The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 1866.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 18, 24 March 1866, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 1866.

When the European news reaches us as rendered through the medium of the Electric Telegraph, perhaps from the necessity that exists to condense as much as possible, the various items of intelligence are frequently very imperfectly given ; from the sententious manner in which they are rendered, unimportant circumstances appear of considerable consequence, and the ideas of the Times newspaper read to us as the expressed opinion of the nation. Thus we are.told that " the New Zealand war is considered a mistake. The question should haye been settled by legislation, and the troops should not have been marched into the centre of the Waikato." What is the meaning of these sentences ? Is the New Zealand war considered a mistake by the Cabinet of Lord John Russell, or by the London Punch ? Did some speaker at Exeter Hall, when exclaiming, against the greed for laud of the settlers of the colonies, say that "the question" should have been settled by legislation ? aud was it British or Colonial legislation meant ? Was it from the Horse Guards that the opinion emanated, that the troops should not have been' marched into the centre of the Waikato, or was that merely the subject of an anonymous letter in the Times? There can bo, no doubt but that New Zealand affairs have lately been brought prominently before the British public,. and. that its newspapers have discussed the question with their usual assurance, and perhaps with rather more than their usual ignorance of the special circumstances of the case. Perhaps, also, after some public dinner, one of the speakers may have dwelt rather eloquently upon the wrongs of the Maories ; or at some political meeting, the hardships of poor John Bull having to pay the expenses of a war undertaken to conquer the lauds for the use of the grasping colonists was rather feelingly dwelt upon. This, perhaps, is the real meaning to be gathered from that sentence in the telegram ; and it shows that at home all parties are getting thoroughly sick of a war which they really understand nothing about, aud are auxious to transfer the burden and responsibility of New Zealand affairs from their own shoulders. The opinion that the war was a mistake, is not confined to the British public, it has long been considered to have been so in New Zealand, and the hardship of -the colony having to pay the expenses of a war that was commenced by an act of the Governor who was responsible only to the Imperial Government, is frequently deplored. The effect of that war has been to plunge the colony into financial difficulties, to cause heavy burdens to be laid upon the people, and to decimate the native race. Furthermore, the colocists say that had the native affairs been under their coDtrol the war would never have taken place, and that had the movement of the troops been directed by them it would have been over long ago ; therefore they, far more than the British public, hare the right to complain.