HISTORICAL REVIEW OF NEW ZEALAND. 



1025 



MAORI CANOE OBSTACLE RACK. 



the establishment of what they called responsible Government. Mr. Fox had long been 

 a political opponent of the Governor. By the commencement of November, 1861, Sir 

 George Grey had formulated a scheme for the local Government of the race, under the 

 provisions of which he proposed to utilize the authority and capacity of the native chiefs, 

 in conjunction with European police magistrates, in making and maintaining laws affecting 

 the social welfare of the Maori. He believed that if a local form of Government of 

 the character indicated were introduced into native districts the causes of contention 

 between the Maori 

 people and the Legis- 

 lature would be con- 

 siderably lessened. 

 Early in his second 

 Government he deter- 

 mined that the divi- 

 sion of authority be- 

 tween the Governor 

 and Ministers should 

 be abolished, and that 

 upon native, as on 

 other affairs, the Gov- 

 ernor should rely on 



the advice of his Ministry ; and on the 3Oth of May, 1862, Imperial control over 

 native affairs was abandoned. 



Ever since his return to the colony, his Excellency had regarded with suspicion the 

 purchase of the Waitara block, over the possession of which so much blood and treasure 

 had been expended. Having caused the title to be carefully examined, he learned to 

 his surprise that the land had never been obtained from its rightful owners, and that 

 even the full amount of the purchase-money promised to the seller had not been paid. 

 Teira, from whom the Government claimed the right to occupy, subsequently avowed 

 that he had no right to sell, and the whole transaction on his part appears to have 

 been a device to obtain satisfaction for a slight put upon him by William King in a 

 private quarrel. The actual merits of this case had been laid bare in a decisive speech 

 by Mr. T. S. Forsaith in his place in the Assembly, in 1860 a speech which led to 

 the defeat of the Ministry of that day. The Governor now accepted the position, and the 

 claim of the colony to the land was renounced by proclamation on the nth of May, 

 1863. On the 4th of June following, hostilities were recommenced in the province of 

 Taranaki, and the wider area of the Waikato and portions of the east coast became 

 involved in an insurrection of the native tribes who were desirous of measuring their 

 strength against the Europeans. A narrative of these wars in a connected form will be 

 given later on. It may be here stated that while they resulted in the subjugation of 

 the natives, they had for a time a disastrous effect upon the colonization of the North 

 Island. The Domett Ministry, which succeeded to office in August, 1862, proposed in 

 the year following, when the insurrection was evidently spreading, to establish military 

 settlements on native lands owned by insurgent tribes. The confiscation of land was an 



