THE WAR IN NEW ZEALAND.

Press, Volume XII, Issue 1549, 24 October 1867, Page 3

THE WAR IN NEW ZEALAND.

The following article on the book written on this subject by Mr William Fox, late Colonial Secretary and Native Minister of this colony, is taken from the "Economist," of August 24 :-— Ignorance as to the actual condition and wants of her colonies and dependencies, and'misconceptions as to the character of the native papulations with which" she has to deal, have been too often exemplified in the conduct of England in matters of far greater magnitude for us to feel the least Burprise at the blankness of mind or perversion of thinking that have for years past prevailed here on the subject of New Zealand. A hundred years ago not one man, probably, in a thousand thought it worth his while to form any opinion at all on Indian affairs, and it shows the advancing intelligence of the country and its growing fitness for ruling the various peoples under its sway, that it is not so much English indifference and carelessness of which the New Zealand colonists complain, as distorted views taken up on false or insufficient grounds, and acted upon to the prejudice alike of the colony and of the empire. Well-meaning but mistaken notions of philanthropy, a timid and •meddling"policy, and an ill-judged selection of instruments—these are the causes (of English growth) of the New Zealand troubles. Doubtless there were other causes of native growth, perhaps inevitable in the settlement of an Anglo-Saxon colony among a warlike and turbulent people like the Maories ; yet, but for misconceptions at head-quarters, and the consequent mismanagement of affairs by officials on the spot, the war which has destroyed the prosperity and all but ended the existence of our colony in the Northern Island, might have been restrained within narrow limits and brought to an early close. Such, at least, is the conclusion arrived at by intelligent and competent judges who have taken an active share in the sufferings and responsibilities of the war; and, we think, no one who has followed the course of affairs in New Zealand with any attention and with decent impartiality, can avoid the conviction that Governor G-rey and General Cameron are chiefly responsible for the wide-spread of the Native discontent, and for the protracted nature of the war, now at length brought to a close, not by the regular troops (who outnumbered the enemy by at least five to one), but by the Colonial forces and their Native allies. It is to place these facts in a clear light,—to draw them from out of the strife of words, in the dust of which they have been buried,—to vindicate the character of the colonists, and the policy of their Ministries, that Mr Fox has put together his history. While educated n.en ask, on the mention of the Tauranga campaign, " Who is this Tauranga; I never heard of him before ?" Mr Fox may justifiably think that, tired as we may be of hearing about New Zealand, our minds are not perfectly enlightened as yet on either its politics or geography, and his book may not, therefore, be wholly superfluous. . Mr Fox has one not inconsiderable merit—he is concise f having a story to tell, he tells it in few words, and has compressed the whole tissue ol New Zealand imbroglios into the compass of one Bmall volume. His style, too, is clear, and (allowing always for

tbe_ unconcealed bias.xj£ _his.mind in favour of the settlers, towards whom he stands in the attitude of an honest advocate, convinced himself of the justice of his cause, and anxious to convince others) his judgment on all parties is impartial. After enumerating the few short and (as not involving any serious ground of quarrel), we may say, accidental wars prior to IS6O, Mr Fox remarks—" These earlier wars, however, had one important effect. They entirely destroyed the prestige which the Queen's troops had previously enjoyed in the eves of the Natives. Our operations were conducted with so little military skill ; our disasters were so serious and so many ; the losses of the Natives were so small, and they outwitted and outgeneralled us on so many occasions, that though for the reasons above stated fighting ceased, yet a feeling of supreme contempt for the soldiers became permanently and generally impressed on the Native mind." This feeling of contempt, which the unfortunate results of General Cameron's campaigns did not tend to remove, was afterwards extended to the policy of the Governor. They (the Natives) said :—" What is the good of all these proclamations ? This is the ninth which the Governor has issued." One contradicting the other; so the ninth proclamation informing the tribes that the war was ended, and that the [Governor would take *uo more lands, was torn to pieces, and the messenger murdered on the spot. "A few days later Brigadier-General Waddy sent to thesepeople, with whom the Governor declared we were not at war, a Government interpreter, Mr Charles Broughton, well known to, and formerly on intimate terms with them. He was, by specious pretences, and the hoisting of a flag of truce, inveigled into their ' pa,' and there, after (it is said) the most horrible tortures, he was barbarously murdered.', It is not as against the Natives— in spite of this horrible story —that Mr Fox endeavours to raise a fellow feeling in his readers towards the colonists, but rather against the overgovernment and political and military " muddling" to which they have been subjected, and for the consequences of which they have been made to bear the chief blame. He vindicates the honour of his class from the charge of inhumanity ; he does full justice to the bravery and intelligence of the Natives, a third part, at least, of whom were always oh our side. Wi Tako, a chief in the Province of Wellington, complained to him " bitterly of the course pursued by the King party, who had perverted a movement which was intended only to elevate the Maori into one of mere hostility to the European:" "If they would have listened to mc," he said, " Kingism would have been a different thing, and its fortunes very different; but they rejected my advice on every occasion when I offered it." The Native question i 9 (Mr Fox thinks) "only one of time," and "I regret to say," he goes on, "of very limited time; the race is melting away; and if there were no more war, and the Europeans were to leave the country to-morrow, the extinction of the Maor in an exceedingly brief period is as certain as anything human can be The one great cause of this has been, and is, their utter disregard of all those social and sanitary conditions which are essential to the continuing vitality of the human race. The result is, the constitution of the Maori is absolutely decayed, and they do not produce children to replace the current generation of adults. A people that has no children must die out. This conclusion, arrived at from long observation, was confirmed by some statistics collected at the writer's instigation, from which it appears that to every 100 male adults there is, on the average, "70 females, and less than 50 children under the age of fifteen. "If these be the relative proportions all through the islands —and I have reason to believe that they are certainly not more favourable —only one conclusion can be arrived at as to the future of the race." At this time, the pacification of the island is so far advanced —indeed, we may say completed —that all but one regiment of Queen's troops are either leaving or have left. Mr Cox cordially welcomes the proposed policy of selfreliance, but he sees a difficulty in the way of its adoption in the financial state of the colony, and complains of the hard treatment it received on this point from the late Colonial Secretary A guarantee for a loan, or a "moderate amount of pecuniary assistance " given at this moment of its assuming fresh responsibilities, " would," he says, "if it enable the colony to undertake its own defence, prove the truest economy to Great Britain."