NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 13, Issue 654, 8 February 1869, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS.

(Prom the 'Times,' Dec. 2.)

Our countrymen in New Zealand can no longer complain of undue interference by the Home Government with the management of their own affairs. The Crown names the Governor, and that is about all the administration of the colony which is not now of purely colonial origin. But Englishmen, wherever they are, are never exempt from responsibility to the public opinion of England, and the letter which we published from our Wellington correspondent on Nov. 27 shows that it is full time the force of this public opinion was brought to bear on the colonial party. The news we received | at the of October was SUTprising enough. It reported the escape of a body of 180 native convicts from a group of islands 400 miles from New Zealand, Three similar previous escapes of natives ought to have sugges ted especial wariness. But a guard of 15 soldiers was thought sufficient, and the convicts succeeded in capturing a couple of vessels which had come with supplies, and returned victoriously to New Zealand, The circumstances of this exploit were not much to the credit of the colonial administration, but it was alleged they were peculiar and exceptional. The recent failure, nowever, in dealing with the germ of a new rebellion is rather to be laid to the account of colonial mismanagement than of Maori enterprise. We do not refer so much to the disaster which lias occurred on the West Coast as to the policy which has allowed such a disaster to be possible. The event is sufficiently deplorable. A force of 250 colonists, with a contingent of 110 friendly natives, has been repulsed in an expedition against a forest fort with a loss of 14 men and 5 officers, but with results in panic and general demoralisation of the colonial forces still more formidable. The generalship which entangled raw recruits in an unknown jungle, and then, when after a 10 hours' toilsome wandering they had first lost their way and next fallen into an ambush, pushed on with 80 men, leaving the rest to follow as best they might, may afford matter for military criticism. But it was the composition of the force which intensified the calamity. Disciplined troops have before this been surprised, from Varus down to General Braddock, in woods, ravines, or morasses, and defeated by an enemy of inferior strength. But these men appear, at a single check, and without seemingly having been pursued beyond the gully when the surprise befell them, to have thrown away their arms, abandoned their outposts, and as soon as they found themselves in a place of safety dissolved into a rabble of drunken mutineers. We know in fact they were not troops from which the colonial administration had a right to anticipate very military conduct. A considerable part of them was composed of hasty levies made two months previously in the towns, and partaking, therefore, probably, the character of an Australasian town population, «Men like these were opposed to a band of yelling savages in a most advantageous position—an ordeal to which even a high state of discipline has occasionally proved unequal ~-and been ingloriously saved from even more terrible losses only by the loyalty of the native contingent, Tbe

Colonial Ministry and the Assembly, which is to the full as chargeable with the catastrophe, excuse themselves on the pretext of the improbability of the circumstances which led to the present outbreak. But, with the elements of rebellion ever ready in the Maori race, an outbreak ought never to have seemed improbable. Several years a<*o it became definitely known that the Imperial exchequer would no longer gratify a wealthy dependency containing 100,000 inhabitants with the luxury of a gratuitous British army to act as its police against a tribe of natives so few as to be little more than banditti. The colony then had two courses open to it, and it adopted neither. The more honorable course was to raise an army for itself. This was, indeed, resolved upon, and the number fixed at 1,500. Such a force would have been probably adequate to the need; but a body of 3.00 certainly was not, and that was the number to which the standing army of New Zealand had, we are informed, dwindled when this insurrection broke upon'it. The other alternative was that they should maintain a British force at their own cost. But to this they were equally disinclined. They considered the solitary regiment which was left in the light of a grievance, and till they could no longer safely do so, deliberately ignored its presence. They were in the right when they decided upon a self-reliant policy; but to refuse to bear the charge of British troops is not by itself a self-reliant policy,, but only a preliminary to it, The neglect of ordinary preparations for an obvious danger is one great charge to which New Zealand has laid itself open. It must bear this by itself. But a second charge is that a standing army is in these days still necessary for the tranquillity of New Zealand. This, however, is partly the consequence of a train of blunders the blame of which the colony may share with many well-intentioned persons at home. Maori risings have always been dealt with by the authorities, both here and in New Zealand, in a most half-hearted way. They have been suppressed almost apologetically, and the ringleaders have been treated a 3 a usurper of tender conscience might—though history has preserved no record of any such—be expected to conduct himself towards a pretender claiming de jure. It is true that English colonists have dispossessed the Maoris of many leagues of terri tory which they did not attempt to cultivate* It may also be true that the propensity for conquering is a tendency which a nation should restrain itself from indulging in. But the wrong, if it were a wrong, in annexing New Zealand has been done already, and it cannot, and certainly it will not, be undone. A duty then remains which is a paramount one on the part of conquerors, and that is to govern the conquered. But this duty has been performed very indifferently in New Zealand. The obligation cannot have been duly recognised, or such an institution as a Maori King would not have survived. It has been countenanced by indiscreets of the Maori nationality, as though an anachronism such as this were the way to foster it. But by the colony it was tolerated only because, in the same spirit in which Oriental monarchies concede a kind of autonomy to European denizens, it desired to evade the difficulty of governing its subjects. Another and more excusable cause for a certain sympathy with Maori agitations has been the interest which the Maori character excites. No savage race within modern experience has shown so marked a capacity for civilisation The tribes also possess some noble qualities—bravery and an occasional generosity. But their civilisation is mere mimicry. It is exemplified in the latest invention of the Maori "king," who has been laying down, or up, a telegraph wire "between New Zealand and Heaven." Their resistance to authority must be sternly and speedily repressed. If it be not, there must soon be—we speak of what will be, not what ought to be—no survivors to manifest the higher characteristics of the race. One of the best resources suggested by the recent reverse is in utilising the qualities which makes Maoris dangerous enemies.. They can be faithful, as in fact a large section of them already is, and and they have displayed many of the

best qualities of soldiers. If by any such expedient the preservation of the Maori tribes can be accommodated to the invincible progress of circumstances, none will rejoice more than ourselves. But the very original theory of New Zealand hostilities hitherto in fashion must be abandoned. The scale must be revised according to which it would appear that one Maori life is computed to be worth the lives of ten Englishmen. The Maoris are not unready at perceiving the tendency of English sentiments. Let them then understand that what the past policy towards them has been the future certainly will not be. It is said that native journals circulate among them. We are inclined to use the formula customary in the announcement of domestic events where a family is scattered —" Please Maori newspapers to copy."