CHAPTER XII.
NATIVE RIGHTS.
The apostolic Bishop Selwyn, the lover of the coloured race, had been deeply affected with the story of the Tasmanians, and, upon his appointment as Missionary Pastor of the Maories, resolved to contend for their freedom as far as possible. In 1847 he uttered these memorable words:—
"I am resolved, God being my helper, to use all legal and constitutional measures, befitting my station, to inform the Natives of New Zealand of their rights and privileges as British subjects, and to assist them in asserting and maintaining them."
It is undeniable that the British Government converted the island of Van Diemen's Land into what has been called a dust-hole, for the reception of the moral rubbish and turpitude of Europe, without the least consideration of the question of the Aborigines. The authorities were pleased not only to seize and hold the Island, without consultation of the will of the inhabitants, but actually, without their knowledge, and most certainly against their wishes, constituted them British subjects. As will be seen in the course of this book, the several Governors of the colony have declared that the Natives were entitled to all the rights and privileges of British subjects. What that means will be understood.
What is the opinion of European jurisconsults, statesmen, and others, relative to aboriginal rights?
When Dr. Wardell, of Sydney, defended an Englishman charged with the murder of a Black, he argued from Lord Bacon, Puffendorff, and Barbeyrac, that savages who fed upon human flesh (as the Australians were by him assumed to do), were proscribed by the law of nature; consequently it was no offence to slay them.
