- The
remarks which I have made respecting the independence of the people of New
Zealand relate, as you correctly suppose, to the tribes
inhabiting the Northern
Island only. Our information respecting the Southern Island is too imperfect to
allow me to address to you
any definite instructions as to the course to be
pursued there. If the country is really, as you suppose, uninhabited except by a
very small number of persons in a savage stage, incapable from their ignorance
of entering intelligently into any treaties with the
Crown, I agree with you
that the ceremonial of making such engagements with tdem would be a mere
illusion and pretence, which ought
to be avoided. The circumstances noticed in
my instructions may perhaps render the occupation of the Southern Island a
matter of
necessity or of duty to the natives. The only chance of an effective
protection will probably be found in the establishment by treaty,
if that be
possible, or if not, then in the assertion, on the ground of discovery, of Her
Majesty’s sovereign rights over the
island. But in my inevitable ignorance
of the real state of the case I must refer the decision in the first place to
your own decision,
aided by the advice which you will receive from the Governor
of New South Wales.
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- I
enclose, according to your desire, the draft of the Proclamation to be addressed
to the Queen’s subjects at New Zealand, referring
it, however, to Sir George Gipps and to
your self to introduce any alterations which the facts of the case, when more
clearly ascertained, may appear to you and to
him to prescribe.
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- It
is my intention that the Governor of New South Wales, or the Commissioners to be
appointed by him, should conduct the whole investigation
and settlement of the
question regarding lands which may have been occupied in New Zealand by British
subjects; and that you should
be thus rescued from a position which might
otherwise bring you into unfriendly relations with large numbers of those over
whom you
would be called to preside.
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- The
Protector of Aborigines cannot be brought into any relation to you which would
throw any doubt on the respective limits of your
authority and his, because he
would be in the fullest sense of the term your subordinate officer, yielding
implicit obedience to
all your lawful instructions, and reporting to you all his
proceedings.
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- If
the missionaries should not ultimately be able to under take the religious
instruction of their fellow-countrymen, measures must
of course be taken to
supply the religious wants of the future colony. But in the uncertainty under
which Her Majesty’s Government
are at present compelled to act, I think it
more safe to rely on the temporary assistance of the various missions in the
island than
to embark on any ecclesiastical arrangements which it might be
ultimately impossible to complete, and the non-fulfilment of which
might involve
the ruin of any clergyman embarking in them.
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- It
is impossible for me to prescribe the course to be pursued for the prevention of
cannibalism, human sacrifices, and warfare among
the native tribes; but I have
no difficulty in stating that if all the arts of persuasion and kindness should
prove unavailing, practices
so abhorrent from the first principles of morality
and so calamitous to those by whom they are pursued should be repressed by
authority,
and, if necessary, by actual force, within any part of the
Queen’s dominions. I am, however, convinced that habits so repulsive
to
our common nature as cannibalism and human sacrifice may be checked with little
difficulty, because the opposition to them will
be seconded by feelings which
are too deeply rooted in the minds of all men, the most ignorant or barbarous
not excepted, to be eradicated
by customs, however inveterate, or by any errors
of opinion, however widely diffused. The New Zealanders will probably yield a
willing
assent to your admonitions when taught to perceive with what abhorrence
such usages are regarded by civilized men.
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- However
much immediate advantage may be derived from convict labour, the benefit is
purchased at last at so heavy a price that even
if the welfare of the colony
were alone in question I should regard the conversion of New Zealand into a
penal settlement as a short-sighted
policy; but when I advert to the effect of
that measure on the aborigines, and on the administration of the criminal law in
this
Kingdom, my opposition to it is fixed and unalterable.
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- All
the powers necessary to the proper conduct of your office will be conferred on
you by Acts of the Government and Legislature of
New South Wales, who will also
make the necessary provision for the establishment of Courts of justice and a
judicial system in New
Zealand.
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- The
Governor and Council will deliberate with you on the proper articles on which to
impose import duties. It is a question which
I must refer in the first instance
to their judgment.
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