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Notes on Sir William Martin's Pamphlet Entitled the Taranaki Question

[page 68]

(68) "William King's refusal to attend the Governor."…………

Whatever may be the surprise felt at the apology offered for the insolent refusal of Wiremu Kingi to attend the summons of the Queen's Governor, protected as he was by a safe conduct, it may at once be said that Sir W. Martin is perfectly correct in his quotation as to the Governor's determination "not to permit him to defy the Government" if he had come.

William King, if he had come only to repeat the pretensions of the land league, would not for a moment have shaken the Governor's determination. But if he had even at that eleventh hour chosen to advance for the first time a proprietary claim, it would forthwith have been entertained, and all further proceedings suspended till it was enquired into.

It is quite plain that all the excuses made for William King in this and succeeding passage are based on the proclamation of martial law. "Those persons," says Sir W. Martin, "who find in this conduct of William King a justification for resorting to force, appear to overlook the fact that the resort to force had been already determined on." But what Sir W. Martin avoids saying is that the "resort to force" had been already determined on by William King himself, and notified to the section of his tribe at Waikanae ten days before martial law was proclaimed.—[See Note, p. 34, 35.]