THE SOUTHERN CROSS. Tuesday, February 26, 1861.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVII, Issue 1378, 26 February 1861, Page 2

THE SOUTHERN CROSS. Tuesday, February 26, 1861.

I,trCEO ETON" URO. "If I have been extinguished, there rise, A thousand be.icons from the Spark I bore.

The memorial of the settlers of Taranaki to his Excellency is one of the most melancholy comments on the present state of that Province and of New Zealand generally that has yet been published. It is that bitterest and most painful of complaints : the cry wrung from a brave man, when patience and endurance are at last worn out by suffering. The war has now lasted a year, and those who recollect the state of men's minds in Taranaki when maitial law, was first proclaimed, and compare it with their present state of gloomy despondency, must be struck with the melancholy change which twelve short months have brought about. The whole male population then turned out high in hope and confident of success ; though they had but one hundred regulars to suppoit them, and though tho town of New Plymouth was open to attack

and crowded with women and children. And they were not hopeful without reason, for the Maori then was more afraid of an open position occupied by settlers then he appears to be now regularly fortified and strongly garrisoned reW doubts. The native was certainly under-rated » at that time, but he has since made good use of his year's apprenticeship to the trade of war as carried on in Europe, and is a foe far more to be feared. Had the Waikatos, who are now fighting at Hapurona's pa, been at Waireka, a few fugitive militiamen and volunteers might have possibly reached town that night, but the main body of the Taranaki settlers would have been left on the field. The men who so boldly attacked No. 3 redoubt would have made shoit work of Jury's house and its haystack. The result of the year's operations is, that our I bravest and best settlers are weary and worn out by harassing duties in the field and in the trenches, and more than anything else by that " hope deferred which maketh the heart sick" : whilst the iusurgents, notwithstanding their severe losses, still show a bold front, and seem less likely to give in than ever. The domestic misery caused by this long protracted struggle can only be seen and fully appreciated at Nelson and at Taranaki, but it requires no great stretch of the imagination on our part to realize it to ourselves. We re-published the settlers' address, to which we have alluded, in our issue of the 19th, amongst other items of Taranaki news, but must again quote two of its clauses. It says : That within the last fortnight a large number of valuable houses belonging to the settlers have been burned, and great numbers of horses and cattle have been curried ofi by such marauders ; and recently a most estimable settler has been waylaid and butchered. That the proximity of these bands, and the known existence of large bodies of natives a short distance from the town, causes great uneasiness to the inhabitants, who feel that an overwhelming force might be brought against it at any moment without warning. The depredations that have been committed, and the fearful risk to which every one is exposed who ventures beyond the immediate protection of military posts are too well known ; but we do not remember to have pieviously heard such unmistakeable expressions of anxiety for the safety of the town. It has long been known to be unsafe to sleep without the lines of New Plymouth ; but within, men if sufficiently on the alert and with proper precautions, seemed to consider themselves in comparative safety. The late gallant attack on our troops — for we cannot describe it otherwise — seems to have given rise to the present state of apprehension amongst the settlers. Cooped up and hard worked, separated from their families and uncertain as to their future, with sickness amongst them, and a dreary round of monotonous duties — only variegated by the melancholy occupation of occasionally following to the grave a comrade or military friend brought up by the " Tasmanian Maid" from the Waitara, after some engagement which will never bring the war one day nearer a successful issue than it was before — it is not wonderful that they are beginning to take a desponding view of the state of affairs ; it is rather surprising that they have so long kept up their spirits. The people of New Zealand, and of Auckland more particularly, cannot bnt feel the deepest sympatey with them in their mi&fortuues, but it is next to impossible to give anything but sympathy. Even the Government, either are or seem to be precluded from acting in the matter, and it "will be interesting to know •what answer his Excellency will make to the following appeal with which the memorial closes : Your memorialists, therefore, earnestly pray that Excellency will be pleased to visit this settlement, 9to judge personally of the state of affairs, and to take such measures as to your Excellency may seem fit. The faces of kings have from time immemorial been supposed to shed light and blessings around them : "whether Queen's repiesentatives have the same power is unknown ; but we fear much that the simple presence of his Excellency would not have the effect at Taranaki, which Taranaki settlers imagine. We believe that he has already "judged personally of the state of affairs," and as for "taking measures" little power remains to him. We need not allude to bygones at any length, but we believe that he has already, — since the commencement of the war, — experienced, how small is the power for good where the power of action is limited.

The " Lord Worsley" arrived yesterday from Sydney, with the English Mails to December 2Gth. The chief items of news will be found below.