The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XIV, Issue 828, 17 October 1860, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times.

Wednesday, October 17, 1860. A despatch from the pen of Sir Oornewall Lewis in answer to Governor Browne's urgent appeals for assistance 'from England in the shape of some three thousand troops for the protection of New Zealand will be found in another part of our columns. It has rarely fallen to our lot to peruse a more unsatisfactory document than the one in question. Emanating from a government ruling the most powerful empire of the world, and addressed to one of its smallest and weakest dependencies praying for help in the hour of its need, it is altogether wanting in the expressions of generous feeling and willing1 offers of assistance naturally to be expected, and displays a meanness and littleness of mind which cannot fail to excite a spirit of equal wonder and contempt on the part of the greater portion of our fellow-countrymen. In order fully to appreciate the animus displayed in the despatch, it is necessary to bear in mind that a short time previously to the outbreak at Taranaki, the Governor of NewZealand had written home to the Colonial Office explaining the position of affairs and urging the necessity of receiving assistance; this demand was followed up by the two next mails with details of the proceedings he had been compelled to take, in order to support the authority of the Crown, followed by still more earnest requests for powerful reinforcements to ensure the safety of the colony, failing which, he expressed the strongest forebodings of the calamities that might ensue, and involve every settlement of the Northern Island. It is in answer to these appeals which bear the most evident marks of sincerity that the document in question was issued; a document every way unworthy of the brave and generous people it professes to represent. In the place of sympathy we find reproach, all assistance is refused, and we are told with insulting brevity that as we have thought fit to settle certain localities for our own particular benefit, we must take the consequences and make the best of a bad bargain. And this is from a Minister of England, the ruler of a people ever jealous to protect those who are occupied in the task of spreading the dominion of their race, and extending their power to the remotest parts of the earth.

The petulant tone displayed through the whole of this despatch suggests at the first glance that it must have been written under feelings of extreme irritation, the cause of which is not difficult to discover. The 'Native Land' Bill of the Colonial - office has been threatened with opposition by 'men affecting* to represent the feelings of the colonists/ and therefore we are to be visited by the anger of the Government. Maybe, the forebodings of the Governor have proved correct, and the Maories have risen and destroyed the settlers left unprotected and without the means of defence.What of that? The 'Land Bill' is threatened with opposition, and a lesson must be taught: therefore no soldiers shall be sent. Such is the practical answer to the proceedings of Mr. FitzGerald and a few other gentlemen connected with New Zealand now staying in London, who, not considering with Bishop Selwyn that the colony was avowedly formed solely for the protection of the NewZealanders, without reference to the interests of the settlers, have thought it their duty to protest against a measure fraught with the most mischievous consequences, and have therefore incurred the heavy displeasure of the Government, who visit the offence by a curious process of reasoning on the heads of the unoffending settlers in withholding from them the necessary means of (defence. Is not this a petty puerile bit of spite to proceed from the Government of so great a nation ?

That no doubt may remain in the minds of the readers of this despatch as to the cause of this ill-concealed irritation against the colony we are told " that the Home Government will insist upon having 1 the direct control of native affairs if they are called upon to defray the expenses of a native war," which must mean of course the appointment of a council ordering all native matters, appointed by and responsible to the Crown, as opposed to the Representative Government. Of the policy and line of conduct likely to be pursued by the present government on the question of the war, we may gather an outline from the remarkable passage we have hinted at above, "that England cannot undertake the defence of such scattered settlements as it may suit the purpose of the colonists to establish without reference to any other consideration than their own interest." We are to give up all power of legislation over the native and look on while the agents of the Home Government step in and regulate these matters, and cvi bono ? that we may be left unprotected in our settlements because they are not conveniently placed for defence or have not been oviginally marked out by the servants of the Crown.

We much fear that this will be a heavyblow and sore discouragement to the people of Taranaki; after having' suffered the miseries and losses attending a six months' siege, it will be severely felt by all who read the dictum of Sir C. Lewis that their settlement cannot be maintained by the forces of England. Under these circumstances if the despatch is intended to convey the real intentions of the Government and is not merely an explosion of ill-humour, it would probably be the best policy, after some sufficient punishment has been inflicted and our prestige somewhat regained, if such a thing is any longer possible, to retire from the settlement and abandon it altogether. There would seem to be but one alternative, that of keeping a large force continually on the spot and as this is evidently not intended it might be as well to prepare our minds for what must eventually ensue. The loss of Taranaki, if we except tlie question of prestige would be no appreciable injury to the material interests of New Zealand, and as the bill for the relief of the sufferers by the war in that Province proposes to give them land and the means of a fresh start in any

province they may desire to go to, without prejudice to any other claim for compensation they may have, we doubt whether after time had effaced the first keen pan^s of regret associated with the loss of their homes and their beautiful country, they would not bo willing- to allow that necessity hod forced upon them a benefit they were somewhat too loth to receive.