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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Rare Volume

Note XVIII. p. 18

Note XVIII. p. 18.

Without imputing to Governor Grey a deliberate intention to

XVIII. Result of Governor Grey's policy has been Co create feelings of distrust towards the Europeans in the minds of the natives.

sow the seeds of dissension and jealousy between the races, it is beyond doubt that the tendency of many of his acts has been such. His ungenerous allusions to the colonists, "as persons who entertain no regard for the natives or their interests;" his prediction (too likely, perhaps, to be the cause of its own fulfillment), that the colonists, if entrusted with self-government, would "arouse the natives and bring on a war; "his continual appeals to native testimonials in opposition to the censure of the colonists, indicate strongly the bent of his mind in reference to the two races—the inclination to regard the one with friendly, and the other with unfriendly feelings.—See his despatches in Parl. Papers, 1650, p. 59; Parl. Papers, August, 1851, p. 136; and, passim, since the question of self-government has formed the subject of his despatches, beginning with that in Parl. Papers, December, 1847, p. 42. That the hints thrown out have not been lost on the: natives, is evident from repeated passages in the Part Papers, where it appears that the natives have been taught to believe that their, interests and those of Governor Grey are identical; and that to bestow powers of self-government on the colonists will be attended with injury to the natives.—See particularly E. Puni's letter, and Governor Greys comment, Parl. Papers, August, 1851, p. 136; the memorial of the Waikanae page 34 natives, at p. 141; and that of the Ngauranga natives, at p. 142. See also Parl. Papers, Aug. 1850, p. 106. No one acquainted with the total ignorance of the natives on all political subjects can believe, for a moment (certainly no one in the colony believes), these documents to be the unprompted effusion of their own minds. But in whatever they may have originated, the result is too evident to admit of a doubt; and the eagerness with which Governor Grey appeals to them is very significant.