The Fruits of War.

Sir John Gorst summed it up accurately. “Though the Waikato War,” he wrote in 1864, “may have added somewhat to our reputation for power, it has destroyed what little credit we previously had for benevolence or justice. … The government of an uncivilised people must, as Sir William Martin says, be built upon confidence. There is among the Maoris at the present moment absolutely no confidence upon which to build.” It was the arbitrary confiscation of a huge area of land, practically the whole of the Waikato, which destroyed any confidence that might have lingered in spite of the war, and the effects of this ruinous confiscation have not yet been remedied, although a manful effort is being made by both the Native Minister and the Maori tribal leaders to re-establish the old industrious age on a new basis.