FURTHER PAPERS RELATIVE

Enclosure 2 in No. 1. COPT OF A MEMORANDUM BY MB. RICHMOND. Auckland, 29th September, 1858. Analysis : Reference to Paragraphs— 1 and 2—lntroductory. 3to 10—General Principles of Native Policy ... ... ... ... ... i. 11 to 13—Proposed Legislative Arrangements, "Native Districts Regulation Act"... ... n. 14 —Proposed Judicial Arrange ;wnts Native Circuit Court Act" ... ... in. 15 to 17—Treatment of Mixed Districts, " of Islands Settlement Bill" ... ... it. 18 to 27—Individualization of Native Title, " Native Territorial Eights Bill" ... ... t. 28 to 36—Objections to " Native Territorial K;,'hts Bill" discussed ... ... ... vi, 37 to 48—Eolations of Responsible Ministers with Governor on Native Affairs ... ... vu. 49 to 53—Educational Institutions for.Natives, " Native Schools Act" ... ... ... Tin. 54 to 60—New Financial Arrangements for the Native Services, and their bearing on Policy ... ix. 61 to 71 —Probable Amount of Maori Contributions to Eevenue Considered ... ... x. During the Session of the General Assembly which has just closed, the following measures, on subjects specially affecting the Aboriginal Natives of New Zealand, have passed both Houses, — 1. "The Native District Regulation Act, 1858," 2. "The Native Circuit Courts Act, 1858," 3. "The Bay of Islands Settlement Bill, 1858," 4. " The Native Territorial Rights Bill, 1858," 5. " The Native Schools Act, 1858." Of these the first, second, and fifth have been assented to by His Excellency the Governor. The other two Bills are conceived to affect the security for the New Zealand Loan, guaranteed by the Imperial Parliament, nnd accordingly in pursuance of the " Act to guarantee a Loan for the Service of New Zealand, 20 and 21 Vie. Cap. 51," clauses have been inserted suspending the operation of those Bills until Her Majesty's pleasure shall have been taken thereon. 2. These measures are of considerable interest, both intrinsically, and as constituting the first attempt of the Colonists of New Zealand, in virtue of the powers of Representative Government now conceded to them, to grapple with the difficulties of the Native question ; and on this account, and also because on the subject of the Native Territorial Rights Bill there exists some difference of opinion —due it is believed, in great part, to misapprehension of the scope and purpose of that measure—the Responsible Ministry of New Zealand desire to state, somewhat at large, what are the opinions on the subject of the government of the Natives which the measures embody, and are intended to carry into effect. i.— General Principles of Native Policy. 3. The Policy of the British Government in relation to the Aborigines of these Islands, might, on the first settlement of the country, have assumed either of two shapes. It might have addressed itself to the maintenance of the Natives as a separate race under distinct institutions and a Government wholly or in great measure independent of the ordinary Colonial Government ; or, on the other hand, it might have been directed to promote the eventual absorption of the Maories into the European population. 4. Under the former Policy it might naturally have been sought rather to maintain than to obliterate such Native customs as were not repugnant to humanity ; and it would have been essential to set up, and rigidly to guard, a territorial division between the Races. The neglect of this latter precaution has forever rendered such a policy impossible in New Zealand. All the principal Maritime Ports of the Colony arc in the hands of the Settlers, who, year by year, extending themselves towards the interior from twenty different centres, come in contact with the Natives at fresh points ; so that there no longer remains any other alternative than the extinction of the Maori Race, or its union, under one Government, with the European Settlers. However difficult, therefore, the latter enterprise, the mode in which the country has been colonized leaves no choice but to attempt it. 5. There are some who, considering what a chasm intervenes between Civilization and Barbarism, and how impassable the boundaries of Race have generally proved, are of opinion that the fusion of the two peoples is a moral and natural impossibility. These persons refer to tl*e Statistics of Population, which, according to the most accurate Estimates hitherto made, show a decrease in the numbers of the Natives at the rate of about twenty per cent, in every period of fourteen years. They point to the relative paucity of Maori females, and to th§ abnormal mortality of the Race, especially amongst the children, as facts which make certain its extinction within a short period. Such considerations induce to the abandonment of the work of civilization as hopeless, and favour the adoption of a merely temporising policy. The Race, it is said, is irredeemably savage. It is also moribund. All that it is wise, or safe, to attempt, is to pacify and amuse them until they die out, —until the inscrutable physical law at work amongst them shall relieve the country from the Incubus of a barba-

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