Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

An Epitome of Official Documents Relative to Native Affairs and Land Purchases in the North Island of New Zealand

No. 36. — Extract from Governor Grey's Address [New Zealand Gazette] to the Legislative Council

No. 36.
Extract from Governor Grey's Address [New Zealand Gazette] to the Legislative Council.

As Introduction of British Law amongst the Aborigines.

The most important measures relating to the Natives which it is my intention to submit to you have for their object the introduction into this country of such modifications of the British law as appear adapted to the present state of the Native population, and at the same time calculated to accustom them by degrees to take an active part in the administration of the laws of their country: a great step in advance, which, if it can be made, appears to me more likely, than any other I am acquainted with to attach them, by the ties of interest and a sense of benefits received, to those institutions which we have introduced amongst them. Already some progress has been recently made in the attainment of this object, as the Natives when employed in the police force, and paid, fed and treated in all respects in the same manner as Europeans, have not only proved active and valuable constables, but have so completely emancipated themselves from their former prejudices as not to hesitate to assist in the apprehension of offenders of their own race, whatever might be their rank or influence.

I shall also recommend to your consideration measures which will secure to the Natives the expenditure for their advantage of a fair share of the proportionate amount which they contribute to the revenue; either for the support of hospitals, the education of orphan children, or for purposes of a similar character. And, above all, I trust that you may be able to devise some means which will prevent European fathers from abandoning, and leaving in a state of destitution and misery, families of children whom they may have had by mothers of the-Native race.

The latest accounts which have reached me from the northern and southern portions of this Island, in which disturbances have at various times prevailed, are of the most satisfactory character but I must confess that I, in my own mind, attach now but comparatively little importance to these disturbances. What can be effected in this country by the gallantry of the officers and men composing Her Majesty's forces has now been fully evinced upon many occasions; it has also been ascertained that the settlers are willing and able (far beyond what I had expected) to protect their homes and families and to drive off an invading foe; and, above all, we have in every instance found that the great mass of the Native population have not only invariably declared themselves upon the side of the Government, but have also by their services in the field given practical proof of the sincerity of their declarations, and of their warm attachment to the British race. Undoubtedly they have always shown an anxiety that the local Government should evince, by the strength of the force at its disposal, that it had the means of securing the permanent tranquillity of the country and of assuring the ultimate safety of those tribes who might come forward upon the side of good order; but it was to be expected that tribes just emerging from a state of barbarism, subjected to various prejudices and dreading the animosity of their own excited countrymen, would hesitate to commit themselves against those chiefs whose names have been for years a terror to the country, unless they saw that the Government was determined to support them, and that it had at its disposal a force which would enable it to give effect to those determinations.

G Grey.

Council Chamber, Auckland, 5th October 1846.