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JUSTICE TO NEW ZEALAND,
HONOUR TO ENGLAND.
"Oh that statesmen, would consider what a glorious privilege they enjoy, when they are allowed to become the fathers of a new nation."--JULIUS CHARLES HARE.
LONDON:
RIVINGTONS, WATERLOO PLACE.
1861.
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JUSTICE TO NEW ZEALAND,
HONOUR TO ENGLAND.
BY THE
REV. MONTAGUE J. G. HAWTREY, M.A.
RECTOR OF RIMPTON, SOMERSET, AND PREBENDARY OF WELLS.
"The more I have reflected upon this subject, and the more information I have received respecting it, the more I have been confirmed in the persuasion that the main requisite for the support and preservation of the Natives of New Zealand, is that JUSTICE should he done to them; and that if savage tribes have hitherto melted away before (be white man, it is only because the white man takes so little trouble to discover what is justice, when he stands in the threefold character of judge, jury, and principal party in the suit."--
Earnest Address to New Zealand Colonists with reference to their Intercourse with the Native Inhabitants.
LONDON:
RIVINGTONS, WATERLOO PLACE.
1861.
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LONDON:
GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,
ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.
INTRODUCTION.
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IF any one should ask the writer of these pages why he comes out from the retirement of a country parish to mix himself up with a grave question of politics, he must answer as David answered when he was reproached with having left those "few sheep in the wilderness" and come down to see the battle: "What have I now done? is there not a cause?"
The fairest of England's colonies is threatened with disaster. There is a general cry that to save the colony we must exterminate the natives. After several months of useless desultory war we hear that a great victory has been gained, and the newspapers congratulate us on the intelligence; but we are told by the colonists themselves now in England that this last news is the very worst that has been received; "that it will take 10,000 troops to take possession of New Zealand from the natives, and it will cost this country 1,000,000l. or 1,500,000l. to do it 1."
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Under these circumstances the thoughts of the writer are irresistibly recalled to the part which he took in the project for colonizing New Zealand in the year 1837. His views and feelings will be best seen in a letter which he addressed to his Grace the Duke of Newcastle, Her Majesty's Chief Secretary of State for the Colonies, on the 21st ult.; and the subsequent pages will be devoted to the fuller development of those views by quoting from the writings to which he refers in the letter to his Grace, and by pointing out their bearing on the present state of things.
Rimpton, Sherborne,
Feb. 12th, 1861.
