TO NATIVE AFFAIRS.

E—No. 1.

Department might produce a similar result. Changes in the personnel of the Native Department have been much more rapid than Ministerial changes have hitherto proved in New Zealand. The utter impotence of a small knot of permanent officers, not perhaps always distinguished by superior intelligence, to resist the current of adverse public opinion in a highly cultivated British community is also overlooked. On the other hand, the steadiness with which Representative Institutions in English hands have ever been found to work is underrated. It, is not sufficiently considered that the responsibilities of office, and the momentum of an established system, would exercise their usual moderating influences—influences which would be felt, not only by those actually advising the Governor on Native affairs, but in no small degree by their antagonists. 46. Lastly, the narrow jealousy of Colonial interference betrayed by the third of the above-mentioned objections, appears to Ministers a grave moral mistake ; which, if it were ever allowed to exercise a sensible influence in the conduct of affairs, might be expected to generate the very evils it falsely supposes to exist. There is at present no contrariety of interest between the Colonists and the Natives, nor any disposition on the part of the former to injure the latter. But a jealous administration would tend strongly to evoke and foster into activity every bad passion which could disturb the relations of the races ; whereas a generous confidence in the good intentions of the settlers towards the Native tribes—a confidence thoroughly merited by the Colonists of New Zealand— would increase the good feelings which now exist, and strengthen every bond of union. Thus only can the idea of fusion be ever realized, and the New Zealandeis be preserved from the general fate of Aboriginal races. 47. On the whole it seems clear that under the liberal system, disputes between the races would be less envenomed and more easily healed : that Government would not want either tongues or pens to explain or to defend—to deprecate the excitation of evil passions or to invoke the better feelings, which, (after all) are not often sincerely appealed to in vain : lastly, that Native affairs would be more steadily as well as more vigorously administered, with a better prospect of ultimate success in the true policy of fusion. 48. Ministers have great pleasure in referring in corroboration of these views, to an able letter, communicated to the Southern Cross (Auckland) Newspaper, of 27th July, 1858, a copy of which accompanies this Memorandum.* The letter is well known to have been written by one of the most zealous, learned, and able of the Missionaries of the Church Missionary Society. Nothing has given Ministers greater satisfaction than the belief that their opinions are in harmony with those of a considerable number of the Missionary body, and will receive their hearty support, and that many who were formerly disposed to consider that it would have been , preferable to attempt the experiment of a separate Government for the Natives, are rapidly coming round to the contrary opinion. vm.— Educational Institutions for Natives, " Native Schools Act, 1858." 49. The last measure on which Ministers have to comment is the "Native Schools Act, 1858." By this Act a yearly sum of £7,000 is granted out of the Colonial Revenue, for the term of 7 years, from 30th June, 1858, in aid of schools for the Education of Natives and Half-castes. 50. The Secretary of State will be aware that an annual sum of £5,900 was, at the instance of Governor Sir George Grey, allocated for the same object out of the sum of £7,000, reserved by the Constitution Act for Native purposes. In 1854 and 1855 there had been a vote in further aid of the schools of £1,300. Owing to the unsatisfactory state of the administration of the fund in the Southern Division of the Colony, it was doubtful, in 1856, whether the House of Representatives would consent to renew this vote, which the House was under no kind of obligation to do. Ministers considering it undesirable to retrench the Educational Fund on account of a temporary abuse, which they proposed as speedily as possible to correct, advised that the full sum of £7,000 should be temporarily provided out of the Civil List, until more satisfactory arrangements could be made. 51. The system established by Governor Grey, and which has ever since been acted upon, of distributing the school grant in fixed proportions amongst the three religious bodies who maintain Native Schools, and of again subdividing the grant to each body in fixed proportions between the Northern and Southern Districts, has been found to operate very unequally. The amount of aid received by different schools in the North has varied from £40 per head and upwards, on the average number of pupils, to £6 per head and less. As between the Northern and the Southern Divisions, the case was even worse. Several establishments in the South, which were absorbing, year after year, large sums for buildings and farm improvements, were actually without scholars. Meantime large and flourishing schools in the North, with unpaid teachers, were pinched for want of the funds requisite to provide their scholars with the bare necessaries of life. Such a state of things was satisfactory to no one ; and was especially grievous to the laborious managers of th« larger Native Schools. 52. To correct this evil, the new Bill introduces the general principle of proportioning the amount of Government aid to the number of pupils educated and maintained at the several schools, according to a fixed rate per head. The principle is subjected to certain limitations, adapted to check an unseemly competition between different religious bodies, or between different schools under the management of the same body. The change effected by the Bill is welcomed, Ministers believe, by every friend to the cause of Native Education—even by those who under its operation may suffer a temporary diminution of the funds at their disposal. 53. Sir George Grey's Memoranda of May, 1853, accompanying the Despatches last above adverted to, and laying down tho principles on which the grant was to be distributed, provide for the presentation to the Governor of annual Reports on the state of the schools. In lieu of these Reports,

Remarki by the Governor— * The change of person in the office of Governor does not generally entail a change of opinion—the instructions and the responsibility remain unaltered. Ministerial changes imply change of opinion, and the duration, of Ministers is not (unless under peculiar circumstances)actually very long.

L Remarks by the ' See my Despatch No 1 102 paragraph. I I I r P

Remark* by the Governor— i If this letter is from [ the gentlemen indicated it would be conclusively 1 answered by others from L himself, both anonymous t and with his name. I however append one ' with a signature which j will carry greater weight than can ever belong to an anonymous contiibution. Mr. Kissling is also a Missionary and the Bishop's Commissary ; his f information is second to nnne, and his opinions are universally viewed with the greatest respect. — Mr. Kissling to Go- ; vernor 23rd July, 1858-

Remark* by the Governor— The advice was not given as a temporary measure— Vide also Sec, 59 of this Memorandum, where it is said " The Schools were safely provided for in the Civil List."

In reference to the Civil L List Mr. Richmond in his j Speech on 13th July,says j "Over the first (Til. the ■ Civil List) the House had ! no control,"

* Vide .Appendix, page 33.

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