THE Marlborough Express. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1868.

Marlborough Express, Volume III, Issue 145, 21 November 1868, Page 3

THE Marlborough Express.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1868.

•• Givk me t:.e liliert.v to know, to utter, ami to rrgna f,rfcooriliiij; to conscience, above all other liberties.” —Milton.

Powerful and comprehensive as the English language is, we find it inadequate to express the deep sense of shame and sorrow •which overwhelmed us on reading the terrible news of last week respecting the Poverty Bay Massacre ; and now that some ■days have elapsed, we consider it our duty to give expression—if but feebly—to those feelings, which we share in common with all whom we have come in contact with. It is now nearly a hundred years since our intrepid countryman (Cook) first planted the British flag on the shores of New Zealand, and never, from that hour to this, shall we find a darker page in the history of our adopted land than that of the 9th November, 1868. Let us describe it in the words of our Wellington contemporary, the Independent, who, speakingofthe atrocious deed which took place, be it remembered, at three o’clock in the morning succeeding, the peaceful Sabbath whereon the inhabitants of a quiet settlement had rested in fancied security and peace from their ordinary avocations. But a few hours later and what a contrast; what had been smiling fields and pretty homesteads, were swept away, says—

“ Only think of a peaceful settlement at the darkest hour which precedes the dawn. The inhabitants are wrapped in slumber ; the little children repose peacefully in cots by the bedside of their parents ; the fathers and mothers sleep in fancied security. Suddenly dark forms emerge from the fern and bush, climb over the palisades, and, with a ferocious yell, rush on the houses. Then there is wild confusion, Lights flash about, men. spring from bed to seek vainly for arms ; helpless women cower in corners, (jommendmg their souls to their Maker, while little children shriek out in unmeaning fear. God help them. Ml 1 for the crack of the rifle heard, and some j meet a merciful death at once, while others are: massacred under repeated blows of the deadly tomahawk. Then there is a Woody tathwialia to follow. The heads and, thighs of the murdered victims'are chopped off; their bowels ripped up; while tattooed men eagerly drink the blood from the palpitating corpses,; and the burning of a womans body finishes the terrible scene.” Tracing back the causes which led to this fearful deed—-how the Government was warned months ago that the 180 Chatham. Island rebels were prisoners, but in name only, while their guard of 15 m~n were the real prisoners, our con temporary continues to show how they ultimately rose, and forced their way to Poverty Bay.

“And afterwards the Government commuted the criminal blunder of following up tho.se exprisoners with an inefficient force, which was worsted and driven back, the only eftVc of the expedition being that the Hauhaus were exasperated and resolved to retaliate at the first op portunity. If the Government, through criminal negligence —we had almost said connivance—-

allowed these men to escape, they might at le&sfchave avoided exasperating them. The Hauhaus, when unopposed, did not murder the Chatham Island settlers, and, had they been left alone, it is possible they would have given no farther trouble. As it is, they were attacked unsuccessfully, and now they have retaliated with a terrible vengeance. But above all this, the Government are criminally responsible for the lives of those who have been murdered, seeing that, in the face of Mr. M‘Lean’s resolutions relative to the defenceless state of the East Coast, —resolutions which would have been carried but for the casting vote of the Speaker—they . persisted in depriving it of the trained men who were stationed there lor its protection. Nay more, they treated with flippant discourtesy the urgent remonstrances of a large and influential body of settlers, who solemnly warned them of the consequences which would inevitably follow their action. And now we have the result of all this in the curt words of the telegram ‘The Poverty Bay district has been wiped out through the criminal laches of the Stafford Ministry.’ May God forgive Ministers ! We would not have the blood of these brave men, these helpless women, and these innocent children, upon our heads for all the wealth in Christendom,”

When we look back upon the conduct of the present Ministry—when we review the cowardice of some, the mercenary selfishness of others, and we might add the reckless ambition and the deceit and double dealing of them all—we almost blush to own our nationality. . How long is this state of things to last 1 How many more of our fellow-countrymen, defenceless women, and smiling babes are to be offered up as sacrifices to Stafford’s lust of power! How long are we to be taxed and robbed of the hard-earnings of our toil to support such a nest of pettifogging politicians and their huckster-shop style of warfare 1 We blush not for our own country alone, but for human nature, when we mark the arrogance and self-sufficiency of these penny-wise-and-pound-foolish upstarts. The man who can bully the Government clerks and underlings shrinks with cowardly fear, or selfish weakness, from the performance of a duty which honesty and common-sense point out as the most urgent and the most important for the welfare of the State. But we call on all our fellow-colonists to show Mr. Stafford and his colleagues that we are not to be bullied or put down. Let us tell them in language not to be misunderstood, that we “ will not bow down and worship ” the idols which the Imperial Government, at the instance of the Exeter Hall demagogues may choose to sot up 1 Every town and district of this Colony ought immediately to assemble en masse to condole with our unfortunate brethren who have escaped, and demand prompt retribution for their murdered fellows, whose blood, and that of their butchered wives and little oues, calls aloud for vengeance. The blow must be swift and decisive. These man-eating devils in the form of men must be taught the power of the British arm. Our sapient rulers, with their paltry self-reliant policy,” have played with them too long already. Like the Indian Mutiny, this Maori war must be crushed at once and for ever, or the very name of New Zealand will become a byeword and a mockery in every civilised nation in the world.