HISTORICAL REVIEW OF NEW ZEALAND. 



10: 



opinion ; as when writing to the Colonial Office he said, " I trust that time and absolute 

 indifference, and neglect on the part of the Government, will teach the natives the folly 

 of proceedings undertaken only by the promptings of vanity and instigated by dis- 

 appointed advisers." It was not long before his language took a more decided tone, and 

 it became the custom to speak of the Maori desire for a king as a treasonable combination. 



Meanwhile, a number of acts on the part of the Europeans seemed to indicate 

 whither events were tending. The first Ordinance enacted by Governor Grey on his 

 arrival in New Zealand was to regulate the importation and sale of arms. This Ordinance 

 was repealed in 1857, and shops for the sale of warlike stores were opened by Europeans 

 in different settlements. The 

 natives purchased many thou- 

 sand stand of arms, and large 

 quantities of ammunition ; ten 

 years of peaceful prosperity 

 having made them compara- 

 tively rich through supplying 



the Europeans with produce. ''' .i.ift&'uli 



Thompson, who was a careful 

 observer of what took place, 

 says " every vessel from Aus- 

 tralia brought cheap guns for 

 the Maori trade." 



The session of 1858 was 

 indicative of the latent native 

 policy of the Government. It 

 was so hostilely dealt with by 

 the Legislative Council that it 

 was passed only under the 

 threat of Ministerial resigna- 

 tion. Early in 1859 tne Gov- 

 ernor visited the settlement 

 at New Plymouth, when he 

 declared to the natives that 

 it was his intention to adopt 

 a new policy in the purchase 

 of native lands, and to treat 

 with individual claimants, dis- 

 regarding tribal rights and the 

 influence of the chiefs; in other 



words, to impress the English land system of the nineteenth century on a race whose 

 customs regarding land resembled in a great measure those in vogue among the Irish 

 people under the Brehon traditions. When the new policy of land-purchasing was intro- 

 duced by the Governor, upwards of thirty million acres had been obtained from the native 

 owners for purposes of colonization, of which not more than a quarter of a million were 



WILLIAM THOMPSON', THE MAORI KING-MAR KK. 



