NATIVE AFFAIRS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 14, Issue 708, 12 August 1869, Page 4

NATIVE AFFAIRS.

(Prom the New Zealand Jierald, 7tn August.) We yesterday published a letter from pur Alexandra correspondent, a gentleman whose long and intimate acquaintance with -the Waikato and other tribes gives to bis opinions a more than ordinary amount of weight, llis account of the present movements of the rebels tallies exactly vith the jnost authentic information received by the Government itself, but it is yather to the deductions which he draws from these and other recent piovements that we now refer. We have all along pointed out that the king and his party have given no real guarantee of their friendly inten fions; that while they have again and again decltred that they have no sym partiy with murderers they have never, though it was more than once in their v • 1 power to do so, moved a finger towards the punishment or detention of those well known cold-blooded murderers oi our settlers, who go daily as it were in and out of the Maori Court. They bave made a great protest, in words at least, against the presence of Te K>oti with his followers in the immediate vicinity of our settlements, yet they not only suffer a much inferior force to build a pa and entrench itself in a strong position within seven miles of Tokangamutu, but, it is said, even supply this hostile party with provi eioiis, declaring all the while that they ardently desire to see Te Kooti driven 0.. t of the district. Can we wondei if in the face of ail this, and much more, our correspondent should form the opinion that the Waikatos are playing a double game ? So Jong as Te Kooti remains in the vicinity of Tokangamutu, so long do we need to exercise the utmost vigilance and preparedness. The strong pa built by Te Kooti, in alleged opposition *to the King, might be a conve iiient stronghold when required foi the combined forces. There is no use in mincing words. We must have Some more certain and reliable guarante of good faith than Tawhiao has ever given to cause us to place implicit belief in his sincerity. What we should do would be to place ourselves in such B position that we shall have no need to rely upon that sincerity as our sup port. We must assume a position of independence of it altogether —must show that for every move he can make we can make a counter movement. It is only thus we shall hold the enemy, open or covert, in check, and put ofi uctual collision until such time as overt rebellion will be so clearly a losing game that none but the most desperate will be found to play at it. When we look the matter fairly in the face and count the value of mere friendly professions and empty protestations, we can well understand the unanimity with which the House assented to the proposed deputation ol Dr Featherston to Melbourne, and to iis w'llinguess to accord payment to the Imperial Government for the retention of troops in the Colony. Foi years past the removal of the last regi meet has been said to be the turning point which will influence a large body of the natives in their future conduct for war or peace. It is not the mere possession by the Colony oi a thousand more or a thousand less fighting men that operates or the na live mind, but the knowledge of tlu power and resources which that one regiment represents. Until, then, the decision of General Chute can be ob tained, and until the final decision ol the Home Government be also obtain ed, it is a matter of duty on the part of the Colonial Government to place the Waikato settlements in as efficient a state of defence as possible. The additional force posted at Waikato will, we trust, not only Le kept there, but be increased also, so long as IV Kooti remains in force in the neighborhood of Tokangamutu, and so long as he is comforted and succoured by those who profess to fear him as iiiuci. as we do, and to be quite as anxious that he should be driven away. And in the present utuiude of affairs the Government must surely pee the folly they committed in withdrawing that expedition, which, in another we; k or two, might have occupied a military position at Taupo ftnd would then have effectually pre- . Vented the march of Te Kooti to To liangamutu and rendered impossible any combined movement against our t settlements, That expedi-'i

tion was withdrawn on the plea of expense, but its withdrawal has brought about a state of things far more cosily. The money spent on the present defence of Waikato—the. money yet to be spent there—would have carried out the Taupo expedition But now, when at considerable cost, the danger, as it no doubt will be, shall have been averted, an 1 Te K-»oii shall have returned to the East Coast," we shall actually be in no better position than we were before he made his now celebrated march towards the frontier line. He. may renew the attack a' my moment, throw us into another panic, and put us again to a similar cost to ward off such attack. Ami it the state of suspense and dread, and its consequent loss, is to cease to b.chronic, we must boldly take the bub Ivy the horns, and do what the Stafford Government was prepared to do when it went out of office, and whit its sac cess >rs should ha e carried out, viz., place a strung military force at Taup >. 3 > long as the enemy hold the interior of the country, so long K »oti, Tito, and the king, if need be, can march unchecked from one end of the country to the other to unite their forces ami issue upon our fringe of settlement in any given direction they may choose, so long will they hold the game in their hands. Our position, occupying as we do the coast without the powei of crossing quietly overland from one point to another, is that of a large circle unable to close in, while tht eiiemy in the centre, secure from combined attack, is able to thro'.' lib force upon any point of the circle, which can neither close upon him noi detach any one portion of it to the assistance of tiie attacked part uiiti. after the blow has been struck. B\ making Taupo a strong military post tion we reverse this order of things We should now have had Te Kooti in the rear, or better still, knowing what his position would be, he would never have veli.ured toward Waikato. The possession of such a strategical position as Taupo would have virtually crushed the rebellion. Cat off from the Southern rebels the King would haw felt that all that was needed to have settled himself was the occupation oi >f Iv.iwhia by an armed ship and the making that port a base of future iperation, while the occupation of Oniuemuii by the miners would have outflanked him again on that side, and have secured the safety of Tail ranga. We should have heard of uo invitations to To K oti and Titokowam having been sent from Kawhia, had Taupo been occupied by us in force. We should have found thai neither Te Kooti nor Titokowaru would have cared long to carry on the vvar in their respective distiicts when once cut of from head-quarters. Tut of the rebe.liou would have been broken.

Tlie occupation of Taupo, deferred though it may be, is the only solution oi the difficulty, and must be resorted to sooner or later. Recent events, a> we have shown, go far to prove tha on the score of expense the withdrawal of the Waikarimoana expedition has been already more costly to the Colon) in its consequences than would have been its completion; and that while the latter would have rendered us se cure in the fuure, the former will leave us exposed to a recurrence of the same est, whenever native caprice and insolence may see lit to fuee ii upon us. A Government, like an in dividual, may do wisely in reversing its former acts when the result shows the step taken to have been a falsv one. The occupation of Taupo i», without doubt, necessary to success. The sooner then that is undertaken the better it will be for the Colony We shall -find ourselves penny wise .lid pound foolish every day that We leave this work uuattempled. Above all things it should have been attempted before the departure ol the 18th liegt., particularly should such departure take place as soon as it is jlist possible it may do.