ENGLAND'S REGARD FOR HER COLONIES.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1046, 7 May 1869, Page 2

ENGLAND'S REGARD FOR HER COLONIES.

Sic, — The last mail from England was very discouraging to those loyal subjects of Her Majesty in New Zealand, who still believe that it is the duty of the Crown to at least aid and assist in punishing the murderous savages.

It is in vain that our handful of colonial troops overrun a wide extent of territory, without being enabled to leave sufficiently strong outposts to prevent the enemy reoccupying the country or post as they leave it, and doing so with more embittered feelings— if that were possible — and more sav^agjete bppt on the murder and exterminatife of the hated pakeha. : " Thisiwar, so mercilessly accompanied by fire and massacre in the most odious form, of poor defenceless old men, women and children, is a legacy left to this unfortunate Island by the Britishr Government. Our local statesmen in a moment of weakness andirritation, undertook the "management of native affairs," and possibly would have succeeded admirably had the Crown done its duty, and first finished the war then on foot — not by patching up a delusive peace with some portion of the enemy and,!leaving the king party in a posture of defiance, but by conquering and disarming the. rebels General Cameron had so often met in the field, and deposing the so-called King. Instead of doing this the Home Government, with indecent haste, withdrew Regiment after Regiment until only one was left ; although knowing well that the rebels were as numerous and powerful as ever, and rendered more fierce and bloodthirsty by the large war they had waged with the Imperial Government, and were only waiting for the British troops to be removed, to wreak their vengeance on the unarmed settlers, their wives arid babes. I say advisedly, that the British Government knew all this well, and through the most authentic channel, Sir George Grey, their own representative, who, more than once, warned them of the extreme danger to the peace of the colony, arising from the sudden removal of the Queen's troops. When I said the last mail from home' was a damper on all the hopes, strongly and generally entertained, of assistance from .England, so soon as once she heard of our sufferings and dire distress, for which she was somewhat responsible ; I was not prepared for the cold and barren sympathy expressed in high places towards the suffering colonists of New Zealand, nor for the language of an able London correspondent and friend — who said, " It is trifling with the colony to encourage it to expect aid from England. The mania that exists here for retrenchment, tof ether with growing indifference in the Inglish mind about the colonies, is so apparent, that, disheartening and. unjust as it is, it is better for New Zealand to exert to the utmost her power than place any reliance for help on England. The good old English feeling has died out here. I am grieved to say it, but such is the case," &c, &c.

I can scarcely believe my friend when he says so, but he is in a very good position to know something of the mind of the present Ministry at horne — and truly if such be the case it is high time we girded ourselves for the coming struggle, and cease to lean for |help on the parent state that so ovidently wishes to east us off."

England is growing careless of her colonies, is she ? Was it always so P The early history of the United States would certainly show that she took great pains in those days to disgust and offend her then colonists in America, but little thinking she was so soon to. lose them for ever. England found out the value of American United States colonists about the time they became independent. In 1747 Sir Charles Knowles, the British naval commander at Boston, whom Smollett is thought to have described justly as " an officer without resolution, and a man without veracity," having been deserted by some of his crew early one morning, sent his boats up to the town and impressed mechanics and laborers from the wharves. Such a surprise could not be borne patiently, and the " mob executed what the governor declined." They imprisoned all the British officers they could catch in the town until their fellow citizens were returned safely ashore from the British ships of war. The colonists of those days were forbidden to establish manufactures, so that England might monopolise the trade. A few years earlier (1719) it was found that, "in the land of furs, hats could be manufactured" very well. The London company of hatters remonstrated, and their craft was protected by an act forbidding hats to bo transported from one plantation to another. Even the very trees in the unbounded forest were monopolised for masts for the British navy; all above a certain size must be left for the Crown officers, and the trespasser was surely punished. "In 1758, during the war waged by Canada and England, aided by her American colonists, some States were taxed as much as 13s. 4d. on the pound of income, and on £200 income from real estate was £72, besides various excises, and a poll-tax of 19s. on every male over sixteen years of age." All these things were borne patiently for years ; but the time came at last when the little straw added by British carelessness and obstinacy to the colonial burthen became too much for the patient beast, and she kicked off her load, once and for all. I daresay many colonists in these islands will soon be asking themselves what particular advantages they enjoy from their connection with Great Britain beyond the satisfaction of owing the old country some seven millions, with no prospect o"f ever being allowed to increase the debt; and still less of ever paying it off, if the North Island is to be left at the mercy of roving bands of murderers for the next quarter of a ce,ntury ; or, what is much the same m effect, the mass of the settlers to be turned into inefficient soldiers, and all industrial pursuits abandoned for years to come. In this latter case, where are the taxes to be raised? The North Island once ruined, the South will certainly never pay the English bond-holders, any more than she will now contribute either men or money to avenge innocent blood save under compulsion ; and, indeed, why should she any more than the South of Britain ? The South Island of New Zealand is as much removed from Maori wars and

soen%fcpf massacre as Cornwall, and quite as sanTfrom attack. When the people of this island left the shores of the old country, they considered ourselves under British protection from both external and internal foes as much as the people of Yorkshire.

When the American colonists of Massachusetts and Connecticut «o willingly taxed themselves to an extent unparalleled in the history of the world, as I have before described, to enable the British to expel the French from Canada, it will be readily acceded that no more loyal subjects of the British Crown then existed. How then must the ministry of the day and the Crown of England have blundered in their administration of the laws of the realm, to so soon convert the most loyal subjects into bitter enemies ? That this was so is now matter of history, but I fear that we, the most remote colonists of her most Gracious Majesty, have at some future time to feel the ill effects even of those distant blunders now forgotten by many, but not by the young and powerful nation of the United States, once the brightest fern in the British Crown, but now almost ictating her term to the mother country, as in the •' Alabama case," and other portentous matters, which crop up now and again. In case of a war with America where would be our protection from external enemies, which is the. sole advantage offered to us now by England? If we may judge by the motherly assistance she is now rendering us against our implacable internal foes, we may form some estimate of the value of her assistance in the case I have mentioned.

God forbid that the hypothetical case I have just put before my readers may ever be realised, but such thoughts will rise in men's minds unbidden and unwished for, and lead to speculation on the future of the Australian Colonies of Great Britain. To my mind the conduct of England's ministry towards New -Zealand colonists, of late years, has gone far towards weaning them from their inborn love of the old' country and its institutions.

Without dipping deeply into the vexed questions that oocurred duriug the conduct of the late war at Waikato and elsewhere, when we had the assistance of 10,000 soldiers, and which the press of England is telling us we ought to be deeply grateful for — reminding us of the great sums spent for our welfare, and the enormous sacrifices made by the English public in our favor — I must stop to enquire into the result of all this expenditure of blood and treasure., What are they? Why, a legacy of massacre and blood — all but a war of races, which will be the inevitable result of a much-prolonged struggle, such as must ensue, with our meagre means and forces, unless speedily aided from whence we have the best right to look for aid. The late war was commenced energetically, and some good service done in Waikato; but it endedingloriously in Wanganui and Patea, the seat of Titokowaru's late exploits. There the main army wasted the season in supine inactivity, until recalled home, and bequeathed us Titokowaru and his murderous crew, always oire -e£«fche;TOosTturbu-~ lent tribes in .New Zealand. Bewi and the King were left untouched, sullen and threatening, forbidding all intercourse with Europeans, and fomenting rebellion. This was called subduing the rebels ; and then the general returned home, was screened from censure, maligned the settlers of !New Zealand iv no measured terms, and led home an army that had become in. New Zealand under his able tuition an army of politicians.

Painful as it is to think that we are deserted by our old and well loved country, still it is cheering to see that the settlers hare nobly taken up arms in self-defence, have exerted- a valour amidst .their constant and latoortous^lnClusxxjry—j?^^ ±ix a An fence of a country whose, frontiers have been drenched in- blood; whose hearths and homes have been ruthlessly destroyed, and whose impenetrable forests all but foiled the due punishment of the brutal murderers who lurk in the fastnesses thereof.

Much as I regret the apparent selfish, hatd-heartedness, and retrenching spirit that seems to have seized bodily our English Government— l cannot conceal the fact that we as colonists have erred much and been deceived. We, through our local ministry, undertook to do that which we were unable to perform; at alater date we became overbearing and proud and anything but conciliatory to those in power at home, who might have helped us. Let us hope that wiser councils will prevail, and the word that turneth away wrath be uttered by our Government to the Crown ; let a final and universal appeal be made for assistance in men or money to that country which so recently could spare six millions of money to relieve a few captives in Abyssinia. Ido not think we shall appeal in vain ; my faith is still strong in English justice. This colony will need troops for many years on the frontier and in the interior, unless speedily filled up by settlements, which at present seems very distant. If our final appeal is disregarded, then ifc will be time indeed to ask our emancipation and seek assistance from whence we. can most easily find it ; for extraneous aid we must have, or blood go unavenged, so far as we are concerned, to the end of time.

Could our English friends realise the significance of the fact which took place at the great Zing meeting at Tokangamutu the other day, they would not think the war would soon be over. The arch murderer Kereopa, the deeply dyed scoundrel who embrued his hands in the blood of 'the Rev. Mr. Volkner some years ago, crying peace, peace, when there is no peace ; meeting publicly as a friend of the king and Eewi in open daylight, and littering such hollow sounds as peace. When such a scoundrel consorts with the king, well may we say, " birds of a feather flock together." Let us looirweir iv our defences, and keep our powder dry, for there, is mischief in the air when a Kereopa from his seat near the throne proclaims peace.— l am, etc., An Old Settles.