AFFAIRS IN NEW ZEALAND

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXI, Issue 1193, 6 February 1864, Page 3

AFFAIRS IN NEW ZEALAND

The intelligence which has reached us from New Zealand, though less striking in its details than that conveyed by the last mail, will be received with satisfaction. The Maoris have evidently determined on waging, as long as possible, an irregular war similar to that which some years since taxed the energies and the valour of the colonists to the utmost; but on the present occasion the promptitude of the authorities, together with the active co-operation of the military under General Cameron, bid fair to nip the insurrection in the bud. Although no engagement has taken place between the_troops and the natives since the departure of the preceding mail, the former have been far from idle. Steadily and progressively advancing his outposts, General Cameron has succeeded in securing such a position as must give him a decided advantage in the event of the Maoris risking a general engagement. In the conduct of such a war as that in which our troops in New Zealand are now engaged it is needless to observe that the tactics of what, for want of better terms, may be called •civilized or scientific warfare, find no place. Fighting in detached bodies, seldom emerging from forests in which they find ready cover, except for the purpose of nocturnal raids, or the sudden surprise of detached bodies of troops or colonists, the Maoris are enabled to dictate the terms on which they will give or accept battle. Possessing undoubted courage and no little in their own skill and valour, they not unfrequently expose themselves, as on the recent occasion at Kohiroa, to the attacks of the royal troops under circumstances when the disadvantages with which the latter have generally to contend are comparatively diminished. But even then the natives fought under the cover of rifle-pits, and they did not at any time attempt to receive the attacks of the troops on the open ground. Under these circumstances the General in command is necessarily obliged to proceed with extreme caution, and, if possible, to force or to induce his opponents to accept a general engagement. It is with this object that the late operations of General Cameron have been conducted, and there is every reason to hope that they will be crowned with sueC6SB • • « • The force of the regular troops at present in New Zealand is comparatively unimportant, but there can be no doubt that the Governor will have at his disposal a considerable number of volunteers. The colonists are alive to the necessity of striking such a blow on the present occasion as will deter the Maoris in future from, attempting to revolt. Large numbers of volunteers were daily arriving at Auckland when the mail left. They came, not only from the i New Zealand settlements, but from Ausi tralia. Measures have been taken for their

immediate organisation, and many have been already employed in maintaining the communications between the several towns in the colony. Independently of the immense assistance given by those volunteers to the Government, their attitude cannot but have the cffect of convincing the natives of the madness of the enterprise which they have undertaken. The calculations of William Kingi, Bewi, Thompson, and the other chiefs were based, doubtless, upon the comparative insignificance in point of numbers of the troops at the disposal of the Government. But when they find that every able-bodied man in the colony is up in arms they will see the propriety of desisting from an unequal struggle. It was impossible for the colonists to submit to the outrages com- | mitted, without the slightest provocation, by the natives, and the result of the present war will be that such outrages will not be committed in future. The natives have no cause for complaint, nor can they advance the slightest pretext for the present attempt to subvert the Colonial Government. The entire tendency of British policy in New Zealand for some years past has been to place the colonial and the aboriginal populations upon the same footing. Every inducement has been held out to the natives to accept the British sway, and to participate in the benefits which are. incidental to it. For some time sanguine expectations were entertaiued that our policy would be crowned with success. But those expectations have been disappointed. Again and again the savage nature of the Maori displays itself, and convinces us of the difficulty, of the task we have undertaken. But if persuasion fails, force must be employed. We have, after immense labour, effected a settlement in the colony of New Zealand. We cannot now leave it simply because a race of barbarians is unwilling that we should remain.—Morning Star, November 17.

The condition of affairs in New Zealand is dangerous enough to task all the energy of the Europeans. The state of things has passed beyond relief by policy, for the whole of the white race on the island is threatened with a war of extermination. The settlement is exactly in the position of the first colonies of New England during the great league of the Indian tribes. It was a matter for anxious calculation to ascertain what chiefs remained friendly, or could be detached from the alliance, or kept neutral, for numerically the odds were sorely against the immediate descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers. Dealing much more tenderly with the New Zealand natives than the first American colonists ever did with the redskins, we have nursed them into dangerous enemies in much less time. How the result of our consideration should be so completely the reverse of what we intended, is a question that would require a long answer. But, considering all we have done to " elevate the native character," and protect the Maori on the height to which we believed we had brought him, it is not satisfactory to find that, with the exception of the few tribes living north of the Auckland isthmus, or in the extreme northern end of the Northern Island, and a few chiefs and their followers among the southern tribes, who still remain friendly, the whole native population is raised against her Majesty's authority. Nor are all the clans or tribes in the country north of Auckland to be depended on. The assurance of their loyalty is very frail. Some of them have been tampered with by emissaries of the Maori King, and notwithstanding the good feeling ascribed to them, any success of their countrymen in the field Avould, we fear, be followed by their revolt. The chief movers in the struggle are the Waikato Maories, whose lands are on the river of that name, scarcely forty miles south of the town of Auckland itself. These natives are in open hostility to us, and against them all the military operations have j been directed. They were driven out of one j of their forts at Kohiroa on the 17th of July last, but we now hear of them again in another well-chosen position on the banks of the Waikato. There they have constructed a " perfect network of rifle-pits." Their pah, | or fort, is of the " strongest characterand as the approaches are also described as difficult, the attack, it is anticipated, will entail some danger and much loss.

General Cameron was making great preparations for the capture of this stronghold, and we hope to hear that it has been taken as rapidly and with as little loss as the last place of the kind. The Eclipse steamer had twice passed the Maori position and thrown shells into it with effect. This second fort, therefore, could scarcely he considered, so strong as the first, which General Cameron took so quickly. But as the war has only begun, and the natives build such stockades with exceeding facility, we might do well to recollect that our regular attacks on these native works have more frequently failed than succeeded. If the assault be repulsed, the loss of men is sure to be heavy. If it succeed, the natives have always escaped, and the work has to be repeated against another position of the same kind. Should the war last, it may be prudent to calculate whether any native pah cm be worth attacking by the usual mode of assault. That the natives build them in the hope that we shall thus attack them is evident, and Ave have always gratified them by doing so, with certain loss in the rush on an invisible enemy who can glide away at the last moment like a snake into the bush. Perhaps the Militia and Volunteers of the colony may devise some mode of baffling the Maovies quite as effective, if less dashing, than the old practice. —Times, November 19.