THE SOUTHERN CROSS. Tuesday, March 5, 1861.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVII, Issue 1380, 5 March 1861, Page 2

THE SOU THERN CROSS. Tuesday, March 5, 1861.

LircEO won ueo. "If Iha\cl)een extinguished, jet there use, A thousand beacons fiom the Spailc I boie "

The good people of Auckland have been taking the present war voy easily, and it appears to have caused moie excitement in India than on the Waitemata. Of couise we have had periodically little panics, and as a rule a fair supply of rumoms, but the panic has seldom been a very 'distressing one, and as for lumours, they have geneially pai taken too much of the natuie of canarch to have caused much alaim The excitement has been of the gentlest . sufficient to cause circulatian of the blood without ci eating any veiy unpleasant imitation. Few have lealized the war and its impoitance and been able to calculate possible contingencies, and those only, whose duty it has been to watch the native mind, have been able fully to appreciate the critical state m which we have been during the last year. The ciy of wolf has been often laised, and what we have to guaid against is the pioverbidl apathy pioduced by a constant succession of false alarms. The Government are evidently on the aleit, and lemaikably enough the more tioops anive the more watchful do they become h\ yesterday's " Gazette" a proclamation is issued notifymg the late of pay which is to be diawn by militia and volunteeis when on seivico in the field or in gamson. This seems to be a pieliminaiy to calling out some poition of those forces foi actual seivice In di awing attention to these facts we desire befoie all things not to cause any unnecessaiy alaim, but meiely to counteract the injurious moral effect of tv, elve month's immunity from the hoirois of a war, which has been raging during that penod at no great distance fiom ouiselves. The best secunty for our Emopean temtoiy lemaining inviolate, will be found in the active co-opeiation of all with the nulitaiy authonties • whilst great danger is certainly to be appiehended, if either the Colonial Government or the settlers imagine that the large reinforcements ai riving lekeve them fiom their own peculiar duties. It is a mistake to think that the piesence of a laige mihtaiy foice necessanly lessens the chance of a collision m this province : on the contrary, it is not impossible that a more desultory and more geneial war may be the lcsult, and that the msuigents, calculating on the slow and never secret manner in which oui foices aie generally moved fiom one place to another, may by a series of lapid and unexpected movements endeavour to neutialize the effects of our mci eased numbeis by constantly keeping them en route betwecf^p this and Taiauaki. "We may safely discuss this question, foi the natives do not appear to be men likely to lcam much fiom us in militaiy matteis they aie sufficiently giounded aheady m the ait of war, and theie can be no doubt that we have not been attacked hitherto, merely because it was better stiategy on their pait not to do so. They have appreciated the respect shown for their base of operations, so long as they have been able to show a good fiont at Taianaki, but they will not respect Auckland, if once they suffei a heavy defeat at Waitaia. Waikatos flying fiom Pukerangioia will be better seived by their friends in Waikato tlueatening our southern frontier, than by the lattei going south to the lescue ; and the natives know this. Under these circumstances it is only prudent for the Government to take eveiy piecaution, Prevention is better than cuie, and it is only by assuming a fiim attitude that aggiession can be pi evented. An impression has been of late abioad that it is the intention of the Government to pioclami maitial law in this piovince, but we believe that such is not the case. Neither is there any necessity for so doing, nor would even anything be gained by it. If the white population were disaffected, it might be called for ; but as we aie not so, and as a Mihtia Act aheady exists, which can be biought into operation without such a stiong measure, no danger would be avoided, and our means of defence would not be mci eased by it. An absuul idea seems to exist even in high quarteis, that the declaration of maitial law is necessanly the fiist step to be taken befoie militaiy foice can be employed, whilst m icality it is merely the natuial consequence of employing foice at all. A blow stiuck either by the Government or by any one else without the authont}'- and sanction of the law, is the leal decollation of maitial law, and is a mutual one. The Maoris exeicise maitial laAv at Taianaki as much as we do. The only diffeience is in the upshot, — the powei of j>asaing a bill of indemnity. When monaichs win, they hang rebels and absolve themselves when lebels win, they send monaichs to Whitehall windows, and whitewash themselves in lebelpaihaments. It is the old s.iying :

" lieason never piospeis. For when it prospers t is no longei tieason." "Where the swoid has been appealed to, the law of the land becomes in every case the most obedient seivitor of the victor and mimsteis to him accoidingly. A pioclamation of maiti.il law is merely a simple dcclaiation of an intention to use force, and it is often better to let the intention be known by the deed, than to givo a warning which may fiustiatc the very object sought to be attained. The one course of action is as legal, — 01 illegal lather, — as the other , both may be equally justifiable ; and it depends on cii cum stances Avhich is pieferable. In New Zealand, we believe that we place ourselves m a fai better position in lefeicnce to the native, by issuing no piodamations of the soit They may be necessaiy wheie society is divided against itself, m oidei to screen subordinate individuals fiom individual responsibility, but even there it never screens the proclaimer, — " the head and front" of the offence against the law— unless he is successful, and* then he is seldom m want of a screen ; but in^ Ibis colony nobody will ever be called upon to answer for defending their homes. We vciy much doubt whether some militaiy gentlemen up the cojnliy ■would ocnd in foi a pioclamation, 01 even wait for ordei&, if they saw a certain chief, of whom we have heaid a great deal lately, marching towaids Papakuia at th c

head of a thousand armed men ; but we are quite certain that, if they did not do so, but sent him back immediately the way he came, they would not need to be anxious on account of such an omission, or at all afraid of not getting a bill of indemnity. Many-tongued rumour speaks of the Waikato as the quarter whence danger may be apprehended, and there is no doubt but that we must be on our guard. The rumour is not without foundation.