The Press. TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 1864. A CHANCE OF PEACE.

Press, Volume IV, Issue 507, 14 June 1864, Page 2

The Press. TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 1864. A CHANCE OF PEACE.

Ir the General Assembly is to meet forthwith, an opportunity will once more be afforded to the colony of reviewing the proceedings of the war. In the general outline of the policy it cannot be doubted that the Assembly will not revoke its former decision, for there is clearly a large majority who prefer that the Maoris should be made war upon and beaten, anil wno are willing to accept the dictum of the Government as to -when they have been beaten enough What has been done cannot be undone—" Let thosi' that are dead suffice." We cannot ask that the policy of the war shall be reversed: it cannot be; it has borne its fruits and become a part of the irrevocable past. But there is a question still in issue upon what terms shall peace be made ? After Rangariri peace might have been made. For aught any man can say, all that English arms could have ii> honor claimed, or English statesmen could have in reason wished, might have been given up by the Natives, had the plighted word of the Governor not been broken, and had negotiations been opened after Ngaruawahia was occupied. No one who takes the trouble to read the parliamentary papers can be blinded by the evidence put forward by Mr. Fox to support his cruel and false assertion, that the Natives had never shown any disposition to make peace. We fully admit that aftei the deceit practised on the Natives to induce them to abandon Ngaruawahia without fighting—for this is what it comes to—that was the effect of the conduct of the Government whether they intended it or not— after that, we admit that there was indeed little disposition to make peace. Is it likely that there would be ? The failure of Mr. Fox to make terms was not only natural but inevitable after the previous treachery of the Government, and the hard and cruel reply of the Minister to the first overtures for peace. Passing by all that, however, a new and distinct question is now put to the colony. Two courses are before ua, one of wliich we must follow. The Ministers have taken their stand. They have said the sine qua non of peace is that the Natives shall give up all their arms and ammunition. The Natives have replied that they will die first. Now, those amongst us who have steadily predicted from the first that the Natives could not, and would not be conquered with the facility anticipated, have some claim to be heard with patience, when they ask—ls this determination of the Government to make-no terms, fair or reasonable, and will it be successful ? Is it fair or reasonable ? Do let us, if we have one spark of honour or manliness left in us as Englishmen, do let us look at the question from both points of view. Do let us place ourselves in the position of the Maoris, and try to realise what their feelings must he under the circumstances. They are fewer in numbers than we; they are poorer, weaker, worse armed, worse clothed, worse housed, worse taught. They are immeasurably the inferior —we, enormously the superior. Have they had no reason to look on us with dread and suspicion ? Have they not had grounds for supposing that the Europeans of the Northern Island want to get their lands ? Is it not quite natural for them to suppose—even if it be by mistake to suppose —that they may at some time be despoiled by the incoming multitudes of the white race. If tho Auckland settlers managed to terrify themselves into the fear that the Natives were about to invade Auckland—to terrify themselves so horribly that they actually believe now that tlie invasion of Auckland wliich they feared j would take place, did really take place—do we sup-

pose that the Natives of the Waikato were free from .■similar fears ? Did they not live for months, indeed years, in the constant dread of invasi on from us ? Is it then in the alighest degree likely that a race like the Maoris, capable of such boundless heroism as they have proved themselves to be, irritable and excited as they are, is it likely that they will give up all their arms and amunition to the very people from whom they have been taught to expect aggression ? Is not the proposal a perfectly absurd one ? At all events, we can but predict, in the same reliance upon the common laws of human action, in no assamption of superior wisdom, but simply deducing effect from cause—we can but confidently believe that the Natives will never consent to give up their arms. They will die first. Are we prepared to exterminate them ? If this condition of laying down arms involves us in a necessity to exterminate the race, is the colony prepared for that result? Do we for one moment believe that England will permit its troops to be used in a war with such an object ? Say that wo fight for two or three years longer—say that wo have weeded out all the weakly of the race, and driven the desperate warriors into the fastnesses of the mountains — say that we then come to terms, relaxing the one impossible condition ; what name shall we give to fhe killing of those who have lost their lives in the mean time for a condition which had to be given up ,ifter all ? History at all events will give it a very I ugly name indeed. And if it is not fair or reasonable, 'is it likely to be successful ? If the Natives do not choose to bring in their arms, can we make them ? Do none of us remember, or have we not read of the successive attemps made to disarm ]the population in the disturbed districts in Ireland ? Or have we forgotten the scorn and ridicule poured from the pen of Sidney Smith upon the miserable failure of that attempt ? And if it were impossible in Ireland with policemen peeping into every cabin, and raking in every dungheap, in the search after arms, is it a more hopeful task in a country one half of which is impenetrable to an Englishman at all ? Mr. Fox naively relates how under the pretence of surrendering, they sent in a number of old women and children. When he asks such a people for their trms, does he expect to get more than their burst barrels and spoiled powder ?

There is now a cessation of hostilities. There are glimpses of light in the midst of a dark future. The Superintendent of Wellington has announced to his Council that Wi Tako, and the whole of the tribes j from Wanganui to Hawkes Bay, are willing to •bandon the king movement and to maintain peace. The loyal Natives at Wanganui and at Tauranga, lave replied to all the scurrilous slanders which have been heaped on them by a press writing to please an Luckland mob—-by laying down their lives in the i-ause of peace. The colony at this moment stands it a crisis of its fate. If fair and reasonable terms ire offered to the Natives, terms such as a brave and independent people alone ought to accept, terms which will guarantee their own safety, and their property against agression, as well as secure their submission to the law—there is now a chance of such terms beiug accepted and of peace being made. If the war, on the other hand, be prolonged by demanding such conditions as never will be assented to, and such conditions as are not necessary to secure the peace of the colony,—of one thing we may rest satisfied, — that England will be no party to the crimes that must follow. We have whined and whimpered to England in tones sufficiently servile, to lend us her might to protect us against an enemy half our own size and strength. England has lent us that aid. But England has a duty towards the Natives as well as towards the Europeans; and we do not believe that England will lend her *rms to the prolongation of a war for one hour after it might have been honorably concluded ; a war whose continuance can now, as it seems, be only defended by the promulgation of the most glaring and patent mis-statements, whose contradiction stands on the face of the public records of the colony.