Thursday, January 30, 1890. FIFTY YEARS OF PROGRESS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 410, 30 January 1890, Page 2

Thursday, January 30, 1890. FIFTY YEARS OF PROGRESS.

The officially recognised Jubilee Day passed off very quietly in Gisborne, but the recognition of the importance of an epoch in the history of the colony is not always to be gauged by the display made on the occasion. For our own part we consider that neither Wellington nor Auckland has a just claim to appropriate a date in January and make it the occasion fora celebration of the Jubilee, because we consider that any commemoration of the kind should be dated from October io, 1769, when Cook took possession of New Zealand in the name of the Queen —a year we have reason to bear in mind because it was then that this fine district was cursed with the name “ Poverty Bay,” a name which has through a sort of super-1 stition been clung to ever since.

But perhaps for that very reason we should be the last to desire a strict adherence to such a date ; the lugubrious title “ Poverty Bay” does not require any special notice to keep it fresh in the memory of those who have heard it, though unfortunately the impression created is not one to be desired.

The history of the past fifty years in New Zealand is indeed a wonderful one. Fifty years ago the colony was in a state of almost complete barbarism. The dawn of civilisation of course came with the founding of British power. It was on the 29th January, 1840, that Governor Hobson landed on the north of the North Island and proclaimed New Zealand to be a portion of the British Empire. If we discuss the question from Wellington’s point of view, that the first regular settlement took place on the 22nd of January of the same year the argument is met by the fact that as far back as 1835 a settlement existed at the Bay of Islands, which already had its churches, hotels, and other proofs of civilisation. There was so much opposition shown in Wellington (by the agents of the New Zealand Association) to the action of Governor Hobson in selecting Auckland as the capital of the colony, that he died in 1842, his health having been wrecked by the persistency with which he was worried by his opponents. But the mere establishment of the colony as a British dependency did little to remove the many hardships that had to be battled against. It was happily guaranteed an exemption from being made a place of exile for convicts. The first serious difficulty arose through the operation of a measure which was devised in the interests of the Maoris themselves, that is the Treaty of Waitangi, under which no settler could legally purchase land from the natives. As there were no funds to purchase land on behalf of the Crown, the natives were loud in their complaints at being; prevented from dealing as they chose with what was admitted to be their own. In 1844 a proclamation was issued authorising persons other than Crown officials to purchase land direct from the natives, but the purchaser had to pay to the Government a royalty of ten shillings per acre. The settlers were disgusted ana many of them exercised themselves in fomenting the discontent which already existed among the natives. The natives in the Auckland district determined upon a warlike demonstration. A great gathering of the tribes was held, armed warriors plainly intimating to the Governor that unless the law were amended the whole native race might rise against the Goverment. At a feast held by the assembled tribes there were given away 11,000 baskets of potatoes, 9000 sharks, 100 pigs, 1000 blankets, together with large quantities of rice, sugar, and tobacco. There was a great war-dance, one of the most terrible spectacles of the kind that has ever been seen in New Zealand. Each body Consisted of about eight hundred men well armed with varied weapons, and moving with the regularity of drilled soldiers. If was at once acknowledged after this display, that the settlers were only per* mitted to remain in New Zealand on sufferance. The wish ot the natives was soon after conceded, Other panics subsequently occurred, and the colonists were much depressed after the defeats sustained at Okaihau and when there was a bankrupt treasury and a small and disheartened body of troops, seemingly quite unable to cope with the overwhelming forces of the enemy. But the landing of Captain Grey (n°' v Sir George) again brought sunshine into an overshadowed land. The troops were victorious, finances were restored, and the .enemy was glad of a restoration of peace. Since that time there have been many painful vicissitudes, and much severe fighting, but the Europeans had become firmly established in the colony, and we may well try and forget those sad experiences of more recent date. All the causes of strife have passed away, there is now complete harmony between the two races, |and we are all proud in uniting te coiigratnkie eunelm o n

the glorious progress that .has Seen made. We may grumble over a short period of depression, but who can ponder on the past and not feel amazed at the wonderful results that have been achieved ? Our cities show wonderful proof of progress, and turning to the country Shelly’s beautiful lines recur to our mind — “ Where the startled wilderness beheld A savage conqueror stained in kindred blood,

While shoufs and bowlings through the deserts rang, Slopingandsniooth the daisy-spangled lawn. Offering sweet incense to the sunrise smiles.” The time, too, we believe, is approaching when New Zealand will be an integral portion of a great federated empire. Not a mock federation, arising from the fancied exigencies of the occasion, from a spirit of •‘Jingoism,” or the scheme of a few ambitious politicians. The crude federation scheme which is now being discussed may serve a in educating people upon the subject, but we believe that those of us who live to experience another Jubilee of this colony will find it then a prominent figure in a great federation of the English-speaking peoples. There are those who may laugh at this view as an absurdity, but if they study the great changes that history records since Poverty Bay was first sighted by Captain Cook they will perhaps conclude that the federation idea we speak of is altogether an Utopjanone. Circumstances all point in the direction indicated, and some great calamity, such as the long-iekpected European war, may be the motive force required to bind Britishers and Americans in one great Power that will hold sway over the world. As yesterday’s commemoration concerns the province of Auckland more particularly than it does the rest of the colony, we on the southernmost boundary may tender our congratulations to the Northern City, and while hoping that progress and prosperity may bless the colony as a whole, may Auckland derive her fair share and the cry of depression no longer be heard, At the particular period of which we write—the Jubilee—this district would have a chan#® Of a splendid advertisement by discarding the name which has cursed it since 1769, but wp suppose it vyill still be allowed to remain g reproach to us until the strange prejudice in favor of such a name shall have been worn opt.