The Sun.
London, England, 1869-10-15 00:00:00

FOREIGN NOTES.

A COLOXIAL STATEDIAN ON TIIE NEW rEALANtt
DIFFICULTY.

Mr. Sewell, who has been niore than once a member of
the New Zealand Government has just published a
pamphlet, which is intended as a e.ohuial reply to Lord
Granville's despatch to Sir George Bowen. Mr. Sewell
answers the several points of Lord Granville's despatch one
by one. He censures the Imperial Government for
planting the capital and establishing the colonial govern-
ment in the northern part of the Northern Island, instead
of in the southern part, or in the Middle Island, where the
settlers were tolerably free from native interference.
The Government have throughout treated the
aborigines as a foreign people and assumed their guardian-
ship. The retention by the Government of the exclusive
right of dealing with the native proprietors was, in the
opinion of Mr. Sewell, a fatal error. Mr. Sowell
limself was a member of the first responsible
Colonial Administration under Governor Gore Brown.
At that time he says the colony was a slum-
bering voleano, owing to the difficulties with the

XatiVes on the land question, and to various
quarrels between the tribes, which the Government was
powerless to prevent. He asserts that it is absolutely
untrue that the colonists, troubles are of recent growth
and that they have brought them on themselves. They
inherited them from the Imperial Government and its persis-
tem.ce in maintaining a distinct " native department," over
which the colonial Ministers had no control. Mr. Sewell
then goes on to analyse the origin of the several
wars from 1859 down to the present time. He
denies that the colunists have any desire, in
the words of Lord Granville, "to appropriate
the property of others," and affirms that the confiscations
which have been sanctioned by them have only been ap-
proved of as a means of punishing native tribes guilty of
outrages and rebellion.
_ _ _

Corning to the question of the guarantee, he details
the circumstances connected with the withdrawal
of the troops. There are no grounds, he says for
accusing the colony of arrogance. " The colony sub •
mated to circumstances which it could not control. The
removal of the troops had become a necessity, partly
on economical grounds, and partly because the Colonial
Government could not control the Military ovra-
lions. During the process of removal there have been con-
tinual differences between the Colonial and the Imperial
Governments and the civil and military authorities, and
Mr. Sewell accuses the latter of maligning the colonial
Ministers in their letters to England. Lord Granville's
dispatch, he thinks, is calculated to give deep offence to the
colony, especially as it is coupled with the refusal of material
aid. He doubts whether the connection of the colony with
the mother country can be maintained under the altered
circumstances. So long as a colony feels that in case of
need it may claim help, it acquiesces in the unavoidable
restraints imposed by the connection, but the obligation to
help cannot be denied without a severance of the
family tie. The mother country will decline to
enter into specific guarantees and only give a
general assurance of help in case of need. But
says Mr. Sewell, the question must force itself upon the
colonies, especially those of the Australasian group, whose
gold ships offer such rich prizes in the event of foreign war,
whether the advantages resulting from the maintenance of
the Imperial connection are a compensation for the possible
entanglement in. European political quarrels.

The Times, in commenting on Lord Granville's despatch,
observes that the colony has chosen self-government and
responsibility with it. If it will persist in an unconcilia-
tory system towards the natives, it should make up its
mind to the sacrifices necessary for their conquest.
It is as unreasonable and unbecoming for New Zealand in
its political capacity to beg help in a domestic difficulty
from Great Britain as it would be for Berkshire to impor-
tune Oxfordshire to assist it in paying its rates. Such help
would only retard the growth of that spirit of self-reliance
without which colonial self-government is a mockery.