POSTSCRIPT.
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POSTSCRIPT
SINCE the former part of these remarks have gone to press, the following letter has been received from New Zealand, and of which, as it tends to corroborate the views I have already urged with regard to the timid policy of the Government in dealing with the refractory part of the natives, I will here insert the most material parts, and subjoin such observations as it suggests.
On the morning of Thursday, the 4th July, Johnny Hakey, a native chief, and his tribe, crossed the ferry at Waitangi; and after some violences and quarrels with ferry-keepers and others, at the ferry and at Pahia, the party arrived in Russell at one o'clock on Friday morning, the 5th. Mr. Kemp, the Sub-protector of Aborigines, had conferred with the chief at Pahia, and offered him a double-barrelled gun--why does not appear. On their arrival at Russell, the natives seized the house of a Mr. Lord. [This Mr. Lord had married a woman that was once a slave of Johnny Hakey, and was afterwards married to a Mr. Gray. It is supposed that the dispute originated in some breach of native customs connected with Mr. Lord's marriage; and it seems that the chief had previously carried off the wife.] "They remained
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quiet until about three o'clock in the afternoon, when they formed themselves at Lord's, and made a rush towards the centre of the beach, where they went through the war-dance; after which they seated themselves and commenced to speak. The first speaker said,'War, war, war, with the white people!' the second, 'Cut them in pieces, and throw them into the sea!' the third, 'That Rauperaha had killed white people, and why could not they?' And lastly, Johnny Hakey got up, and, in a long speech, stated that he was come for payment from Lord and his wife, and to cut down the flag-staff, and told us not to interfere: they then returned to Lord's house." All this time, Mr. Beckham, the police magistrate, and Mr. Kemp, were walking about the beach; but they did not interfere; and as night approached, Mr. Hector's offer to form a guard of the inhabitants was declined. After a night of great anxiety, the inhabitants were up with the dawn. The natives began the operations of the day by an attack on the pigs, and then their plunder turned to other things; the invaders meanwhile being very threatening and insolent. Mr. Hector and three other inhabitants had an interview with the police magistrate. "When I informed him of the desire of the inhabitants to place themselves under his command, and requested him to appoint a place of meeting, he replied, we need not alarm ourselves, as he had arranged every thing, and that the police would do their duty. I then asked him how it was the police had permitted the depredations already commited? We received for answer, that we must submit to them until he had force sufficient to protect us. In reply, we stated that, if he would yield to the request of the inhabitants, he would find that there would be force sufficient to repel any further aggressions on the part of the natives; that it was not our ambition to commence an affray, but to
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show the natives that, although we had permitted them to proceed thus far, we were determined to put a stop to any further acts of violence; and that, if he (Mr. Beckham) did not choose to assemble the inhabitants, they would meet and appoint some person to act in his place. He told us that he would put us down by force. We informed him we had no wish to infringe the laws of our country, but that self-preservation was the first law of nature, and we would no longer quietly submit to the invasion of our homes, have our wives insulted by the natives, wilfully exposing their persons to them, our daughters' clothes pulled over their heads, and our property stolen; and that if such were his intentions, we would oppose force to force, and he would then see who would gain the day." Mr. Beckham now desired to close the conversation and renew it in the Court-house; but it came to nothing. The only "boon" the settlers could obtain was, that the church-bell should be rung in case of need. "Towards the afternoon, the natives and the above gentlemen [the police magistrate, the Sub-protector, Archdeacon Williams, and another] held a meeting outside the house; when Johnny Hakey related the grievances of the natives from the death of Marion down to the present time, and particularly mentioned the manner the chiefs had been entrapped into signing the treaty at the Waitangi. At the close of the evening, Mr. Beckham advised Mr. Lord to purchase a boat and give it to Johnny Hakey. I happened to be present, and asked Mr. Beckham on what grounds Mr. Lord should give the boat; and if it were given, if Johnny Hakey would pay for damage that had been done? And I recommended Mr. Lord to do no such thing, as it would only be holding out a temptation for further plundering. Ultimately, Archdeacon Williams gave them a bag of rice and some sugar; and the natives passing up the beach,
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pointing to the things, jeered us. All the houses were closed by dark, as if the town was besieged.
Things passed off pretty well on Sunday, with the exception of the interference with the duty at the Catholic chapel by the tribe of Johnny Hakey, and a few petty robberies. Monday morning, the natives at daylight launched their canoes (eight), and sent them in charge of the women and boys to Waihihi, about a mile from Russell, towards the entrance of the bay. They then proceeded in marching order to the point of the beach opposite the custom-house and gaol, and performed prayers with arms in hand. At the conclusion, a portion were sent towards the flag-staff, to cut it down; the remainder, as a covering party, proceeding by another road to Waihihi, both roads meeting in one after passing the flag-staff. Parties of natives were stationed on the tops of the different hills as outposts. Mr. Beckham was during this time standing within one hundred yards of the custom-house. Mr. Potter and I followed the natives to the flag-staff, and asked them why they wished to cut it down. Some said, there had been no payment given for the land; others, that it prevented the ships from coming in. On our arrival, the natives proceeded to work; and I saw the honour of my country laid low, without any attempt to prevent it. The ropes the natives took, and the staff and yard were cut into pieces. A demand was made for fire, and Mr. Tapper went to his house and got some. When the whole was over, and the natives gone, Mr. Beckham and a few of the inhabitants arrived. The natives met on an opposite hill, commenced a war-dance, discharged their muskets, retired to their canoes, and left for the other shore.
This is not the first time Mr. Beckham has neglected his duty, and left the inhabitants in a similar position. I refer to the murder of Mrs. Robertson; when a boat, with
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an officer and marines, from the discovery ships, which were refreshing in this port, was sent for the use of the police, and which offer Mr. Beckham refused. Messrs. Spicer and Wilson alone went to the islands, captured the murderer, and, with the assistance of the natives, brought him in.
The last paragraph refers to the affair of the chief Maketu, which is fully described at page 24. The leader of these rioters, Johnny Hakey, is a person of violent and lawless character, and is in the north what Rangihaeata and Rauperaha are in the south. And it was he and his tribe who committed that series of robberies on the different settlers at Wangaroa and Mongonui, which I have already described; he was also the man who first killed two of Noble's party, when defending the early settlers' claims at Mongonui. Captain Butler, of Mongonui, took the trouble to ascertain from those who had been robbed by him the extent of their losses, and forwarded an account to Mr. Shortland. When I was at Auckland, May 30th, 1843, I represented to Mr. Shortland all the circumstances relative to these robberies committed by Hakey; and the answer I received was, that he had placed the matter in the hands of the Protector of Aborigines, but which, like many other matters committed to the same hands, died a natural death. Johnny Hakey seemed to think he might do whatever he chose; and the authorities making no efforts to restrain him, gave him fresh courage in his career of plunder and violence.
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The Sub-protector of Aborigines, Mr. Kemp, ought to be obliged to reside at Kororarika, where the population is settled, and not where he does at present, at Pahia, where, in a north or north-east wind, no boat can land on account of the tremendous surf, and which renders him difficult of access on a sudden emergency. If Government officers do not like to live where they ought, they should be replaced by those who are willing to assist the public by living amongst them, and being always at hand when their services may be required.
Mr. Kemp could scarcely have given Hakey more direct encouragement than he did by his offer of a double-barrelled gun. I cannot imagine a more injudicious or irresolute proceeding. The speech of Hakey on the beach, "That Rauperaha had killed white people, and why not they?" affords a striking illustration, if such indeed were required, of the mischievous results naturally to be expected from Governor Fitzroy's supine conduct in the affair at the Wairoa.
When the settlers found that the police magistrate, Mr. Beckham, had neither courage to act decisively himself, or to avail himself of the assistance offered by the settlers, it can only be matter of infinite surprise that they hesitated to take the law into their own hands, and to protect their own property by all the means within their reach. The firmness and promptitude of the settlers of Kororarika
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in arresting Mukato, ought to have been remembered and imitated.
The reason given by Hakey for cutting down the flag-staff, that the land had never been paid for, is altogether unfounded. The land was sold to the Kororarika Land Company; and evidence was given by the natives before the Commissioners, two years ago, that it had been paid for in a satisfactory manner, and Johnny Hakey himself never had the slightest claim to any part of it.
After the flag-staff had been cut down, the natives fired a salute in defiance of the Government, then crossed the Bay to Pahia, and went inland to where they lived near the Waimate.
Mr. Hector states, that several parties had been robbed by Hakey and his followers; but this is probably an exaggeration, as I have seen a letter from the Bay of Islands, written two days after the affray, which expressly states that no robbery was committed, except of three or four pigs. The same letter mentions, that a party of natives, friendly to the Government and the inhabitants, immediately placed another flag-staff upon the same ground where the original stood; and that they were so exasperated with the conduct of Hakey and his party, when they heard of what he had done, that they crossed the Bay and landed at Pahia, where they danced the war-dance, which was a challenge to Hakey's party to return and fight them. Captain Fitzroy has
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done what his predecessors had not resolution to do: he has sent to Sydney for troops to take the natives; and I trust, that the two hundred troops and six pieces of artillery, which left Sydney on the 5th of August, will, in connexion with the remainder of the troops in New Zealand, enable Captain Fitzroy to apprehend Johnny Hakey and bring him to trial. It is to be hoped that Governor Fitzroy will not imitate the imbecility of his predecessors, and let pass this occasion of striking terror in the minds of the ill-disposed part of the natives.
The Sydney Herald of August 8th, brings us intelligence, received from Auckland, of the estimated expenditure of New Zealand for 1844-5, which was 35,991l. 1s.; an amount which is truly enormous, considering the present crippled resources of the Colony, and to meet which, I observe Governor Fitzroy has passed a new Customs' Bill, by which the necessaries of life are taxed from five to thirty per cent., which will prove a source of the greatest hardship to the settlers, and also of injustice, when it is remembered that this large amount is consumed by the salaries of the Government officers, and must lead to a general recognition of the truth of the protest made by the unofficial members of the Council, that, "If the mother country will keep up expensive establishments, the mother country must pay for them, for New Zealand wants them not, neither do they benefit those to whom New Zealand, as a
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Colony, owes its origin." This Customs' Bill was strongly opposed; but the Governor and three official members were too strong for the three unofficial members.
