F.—No. 6,
10
REPORTS EROM OEEICERS
I beg you will inform Mr. Locke that the Government consider his report highly satisfactory. The greatest credit is due to him for the tact and ability with which he has managed the difficult mission intrusted to him. It is a matter of congratulation to the Government that they have been enabled to secure the services of an officer whose discretion and judgment have done so much towards opening up districts hitherto closely sealed to Europeans. I shall also feel obliged to you to convey to Poihipi the thanks of the Government for the fresh proof afforded by him of his loyalty. I cannot forward the thanks of the Government to officers serving under your immediate eye without once more expressing the deep sense felt of your unremitting exertions in promoting the extension of public works in the centre of the Island, thereby adding to its general prosperity. It is chiefly to your zeal and administrative capacity that so much progress has been made towards the settlement of the important Taupo District. I have, &c, His Honor J. D. Ormond, Napier. Donald McLean.
No. 7. Mr. Locke to the Hon. D. McLean. Sir,— Napier, 24th July, 1871. I have the honor to forward the following report for the Taupo District. Great progress has been made since I forwarded my report on the 25th June, 1870. At that time the district had just been cleared of Te Kooti and his followers, and the Natives were still in an unsettled state. The telegraph had just been completed as far as Tapuaeharuru, and roads not commenced, excepting about thirty miles, made by Poihipi and his people across the plains. The Ngatituwharetoa, on the west shore of the lake, wero still staunch Hauhaus. The aukati was in full force there, the road between Taupo and Cambridge entirely closed, and the Ngatiraukawa, to whom the country belongs, in open rebellion. I am now happy to be able to state that the telegraph has been carried on to Tauranga, although at times great care and perseverance was necessary, through the ignorance and cupidity of the Natives over whose land it had to pass; and that a dray road from Napier to Tauranga, by way of Tapuaeharuru, Taupo, is either completed, or is under contract, and is expected to be open for traffic during the course of the ensuing summer. The greater part of this work is being done by Native labour. That portion of Ngatituwharetoa residing on the west coast of Taupo Lake, have surrendered, the report of which circumstance I forwarded in May last. Those Natives who fled to Wanganui for refuge have returned to their homes, and the Ngatiraukawa Tribe residing at Patetere, between Taupo and Cambridge, have abolished the aukati, the road now being open for traffic; and therefore, should no obstacle arise to prevent its being made for dray traffic, the main arterial road from Wellington to Auckland, through the centre of the Island, can be completed. I forwarded a report relative to the meeting of Ngatiraukawa on 21st July.* Although these changes have taken place, very much remains to be done before the difficulties in the Taupo District cau be considered as over (without referring to the difficulties that surround the Waikato and King question). It is to be remembered that the tribes that have surrendered during the past year have been for the last ten years entirely cut off from communication of a friendly nature with Europeans, and prior to that only occasionally came into intercourse with them; and having no European settlements near enough to induce them by force of example and joint interests to abandon their semi-barbarous rites and customs, they had but just seen and learnt enough to fear the advancement of the Pakeha into their country without being able to appreciate the benefits derived from the settlement, and, consequently, opening up of their country by roads, and the enhancement of their lands in value through that means. It is true there are complaints made, and no doubt in some cases with good foundation, that the European at times goes beyond what would be considered the legitimate course for obtaining land ; yet, if the question were put to the Maori in any district where the two races are settled together, say Hawke's Bay, whether they would rather be as they are, with the greater part of their land gone, or revert to the condition they were in twenty years back, I believe the answer would be almost unanimous in favour of the present state of things. The same stages of advancement against passive opposition, recrimination, &c, through which the settlements along the coast have gone, have now to be passed in the interior of the Island ; and only by a consistent course of action in opening up by means of roads .and settlements what is now a very thinly populated county can that end be obtained. By that means, through the force of example, and through the Government being able to keep a surveillance, the Maori will be taught obedience, without on the one hand shunning us, and on the other becoming degraded to the position of a slave ; and he will be led, so to speak, against his will to be prepared for a higher stage of civilization. What Mr. A. R. Wallace in his " Mahay Archipelago " says of tho Dyaks of Borneo, is in some sense applicable to the Maori. He says : " One of the surest and most beneficial effects of advancing civilization will be the amelioration of the women; the precepts and example of higher races will make the Dyak ashamed of his comparatively idle life, while his weaker partner labours like a beast of burthen. As his wants become increased and his tastes refined, the women will have more household duties to attend to, and will then cease to labour in the fields —a change which has already to a great extent taken place in the allied Malay, Javanese, and Bugis tribes. Population will then certainly increase more rapidly ; improved systems of agriculture and more division of labour will become necessary, in order to provide the means of existence ; and a more complicated social state will take the place of the simple condition of society which now obtains among them." * See Encfosure 1 in No. 5.
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