The Press. MONDAY, MARCH 1, 1869.

Press, Volume XIV, Issue 1835, 1 March 1869, Page 2

The Press. MONDAY, MARCH 1, 1869.

The Times has again been writing on Netw. Zealand affairs. The file by; iast, month's; mail contained two articles written soon after thenewsjof Titokowanfe rebellion had reached England. Jα the first, the Tintes, evidently expecting that the colonists would shortly apply for Imperial assistance, protested against what it termed " gratifying a wealthy dependency containing 100,000 inhabitants with, tfce luxury of a gratuitous English army to act as its police against a tribe of natives so few as to be little more than banditti." It accused the Colonial Government of gross improvidence in not foreseeing and preparing against the outbreak; condemned the manner in which, native wars Bad hitherto, beeu carried on, both bythe Imperial ancl colonial authorities;,and more than hinted that theMaOTis, in sj)ite of an apparent aptitude for civilisation, weire 1 nothing better than a set of irreclaimable savages, on .whom mercy and forbearance, were thrown away. The second article recommended the colonists to utilise .the friendly natives by organising them into a sort of constabulary and employing them against their insurgent brethren:' We publish to-day a third t article, written, a few weeks later, upon receipt by telegram of an exaggerated report of the Poverty Bay riaassacre, to .which we invite the attention of our readers. There inimuch in the article that is undeniably true, with not a little that

shows the Times to be but imperfectly acquainted with what it is writing about; but the tone of it is exceedingly—we can find no better word—nasty. It is so unmitigatedly and undisguisedly selfish. One would have thought that the j news of the families, the wives and children, of fifty Englishmen (for so it was reported in the telegram), even though they were only colonists, having been murdered in cold blood, would have elicited at least a few words of regret, some slight expression of sorrow for so frightful a calamity, of pity for the victims, of sympathy with the colony in the grievous misfortune that had overtaken it. But from first to last there is no trace of any feeling of the kind. All that the Times has thought for is the effect that the news may produce in England. A cry, ife fears, may very likely be raised on behalf of making vengeance for the atrocities of these savages an Imperial concern; and it hastens to avert the cry by assuring the too-sympatLising public that the calamity is entirely the fault of the Colonial Government and Legislature; They have done nothing that they should have done, and everything that they ought not. They sent away the troops, but neglected to raise any adequate trained force to take their place. They confiscated native land, and then encouraged settlers to locate themselves on it at discretion, exposed to and provoking Maori attacks without any means of combining for their own defence. They persisted up to -the last moment in ignoring the probability of fresh disturbances; and when war broke out they raised troops of too indifferent material to be of any use. and abandoned one part after another of the open country in the disturbed districts. The Times therefore holds that the disasters of last year, and that \ at Poverty Bay in particular, were no i more than were to be expected, and no more than the colony richly deserved. It protestsagaiosfcany Imperial interference. As the colony has sown so let it reap. " The agency," it exclaims, which has produced the calamity is the almost incredible negligence of the colony itself, and the colony is best left to deal by itself with the effects of its own culpable inertness " But whatever objection may be taken to the tone of this article, it is impossible to deny that its allegations are substantially correct; nor, considering the influence the exercises upon the English public, can we afford to disregard its conclusions- The advice so liberally given for the management of our Colonial affairs may go for what it is worth ; but the opinions expressed as to the interests of the British taxpayer and the duty of the British Government are,: those which, wa may be sure, do -prevail^and will be acted upon by the Imperial authorities in their dealings with the colony. The Times may not know "much aßbut New Zealand, but it is an infallible index f o~f' the state of public fgelifigat 1 home. Now it is ijrtie "that the Colonial Government made... no.attempt to raise a force ' kuffibtarnV'to "compensate for the absence of regular trqopa; nor is We case mended "as beWeen tne colony and the • mother/ country by their throwing the blame on the unwillingness of the Assembly ttf stipply the requisite funds.. .... It,is. that much of the confiscated land has been confiscated only on: papery that the" natives have .never acquiesced iir' the confiscation, Md yet ; that little? outlying posts have been maintained, an d that men have • been" : allowed to settle down upon their land, with the certainty tbat" blobtistied, an& war must' sooner or later be the inevitable result. -It-ris true that up to almost the very day that war broke put Ministers .continued to believe that there was no chance of disturbance, and/that, the Natives would never again be able to bring 250 men into the fields It ia true, too, that ; the Government, thus taken by: surprise and unprepared, could only oppose the enemy with such raw levies as could be cpllecteji on, the spur of the moment, that the force thus raised collapsed upon the first reverse into ;a drunken rabble, and that consequently whole districts had to be abandoned from pure inability to defend them. These facts, which are" indisputable, go a long way to justify the position taken by the Times, and to convict the colony of having brought its misfortunes oji its own head by the senseless improvident pbliejf it has sanctioned in-native affaire for the last three years. Nor, however great a scrape we are in, can we with anp face apply for assistance from England. The Home Government has declared again and again. that _.they . irould„_ .npj_permit, Eogl||h.. f troops to be employed in cUiTrynig J 6ut d : of confiscatioDi; and it is out of quarrels over. th& -occupation of confiscated lands'that the! present--4isturbaiicee,, {mcluding, the recent murders by the Ngatimaniapoto at Tafttnaki) in common with all native*;,idisturbances for several years past, have arisen. Even if such an

application were to be made, it would be plumply refused. The colony lias taken the management of its affairs into its own hands : it has demanded to be left alone ; its desire ha 3 been granted ; and now, whatever the result, whether for better or worse, it must abide by its bargain. It must be what it has professed so great a wish to be, self-reliant. It must think no policy " worthy of adoption which dofes not depend for its working on the colony alone, and not on the assistance, much or little, of any other power." Nothing will ever induce the home country to interfere again. The days when a dozen regiments were sent out to fight our battles will never be allowed to return. That, as Lord Grranville devoted his first despatch to explaining, is the settled policy of the Imperial Government, and that too, as we may learn from such articles as have appeared lately in the Times, is the fixed determination of the people of England.