As regards the murder of settlers by Maories, Mr. Buxton
has clearly got into difficulties. The nobler tribes themselves repu- diated as murder the act which caused the war, and which Mr. Buxton wishes to soften into "a shocking event." If he will look at p. 39 of the last very thin blue-book, he will see the "cruel murder" of a settler and his son reported by Sir George Grey ; at p. 51 the report of the murder of Mr. Calvert ; at p. 62 the shoot- ing of two soldiers who were felling with a party in the bush with their arms piled ; at p. 67 the murder of Mr. Armytage, a magis- trate; at p. 81 the murder of a woman, at p. 96 the murder of -" various settlers," and these in the course of only three months. The natives are (except near Taranaki) nobler than most savages ; but it is not wise in their chivalric defender to palliate their crimes and magnify the selfishness of the settlers who wisely provide against their repetition in future.
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