236
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
ment is, however, neither punishment nor
retaliation, but simply to provide a material
guarantee against the recurrence of these
uprisings against the authority of law and
the legitimate progress of colonisation which
are certain to occur if the rebel is allowed to
retain his lands after involving the colony in
so much peril, disaster, and loss.

The natives are fond of war, as almost their only source
of excitement. The practice of incessant
hostilities with each other for centuries has
become a second nature, and though circum-
stances have to a great extent suspended the
operation of their military impulses for some
few years, they have neither lost their skill in
fighting, nor their taste for it.

If they can
have the excitement and many advantages
of a summer's campaign when it pleases
them, with liberty to retain their lands
when it is over without suffering any losses
except their wretched dwellings and a
season's crops, while the colony is nearly
broken down by the losses and cost of the
war, they will not easily be deterred
from renewing hostilities.

Mere defeat in
the field will not deter them. There must
be some more substantial and material
guarantee.

The guarantee which the Go-
vernment has proposed, is to introduce colo-
nists chiefly direct from Great Britain into
those districts now sparsely inhabited by the
rebels, and from which they make their in-
roads into the settled districts. It is only on
the lands of the rebels, at least in Waikato,
that population can be so established. But
it is not and never has been proposed to
leave them without an ample quantity of
land for their future occupation. A quantity
much larger per head than the average oc-
cupation of Europeans in this Island, is
proposed to be set apart for them, on a gra-
duated scale, according to rank and other
circumstances. These lands would no longer
be held under the pernicious system of tribal
right, but as individualized properties under
the security to each proprietor of a crown
grant.

Ministers believe that nothing has
been or can be more pernicious to the native
race than the possession of large territories
under tribal titles which they neither use,
know how to use, nor can be induced to use.

It has, in the opinion of the Ministers, been
the principal cause of the slow progress, and
in some respects (particularly their physical
condition) of the actual retrogression and
decay of the race.

And though, while the
Maoris acknowledged the supremacy of a
protecting Government, and professed sub-
mission to law, it was just to respect these
semi-feudal proprietary rights which they
declined to surrender, yet now that they
have abandoned their allegiance, renounced
all submission to law, and staked their all
against our all, there seems no longer any
reason for respecting privileges which are
believed to be equally injurious to their
moral, social, and political condition. In
the present state of this colony it is not a
question to be argued by reference to the
rights of the Maori in times past, when as an
independent people, they were recognized as
competent to surrender or retain whatever
power or property they might please. It
can scarcely be held that after the events of
the last year, the rebel Maori is entitled to
take this position. On the other hand, the
struggle has become one for the bare exist-
ence of the colony, which, though now ap-
parently secured for the time by the results
of the late campaign, but still only held by
military posts, it is no less the duty of the
Government to take such precautions as may
prevent its being again imperilled. The de-
liberate and almost unanimous opinion of
both Houses of Assembly determined the
course of action in the matter which forms
the basis of the policy of the Ministry in
reference to the confiscation of the lands
of those who have been engaged in the re-
bellion. The deliberate opinion of Ministers
is, that to terminate the present insurrection
without confiscation of the lands of the
rebels, making of course ample provision for
their future, would be to surrender every
advantage that has been gained, and prac-
tically to announce that British rule over the
Maori race must cease, and the Northern
Island be abandoned as a safe place of
residence for Her Majesty's European sub-
jects.

5th May, 1864.

WILLIAM Fox.

APPENDIX A.

Extract from a letter from the Bishop of Waiapu,
dated Turanga (Poverty Bay), April 15th, 1864.

"The reports which are conveyed are of the most
absurd character, such as you have had instances of
in other quarters that the losses sustained by the
soldiers are something enormous that the Queen
will not send any more soldiers that England is at
war with America and Russia, and other parts of
the world that the soldiers have been driven out of
Rangiriri and Mere-Mere that Auckland is nearly
depopulated and that the Natives of the coast have
only to go there and take possession. The latest
accounts which arrived while I was at Waiapu,
spoke of 156 of Ngatiwhakaue being killed, and the
coast Natives were invited to go and finish the rest,
and drive away the soldiers from Maketu and
Tauranga. It was to little purpose that I explained
the onward march of the troops to Awamutu and
Maungatautari. My story was all English and one-
sided. I pressed upon their attention the assurance
of the Governor, that the lands of the Natives who
remain quiet will not be interfered with, but that
those who go to fight will lose their land. Those
who are gone to Waikato have held out threats
against all who remain at home that on their
return from destroying the "pakehas," they will
serve them in like manner, because they would not
join with them."

Extract from private letter from a Missionary on
the East Coast.

"The most absurdly exaggerated reports are in
circulation about our losses at Waikato. When the
poor Avon (steam transport on the river) was
injured, she had on board 1000 men, all of whom
perished. The General must have more lives than
a cat. He was killed at Waikato, and £20 taken out
of each of his boots. He went in disguise as a minis-
ter to one of the pas (I think Paterangi). The bell
was rung, and he took his station in the pulpit, but
counted each person as he entered. As the 'kara-