William Bayly address to John Bryce
Production date
1883
Description
Handwritten address presented to John Bryce by Mayor William Bayly (on behalf of the the inhabitants of the Provincial District of Taranaki). Recto of document dated 20 April 1883.
The address reads:
We the inhabitants of the Provincial District of Taranaki have great pleasure in congratulating you on the successful termination of your perilous journey through what is termed “the King Country” a country which for many years has been a menace and a damage to this North Island –
This district settlement which was formed forty two years ago has suffered more from native hostility than any other portion of the colony. We are therefore more deeply interested in the establishment of law and order and the progress and colonisation of this island than are the inhabitants of any other district, yet while we have been impoverished discouraged and depressed by the attitude of our Maori neighbours we have also been calumniated by many unthinking persons both in this colony and elsewhere as deserving an unsettled state of affairs in order to profit by the military expenditure which has been necessitated by this district having been made the great battle ground of New Zealand –
It is therefore especially our duty and pleasure to thank you most cordially for the successful results which you as Native Minister have achieved in – establishing the supremacy of the law thereby rendering this North Island a great field for colonisation and preparing the way for arterial roads and railways which will bind together the different parts of the island hitherto separated from one another by intervening country exclusively in the hands of a people regardless of progress and jealous of the supremacy of an alien though sympathetic race.
To your firmness and ability is due the successful occupation of Parihaka and the dispersing of the fanatical following of Te Whiti which for a time spread panic through this district and threatened the peace of the colony. –
Your firm conduct of native affairs on this and other occasions has deeply impressed the native mind with a sense of their powerlessness to resist the law and the progress of colonisation whilst the measures taken the same time for the welfare and protection of the Maoris should be sufficient to convince them that though compelled to yield to a stronger and more civilized race they will always be treated by its rulers with mercy and consideration.
The successful occupation of Parihaka which you effected has secured peace and prosperity to the West Coast and the journey through the interior which has now been made will we trust lead to results as happy and beneficial –
We are confident that in after years when the history of the struggles of this colony has been written the name of John Bryce is one which will hold an honored place among the statesmen to whose energy and labours the greatness of the nation has been largely due –
Wm Bayly [?]
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