtues of the savage, whose tendencies to murder and rapine are encouraged by the countenance they receive at their hands. Those in the habit of conversing with them on Native topics will corroborate the fact that they defend every principle embodied in the foregoing creed, after the fashion of "Uriah Heap" when hard beset, with a wriggle and a twist, although they avoid summing up in so many words the articles of their political faith.
The reason why their plot has so far succeeded as to deceive the public of England is accounted for by the fact that no expense or trouble has been spared to forward their object. Having in the Colony more than one newspaper devoted to their interests, and some of their men being possessed of the peculiar talent of lying like truth, laying on just sufficient of the genuine to gild the false, and make the worse appear the better cause, are indefatigable in their united efforts to compile a monthly summary of perverted facts and mendacious statements, skilfully compounded to deceive, and got up expressly for exportation, to gratify the morbid taste of the English political dyspeptic, and spurious lovers of humanity whose generous sympathies, though not easily awakened by the real sufferings of the immediate poor around them, are powerfully excited at the recital of imaginary grievances, concocted by mendacious politicians, and by them said to be inflicted on savages some 15,000 miles away.
It is a fact well known in Auckland that at least one newspaper in the Colony is backed up and supported on the sole condition of becoming the tool of this party, giving all their aid and influence (which happily is now on the wane) to the men who seek to defame the Colonists, eulogise native plunderers and murderers, and so tend to subvert the authority of the Queen in these islands. It matters not to them that they obtain no credence here, they know that nobody of any pretensions to discernment in the Colony places any faith in their political summaries which are concocted monthly for the English Mail and gratuitously forwarded to the leading public journals, members of Parliament, and the amiable dupes of Exeter Hall, for whose especial benefit the religious garb is hypocritically assumed and interwoven in
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their language. It is openly asserted here that the Governor himself pays for 500 copies of the monthly summaries of his favourite newspaper to be forwarded every mail to England, addressed, as per list furnished by him, to influential public men, Editors of newspapers, clubs, and member of Parliament, thus ensuring a very extensive circulation of spurious intelligence, concocted especially with a view to serve party purposes, without regard to truth, and consisting mainly of fulsome adulation of his own miserable expedients in the management of the Natives, which it is an insult to common sense to dignify with the name of Government.
It would be needless to dwell on the condition of the Aborigines of New Zealand prior to the settlement of Europeans amongst them, so much having been written on the subject that to enlarge further on this topic than is required to illustrate the causes that have led to the war, would render this pamphlet too voluminous for the purpose intended, which is, by a reference to incontrovertible facts, to reveal at a glance the origin of the present unhappy relation existing between the settlers and the Natives, and to point out the best remedy to extricate ourselves out of it.
In order to arrive at a correct opinion of the causes that have led to the rebellion, we must revert to the condition of the Natives upon the arrival of the first settlers amongst them, and then carefully consider the leading facts that have transpired in our intercourse with them, both before and after the pretence of British authority was established in these islands.
It is not the intention of the author of this pamphlet to propound a theory of Government for savages, or to offer abstract opinions on disputed points, but simply to refer to facts known and patent to all who are acquainted with the history of the Colony, which will of themselves, when carefully weighed, reveal the whole truth without entering into the labyrinth of conjecture to solve the mystery of the Native rebellion, and penetrate the flimsy web of sophistry so ingeniously contrived for party purposes to bewilder the superficial observer and mislead the British Statesman and the British Press.
The New Zealand Natives, before the arrival of the first European settlers, were divided into independent tribes, living principally round the sea coast, inhabiting the bays and rivers which were of easy access and abounding with fish, which was one of their staple articles of food; their aggregate numbers at that time were variously computed by different writers at from 80 to 100,000 souls, including women and children. The tribes were at deadly enmity with one another, and continually at war. Their wars were principally to revenge the death of chiefs who
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were killed and eaten in previous wars, to carry away the women, and take the men for slaves, and they invariably terminated in a cannibal feast on the bodies of the slain. Since Captain Cook visited New Zealand the natives have cultivated the potato to a considerable extent, from the seed he left them, and the pigs he presented them with being for some years tapued by the Chiefs, became very numerous, and running wild are dispersed all over the island. Previous to the introduction of the pig, the rat was the largest quadruped indigenous to the country.
Subsequent to the establishment of Port Jackson as a penal settlement, a few vessels at first from that port occasionally traded with the natives round the coast for flax and spars, and latterly this trade had increased considerably. The Bay of Islands was their favourite port of call, and many American and English whalers visited there in the season. The natives were soon enabled to furnish a sufficient supply of potatoes and pigs for all the vessels that required provisions, receiving in exchange clothing, blankets, prints, tomahawks, spades, and tobacco, and such other articles as they required. It was their custom for the slaves taken in war, and the women, to do all the laborious work, preparing the ground, planting the potatoes, and scraping the flax, at which work they were constantly kept employed except in time of war, and the chiefs stored up the produce in raupo huts, until some vessel called and traded with them.
In those days all property was held by the strong arm--might was right--and force was law. The greatest chief, if taken prisoner in war, and his life was spared, became a slave and for ever lost caste; even if he could succeed in regaining his liberty and return to his own people, he was no longer a chief. The natives were expert in the use of their canoes, which were highly prized, being indispensable to their mode of life, scattered as they were, round about the sea coast and rivers. There were no settlements in the interior of the country away from tidal navigation, and they were but little acquainted with the interior, except in certain tracks where they crossed from one coast to the opposite side in some of the narrow parts of the island. These roads or tracks were only about a foot wide, as they always walked in single file whatever their numbers might be travelling together. The narrowness of the roads is a great objection with European travellers, as the luxuriant herbage on each side retains the moisture long after a shower of rain, and almost meeting at the top wets the traveller completely through from his knees downwards. It is not however much inconvenience to the native, who travels with only a blanket or mat over his shoulders, leaving his nether parts bare to buffet the wet fern.
In these palmy days of "Old New Zealand," land not under crop was not valued; a tribe possessed of a good pig run, or fishing
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ground, were often envied by their neighbours, their homesteads became a prey to the conqueror, and they were driven off to seek some other place to settle down. This however, was not such a great evil as may be supposed, where there were millions of acres of land unoccupied, and a dozen natives can build a temporary hut large enough to protect 100 from the weather in less than a day, and roaming about is a custom they are used to from their birth. They can procure fish anywhere round the coast, and if compelled to live without the luxury of a potato, or a meal of flour, they can always obtain fern-root, which is a very good substitute, and will of itself sustain life a long time.
These few introductory remarks will, I think, be sufficient to show the condition and habits of the natives at the time the first settlers and missionaries arrived amongst them. The reader will bear in mind that there were millions of acres of land uncultivated and unexplored, consequently to which there was no title. Their cultivations were confined to a few patches scattered round about the coast, occupation alone giving a valid title, and that only such a title as was liable at any moment to be upset by any stronger tribe who coveted it.
A new and important era now commences in the history of the New-Zealander, and the attention of the reader is particularly requested to the fact of his previous condition, up to the time of the first settlers and missionaries arriving in this country. Not an acre of land had ever before been bought or sold; it was valued as a stream of water, for its use only; anyone might quench his thirst at the stream, and anyone might settle on the unoccupied land, immense tracts of which lay waste and unheeded in a state of nature. If any further proof be required as to the tenure of the land at this time, it is plainly seen in the fact that from time immemorial, natives from the Marquise, Tahiti, and other surrounding islands, were occasionally driven from their own coast in their canoes by bad weather, and arrived in New Zealand, where they settled down on the land, and in process of time became amalgamated with the New Zealanders; who have a tradition that they themselves first arrived in the country by the same causes. Also long after Captain Cook visited New Zealand, occasional runaways from vessels settled in the country, and took what unoccupied land they required, without payment. The idea of selling land had never before occurred to them; they would as soon thought of selling the sea, or the sky, or the air we breathe, and none would be anxious to buy what they could possess without purchase, and from which they were liable to be driven at any moment by their more powerful neighbours.
But the first settlers and missionaries had imported into New Zealand the new idea of a permanent interest in landed property, transferable by deed, about which the natives were totally ignor-
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ant; and these new-comers seeing immense tracts of valuable land lying waste, and having themselves become permanent settlers, it was natural and quite right they should endeavour to make a provision for their increasing families, fast multiplying around them, having also the view in perspective that it would soon become a British settlement; but a seeming insuperable difficulty lay in the way; it appeared impossible to secure themselves against the robberies of neighbouring tribes when at war with the tribe amongst whom they had located themselves; and this insecurity operated as a check against any permanent and expensive improvements.
They were, however, in times of peace partially able to remove this obstacle, if they could not entirely overcome it to their satisfaction. By assembling all the chiefs together from the surrounding tribes, and making presents to them, they secured their friendship, and promised exemption from the evils of war, being esteemed as friendly neutrals, having a tapu put upon them, which made it a serious crime for any native to injure them. This tapu, or protection of the chiefs, was of great importance, it generally prevented the slaves and wandering natives from plundering them, the authority of the chiefs in those days being absolute; it was still an expensive affair, as they expected occasional presents, such as a blanket or shirt, and always a little tobacco when they called. It is evident this protection could not extend to cases where powerful tribes at a distance made a raid on the settlement; the European settlers at such times were generally robbed, and their lives were in danger if they resisted. After some sad experience of the native love of plunder, the settlers learnt a little wisdom. They not only paid the chiefs in the immediate neighbourhood where they settled down (which payment was at first made in consideration of protection, and as an immunity from plunder); but they endeavoured to conciliate every powerful chief by some present, even though he lived a long distance off, as he might, probably, at some future time, come on a marauding expedition to the settlement. It was usual also to obtain their signatures to the deed of conveyance, which, to the honour of the natives it must be admitted they rarely or never disputed. The Europeans considered their written document a valid conveyance of the land described within certain boundaries, to hold good against the encroachments of other Europeans, and the natives who received part of the payment perfectly understood by it that their new friends were to hold peaceable possession for ever, without molestation from them. After the first few contracts of this nature, the natives, who always had an eye to business, did not require to be summoned when any fresh European arrived who wanted land. They had in perspective an instinctive perception of blankets, guns, powder, prints, tobacco, &c., by such an event, and upon the first news of a fresh arrival, hastened to besiege him, being all eager to set forth their claims to beautiful tracts of
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land, which they were anxious to sell. Having no title to it themselves other than the strong arm, they were clamorous to realise something substantial for it, before the beautiful illusion might be dissipated by the arrival of some more powerful chief, who would at once pronounce them to be "tangata tahi katoa," a set of thieves, who had no claim, as it all belonged to him. As soon as a bargain was struck with him, and the payment made, the small fry, who had not a word to say in his presence, and who had retired from the field (keeping in view the old Scotch proverb, "I bide my time"), re-appeared, and urged their claims with great vehemence; indeed they were often told by the chief who had just sold it, and declared it belonged solely to himself, to go now and make their claim, as he had got all he could. It was always good policy to satisfy these claimants, as a trifle to each would suffice after the great chief had signed the deed, and it was worth something to get rid of their importunity and secure their goodwill. From the nature of these first transactions in land, it is plain that the payment was made to obtain a peaceful settlement and immunity from plunder, and not until the New Zealander had learnt something from the European, did he over entertain the idea of selling the land; I repeat, he would as soon have thought of selling the sea or the sky.
They had been used to toil hard in tilling the land for potatoes, in scraping flax, and in cutting down spars, and rolling them to the rivers to trade for the articles they required--tobacco, blankets, prints, flour, and sugar, having now almost become necessaries. Is it then to be wondered at, the aptitude they displayed in learning a lesson of self-interest in this new source of wealth opened up to their view. It became at once the all-absorbing topic of their thoughts and conversations the embodiment of a beautiful idea, perfectly in harmony with their feelings, and rich in perspective of inexhaustible wealth, ease, and plenty. The candid reader requested to bear in mind two important facts. First. That the total number of natives, men, women, and children, at this time did not probably exceed 80,000; and, secondly, that the islands of New Zealand are somewhat larger than Great Britain and Ireland. 80,000 inhabitants would be about equal to a fourth or fifth-rate town in England. What should we think of the whole of the United Kingdom being claimed by just as many savage cannibals, who did not altogether cultivate so much land as is contained in some two parishes in England? We will suppose further that they never made any improvements in roads, public buildings, or any of the arts of civilized life; that they were cruel and bloodthirsty in their wars, often-times drinking the warm blood of their victims, prisoners of war, as it oozed from their wounds when being slain for a cannibal feast; tyrannical in their domestic habits, allowing each chief to tapu as many young women as he chose for his wives, who were punished with instant death, and sometimes cruelly
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tortured, upon the mere suspicion of infidelity. At perpetual war with one another, and continually in dread of their lives, they lived pent up in filthy pahs, swarming with vermin, and suffocating with stench.
This was the condition in which the first missionaries and settlers found the New Zealand natives. A marked improvement, however, soon took place in their habits, through the influence and teaching of the missionaries, and through their intercourse with the settlers, who found profitable employment for them in various ways--in procuring spars, and in raising and collecting native produce for export--which enabled them to procure good flour and sugar and comfortable clothing. These articles having become necessary to them, operated as a powerful incentive to industry.
At the time the British Government took possession of New Zealand it cannot be denied that the natives had vastly improved in their moral and physical condition, from their intercourse with Europeans, who, by their intercession, were sometimes instrumental in averting some of their sanguinary wars, and in cementing peaceful relations between the tribes. Some vices had, no doubt, been introduced amongst them by the lowest class of settlers; but at that time not many instances of drunkenness occurred amongst the native race, being warned of the evil of intoxicating drinks by the missionaries.
Before Captain Hobson took possession of New Zealand in behalf of Her Britannic Majesty, a great number of settlers were established in the Northern Island, having peaceable possession of farms, many of which were under cultivation, and the kauri forests resounded to the sound of the axe, and afforded occupation to hundreds of natives guided by European skill, as a considerable demand for sawn timber had arisen amongst the settlers, who now began to build comfortable houses for themselves. A cordial feeling existed between the races, and the prestige of the European name was generally sufficient to maintain their peaceable rights unmolested, even against turbulent chiefs, who were prevented from their plundering propensities by the more orderly, who now felt their best interests promoted by living on terms of good fellowship with the settlers.
Singular it is that about this time, when the natives were beginning to emerge from their barbarism and to appreciate the advantages of civilized life, when prosperity dawned on their country, and not a murmur of discontent was heard, there came a small sound, a sort of prelude or note of warning, from some good and humane but misinformed people, who assembled at Exeter Hall to lecture and to be enlightened on the condition of the various aboriginal inhabitants of distant countries. Their
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fears were greatly excited--not for the lives of their own country-men and women, who had courageously gone forth to explore a new country, and to introduce the arts of civilised life amongst a ferocious set of cannibals; no, their own people were not the objects of their tender solicitude, but they had wrought themselves up to a desperate state of excitement lest the poor natives should be defrauded out of their land, and, not having an European idea of its prospective value, might be overreached in a bargain with the artful settlers. Poor fellows, those natives, with only about forty millions of acres of land lying entirely waste. What a pity they should be allowed to part with a single rood! And then to think that an Englishman, with his wife and family, should be allowed to settle down on a nice piece of land. What a burning shame! We must petition Parliament, declare their titles void, send out commissioners, impose heavy fees, delay for years the settlement of their titles, and ruin them for their presumption. What if the prophet did foretel that the "desert should blossom and flourish as the rose?" The time is not arrived yet, and we will prevent it. A Governor must be at once sent out who will soon put an end to their "land-sharking." Only to think that a poor Englishman who, if he had stayed at home, could never have possessed a single rood of land, except a parish inheritance of 6 feet by 3 feet, which he could not enjoy till after death--to think that he should be permitted to acquire a freehold which would in time, with industry, lead to an independence, while thousands of our poor are starving at home. Such were the sentiments industriously spread abroad by the pseudo-philanthropists of Exeter Hall; loudly reiterated in Parliament by those who would be charitable without expense, and who coveted a saintly popularity; and echoed throughout some of the leading journals, whose editors were virtuously indignant that such glaring impositions were permitted to be practised on poor ignorant savages. It must be borne in mind that at this time the settlers were a very small minority, living entirely by sufferance in a savage community, and tolerated only so long as they kept on good terms with the chiefs. I have before stated how the Europeans effected their first settlement on lands which were secured to them for ever by a payment made to all the surrounding chiefs. This payment was at first in reality nothing more or less than compounding for terms of peaceful occupation, a kind of "black mail," the amount of which was generally estimated in proportion to the power and importance of the chief, the distance he dwelt from the settlement--in reality, his means and disposition to annoy the settler. But, in a very short time, the natives having learned from the Europeans the idea of selling the land, purchases began to be made in a more formal manner, by deed, the chiefs of course claiming the whole country as against Europeans; and here commences a complete babel of confusion and internal squabbling amongst themselves about the division of this newly acquired property, and the ownership of that which
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before belonged to no one in particular, but to everyone who chose to make use of it.
A question naturally arises here as to the abstract right of a handful of savages to the fee simple of a noble country, containing many millions of acres, and capable of maintaining a dense population. The scope of this letter does not admit of doing justice to an argument on this point; but the principle involved in the affirmative of such an absurd proposition, may be very easily tested by supposing an extreme case, by which we shall find the rule to guide us in all cases. Suppose a fertile country of fifty millions of acres is occupied only by half-a-dozen savages, who claim it all because they happened to be born there; and suppose there is a small island containing many millions of inhabitants who have not sufficient land to raise the necessaries of life, and the people are perishing for want;--who will be so presumptuous as to assert that the surplus population going forth to till the fertile lands of the wilderness offend against the laws of God, or in any way trespass on the rights of the half-dozen aborigines?
It is plain then that one savage has no right to act the dog in the manger, and hold millions of acres in barren waste because he happens to be born in a desert; for this simple reason--that he cannot make use of it--and that he deprives thousands of his fellow-creatures of a subsistance. The rule in all such cases is plain--justice and common sense point out that it would be wrong to deprive the savage of his natural rights, to abridge his comforts, or to render it more difficult for him to subsist. A savage people have only natural rights; if they are a few in number and occupy a large territory, they are entitled to land amply sufficient for all their wants, but no more. Their own rude laws prescribe their boundaries within the limits of their power to hold against the surrounding foe.
To transfer land by deed is not a natural but a civil right, acquired by law, which implies civil government, a combination or state of society where the people have surrendered their individuality to be merged in a community, consenting to abide by written and well-defined laws. It must be clear to everyone that we cannot convey to another what we do not possess ourselves. The only title to land a savage can transfer is the precarious one he himself holds by, that is, present possession, with the liability to be driven off by the first plunderer who is strong enough, and that in a country where there is no law.
Every people have a right to live on the face of the earth, and if a savage people by their brutal wars depopulate their country, the industrious and orderly people who overflow their borders, have a moral as well as a physical right to take possession of it.
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"The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." The command to "Go forth and multiply and replenish it" has not been obeyed by the savage New-Zealander; his cruel wars have tended to devastate and destroy, instead of to multiply and replenish it. He has been "weighed in the balance and found wanting," and he must give way to a people who fulfil the words of prophecy, whose habits of industry and peaceful labor will make the "desert to blossom and flourish as the rose."
When Captain Hobson in 1840, first raised the British flag in New Zealand, he met several of the chiefs at Waitangi, Bay of Islands, and on behalf of the Crown entered into a treaty, (known as the treaty of Waitangi), with those who were present, who signed it for themselves and also in behalf of all other chiefs who were absent. It may not be amiss to notice here that the independent tribes who did not sign, repudiated the treaty altogether, not having delegated their authority to the chiefs who were present, between whom and themselves deadly feuds existed. They kept aloof for a considerable time, narrowly watching the progress of events, and finding that the Maoris had by far the best of the bargain, many of them subsequently capitulated and signed, after much intreaty, like coy maidens, pretending reluctance in order to secure some valuable present which, through the Governor's weakness, they invariably managed to squeeze out of him. Their signatures after all were of no avail for the purposes of Government, as the tribes would not be bound by their own chiefs, except it answered their purpose; it enabled them to avail themselves of British law in all matters where they required its aid and protection against a European by assuming to be British subjects, and the Courts of Law invariably leant to their side, overruling all technicalities and errors in their favour. On the other side of the question the Queen's writ was powerless, and in no case could an honest debt be recovered if a native refused to pay.
How far Captain Hobson's instructions authorised this extraordinary exercise of diplomatic power is best known to the Home Government who employed him. Experience has proved the treaty to be an entire failure so far as any benefit has accrued to the British Government resulting from it; but it is the general opinion that this failure is justly attributable to the dishonesty and incapacity of successive Governors and those whom they have employed in the management of native affairs, rather than to the treaty itself. It was doubtless a monstrous piece of folly to admit that to a few natives, about 80,000 in all, belonged the whole of the islands of New Zealand, a territory larger than the United Kingdom. This admission is, however, capable of much modification by the cession of the sovereignty, and the right of pre-emption to the Crown, but the folly of our Governors in the management of native affairs has hitherto failed to profit by these
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provisions. It is well known that the intention of Captain Hobson and those who assisted in drawing up the treaty was to model it after the pattern of the United States Government as it regards the acquirement of land. None were allowed to purchase except the agents of the Crown, and when the Government required land for any purpose it was understood that the chiefs should obtain payment according to the rate they had been accustomed to get. It was never intended that the Government were to pay according to its progressive value which it acquired entirely in consequence of the arrival and occupation of Europeans. Much less was it ever contemplated by the treaty that the natives should possess a title equivalent to the fee simple of the land. Such follies as these were left for the consummation of subsequent fanatics who were placed in authority over the Colony. It is often asserted by Maori sympathisers that the fact of their plundering settlers who did not pay them for their waste land is evidence that it belonged to them, and that they esteemed it as their exclusive possession; but the argument will not hold good, because in those early times they laid every settler under tribute and invariably robbed him if in their power to do it with impunity, especially if he travelled with any goods they coveted, although he did not require land. A new-comer was to them a pigeon to be plucked, an orange to be squeezed, and when all the feathers and juice was out of him he might squat down where he pleased.
I have clearly shown that at first the land was as free to anyone to occupy and cultivate as the stream of water was to quench the traveller's thirst. That when the first settlers wished to squat on it, they made presents to the chiefs in order to live peaceable and obtain exemption from plunder--that this custom caused the chiefs to assemble whenever a new settler arrived, and after a short time the competition amongst these new-comers, and their eagerness to secure certain land which they selected led to the form of direct purchase by deeds of conveyance, which were in the case of valuable selections required more for the purpose of securing them against other Europeans trespassing on their boundaries than against natives. The evidence of this progressive method of acquiring land is apparent to this day, and every purchase made even now furnishes proof of it in the absurd claims set up by all the natives far and near who hear of the Government negociating for a piece of land. Claims of every kind and description are set up by all the Maoris within fifty, or sometimes one hundred miles round. One asserts that his father was killed in war on some part of it; another, that he eat a piece of the chiefs head who formerly lived on it, and if he is not paid he will eat the first white man who settles on it; another, that his canoe was wrecked on the coast, and his father was drowned, so he put his "tapu" on the ground; another says he once gathered oysters and pipies on the beach; another can point out a tree, in the branches of which his
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grandfather rested after death; another caught rats on the land and eat them; another caught eels in a swamp; another cut down a tree, and his people made a canoe out of it; another encamped on it one night and drank of a stream that runs through it; and another, hard put to it for a claim, says he walked across it and manured it. Fifty others claim as the brothers of some of the above claimants. (A native calls them all brothers who are of his tribe.)
The absurd nature of the foregoing claims--and every one of them have been urged before the Commissioners--will convince any reasonable man that they had no valid title to it at all, and were hard put to it to find out how it happened to belong to them. I maintain it is good evidence of what I have before advanced as to the mode the first settlers adopted in acquiring land, also of the native idea of the proprietary of land before the Europeans taught them to make it a marketable commodity, and no doubt if the first settlers had told them the light of the sun and the air we breathe belonged to them in New Zealand, and paid them for it, they would have continued to exact payment for it to this day.
I am not so ambitious as to suppose that any amount of evidence would convince Maori sympathisers, or wring from them a confession of their errors. They have adopted the Creed, are anxious to subvert the authority of the Queen and substitute Native supremacy, which has already been accomplished in many districts by the New Institutions of Governor Grey. I would ask if any of the claims enumerated above would entitle a poor man in England to a foot of ground in the parish where he was born? Why then does it confer a title on cannibals? It can only be accounted for on the supposition that the maudlin sentimentalists of Exeter Hall have initiated the new fashion of worshipping savages.
I will now endeavour to show the natural consequences of this act of the British Government, whereby they endowed the New Zealand Natives with all the land. This I call blunder the first, and which has been followed up by a series of blunders ever since, by successive Governors and their imbecile agents, whose eligibility for office, provided they could talk the native language, was in the exact ratio to their hypocrisy, disregard of truth, dishonesty, and unscrupulous deference to the whims and caprices of their superior in office. A Government carried on without regard to established principles by a system of dastardly expedients, must needs have servants whose consciences are entirely in the keeping of their superiors in office--indeed, it would be difficult to imagine a more complete system of Jesuitical rule than that established in the Native Department of New Zealand before Constitutional Government was granted. But I am di-
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gressing from the point to be considered. Nothing could possibly have exercised a more baneful effect on the native mind or operated more to destroy his character for industry and independence than this first blunder--acknowledging him to be the owner of all the land. Those who lived in New Zealand in early times cannot fail to observe a marked change for the worse, which has gradually crept over him ever since. Before then, the Natives were thriving and industrious in their habits, raised a surplus produce of potatoes sufficient to supply all the vessels that put in to refit, prepared many tons of flax for exportation, and were able to supply the navy with as many spars as they required, willing to work for any European for a small remuneration, they were good servants, expert in boating and fishing, deferential to their employers, and anxious to please. The payment for land previous to the pretence of the establishment of British authority here was comparatively small, and not sufficient to place them in circumstances entirely independent of labour; but as soon as they were the acknowledged lords of the whole territory, native industry became quite paralyzed, abundance from this new source flowed in upon them without labour, and they spent all their time in idle scheming and quarrelling amongst themselves about the ownership of the land, laying about smoking all day, playing at cards and draughts, and laughing at the Pakeha for being such fools as to buy land of them.
In reverting back to the commencement of the Colony, some amusing details might be gathered from our early reminiscences of New Zealand jurisprudence. In 1840 a gentleman of the name of Fisher duly installed himself as Judge, first at the Bay of Islands, and afterwards for a short time in Auckland. It is said he had previously some little practice as attorney amongst the convicts of New South Wales; how he came to assume the title of Judge I don't know, but it was reported he was sent to New Zealand because Sir George Gipps wanted to get rid of him. A man was summoned to his Court at Kororareka, and cast in a small debt and the Court expenses, which amounted to three or four pounds. Not considering it a just decision, the poor man would not pay it, and said he would go to gaol first. In those early days the expenses was an important item, the Courts by fines and fees were almost self-supporting, they could not afford, a debtor's prison, and it was not an easy matter to draw on the Government chest, which was usually bled to syncope by indispensable demands.
It was not a Court of Record, and where the fines went nobody knew. Perhaps a precedent might be found in the back States of America of a similar judge opening shop on his own hook to eke out his income by fines and costs, without troubling the State chest; at any rate Judge Fisher and another Magistrate met the delinquent on the beach, seized him by the collar, one on each
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side of him, turned his pockets inside out, and took what little silver there was, then by a vigorous application of his boot to his seat of honor, told the man that was a lesson for him for contempt of Court, in refusing to pay, which he hoped would be a warning to him another time; he might now go about his business. I cannot vouch for every particular of the above, but I was informed of it by the man himself soon after the event; he is not now in the Colony. This summary method of execution is not exactly in accordance with our notions of British liberty, but the man said it was after dinner, and the judge and his friend the J. P. had both indulged a little too freely in wine.
Another remarkable case was tried by this same Judge Fisher in Auckland. One of the settlers lost a fine pig, which he had been fattening up for bacon, after searching everywhere for it, he passed by a butcher's yard, and hearing a familiar grunt, jumped over the fence and saw his own pig tied up, going to be killed as soon as the furnace boiled; the man immediately fetched several of his neighbours, and a constable, who all identified the pig as belonging to him. The constable cautioned the butcher not to kill the pig, and went to take out a warrant, as the butcher and the pig must be brought before the Court on the morrow, when he must prove how he came by it. The butcher, who was a bold man, when the constable and the people went away for the warrant, settled the little matter as he thought securely by killing the pig and scraping all the hair off him, so that when they returned it could not be identified. The people swore to the pig, and the butcher was committed for trial before Judge Fisher. He was liberated on bail, and it was reported that every day before the trial a fine joint of meat found its way to the judge's table free of charge. On the day of trial a jury of twelve men were empanelled, who patiently heard all the evidence, and were unanimous in their opinion, and about to return a verdict of guilty, not in accordance with the judge's charge. They did not require to retire, but were whispering audibly to one another, the word guilty being distinctly heard, when the judge jumped up and told them he didn't want their verdict, the prisoner was discharged, the law would bear him out, he had precedent for deciding the case without them in New South Wales. The jury were surprised, and so was the prisoner too, who got away as quickly as possible from the Court. This fact can now be verified in Auckland, by some of the jurymen who were empanelled on the trial. The Supreme Court was opened soon after upon the arrival of Chief Justice Martin and the Registrar, when an end was put to such follies as the above. The Supreme Court has ever since maintained its character as an impartial tribunal, gained the respect of the people, and is justly esteemed as a boon to the Colony, and is an institution which in its transmission to these shores has preserved its likeness to the parent stem more perfectly than any other branch of Government.
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The British Government by confirming Captain Hobson's authority committed themselves to the "Treaty of Waitangi," involving concessions such as no other European power would have granted. With unparalleled liberality they resigned the territorial rights of these islands acquired by discovery, to a handful of savages, and those savages divided into different tribes, rankling with mutual jealousies and ever at war. Still, notwithstanding, much might have been done to repair the evil of this untoward concession by pursuing a wise and just policy afterwards. The chiefs had now ceased to work; none but the slaves--and they only through compulsion--pursued any laborious occupation. Native industry became quite paralyzed; everything was forsaken and neglected for their daily meetings and eternal "korero" on the one absorbing topic--land. The apple of discord, the bone of contention had been thrown in their midst, and many sore and bitter quarrels arose amongst former friends; bloody scenes were enacted, and are to this day as virulent and uncompromising as ever. How can it be otherwise? They have no title to the land, and admit only that of force among themselves, so that the first intimation made by the Government that they require to purchase certain lands, is the signal for war in many districts, and not until many are killed, and often some eaten, is the matter of ownership decided. It would not perhaps be far off the mark if we estimated in round numbers that 1000 natives have been slain in their internecine wars, since the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, solely owing to disputes about the ownership of land. Take for example one instance--over 100 were killed at Taranaki alone on both sides in revenge of Rawiri, who was shot with six of his tribe while they were unarmed measuring their own land, before Governor Browne interfered to endeavour to prevent further bloodshed. About forty were killed at Mongonui in 1843; and between Auckland and the East Cape they have been constantly at war about land, and are to this day. What a blessing it would have been for the natives if the Government had taken all the land from them except what they required for their cultivations, or bought it all up of them when they would willingly have sold for a trifle. We who are living in the country know it, for we see the fruitful source of evil it has been to them from the beginning, and ever will be so long as they have an acre for sale. Still, in the face of all these facts, which cannot be controverted, whenever we read an English newspaper, or the Parliamentary debates on New Zealand affairs, we find with few exceptions nothing but the oft-refuted, worn-out, stereotyped slanders on the Colonists, every writer and speaker following in the same wake, like a long team of horses, each with his nose in his leader's tail, whining in tones of pity and condolence because the poor injured natives' lands are to be confiscated for the small crime of commencing war against the Queen by laying an ambush and murdering eight of Her Majesty's soldiers who were peaceably walking the highway. Subsequently, in cold blood, they have murdered unarmed men,
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women, and children, who have been hacked to pieces with the tomahawk while peacefully pursuing their daily avocations, and to this day they refuse terms of peace, and set the Governor at defiance. These are the crimes they would condone, and these the savages whose lands should be held sacred, preserved a perpetual wilderness, a solitary desolation, rather than yield their genial fruits to the honest labour of the English peasant. So say the Maori sympathisers of the compact and creed in the Colony, and of the Press, the Parliament, and Exeter Hall, in England; but so say not I, nor any true friend of the Native race, or of his own countrymen. We say, take away the apple of discord--remove the bone of contention from their midst--confiscate all the rebellious natives' lands. When they sue for peace, and not till then, with dignity and grace becoming the Crown of England, return them amply sufficient for all their real wants, but no more.
The first cause of complaint the settlers had against the Government was the Proclamation in 1840, issued by Sir George Gipps, the Governor of New South Wales, declaring that all titles to land were null and void except those derived through the Crown, and calling upon all those who had bought land of the native chiefs to forward their title deeds at once to the Colonial Secretary or their lands would be forfeited. Commissioners were appointed to examine into and report on the claims, and the programme set forth that the settlers were to be graciously allowed to keep as many acres of land as their payment made to the natives would amount to at the rate of 5s. per acre. The surplus land was to be forfeited to the Crown. This was the sample of justice the settlers were first treated to who had risked their all, and even their lives, as pioneers in the great cause of Colonisation. This mandate, issued by a Convict Governor, caused great alarm to the settlers, as much of the land was not worth 6d. an acre, and thousands of acres have been sold years after at less than 2s. 6d., and would not now after the lapse of a quarter of a century, realise 5s. in the market if put up to auction. It was in fact an act of confiscation, against the injustice of which the voice of Exeter Hall was never raised. But the worst remains to be told, to the eternal disgrace of the Government, for this atrocious proclamation was put in force with the addition of ruinous fees exacted upon each case. £5 was paid into court before any claim would be entertained, and other fees, in all which were paid in cash before a Crown grant issued amounted in many cases to about 2s. 6d. per acre on the land granted, which was literally more than much of it would sell at for years after. The natural consequence of this arbitrary measure was the ruin of all the poor settlers who had small homesteads. They were dragged about from one place to another to attend Commissioners Courts, and had to pledge their cottages and gardens to raise the necessary fees. It entirely broke up their homes and estates which were dotted round about the coast near the the native settlements,
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where their example of industrious thrift operated as a stimulus to native labour. If the land granted realized any surplus after years of delay and all these ruinous expenses were paid, it was in most cases absorbed by the innkeepers at whose house they stayed during their delay in Auckland while dancing attendance at the Commissioner's Court.
But in tracing the cause of the first war, we must not lose sight of the effect on the native mind produced by this harsh and illegal treatment of the early settlers. The Maoris, who narrowly watched all the proceedings of the Government, asked their white neighbours how it was that the Governor took the best part of the land from them all? The answer was that he said they had bought it too cheap. "O, then," said the natives, "he will give it us back again, and we will return it to you, as we do not want it." But when they found that the Government robbed the settlers and stuck to the plunder themselves, they reflected for a while, and then said "Well, if that's the way the Governor serves his own children, how will he serve us, when he is strong enough to conquer us?" "and so you are all slaves, 'taurikarika katoa,' for gentlemen ("rangatira") would never submit to be robbed." It was no use telling them we were free men, and that "Britons never never will be slaves" after that; we were lowered in their estimation, and the Government ever after were viewed with jealousy and suspicion. The consequences of these arbitrary acts were not felt so much by the natives at that time because they were all busy selling land to the Governor, and receiving large payments, which diverted their attention from everything else. As soon, however, as the treasury was empty and the land purchases ceased, murmuring and discontent became apparent, which shortly broke out into loud complaints against the Government.
It must be confessed that Governor Hobson laboured under many difficulties. The revenue was not sufficient in those days to disburse the ordinary expenses of carrying on the Government, even including the paltry subsidy allowed from England, so that there was an empty treasury and no funds to buy land. The natives were at this time very urgent to sell land, and the Governor might have bought up nearly the whole island, with the exception of the native reserves, for £20,000. The funds were not forthcoming, and the opportunity was lost.
Every means was resorted to by the Colonial Government to raise a revenue out of the land-huxtering business, and the want of funds to buy did not stop the trade so long as they could rob the old settlers by legal quibbling, and seize their surplus land after issuing a Crown grant for a tenth part of what they bought of the natives; and by openly bribing a tribe who had no claim to dispute the titles of claimants who purchased of the tribe occupying the land they sold. This scheme was attempted at
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Mongonui, but without success; it caused a native war in 1843, for which the Government agents were responsible, which resulted in the death of about 40 Maoris. After the native tribes who sold to the settlers vindicated their title by the ordeal of battle (the tribe the Government pitched against them being beaten), the titles were acknowledged, and the settlers got a moiety of what they had bought, after the robbing rate of the "Land Claims Act."
The Colonial Government at this time occupied a very undignified position: depending on the land revenue for supplies, they were brought into competition with the ruined land claimants, who were compelled to sell at any price to pay their debts. These forced sales operated as a check to the Government sales, and created an antagonistic feeling against the land claimants, whose titles were consequently delayed, and when issued so clogged with extortionate fees, that it would have been far better for them if the Government had at first confiscated the whole. At that time the current cash value of a scrip order on the Treasury, (which was transferable, and available to purchase land at any Government sale) was only 2s. 6d. in the pound sterling, and thousands of pounds were sold at only 1s. 6d. in the pound. The reader will here see at a glance how the old land claimants were treated. These scrip orders were issued to them at the rate of four acres of land for every pound sterling they proved before the Commissioners they had paid the natives; £25 paid the natives entitled the settler to a scrip order for £100, for which they paid fees averaging £10. This scrip being of the cash value of 2s. 6d. in the pound would bring £12 10s., deduct from that £10 for fees paid the Commissioner, and the claimant had left £2 10s. for the £25 he paid the natives some years before. This is quite enough on this stale topic. Let those who would understand how British justice is administered in the Colonies look to the above facts and figures, which I challenge the world to disprove.
Before dismissing the old claimants, it must be admitted that they were not all treated alike. Some obtained grants for 10,000 acres, who did not pay the natives so much as others who only got 500 acres. It is said that "kissing goes by favour," so did grants of land in New Zealand; and as the favoured ones got what was due to the others, it made a fair average; so they have no right to grumble.
The land claimants of the North were the peculiar favourites of the natives, because they occupied the land they purchased, and through them for years they had obtained their supplies; and although they sometimes robbed them, it was more in the Irishman's way who knocked his friend down for love 1 than out of
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revenge, except in cases of indiscretion with tapu'd women, when it served them right. The natives were quite astonished at the harsh treatment their friends, the old settlers, received from the mother country, who, it cannot be denied, in this unnatural instance acted the step-mother, and went a step too far. To rob their friends was poaching in their preserve; it was a peculiar privilege belonging to themselves, which they did not intend to alienate when they ceded the sovereignty to the Crown. It created a bitter feeling against the Government, which rankled in their minds. The financial state of the Colony was never lower than soon after the arrival of Governor Fitzroy. The Treasury was exhausted, which caused a cessation of all land purchases from the natives. About this time some thieves broke into the Treasury Office one night, and forced open the iron safe, expecting to find a rich booty; but they found only some paper promises and twopence-halfpenny in specie. The matter was hushed up for the sake of the Government credit. In consequence of this utter exhaustion of the sinews of war and Government, the natives' land revenue was reduced to nil. This was felt more particularly at the Bay of Islands, and was considered a serious grievance. The Maoris imagined that the Government would always be ready to buy land, and that the golden shower would never cease. Their pleasing dreams were dissipated, and they awoke to the sad reality of an empty exchequer. They reflected that by consenting to sell only to the Crown they lost their former good customers, the immigrants, who now began to pour in, who paid one pound per acre to the Government, while they sold at only one penny or twopence. In this state of mind, ready for the first outbreak, they only wanted a leader bold enough to seize the advantage, and urge them on to hostilities. Johnny Heke was the man for the occasion, and they did not wait long for a pretext. They were on terms of amity with all the settlers, and their hatred was directed only against the Government. In April, 1844, two American whalers were fined £300 for a breach of the customs regulations, and the captains of those ships told the natives that they would now lose all their old friends, as the Americans would not come there again to be fined, and the Maoris would soon have to pay dear enough for their tobacco. They knew that in consequence of the duty on tabacco, the price was doubled; and they had an idea that the flagstaff, being under the control of the Customs, had something to do with it, so they resolved to cut it down. This was too much for Captain Fitzroy, although he overlooked the Wairau massacre, and pardoned the murderers of more than twenty unarmed gentlemen, and had a short time before, in open Council, declared he would rather cut off his own right hand than go to war with the natives, yet this blow aimed at the British "flag that braved a thousand years" was too much. The dignity of the Crown was at stake; the Governor deemed it a sufficient causus belli, and war was declared. Troops had been sent for to Sydney, but not urgently demanded, but
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through the representations of E. D'Oyley, Esq., a gentleman who had put in there on his way to England, the 99th Regiment and other detachments were speedily sent, and arrived very opportunely. The natives became alarmed, and sued for peace. Terms were proposed and accepted. The natives in token of submission surrendered twelve stand of arms, and were very urgent that the soldiers should be sent back. Governor Fitzroy betrayed too much eagerness to yield to all their demands, which the natives attributed to fear. He even returned them the twelve muskets, and immediately sent the troops back to Sydney. After a short interval the natives, finding the troops were sent back, became more turbulent than ever. They were sent for again, and the war began in earnest. It was carried on with various success, the flagstaff, the ensign of British authority, being twice again erected, and each time cut down by Johnny Heke; and there it ignominiously lay for years after the native hero's death, which occurred in consequence of wounds received in battle. The war was entirely a Government affair, and the property of the settlers was not at first injured by the natives, even after they were know a to have assisted the troops; and but for the indiscretion committed by firing at them from the "Hazard," after the township was deserted by the troops and the fighting had ceased, it is confidently asserted that not a house would have been burnt down, as the plunder was all they required.
After the storm of battle, which ended in the sacking and burning of the flourishing town of Kororareka, there came a lull, which was but of short duration. Fresh troops arrived, and the war was, after a short interval, vigorously prosecuted against Heke and Kawiti with doubtful success for a length of time. The township of Kororareka was for a long time deserted by Europeans; and although it has a splendid harbour and a commanding situation, has never thoroughly recovered this untoward event. The settlers who were dragged into the quarrel and compelled to fight, were entirely ruined, having lost their all, and to this day have never received any compensation. B. E. Turner, Esq., having a large property in buildings, was one of the principal sufferers; and J. S. Polack, Esq., the owner of a splendid house in those days, which was occupied during the quarter sessions as the Court House, at the commencement of the war lent the building to the Government; it was used as a rendezvous for the officers, and a depot for ammunition. Through the carelessness of some person the ammunition exploded, and Mr. Polack narrowly escaped with his life, being severely wounded in the head by falling timbers. No compensation has been awarded him for blowing up his house, worth £2,000, with the Government powder, while in their occupation. About this time several deputations of professed loyal natives waited on the Governor to urge him to give them permission to sell their land to the settlers, as he declined to buy for the Crown. The Governor's Executive Council
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consisted of Messrs. Sinclair, Swainson, and Shepherd--the Colonial Secretary, Attorney-General, and Treasurer. Mr. Clarke, the Protector of Aborigines, was his Excellency's favourite counsellor, as he once declared in the Council Chamber that he "relied more on his private advice than the other three put together."
Between them the Governor was counselled to yield to the urgent demand of the loyal natives, and a proclamation was issued on the 10th of October, 1844, in the Government Gazette, to the effect that the Crown's right of pre-emption would be waived over the natives' lands in favour of any purchaser who obtained a certificate to that effect of the Colonial Secretary, one penny per acre being the fee or fine to be paid to the Government.
The people of Auckland, though eager to buy land of the natives, had already seen so much of the Commissioners' Court proceedings that made them very cautious until they were satisfied as to the undisputed ownership, that they might be quite safe; consequently, when the natives called round to find purchasers, they were requested by the people to get the authorities to state in writing what lands belonged to them. The Governor was anxious the people should buy, as it was the only way to prevent the rebellion becoming general, the natives being everywhere disaffected. It was generally thought by the Auckland people to be a wise concession at the time, and that it saved the Colony; for if a general rising of the natives had taken place, they could then easily have swept us all into the sea. Those Maoris who had land to sell were furnished by the Government with a written document, stating that the within named chief or chiefs were the real owners of such and such lands which were therein described, and that any person wishing to purchase them might obtain a certificate waiving the Crown's right of preemption in his favour. This written document was signed "Andrew Sinclair, Colonial Secretary, by his Excellency's command," and countersigned by Mr. Clarke, Protector of Aborigines, whose decision as to the ownership of the land was final. This was a positive invitation to the settlers to induce them to purchase. After all necessary precaution was taken as to the ownership of the land, the public of Auckland did not imagine there could be any dispute afterwards raised about the title. The waiver was withdrawn by the Queen's Representative, and gazetted in due form, and each purchaser obtained a certificate that his purchase was approved. It was not then supposed for a moment that Governor Fitzroy designedly entrapped them into making these purchases with a view of swindling them out of their money, although it turned out so under the clever management of his successor, whose policy we shall presently review.
Governor Fitzroy was anxious to do all the good in his power, but had very little assistance from home in troops and money
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when the first war broke out, and he was possessed of one serious failing, which rendered him totally unfit to govern the Colony. His peculiar weakness, either occasioned by fear, or love, or both, was an undue leaning to the native race. There was no such thing as justice for an European where the Maoris were concerned. The Wairau massacre, which occurred in June, 1843, created a thrill of horror in the breasts of every loyal man and woman in the Colony, was unavenged; and the cruel perpetrators of these cold-blooded murders met the Governor, who saluted them as friends, and treated them as though nothing had happened. Mr. Spain, the Queen's Commissioner, had carefully investigated the the New Zealand Company's claim to the Waitara at Taranaki, decided the validity of the purchase, and made his award. The Governor, by arbitrarily reversing this decision, justly incurred the resentment of that influential body, and they procured his recall. Captain Grey, who succeeded him, arrived in Auckland in November, 1845, with more extensive powers. Detachments from several Regiments stationed at the neighbouring Colonies now poured into New Zealand. The 58th Regiment, with Colonel Wynyard, had about a month before landed at the Bay of Islands, and the 65th were not long after them; so that with all these additional troops, and the promise of an increased subsidy from home, there was every prospect of a speedy and final settlement of the war, and the colonists began to breathe more freely. Some sharp skirmishing took place at the Bay with the natives, who were clever at laying an ambuscade and surprising small parties of our troops, who but for the timely warning of our faithful ally Tamati Walker, would probably have been entrapped more than once. In January following, Ruapekapeka, the stronghold of the natives at the Bay of Islands, was stormed and taken by the troops, which concluded the war.
The circumstances attending the advent of Governor Grey could not have been more propitious to forward his own ambitious views. Everything conspired to smooth the way to the successful issue of his Government. The difficulties of his predecessor had all been removed; money and troops were ample for the exigencies of Government, and the tempest of war, well-nigh spent, soon blew over. An unclouded political atmosphere, and a serene sky afforded full scope for spontaneous action. Under such favoured circumstances the spirit and genius of the Governor is developed in his unbiassed acts, and by these alone will the faithful historian, as a just judge, sum up the man.
It will be remembered that Governor Fitzroy, being entirely without funds, and several months salary being due to the clerks and servants of the Government, as a last resource issued debentures for one and five pounds, which were negotiable at a small discount, being legal tender for the duties of Customs. When Governor Grey arrived, several thousands of pounds were in
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circulation and widely distributed amongst the merchants and shopkeepers who took them of the Government employees, as being the nearest approach to cash they could arrive at. One of the first acts of Governor Grey was carefully to ascertain all the arrears of pay due to the Government officials, and to public contractors, pay them up in these debentures, and the next day issue a Gazette depreciating their value about 40 per cent, by proclaiming that they would no longer be received as legal tender in the payment of duties of Customs, also that they were to be called in, not for the purpose of paying them off, but to be reissued in sums not less than £10, bearing 8 per cent. interest, and payable some time within twenty years.
Loud complaints were uttered at this breach of faith; the merchant surveying his Government paper, and regretting that he did not know in time to release his goods from bond. The retailer and poor shopkeeper regretting that some knowing officials, usually long-winded customers, had paid him so punctually the day before in this waste paper, which the merchants would no longer take; and the poor labourer hawking them about the town at half price to feed his starving family. They all shortly after found their way into the usurers' hands at the rate of about 12s. in the pound, some having been publicly sold by auction to test their value, which realised that sum.
This act of our new Governor, which might be termed his coup d'essai in New Zealand, was loudly canvassed at the time. Some said it was an act of repudiation and savoured of dishonesty, others that it was smart, and all acknowledged that it was well-timed, just after all obligations were paid off in a currency depreciated about 40 per cent.
The next public act of Governor Grey, which attained notoriety and created no small stir in Auckland, was the disallowance of the claims to land purchased under the penny-an-acre proclamation issued by his predecessor. He resolved to run a tilt against all who had at any time purchased lands of the natives, and he selected this class of claimants for his first encounter. I have before mentioned the concession made by Governor Fitzroy to the natives, waiving the Crown's right of pre-emption over the land; and that many persons had staked all their little property to raise money to buy land of the natives, which they were encouraged to do by the Government, who furnished the natives with written testimonials of ownership to induce the public to purchase; and it is believed this well-timed concession saved the Colony. Each purchaser received a printed certificate, filled up and signed by the Colonial Secretary, stating the number of acres and other particulars. Everything was plain and straightforward, the title was ascertained by the Government, the natives acknowledged the payment, and were perfectly satisfied, and the certifi-
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cates were issued from the Colonial Secretary's office. It will be seen that the faith of the Crown solemnly pledged by the Queen's representative, as witness "our well and truly beloved Robert Fitzroy," was ruthlessly broken, as witness "our well and truly beloved George Grey."
Through this act alone of a Governor far away in New Zealand, the name of our beloved Queen became a mocking and a byword, and the pledged faith of Royalty, a perfidious swindle. Our friends in England will doubtless wonder how such things could be permitted in a British Colony where the laws are supposed to be the same as in England. Nothing is easier, the Governor before we had a Constitution, was King, Lords, and Commons, united in himself. In those days of slow-sailing vessels in 1840, the Governor could depend on a twelvemonth's start before the answer to any complaint sent home against him would reach here. The complaint must go through the Colonial Secretary's office here, in order that the Governor's explanation might go home with it, or it would not be received. This afforded every opportunity for delay, it might be months, and we have heard of letters being altogether suppressed. But Governor Grey did not require to use any of these means; he had a specific of his own admirably adapted to suit his purpose with the Colonial Office at home. The Secretary for the Colonies is responsible to Parliament for the peace of all the Colonies, his duties in these days of our extended Colonial Empire are more than any one man can possibly attend to; of course the Under-Secretary, and his numerous Subs, read all the despatches, write all the replies, and transact all the business, except in very important matters, and so long as all goes on smoothly, the signature is all that is required of the great functionary himself. Upon the arrival of every mail the political summary of events is carefully condensed from the despatches, and any important change, or prominent topics of interest are orally communicated by the Under-Secretary.
Not so pleasant however is it when a Colony becomes the theatre of war. Then the Minister must read and study for himself, until he is master of every question likely to be mooted in Parliament, where he is expected to stand up and reply to all the bantering of the opposition. Nothing then is so much dreaded at the Colonial Office as the prospect of war in any of the Colonies; it not only adds immeasurably to the labour of all the underlings, but it necessitates the close application and study of a confused mass of evidence, which tasks the powers of the Minister, and cannot be performed by proxy.
It is plain then, from past experience, that nothing is easier for a Governor to do, where an aboriginal population and Europeans are mixed in a distant Colony, than to frighten the authorities at home, and extort from them the sanction of almost any measure
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however repugnant to liberty or justice, if it be represented as the only means of preventing the expenditure of "a vast amount of blood and treasure."
Here we have the key to the secret of the Governor's success with the Home Office--the Gorgon monster which has done for him good service in more instances than one, whose serpent locks had only to be shaken to scare them into stony immobility while we are plundered of our property. The Home Office never did consent to this measure of spoliation. The Blue-book will prove that more than one Secretary of State directed that the "faith of the Crown must be kept inviolate" and all the purchases recognized which had already taken place, but if the Governor thought it best to prevent any further dealings on the same terms to do so."
But this reply did not satisfy the rapacity of our Governor, whose sense of honour never soared so high as to esteem public faith worth keeping. He had resolved upon his course of spoliation, however the solemn pledge of Royalty might sink into contempt. He had but once more to raise the scare-crow, the bloody-head and cross-bones and frighten the Home Office out of their silly notions of honour and propriety; and he succeeded--obtained from England's Minister a tacit acquiescence, wrung from his fears, commingled with a sense of shame and stained honour.
For this one act our Governor obtained great credit from the Aborigines' Protection Society and Exeter Hall. He was a minister of peace, and stayed the effusion of blood. So he said, and so it was by some believed; but the sequel remains to be told. Eighteen years have elapsed since these events. All the purchases were justly admitted by the natives, and the land surrendered, but not to the lawful owners. Not one drop of blood was spilt, or one ounce of treasure spent, to compel the natives to fulfil their engagements, but widows and orphans were robbed of their property, the savings of hard-earned industry, and the vile trash of peasants were wrung from their honest palms to swell the Governor's coffers.
For such deeds he obtained a handle to his name, and we who were plundered naturally ask the question are these deeds worthy of promotion, and is this the "man whom the Queen delighteth to honor?" It may be urged in extenuation of the above swindle that Commissioners were appointed to investigate the claims, and the purchasers had the alternative offered them of paying according to a scale of fees from 5s. to 10s. per acre, instead of 1d. to Government according to the proclamation. The answer is that the Commissioners appointed by the Governor were his tools, and in some cases, as in
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the instance of Widow Forbes, the Commissioners' decision, if distasteful to the Governor was overruled, and in many cases the land was not worth the fees demanded. Where land was covered with valuable timber and the purchasers would not pay the fees, the Governor disposed of the case in a summary way by licensing any applicant to cut the timber, thus denuding the property of its value, and arbitrarily anticipating the law by assuming in himself the powers of judge and jury.
After the campaign against the penny-an-acre purchasers had been conducted to a successful issue, another class of land claimant's next attracted His Excellency's attention. These were the Ministers and teachers of the Church of England Mission. Mr. George Clarke, one of the teachers, being chosen by Captain Fitzroy, Prime Minister, Protector of Aborigines, sometimes interpreter to the Commissioners, and general Factotum, succeeded in obtaining a Crown Grant for 10,000 acres of land, and several others of that body were also liberally dealt with by Governor Fitzroy, who was guided solely by Mr. Clarke's advice in everything relating to the Native race, and all matters of land claims. It is but just to state that all these purchases had been fully investigated by the Commissioners and proved to have been fairly acquired, and the Native title extinguished. There was not a murmer of discontent made by the Natives, who even permitted them to live on their land unmolested all through the war that was raging round them. In obtaining, therefore, these grants which were largely in excess of the maximum quantity allowed by the "Land Claims Act"--but still within the limit of the Governor's power to make, who was empowered to use his own discretion, according to the peculiar circumstances of each case, they only got what they were justly entitled to, indeed--some of them not half so much, yet the jealousy of other claimants was excited who were not so liberally dealt with.
Governor Grey was put to his wit's end to know how to commence the assault, for these were not common men, unknown in England, whose rights might be trampled upon with impunity, but a body of divines wary and far seeing, jealous of their rights and privileges, and firmly entrenched behind their parchment skins, fortified by the great seal of the colony, and the sign manual of his predecessor, and duly registered. Knowing the uncertainty of all mundane things, especially of Governors, they had left nothing to chance, but "whatsoever their hands found to do, they did it with all their might," and made hay while the sun of his predecessor shone brightly on them. They could, therefore, afford to "Smile at Satan's rage and face a frowning world."
But Governor Grey was not so easily turned aside from his purpose when he had deliberately formed his plans, except when he was dealing with Natives, and they could turn him inside out,
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upside down, or any way they pleased: these were only Europeans after all, although they were belonging to the Church Mission, but they felt that the Governor's attack on them was directed more at their character than the few paltry acres, which he could have bought from the Natives at far less trouble and expense, and which they would have resigned, had not such an act have implicated their character, and have been a tacit acknowledgment of their guilt.
After walking round the entrenchments, and surveying the fortifications in every nook and corner without discerning any vulnerable point of attack, our Governor wisely resolved to abandon his first intention of open assault and proceed on the principle of General Pratt by "Sap."
Violent means often fail when "gently does it." He set before them in a strong light the opinions entertained by the world of their craving after land;--the occasion it gave the ungodly to slander their holy calling--contrasting their conduct with the disinterestedness of the Roman Catholics, who would not, by purchasing one foot of land, give the world cause to suspect the purity of their motives--painted in glowing colors the views entertained by other religious denominations, and insinuated that to make the least of it, their conduct in this particular savoured strongly of the "mammon of unrighteousness" diametrically opposed to the Apostolic estimate of good which counted all worldly riches but "dross and dung." Notwithstanding all this and much more sage counsel and advice, his honied words and soft persuasive eloquence were all in vain, only pouring water on a goose.
"They would not be charmed
Charmed he never so wisely."
There appeared nothing so very repugnant to their feelings after all in the "Mammon of unrighteousness" especially when dressed in the garb of nature's lovely plains, and shady groves in beautiful variety of foliage, and sunlit streams threading their silvery course through meadows rich in pasture and dotted with sheep and cattle. Even the dross and dung was no objection when spread over the barren part of the land.
Like the Patriarchs of old they loved the pastoral scene around their homesteads; besides, they had not taken the vow of celibacy like the Catholics, but had large families growing up to be provided for and consulted, who were not at all disposed to make the sacrifice, however they themselves might feel inclined to yield.
Our Governor being a man of expedients, although foiled was nothing daunted; it was plain "soft sawder" would not do, so he
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resolved to try some other method. A bright idea now presented itself. O yes!--he soliloquised--it must succeed; it answered very well against the land claimants in the time of the other Governors, my predecessors and cannot fail now, indeed it was the only redeeming quality of their government, and amongst all the folly of their enactments the only precedent worthy the imitation of a great Governor.
Yes, I must send my emissaries round, my faithful ------ and that cunning rascal ------ to tamper with the Natives and stir them up; a few hints about the low price they sold at, and an assurance of more payment or the land returned to them if they only make an insolent demand, in violent terms, the better if accompanied with threats--yes, that's the plan. I can then make it the subject of a special despatch, with the war alternative; cautiously worded, insinuated only, and deductive by a certain mental process, not stated in plain terms but inferential, and non-committal, should the event belie the inference; thanks to my tortuous brain in this accomplishment, great Machiavel himself could not exceed his humble follower. But this plan failed. Emissaries were sent round, but the Natives had no faith, the land stolen from the claimants was not returned to them. Not even bribes could induce the Natives to sell their best friends.
A letter was then written to the Bishop requesting him to exercise his influence, and induce them to give up their Crown Grants, and consent to take fresh ones for a smaller quantity. This insidious plan of attack was supposed to be progressing favourably, and like General Pratt's sap approaching near to the enemies' works, when the mine prematurely exploded, and the whole affair was made public by Mr. Wm. Brown, a member of Council in session 1847, who taxed the Governor with using undue influence to compel the Church Missionaries to give up their Crown Grants and moved for certain papers, alluding specially to the Bishop's letter. The Governor acknowledged having written to the Bishop on other matters, but denied point blank having alluded to the subject of the Missionaries' land. Mr. Brown apologised if he had been misinformed, which, as the Governor denied the soft impeachment, he was bound to conclude was the case.
The business of the Council being over for the day, Mr. Brown sought his informant, and was by him put in possession of the letter, which he took in his pocket the next day to the Council Chamber, but knowing the cunning of the man he had to cope with, and wishing to draw him further out, he contented himself with merely alluding to the papers he had moved for without specifying the letter; this moderation deceived His Excellency, who supposed the hon. member had spoken only from a repeat he had heard about the letter, and was without any proof; he
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therefore assumed a boldness on the subject which increased in proportion to the apparent timidity of Mr. Brown, who shrank from pressing it. It was not until after the third day this subject had been mooted in Council and the Governor's denial emphatically reiterated, that Mr. Brown published the letter in the Southern Cross. The shock fell like a clap of thunder on the Governor, whose discomforture was the more complete, and vastly aggravated by being defeated with his own weapons.
Immediately after the closing of the Council His Excellency departed for the South, and did not return for many months. A long correspondence ensued between the Governor, the Home Secretary, and Mr. Brown on the subject of the letter to the Bishop--his Excellency accusing Mr. Brown of surreptitiously obtaining the letter which Mr. Brown denied, as it was made no secret of by the Bishop, and known to all the reverend gentlemen interested. Those who wish to dip deeper into the subject can gratify their curiosity by consulting the blue-book for the time.
From this time forth the public put no faith in the Governor's word, and not long after a petition for his recall received 520 signatures in Auckland alone, which in those days, the population being very small, after deducting Government officials and interested persons, might be considered the unanimous wish of the people. The reasons alleged in the petition were His Excellency's want of veracity, and his secret false despatches. I omitted to mention that the validity of the Crown Grants belonging to the mission being referred to Chief Justice Martin and Mr. Justice Chapman were confirmed, and I believe the matter was then suffered to remain at rest.
Another illegal act of Sir George Grey's, who delighted in irresponsible power, was closing the Court of Requests, and that with such indecent haste, that although verdicts had been given for the recovery of hundreds of pounds, the money and expenses were lost, there being no power to authorise execution. The Court of Requests ordinance had received the sanction of the Queen, wherein it was recited that "There shall be a Court held in Auckland" or within so many miles. For this act of despotism he was rebuked in a despatch from the Home Secretary, but the reason why the Court was abolished is a mystery to many to this day. I will endeavour to explain it.
In carrying out the details of the penny-an-acre robberies, Sir George Grey adopted a summary process with those who were refractory and objected to his illegal imposts. I have before stated that he leased the lands to any unscrupulous person who would cut down the timber, to despoil it of its only value. A Mr. Polack and another settler had bought under the penny-an-
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acre proclamation, some land in Lucas' Creek with timber to the water's edge. The land was hilly and barren--utterly valueless except for its timber. Mr. Polack let it upon lease to a man named Harris, not the husband of Mrs. Gamp's myth, but a veritable wood-cutter, who forgot to pay the rent, but gave several promissory notes for it, in sums of £5 each. These he refused to pay, alleging that Sir George Grey only charged £5 per annum, and the rent he had in Fitzroy's time contracted to pay was £5 per quarter. He appealed to Sir George Grey, who gave him a free license to cut the timber, and said the rent claimed by Mr. Polack was an imposition--the land did not belong to him. Mr. Polack sued him in the Court of Requests upon one of the dishonoured bills, and Mr. Harris had free quarters with Mr. McElwain for three months. Mr. Polack offered to release him from prison, if he would bind himself not to cut any more of the wood, but if not he should sue him separately on each of the bills, which would keep him in prison 18 months. The man would not agree to these easy terms to release himself, but acting on Sir George Grey's advice, to whom he appealed, refused to pay, and would cut the timber. The Governor being privately piqued by Mr. Polack standing up for his rights, and suing Harris a second time, in order to carry his point, just as he was going to the South, gave Mr. Berry, the Commissioner, while standing on the beach, a verbal order to close the Court.
Those Europeans who had dealings with the Natives for land in the northern part of the island were most of them bona-fide settlers, as I have before stated requiring it for actual occupation, and not as the purchases were made in the South on speculation: they were consequently compelled to be very cautious in satisfying every claimant who could raise a mob sufficient to annoy or frighten a poor settler out of some payment by threatening to burn his house down. The agents of the New Zealand Company, who were purchasing only for speculative purposes were not so particular in satisfying every Native who attempted extortion, not contemplating that any British Governor would send round emissaries to the Natives in order to induce them to oppose and defeat the settlement of claims before the Commissioners. It has been constantly asserted by Native sympathisers that the Company's purchases were loosely made; but it should be considered that a large proportion of them were in a part of the island where very few natives would venture to dwell, having been decimated and driven off by the powerful tribes of Waikato. As soon, however, as several industrious settlers had established themselves on the land they had purchased, the conquered Natives, emboldened by the protection their presence afforded, returned a few at a time and by permission of the Europeans squatted down on some part of the land they had sold to Colonel Wakefield, the agent of the Company. A second payment of £400 had also been made to Potatou, the first Maori King, who claimed by right of conquest.
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As soon as Potatou's tribes heard of the return of William King and his tribe a large force was preparing to go and attack them again, but many of the Chiefs having embraced Christianity dissuaded them from it. These illustrious fugitives being left alone undisturbed by their former enemies, and perceiving that a weak and pusillanimous government yielded everything to native bounce and menace, they assumed a threatening attitude, and claimed the best part of the land again after having sold it and signed the deed of conveyance, notwithstanding they never would have dared to return and dwell there but for the protection of the settlers; and further that they had no right, according to their own law, to receive a single penny for it in the first instance, having forfeited all their claims to the Waikato chiefs who conquered them. Maori sympathisers were plentiful in these early times, and had it all their own way in the Native Department of the Government, being chosen, it would seem, on account of their strong bias in favour of native supremacy, which, judging from the policy of Sir George Grey, would appear, to a man possessed only of common sense, to be the chief object of his mission to this colony. Many of the employees in the "Land Purchase Department" in the busy times of government land-jobbing, were reported to lead a jolly easy life wandering about at the public expense, rusticating after the Maori fashion at their encampments, having the credit of being great admirers of their women, and basking in the charms of native beauty at the pahs 2 where duty called them.
One favourite occupation of some of our leading government officials consists in making proselytes amongst the new arrivals; those especially selected to be indoctrinated in the delusions of the sympathisers' creed, are scientific gentlemen who occasionally in their researches pass through New Zealand. The ability and tact displayed in this art is an eminent qualification for sinecure office. Gentlemen of independent property travelling for pleasure, of pacific habits, given to sketching and taking notes, anxious to be thought literary, and vain of talents not above mediocrity, are considered high quarry, and pounced upon at once by the Government hawks, and carried by assault, or secured by a well-planned coup-de-main. A few sleek well-fed amiable savages, the Government pets, including some of the fair sex, which are always to be found about Government House ready to be produced as specimens, are introduced as fair samples of bulk; they have learnt to sit decently at table, make a polite bow, and drink their wine without spilling, and if the usual precaution is taken to give them a good blow-out before hand by way of lunch they do not surprise a stranger by the quantity they demolish. The credulous literary gentleman is convinced at once; the stories he had heard of their cannibalism must have been idle nursery tales invented only to frighten
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children; he now has ocular demonstration of the eminent virtues of the whole race; a few hints are confidentially whispered about the tyranny and injustice of the settlers, when out comes the note-book, and memorandums are dotted down; he succeeds in obtaining a photograph of these tatooed amiabilities, and departs by the next mail for Europe. Not many months elapse before we see these little memorandums expanded into an octavo pamphlet detailing the horrors practised by the blood-thirsty settlers on the meek and patient Christian Natives; or possibly these mysterious notes of awful detonating power, bottled up and hermetically sealed during the voyage, have exploded in a lecture at Exeter Hall, severely scorching the Colonists, and painfully exciting the bile of Lord Lyttelton, Mr. A. Mills, and other M.P.'s, besides disturbing the equanimity of an innumerable number of nervous old ladies.
The Governor's Council previous to the Constitution being granted, consisted of a majority of nominees, so that all acts of Council so called were his own. The Native Land Purchase Ordinance of 1846, is a document well worth the perusal of the curious, and being a reflex of the mind that produced it, will afford a correct sample of that kind of liberty Sir George would wish to establish if unfettered by a greater power. Under the provisions of this act a fine of £100 is the penalty for occupying, renting, or even for encamping for a single night on any Native land, so that a weary traveller who lies down under a tree and lights a fire, subjects himself to £100 penalty. This, too, in a new country, where there are no hotels to accommodate travellers. To enforce these penalties was His Excellency's peculiar privilege, which as Lord Absolute he held in terrorem over Britons who as the song says "never will be slaves." People wonder what kind of charm Sir George Grey has to hoodwink the British Minister, and get his assent to a measure fraught with so much treason to the liberties of Englishmen. Doubtless another instance of the omnipotent war alternative.
The compass of this letter will not admit of entering into a detail of all Sir George Grey's acts, which are felt to be illegal, oppressive, and repugnant to the laws of England. Having already exceeded the limits originally intended, I will briefly allude to the main features of his Government. The establishment of the Pensioner villages has been a boon to the Province of Auckland, the merit of which it is a pleasure to accord him; but it is a melancholy reflection that in exploring the sterile desert of his administration, we can find only one oasis to gladden our hearts.
Nineteen years have elapsed since Sir George Grey first stepped ashore as Governor of this Colony, and the land claims are not all settled yet. What a shame and a reproach that a man's
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lifetime should be utterly wasted, frittered away in fruitless endeavours to obtain justice, when one word of the Governor's would have sufficed. No earnest disposition was ever evinced to settle the question. What boots it that Commissioners are appointed? to blind the home authorities, mere tools of torture in the Governor's hands to heap the purgatorial fires on the heads of defenceless men, the pioneers of the colony, whose rights are withheld with the hope that they may die without obtaining redress, as many have already done. Why should justice be withheld from any class of British subjects, when the remedy is simple and at hand? Why not open to them the Courts of justice that they may lay their case before a jury, and have fair play? Surely the expense attending this plan of settlement, which has been adopted in New South Wales, is sufficient to prevent the prosecution of frivolous and untenable suits. This boon is not granted, because justice is the very thing Sir George Grey is determined they shall not get.
The old settlers who lived in New Zealand long before Captain Grey arrived, and witnessed all his public acts, should surely be better able to form a correct estimate of his character, than the British Parliament, the Home Secretary, or even the shining lights of Exeter Hall. I have stated in the commencement of this letter the means adopted to mislead the public in England. The articles furnished to his Excellency's paper, which is widely distributed in every influential quarter in the mother-country, being specimens of special pleading with more than the usual amount of suppressio veri and suggestio falsi when intended for exportation, where the reader cannot possibly cross-question the witnesses. Some few facts are interwoven in a tissue of falsehoods, not capable of deceiving those in the Colony, but just sufficient of truth is mingled to give an air of credibility to the whole at a distance from the scene of events.
Our opinion of the Governor is formed from his public acts, of which we are the witnesses, and not founded on artful despatches or newspaper summaries. There is nothing so very wonderful to those behind the scenes, that the Governor has succeeded in building up a temporary reputation at Exeter Hall; but how long will it stand? The materials will not cohere; they are already crumbling around his feet, melting at the glance of truth. He is in England reputed to be the friend of the Native race, but will his public acts establish such reputation? Satan may appear as an angel of light, but appearances are sometimes deceptive. Are the Maori sympathisers aware that our model Governor encourages the prostitution and concubinage of Native women with Europeans by his public acts, and that he has invented a law in this Colony to prevent lawful wedlock? If a Native woman becomes the mistress of a white man, she can retain her land which she inherits in her own right, but if she marries that man
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and the Chiefs endow her with a marriage portion, Governor Grey immediately seizes the land as forfeit to the crown. This practice, which he has carried out, accounts for so many half-caste fatherless children growing up in the country round about the Native settlements, with no one to civilise or educate them. A very hard case occurred some time ago in Auckland, which will serve to illustrate the kind of friend our model Governor is to the Native race. A Mr. Murant was legally married to a Native woman, and the chiefs endowed her with a few acres of land upon which they had lived and had in cultivation, therefore no question could be raised as to ownership. They built a raupo house for the new-married couple, they had not enjoyed it long when Governor Grey pounced upon it, and ordered it to be surveyed and sold by auction with other Government land, and this order was carried into effect. On the day of sale, the auction was numerously attended, but when this land was put up not a single bid could be obtained, although it was a very valuable site at a junction of two roads near the city of Auckland. A feeling of indignation pervaded the breasts of the audience, such as might be imagined in Exeter Hall, if a slave was about to be publicly sold at Smithfield market. Hisses and cries of shame were heard in the room, although in our small community every one was known; and any one who opposed the Government was a marked man, and was sure to experience annoyance and insult in various ways, if not serious loss in these days of despotic rule.
People in England can have but little conception of the power a Governor possesses in a young Colony. About half the population are either Government employees, or in some business which is sustained in a more or less degree by Government contracts, so that there can be but very few really independent men, where forty or fifty thousand pounds per annum is spread amongst the merchants and tradesmen of a small community according to the peculiar discrimination of a Governor who never forgets his friends or his enemies. People supposed that after this abortive attempt to dispose of the land, it would be returned to the poor man and his lawful wife, but not so; it was again put up to auction on a future day, which was attended with the same result, the people washed their hands of it, and would not in any way become a party to such a nefarious transaction; but this time, Andrew Sinclair, Esq., the Colonial Secretary, whom it was supposed was instructed, purchased it at the upset price.
Soon after the consummation of the above act friendship (?) towards the native race, the reputation of our model Governor rose rapidly at Exeter Hall, just in the inverse ratio to its decline in the Colony. Extra pains being taken to write him up, and extraordinary exertions made just at this time in sundry publications, no doubt well paid, to counteract the obloquy which it was feared would bo cast on him through poor Murant's case. So very dili-
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gent were his disinterested supporters in distributing their flattering representations amongst influential men in England, that the feeble report of poor Murant's treatment was scarcely heeded, and considered impossible, a vile slander upon a Governor whose amiable qualities were the theme of so many publications. Ever after it became the custom for Native women to live in concubinage with the white men, and very few marriages since took place between the races, which condition of morality not being opposed to their former habits before they were better instructed by the Missionaries, did not cause much irritation amongst the Natives, who were thus driven back to their old heathenish habits, and the efforts of the missionaries were totally paralyzed by the illegal acts of a Governor whose high-sounding praise was the theme of Exeter Hall.
It would occupy too much space to enter fully into the dispute about Waitara, which has been so ably stated in an admirable lecture delivered by the Rev. Samuel Ironsides, at Adelaide, on the 19th of September last. The plain simple narrative style of this lecture, delivered by a gentleman who was present at all the scenes he relates, bears upon it the face of truth, so unlike the confused and garbled accounts got up for party purposes. Mr. Ironsides was one of the first after the sad event who visited the scene of the Wairau massacre, and performed the funeral rites of those unfortunate gentlemen who were amongst the very first in point of intelligence and respectability in New Zealand; but who fell victims to an overweening confidence in Maori justice and moderation, having thrown down their arms to disarm Native suspicion in order to lead them to a peaceable discussion of the dispute, were butchered in cold blood. And these gentlemen, so highly esteemed, so deeply deplored by all who knew them, fell unavenged, and the cowardly policy that condoned this brutal outrage brought the well-merited contempt of the whole Native race on the Government.
Governor Browne went to war to enforce a principle of justice, which was of vital importance to the Colony, and although his defamers, who cannot deny this, assert that it was too soon and ill-timed, I will venture flatly to contradict them--the misfortune was, it was not soon enough. The whole Native policy of his predecessors was grounded on a false system; murderers and villains not only went unpunished, but were rewarded with bribes, and tons of flour and sugar were sent to reform them, instead of the terrors of the law, until the natural fruits of such a policy made it impossible for the people of Taranaki to live on terms of peace with them. William King and his followers were dictators who would not allow any other independent chief to sell his own land. Rawiri and six of his men had been previously assassinated for the same thing by Katatore, an emissary of William King. The very homesteads of the settlers became the theatre of Native
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wars, but the Government did not interfere. The fact is, it never would have been the right time to commence the war, according to those who wished to overturn the Queen's Government, and establish Native supremacy. This was the object in view by many Native sympathisers that they might become large landowners, live a lazy life under the dominion of the Maories, on terms of dalliance with the charming variety of Native female beauty.
It is the general opinion in New Zealand that Governor Browne would have settled the war in a very short time if he had been let alone, but he was distracted by opposing counsel, unseemingly thrust upon him by those whose high office and position should have prevented their interference in political matters. He was literally besieged by a party of Maori sympathisers, who would persuade any man out of his senses if he listened to them. The army too was beset by the same pack, and Generals Gold and Pratt reduced to the situation of non-combatants, except on the defensive, and then they were to avoid fighting if they could run away.
The enemy was made perfectly acquainted with all the movements of our army, even to the exact position of General Pratt's renowned sap. If the rebels were at any time hemmed in, and could not possibly escape, they had only to hoist a flag of truce, which was immediately granted to afford them an opportunity to get away; so that under such directions from the Governor and leadership of the Generals in command, it was impossible to expect any great results. It was in fact only playing at war against an enemy who were terribly in earnest, and the only thing that occasionally spurred our troops on to anything like activity was the occasional murder of unarmed men and boys, that were waylaid when in pursuit of their daily avocations. Our troops were not wanting in courage, and their officers were ready to lead them on to victory, but they were commanded by men who knew little of war beyond the barracks and the precision of military parade.
Notwithstanding the utter incompetency of Generals Gold and Pratt to fill the positions they occupied with any renown to themselves or great advantage to our cause, still enough was effected by the bravery of our troops and those officers over them who had before smelt powder, to force the enemy to sue for peace in earnest, and a truce was granted them upon terms sufficiently humiliating to themselves and honourable to the British army.
A most deplorable event for the colony now took place. The native sympathisers and those who were eagerly looking for Maori supremacy, who furnished the natives during the war with constant information, not only of every movement of our troops
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but of the secret counsels of the Government, which they contrived to possess themselves of by intrigue, had succeeded in creating a false impression in England that led to the removal of Governor Gore Browne at the very time when his judgment and firmness were most needed, when the foe was prostrate and ready to surrender unconditionally. In fact the war was all but ended, and the Anglo-Maori oligarchy were quite in despair. The first intimation received here of the reappointment of Sir George Grey was attended with the worst results, the natives everywhere rejoiced: they said, "Governor Browne kept his word, but Governor Grey was on old woman; he only talked; they could manage him." As soon as Governor Grey arrived, the hopes of the Maori sympathisers revived, and their visions of Anglo-Maori oligarchy and native harems loomed in the distance. Every engine was set at work to undo what Governor Browne had done.
Sir George Grey issued a proclamation stating the terms of the truce, warning the natives to "Bring in and deliver up the murderers, restore the plunder, take the oath of allegiance, deliver up their arms, and put an end to the folly of the King movement." The natives well knew whom they had to deal with now, and would not comply with any one of the terms of truce, and Sir George Grey relinquished them all, one at a time, and at length almost entreated their pardon, and begged them to spare us and not fight any more. This abject position on the part of the representative of England only served to stimulate the natives to fresh outrages, and to increase their contempt for the Government. Every one knew that Sir George Grey's panacea was nothing more than the flour-and-sugar system over again, but on a much more extensive scale, and perhaps none knew better than Sir George Grey that the "new institutions"--more correctly designated the new humbug, could have no beneficial effect whatever. Two years were frittered away in puerile experiments. The General Assembly voted ample means to give the Governor every scope to pursue his own course, being selected by the home Government for his extraordinary wisdom in the management of savages.
All this time the troops were inactive, and the expenses of the colony put on a war footing, while the natives, taking advantage of this breathing time, were making vigorous preparations for another campaign. It must be remembered that all native affairs up to this time had been entirely under the control of the Imperial Government. All the calumnies about the settlers coveting the native land were uttered in ignorance, for not an acre of land since the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, has ever been bought without the sanction of the Queen's representative. After more than two years had been frittered away in useless experiment, and a vast amount of treasure spent, worse than
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wasted, because it has been spent in bribing the worst class of natives to keep them quiet, and they know very well what it all means--the biggest villain gets the greatest share, and those who are inclined to be orderly and peaceable are overlooked. A native chief, one of the best and most orderly, once met the Governor, who shook hands with him, and praised him for his loyalty; the old chief said, "Yes, Governor, it's all very good, but I cannot afford to remain quiet and loyal much longer; look at ------ and ------- and ------ all of them kicking up a row, and trying to foment a rebellion, and you give them plenty of money, and flour, and sugar, and rice, while I am starving on my loyalty and attachment to the Queen. I get nothing. I must begin to make a stir, I can't hold out much longer." Another petty chief, who was a notorious villain, ran after the Resident Magistrate with a tomahawk, at Kaipara, and swore he would kill him. The magistrate ran into a house and closed the door just in time to save his life, when the native began chopping it down; some other Maoris happened to be passing by, and prevented further mischief. This is only one of a similar class of outrages of common occurrence in districts under the beautiful working of the "new institutions." The native had no cause of complaint against the magistrate, he was only seeking promotion, he wanted a salary and to be made a magistrate of, which I am informed he obtained shortly after this exhibition of his eminent qualifications. To enter into all the details of native outrages would be sickening, and the sufferings and peaceable forbearance of the European settlers, who had to put up with every affront during two years of costly experimentalising while General Cameron and 10,000 bayonets lay idle, until Sir George Grey, the very cleverest of men, at length found that blood must be spilt before things could mend, and he, the Representative of the Crown, not of the Colony, declared war. This declaration was caused by the massacre of several of the troops, who were cut off by an ambush when peaceably walking the road on the 1th of May, two officers and six men were killed. Immediately after this event, the Governor surrendered the Waitara to the natives unconditionally, not the result of any investigation, as was agreed with Governor Browne, but of his own accord, and although a pretence was made of some new feature in the case coming to light, yet it is well-known that nothing has hitherto been revealed that was not known before. How, then, do we account for this extraordinary act? I know what the people say, let every one judge for himself, whether they have hit the line of truth. All the Governor's plans were signally defeated, and the utter failure of his Machiavellian schemes were brought to naught, by the strong unsophisticated natural acuteness of the Maoris, whom he treated as children. The people say he gave up the Waitara in a fit of despair, determined by impugning the justice of the principle for which Governor Browne fought to throw the blame on his predecessor, and thus by acknowledging our own wrong to justify the Native
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Rebellion. But let it be distinctly understood that no new facts about the Waitara had been brought to light, and no public investigation had taken place, when it was given up, neither has there to this day been anything new discovered. Sir George Grey states it was done by advice and consent of his Ministry, but the people know that the Ministry objected to this measure, and only two reluctantly yielded to the Governor's earnest persuasion in giving their consent.
When the Constitution was granted to New Zealand, native interests were expressly exempt from the control of the Legislature. The whole power rested with the Governor, who received his instructions from the British Minister. Therefore, not until very recently, long since the failure of Sir George Grey's plan of pacification, and the war had been commenced by him, have the Colonial Legislature had any control whatever over native affairs.
After the protracted, expensive, and unsuccessful attempt to govern the natives by the Imperial Parliament, overtures were made by the Duke of Newcastle to the Colonial Legislature to induce them to join with the Governor in the administration of native affairs; the Duke, sagaciously perceiving that until the people who were deeply interested in the success attending a just and proper system of governing the natives had, through their Representatives, a voice in the matter, the whole responsibility and expense justly rested upon the Home Government; and consequently, if through the influence of Exeter Hall they select very clever men of peculiar whims and caprices to play pranks and jump jim-crow, they must pay the piper.
Governor Grey has been too long accustomed to despotic rule to bear restraint. An old horse all his life running wild, could not be broken in to trot nicely in harness with regular old stagers; he would chafe and foam and have his own way, or else bolt. Now, if he only kicked out of harness and bolted clean away we should not grumble, but we object to be dragged into the mire against our own will and have to pay for repairing the broken trap, and then to be told it is our own free act.
Under the control of the Colonial Legislature the native rebellion would have been speedily ended and the British misrule of a quarter of a century would have given place to peace and prosperity, the natural results of a wise administration. But just as we are getting into the right track again and the evils are being successfully grappled with, the Home Government wish to assume the reins once more, and throw the country back into the state of anarchy and confusion previously existing.
Nothing could exceed the willingness of the colonists to assist the Government, and their cordial cooperation and liberality was
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manifested not only in supplying the means, but in their own personal services throughout the war. Every male between the age of 16 and 55 were called upon to serve in the militia unless they were previously enrolled in some Volunteer corps. What a grievance it would be thought in England if the militia laws compelled everyone to actual service in battle, and as every man had to serve for himself there could not be found substitutes. The sons of the rich and the poor alike shared the same fate, and the most lucrative employments were resigned without a murmur, to aid in the struggle. Only the third-class men and the aged were left in the towns, and they had to do garrison duty.
The immediate circumstances that gave rise to the war against William King were only the last links in the chain of events that became inevitable from the cowardly policy pursued previously, when Rawiri and six of his men were shot while peaceably measuring their land which they had sold to the Government. The cruel desertion of his tribe by the Government after Katatore, at the instigation of William King, had murdered their friendly and loyal chief, who was also a magistrate, and six of his men, while they were fulfilling their contract with the Government, sunk the British authority into the lowest contempt. There was nothing to be gained by an alliance with us, but everything to lose. Not only were all the bribes and presents lavished on those in rebellion, but they gained a prominent distinction in the eyes of their own people as heroes who bearded the British lion.
Nothing would have been easier than to have quelled the rebellion at first, by assisting the loyal natives, who were in good faith entitled to our aid. We neglected the opportunity, and our treatment caused many of them to join the rebel William King against us. The whole policy of our Government has tended to unite the broken fragments of adverse tribes in one body against us. Frequently during the late war the northern tribes have volunteered to assist us, but, their tenders of services were entirely overlooked, or but coolly received. Our old faithful ally, Tamati Walker, would have furnished all his men, and hundreds of the Ngapuhi tribe would have joined us; yet they were all rejected, although, being hereditary enemies of the Waikatos, their fidelity was unquestionable; and our former experience of their assistance should have induced our Government to accept their active alliance in the prosecution of the war. New Zealand natives are naturally fond of the excitement of war. They cannot be calm spectators only; they will either join one side or the other; and our neglecting to secure them gave the enemy opportunity to solicit their alliance and aid; consequently many of the young men belonging to loyal tribes joined the enemy.
We do not augur any favourable results from the late conduct of Sir George Grey, who has now assumed the dictatorship in native
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affairs, and, contrary to the advice of his Ministers, has solicited peace of the natives, giving them until 10th December to make up their minds; so that they not only obtain fresh breathing time to prepare for another campaign by getting in their crops, but the best part of the season will be over, and after a month or two the winter will again stay proceedings. The people of Auckland are quite in despair at the vacillating policy of Sir George Grey, which is attributed by the natives to fear of them, and which is sure to lure them on to their destruction. Surely it is time the Aborigines Protection Society and philanthropists of all classes in England should know that the settlers of New Zealand are quite as anxious for the permanent welfare of the native race as they are; and that any interference of theirs only aggravates the evil by aiding and abetting them in their rebellion. There are a number of vagabond sympathisers in the Colony, who interpret this outside interference to them with many additions, which makes them hold out and refuse terms of peace. These are the men who would subvert the Queen's authority, and substitute native supremacy, that they may become polygamists, and lead a life of indolence.
The plan of planting military settlements throughout the native territory and occupying the land confiscated from the rebels, emanated from the late Premier, A. Domett, Esq., a gentlemen who has given the subject a practical consideration, and one who is quite qualified to give a candid and unbiassed opinion upon native affairs. So much has been said upon the difficulty of holding the conquered territory, by a great variety of scribblers who are totally unacquainted with native customs, that very erroneous views are current amongst those who draw their opinions from such a source. If I, as an old settler, may be allowed to give an opinion, it is that the natives will respect no title to land in New Zealand more than that acquired by conquest, especially if followed up by a speedy occupation of the conquered territory; not even if all the chiefs in the island were paid for it would they esteem the title so good as that acquired by conquest. For many reasons, then, I hold that no measure that can be devised will have such a beneficial effect on all sides as that of confiscating all the land of those who take up arms against the Queen, and when they sue for peace in earnest, restore them ample for all their wants.
The reasons I have for holding such an opinion are Legion. First. They are rebels in arms fighting against the Queen's Government, under whose mild rule they have been invariably treated justly. Second. They have burned the houses and destroyed the property of the settlers, tearing down their fences, stealing their cattle, and laying utterly waste their farms upon which so many thousands had been spent. Third. They have no other property upon which we can make reprisals but their
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land. Fourth. It is the only punishment that will deter other wavering tribes from taking up arms. Fifth. It will be removing the apple of discord from amongst them--taking away what is an evil to themselves; what they do not want; what was conceded to them with unparalleled liberality by a great power to whom it belonged in right of discovery, according to the acknowledged laws of civilized nations. Sixth. It is the only remedy we have, to compel them to pay the expenses of the war which they have forced upon us, and it is actually pledged as security for the debt incurred. And, lastly, to this plan of confiscation being carried out in good faith the honor of the Government is pledged, to thousands of young men who came to take up arms in the struggle upon that understanding; and to the colonists, who look to the confiscated land to pay the expenses of the war.
General Cameron took 184 rebel prisoners and they are suffered to escape, he has also taken possession of the territory of the rebels. Shall that too be allowed to escape out of our hands after the vast amount of blood and treasure that has been expended to acquire it? If so, all the work will have to be performed over again, and the efforts of our brave General and his troops will have been in vain, the debt incurred, and above all, the valuable lives of many heroic officers and men will have been sacrificed for nought.
The land has been and is now the greatest curse the natives have. The Government well know that in many districts if they attempted to purchase land it would be sounding the tocsin of war throughout every tribe for miles around; not that they are unwilling to sell--they would all sell--but the little matter of ownership has to be settled first, which we know would end in a war, and perhaps even now in a cannibal feast. As I have said before, they have no title--it can be proved from themselves--for each tribe swears the others have no claim to it. Why then should those who profess to be friends of the Maoris wish to prevent the confiscation of the land taken from the rebels. By all fair means the waste lands should be alienated from the natives; it would be the greatest boon you could confer on them, if they were deprived of all they do not want for actual use.
So much do the natives respect the title acquired by conquest, that the whole territory might be settled peaceably and no molestation offered to the settlers after peace was once proclaimed. Here is room on good soil to locate millions of immigrants. Let those who wish well to the native race advocate wholesale emigration to New Zealand. The very presence of such numbers would overawe the Maoris, who would see the hopelessness of their own insignificant minority contending against such a host. A million spent in emigration is better than two millions spent in
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war. Let the Home Government take it up in earnest and assist respectable families to come out. The commerce of England would soon reap the benefit of an extensive system of emigration to this Colony, putting aside the political reasons for such a course of action.
Creighton and Scales, Printers and Publishers, Queen-street, Auckland.
