274 
NATIVE CHIEFS. 
by giving them that place in the Council which their rank and 
influence demand, and they will he the firm supporters of 
British power. Naturally they are attached to us, and even 
the wars have not destroyed the good feeling,—why should we 
despise them? They are not a conquered race. We first 
acknowledged their independence—we gave them a flag we 
condescended to enter into treaty with them, as an inde¬ 
pendent people ;—why should we not treat them as they 
ought to be, and give them the privileges we promised ? 
We are the offenders; we treat them with the utmost in¬ 
difference. It is true, the late Governor bestowed upon 
them presents, and his doing so occasioned a general displays 
of a most kindly feeling towards him in return, for he was 
the first who gave them anything. But, after all, what were 
the presents they received, but so many sops for Cerberus. 
They have not altered the native view of our policy, however 
friendly their feelings may be to individuals. Walker Nene 
has a pension of £100 a-year for his aid in the late war, and 
he deserved it, for without him every one knows the British 
troops could not have penetrated half-a-dozen miles inland. 
George King, of Wanganui, has a pension of £20 a-year for 
his aid during the late war ; and, I think, Te Werowero, the 
head Chief of Waikato, may have something annually ; but of 
this I am not sure. Yet, although this is very well, these 
Chiefs are not raised; they have no voice in anything relating 
to the welfare of their race or country at large. 
Several Chiefs, indeed, have been appointed assessors, and 
as such have a right to sit with the magistrate ; but even this 
honor is not intended to raise them; it is only in purely 
native cases they are entitled to sit, those they are enticed 
to bring before the magistrate, in order to accustom them 
gradually to submit to British law; and to coax them to do 
so, the assessor receives 10s. each time he attends. Even when 
the case is one of dispute between a native and European, he 
is not entitled to take part in the judicial proceedings. 
The general estimation of them is, “ Oh, they are only 
Maori.” But these despised natives have not forgotten that 
they are Maori Kings, and dwell in districts where they have 
