154 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



manners, and attachments of a lasting character readily and 

 frequently spring up between them and the Europeans. A 

 great many of them have now from their property a large stake 

 in the welfare of the country ; one chief has, besides valuable 

 property of various kinds, upwards of £500 invested in Govern- 

 ment securities ; several others also have sums of from £200 

 to £400 invested in the same securities." 



I have made these quotations to show that even to-day the 

 Maoris retain in great measure the character which was given 

 them nearly half a century ago, although the interval has beeir 

 passed in many sanguinary contests for supremacy between 

 themselves and the colonists. Again and again have the na- 

 tives suffered defeat and heavy loss, but the results have only 

 shown the truth of Sir George Grey's estimate of them both in 

 peace and in war. But, although the natives have usually 

 shown themselves willing to listen to the advice of the Govern- 

 ment of the colony, it is surprising that so little has been done 

 on their behalf and with a view to their improvement and de- 

 velopment. The whole history of the native race since the 

 governorship of Sir George Grey to the present is one long 

 period of mistakes, dissatisfaction, and misunderstanding. 

 The natives have been compelled to recognise the authority 

 of the white man at the point of the bayonet, not that the 

 white man intended to force himself into the country in the 

 way he has, but simply because the Maori desired to go his 

 own way and pursue his own methods in his transactions with 

 the white man. Throughout the long period of intercourse 

 no attempt has been made to influence Maori life through 

 Maori authority. The Queen's law was and is for settler 

 and native alike, but nothing could have been more unnatural 

 and unjust to the latter. The Queen's law was understood 

 and realised by the colonists. We had come to know the 

 meaning of obedience, authority, and protection, and the law, 

 whilst it enacted obedience to authority, gave protection in a 

 way that no native could possibly understand. " Warlike, 

 fearless, hospitable, generous, lovers of freedom," such were 

 the attributes of the Maori. When the arm of savage and 

 civilised met in conflict the skill of the former was their only 

 protection against a foe, and to expect the native to become 

 amenable to a settled form of government such as that esta- 

 blished by the colonists was both irrational and unjust from a 

 native point of view. To those who study the causes that led 

 to the war in the Waikato, or the growth of the Hauhau 

 fanaticism, followed immediately by the Te Kooti raids, there 

 is no difficulty in assigning all the troubles to the refusal to 

 recognise what may be appropriately termed a form of local 

 government among the natives themselves. As a people the 

 natives, from the time when they were first brought into 



