The Press. TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 1869.

Press, Volume XIV, Issue 1848, 16 March 1869, Page 2

The Press. TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 1869.

We have published the telegrams received during the last few days from our Wellington correspondent without comment, because it seemed to us worse than useless to raise an alarm on the receipt of information which might very possibly be contradicted the next day. The telegraphic news has certainly been of a character to cause uneasiness. It has indicated a very unsettled state of things in the North Island, and the spread of a disaffected spirit among the natives, which might at any time, should some untoward circumstances occur to blow the spark into a flame, break out into open hostility. But it has been very vague. There has been a great deal of rumour, but little of actual fact. And rumour about native affairs is of all things the least to be trusted. We remember when a rising in the Waikato was the great Auckland bugbear, when every number of the Southern Cross used to contain letters from its correspondents at the various outposts full of the most sinister omens and the more dire forebodings. Bodies of armed natives were always traversing the country; meetings were continually being held in suspicious places ; reports were constantly coming to hand of such-and-such a chief having determined on war, or of this or that settlement being marked out for an onslaught. I Yet nothing ever came of it all. The peace was never disturbed, and the! events which had formed the ground for so many terrible predictions invariably turned out on enquiry either i never to have occurred or to be susceptible of the most innocent inter-1 pretation. We do not suppose that

native rumours are any more reliable now than they were then. In times I of great excitement reports, both good and bad, are certain to get abroad, j and to spread, losing we may be sure nothing as they go, far and wide, while what is mere rumour at starting gets converted on the way, not without considerable addition and embellishment, into positive fact. There have been several instances lately of this property of common report. A circumstantial account of the death of Te Kooti during his flight from Ngatapa proved to be pure invention, and some doubt apparently exists as to whether that was really the head of Nikora, the Uriwera chief, for which the Government paid the promised reward of £50. On the other hand, the report of an attack upon an escort on the West Coast, which was said to be surrounded by the enemy in a way that left hardly any hope of rescue, turns out to have been immensely exaggerated. The escort was never in any danger, and has arrived at its destination without loss. "We believe that, except the few whose position them the means of acquiring accurate intelligence, scarcely any one in the North Island has any idea of what is going on beyond his own immediate observation. There cannot, however, be a doubt that a party among the natives are doing their utmost to stir up war. The murders at the White Cliffs, and the attitude taken by a portion of the Ngatimaniapotos, are sufficient proof of this. They have not as yet been very successful. The bold front shown by the local authorities at Taranaki, aided by the arrival of a body of Armed Constabulary from Wanganui, seems to have daunted the rebels, who have recoiled before them as savages are wont to recoil when, hoping to take their foe by surprise, they find him armed and ready for battle. The King, too, according to the construction generally put upon his enigmatical letters, is still for peace, and his influence strong enough to counterbalance the warlike Eewi. Yet though the sword has not fallen, it remains suspended but by a thread. Many of the intermediate party must be beginning to waver under the protracted trial to which their neutrality is exposed, and any success of the rebels might turn the scale that now hangs dubious between peace and war. The greatest danger to the island seems to us to be on the East Coast, where Te Kooti is said to be beleaguriug Opotiki, and reports are rife of a threatened attack upon the settlements of the friendly natives. Such too seems to be Mr. M'Lean's opinion, as he has refused to allow tlie Ngatiporous to be transferred to Wanganui, as desired by the Government. According to our latest telegram the Government are highly indignant at Mr. M'Lean's refusal, which the New Zealand Advertiser, ridiculously enough, imputes to "provincial ,, considerations. The Government plan appears to be to employ the whole strength of the colony against Titokowaru, and crush him before attempting to deal with rebellion elsewhere. That would be good ! policy if they could count on finishing off Titokowaru pretty quickly, or if they were certain that no great disturbance would occur, or at least no great harm be done, in other parts of the island while the colonial forces were concentrated in the west. But experience shows that there* are two separate seats of warfare, the East and the West Coasts, where the colony must be prepared to carry on war more or less simultaneously—at all events, that it is not safe to wholly denude the one of protection in order to push on operations on the other. If nothing is left to keep TeKooti in check, Colonel Whitmore may return from a successful campaign against Titokowaru only to find the whole island in a blaze, and the colony in a ten times worse condition than it was in before. With regard to the defence of the Waikato, a correspondent of the Southern Cross makes what appears to us a very sensible and useful suggestion. He proposes to garrison Ngaruawahia and the adjoining positions, selected by General Cameron for military settlement, with three companies of Auckland Volunteers and three troops of Volunteer Cavalry. These forces, he says, are drilled and disciplined, are complete in numbers, and in. every way ready for service. The space enclosed within the redoubts, which lie in the form of a horseshoe little more than twelve miles from each other, Ngaruawahia being situated midway on a line across the base, would serve admirably as a place of refuge for noncombatants and for the preservation of property. The cavalry would be a moat effective arm againet the Maoris in that open country. There is the difficulty in the way that no volunteers can be compelled to march to or serve at any place more than twenty miles distant from the head-quarters of his corps; but the writer believes that objection would not be raised; and most persons, we think, will agree with him that in case of need volun-

teers ought to be available anywhere within the area of their province. We do not know how far there is likely to be occasion for any such measure; but if there is a probability of a descent upon the Waikato settlements, the plan proposed for their defence seems as good a one as could be adopted.