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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 63

To the General Public

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To the General Public.

The Honorable Mr. Fox, the late Premier of New Zealand, commenced his [unclear: pasing]address the Crown in the Native Lands Court at Otaki, Thursday, 23rd April, 1868, as follows :—

"May it please the Court. Mr. Williams yesterday commenced by appealing to the sympathies of the Court; and drawing a touching picture of himself as a sort of 'young man from the country,' who had unexpectedly met face to face with a great ogre of a Crown lawyer, who stood ready to put him down and eat him up. Sir, if any one has a right to claim the sympathies of the Court, it is I, and not Mr. Williams. Six feet odd without his shoes; in robust health and the full vigor of mature age; strong enough to grapple, [unclear: pass] only with the case before the Court, but with the biggest member of the [unclear: between] tribes; bom in New Zealand; brought up among the Native race; graduated in a Maori pa; better able to speak the Maori than the English language; versed in all Maori ways, and thoroughly acquainted with the Maori [unclear: huge] having spent the last three years of his life in finding, if not creating, the materials for his clients claims; is he not a champion worthy of such a [unclear: nurse] and thoroughly equipped at all points? On the other hand, who am I that I should fight with this Philistine?"

Though "graduated" myself "in a Maori pa," my father was as much [unclear: fish] "Englishman by birth and education" as the Hon. Mr. Fox; unlike Mr. Fox, in his youth he fought and bled under old England's flag; and to no man, I believe was the honor of old England dearer than to him, and, though men [unclear: and] the Hon. Mr. Fox may speak contemptuously of the Treaty of Waitangi, saying. "no doubt it was a great sham," my father would not have consented to translate the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, and to "repeat in the Native [unclear: mague] sentence by sentence" all Governor Hobson said when he "assured the Natives in the most fervent manner that they might rely implicitly on the good faith of Her Majesty's Government in the transaction;" nor would he have consented to be the bearer of the Treaty to the Native chiefs on both sides of Cook Strait, did he not believe that the Treaty was intended to be other than "a great sham." When treating of this Treaty of Waitangi, though we may be permitted to bear in mind that one of the parties to the Treaty were "ignorant savages," it should also be borne in mind that the other party to such Treaty was, and is, Victoria of England—one who reigns page 2 mistress over a people, whose highest duty and privilege might appear that of right loyally setting an example of high Christian honor, integrity, and rectitude, in their dealings, to the Nations of the earth.

Notwithstanding all that has been written and said to the contrary, my experience tells me it is weariful uphill work trying to obtain justice for a Maori, more especially when men in high colonial position have determined that justice shall not be done, and one feels forcibly reminded under such circumstances, of the good old dame who made it her honest endeavour to stop out the Atlantic Ocean with a broom. I did my best in my own little way, to obtain justice for a number of Maoris in a certain case, I failed utterly. Since my "graduation," I have read of a certain King who, being oppressed with his people, after various attempts had failed, was disposed to give up in despair, but who took courage from watching the proceedings of a little spider. I am now myself endeavouring to imitate such little spider.

My case is this. A people when savages and independent were merciful to the prostrate. They are afterwards led to embrace Christianity and to subject themselves to the Dominion of a Christian Queen. Their having been merciful when savages was the cause of their ruin under the Christian's rule! My case is one of unscrupulous Anglo-Saxon greed and oppression triumphant over peaceable Maori submission.

That the Sovereign of the British Empire's "great name" should have "alighted justly and peacefully upon New Zealand in 1840, through the Treaty of Waitangi" (vide Parakaia's petition), Christian missionaries having been engaged to use their influence with their converts, to induce them to attach their signatures to the Treaty, to agree and subject themselves to its conditions. That a tribe of Maoris who, when such Treaty was signed, were undisputed owners—masters and possessors of a large tract of country whose title to their land at that time no man would have dreamed of calling in question, and who, when they signed the Treaty, were assured by a Christian missionary—requested to do so by Her Majesty's Representative fully authorized thereto by Her Majesty's instructions, conveyed to him by her principal Secretary of State"—that their lands would be guarantied to them, and that "strict faith would be kept." That 30 years after that time such tribe should be told—because their fathers, when savages, were merciful to the prostrate—because they not only spared their lives themselves, but protected them, their wives, and little ones, against ruthless and cruel men who would have destroyed them all—because (to use Chief Judge Fenton's words to Mr. Travers, the counsel for the Maoris in the Native Land court Wellington,) they "did not kill and eat all the remnants of the original possessors"—because they treated such remnants with the utmost kindness page 3 because they handed over large tracts of country to such remnants, allowing them to deal with the same as independent tribes and chiefs—that, [unclear: fore,] their title to the larger portion of their country is bad, and such larger portion must be restored to the original possessors, such larger portion having been previously and judiciously purchased, on behalf of the Crown, from such original possessors—honorable and most determined ceders to honourable and most determined recipients—might be considered rather an [unclear: fnified] position for Her Majesty's Government and the Christian people of Great Britain to fill;—almost reminds one of those miscreants of the seas, who adopted the garb of the man of peace, that they might induce simple [unclear: tasting] islander's to "alight peacefully" upon the decks of their vessels.

The Colonists of New Zealand would scarcely be pleased, were a mightier than they to overshadow this land, and to be told, because they did not [unclear: nearly] destroy all the Waikatos, the Taranakis, the Ngatiawas, the [unclear: Ngati-] the Ngatimaniapotos, the Ngatihauas, the Ngaiterangis, the [unclear: Whaka-] with other tribes whose lands they have confiscated, that therefore their title to the New Zealand confiscated land is bad, and that such land [unclear: what] be restored to its original possessors. Such would not be so hard a measure as they have themselves, in their turn, meted out to loyal and peaceable subjects of Her Majesty of the Ngatiraukawa tribe of the Maori [unclear: are], dwellers in New Zealand. The colonists of New Zealand did not protect the tribes whose lands they have confiscated, the men with their wives and [unclear: article] ones, against ruthless and cruel men who would have destroyed them all.

Let me ask any who may take the trouble to peruse the following pages—who, after such perusal, may come to the conclusion there are grounds for believing that wrong and injustice have been done—any who are ready and willing to take up the cause of the despised submissive weak, as against the proud enlightened spoiler and oppressor—any who respect honor because it is honor—who love justice because it is justice—who abhor oppression because it is appression—to join with me, one "graduated in a Maori pa," in urging upon Her Majesty's Government that they are in honor bound "to investigate carefully this wrong."

Thomas C. Williams.

Wellington, New Zealand, 18th July, 1873.
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