THE NELSON EXAMINER. Tuesday, June 20, 1865.

Journals become more necessary as men become more equal and individualism more to be feared. It would be to underrate their importance to suppose that they serve only to secure liberty i they maintain civilization. Da Tooqvbvillk, Of Democracy in America, vol. v., 230.

It probably did not occur to one single individual on Saturday last, that it was the anniversary of an event "which had influenced the destiny of this colony beyond any other which has since taken place in it. Of the present population of New Zealand, there must be many thousands who never heard of the Wairau Massacre ; while thousands more — who may have heard that twenty-two Nelson colonists, including many of the leading men of the infant settlement, were - killed in an attempt to uphold the New Zealand Company's purchase of the district of Wairau — know little or nothing of the circumstances which attended that sad event, or the causes which led to it. Even in Nelson, the memory of the deplorable affair has well-nigh died out, and our local Government, for some reason which it is difficult to understand, has acted as if it wished that the very fact itself, and the memory of the men who sacrificed their lives in the performance of what they believed to be their duty, should be alike forgotten. The affray, which took place on the 17th of June, 1843, at the mouth of the Tua Marina valley, between a body of natives from the north side of Cook Strait, headed by the notorious chiefs Kauparaha and Eangihaiata, and a constabulary force, headed by the Nelson Police Magistrate and the New Zealand Company's Agent, was the first collision that arose, after the colonization of these islands had begun, between the natives and an armed body of Europeans. The calamitous result of that encounter entirely destroyed the prestige which Europeans had previously maintained over the Maoris, and led Heki, soon after, to challenge our power at Kororarika. We do not say that, had the collision at the "Wairau not taken place, Heki would never have cut down the flagstaff; yet an open rupture with the natives might, but for the event spoken of, have been put off for years, and the Maoris have remained ignorant of their own strength. Although a quarrel between the colonists and the natives must have arisen, sooner or later, the result, when it came, might have been so different, as to create in the minds of the natives a disinclination for further turbulence ; and all the blood and treasure which Maori wars have cost Great Britain and the colony would possibly, to a great extent, have been spared. Our object, however, is not to discuss this subject, but to call attention once more to the memory of the brave men who fell at

the Wairau twenty-two years ago, and to press upon the Government the execution of the solemn duty of protecting their graves, and erecting a monument to their memory, with the money placed in its hands for that purpose.

The conduct of our Government in this matter has been such, that we can never think of it but with a feeling of shame and indignation. In November, 1858, the Superintendent was informed by the then Acting Colonial Secretary, that a sum of £300, being the amount of a fine received from an emigrant vessel to Nelson by the New Zealand Company, was at the disposal of the province for a monument to the memory of the sufferers in the Wairau Massacre. When the Council met in session in the following April, the Superintendent submitted to it the question of how this £300 should be expended, and Mr. Wemyss, then a member of the Executive, called for a select committee, consisting of Dr. Monro, Mr. Sinclair, Mr. Wells, Mr. Saunders, and the Provincial Solicitor, who reported that the " hill known as Massacre Hill, situated at the entrance of the Tua Marina valley, where the bodies of those who fell at the Wairau Massacre are interred, be inclosed with a strong iron palisading; and that, inasmuch as some bodies are believed to have been buried at some little distance from the rest, these bodies should be taken up and reinterred within the inclosure. That the remainder of the sum be devoted to the erection within the inclosure of a cast-iron monument, bearing an inscription recording the names of those who fell in the affray at the Wairau." This report of a select committee, adopted by the Council, was a clear direction to the Government how the money intrusted to it should be expended. It was not, therefore, without a feeling of indignation, and surprise, that the Council learned, two years afterwards, that nothing had been done to carry its wishes into effect. The Wairau had in the meantime separated from Nelson, and the Government made this a pretext for keeping the £300 in its hands, and disregarding the wishes of the Council.

In the Session of 1861, the subject having been first mooted by a motion of inquiry as to what had been done with the money, the Superintendent again asked the Council "to favour him with its opinion on the subject." By twelve against seven votes, it was carried that the " report of the select committee agreed to by the Council, in session VI., be carried out," against a motion of the Provincial Secretary, that a monument should be erected in Nelson. Not to hurry the Government unduly, another two years were suffered to pass before any further inquiry was made concerning the expenditure of this £300, and when, in the Session of 1863, the question being again asked., a statement was elicited that "the -money had not been laid out on account of the difference of opinion as to the proper site." This was but a shallow and miserable excuse to justify the Government in treating a second time the wishes of the Council witk contempt. It was so felt at the time; and a resolution was passed, without a dissentient voice, once more calling on the Government to give effect to the wishes of the Council as expressed on two previous occasions. Well, this surely, it will be thought, must have settled the business. Not so ; the story is not all told yet, and tedious as it may be, we must go through with it. Last year, the Government, not wishing to have its neglect again dragged before the Council, a message was sent down by the Superintendent, inclosing a letter " addressed to him by certain persons representing themselves to be relatives and personal friends of those who fell at the Wairau Massacre," asking to have a monument erected to their memories in Nelson, and that their bones might be exhumed and removed to Nelson cemetery. The Superintendent stated his concurrence with the views of the subscribers to this memorial, and expressed a hope that they might meet with the approval of the Council. We speak it with shame, the Council in no way resented the contemptuous manner in which its wishes had been ignored for five years, but, without remark — without a protest against the unconstitutional way in which the Government had overriden its wishes, acquiesced in the prayer of " Harriet Ann Hughes, W. L. Howard, Elizabeth Dodson (late Northern), Ellen Lusby, M. A. Wallis, Caroline Eankin, Eliza Erazer, and Cotterell Brothers per I. M. Hill." A committee of the whole Council decided, " That the wishes of the relations and friends of the victims of the Wairau Massacre, as expressed iv a memorial to the Superintendent, should, without delay, be carried out by the Government of this province ; but this Council would suggest, unless such course be disapproved by the memorialists, that the graves of our fellow settlers remain undisturbed, and be protected from desecration, out of the funds referred to in the memorial, and the remainder devoted to the erection of a monument in some conspicuous part of the city."

We wish we could say, for its own credit's sake, that the Government, having at length, got the Council to stultify itself, and accede to its wishes, had proceeded to do something to carry its own desires into effect. But this would have been too much to expect. The Council signified its approval of the prayer of the memorial above referred to on the 7th of July last, yet no single step was taken to give effect to it until the Speaker of the Provincial Council was called upon to act temporarily as Superintendent in February, when Mr. Barnicoat addressed the Superintendent of Marlborough, to learn whether he would sanction the removal of what human bones could be found on the site of the graves on Massacre Hill ; and his Honour very properly refused to do so except at the direct request of the friends of those who were buried there.

And so another year has passed away, Bince the sad affray took place which robbed Nelson of so many of its best settlers, without a step having been taken to preserve their names from oblivion. The Government of Nelson received £300 for this purpose more than six years ago, which it has since given no account of. Has this money been kept apart from revenue, and interest got for it ? or has it gone into revenue, and must now be voted by the Council before it can be expended ? - View the transaction in any and every light, it is one which the Government of Nelson ought most heartily to be ashamed of.