INDEPENDENCE FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Marlborough Express, Volume V, Issue 268, 31 December 1870, Page 5

INDEPENDENCE FOR NEW ZEALAND.

, To the Editor of the Marlborough Express.

Sir, — Surely the time has fully arrived when the colonists of Australasia in general, and of New Zealand in particular, should consider their political relations with England. That country treats us with the most contemptuous and heartless indifference, and leaves us utterly to our own resources ; and, if we were all swept away in one indiscriminate massacre by Maori tomahawks, she would fold her hands in placid resignation. We are, therefore, surely Justified in repudiating any further allegiance to, the Crown of England ; indeed, it is our duty to ourselves to do so. Loyalty is of reciprocal obligation, and implies protection on one side and fealty on the other, but in our case the reciprocity is all on one side. The Maoris— British subjects though they be —indulge their taste for homicide almost with impunity ; but if an unfortunate settler resort to the lex talionis, all the terrors of the law are arrayed against him, and the heart of Exeter Hall waxeth glad, and Wisdom is justified of all her children, although some are heretics enough to doubt whether the scales of justice are held even between the two races of her Majesty’s subjects in these islands. Then, as to external danger, we as British subjects are liable to the predatory incursions of any petty cruiser that may think us worth plundering when England becomes involved in hostilities, as she surely will be. As for Lord Granville’s bunkum about England defending her Colonies to the last ship and the last man, in the name of the prophet Smithbosh. On the grounds I have assigned, therefore, I contend that it is our duty, as well as our unquestionable right, to seek from some other power the aid and protection which England denies us. The London Spectator suggests Prussia, but perhaps the United States may suit us better—either will be willing to take us. And what do we owe England ? After promoting the colonisation of New Zealand, she recognised the duty of protecting those who, under her implied guarantee, were induced to settle there, and sent a large body of troops to subdue the Maoris, but, from whatever cause, the soldiers were kept in inactivity ; or, as has been so well pointed out by that sagacious old soldier, Sir John Burgoyne, employed in attacking fortified pahs, the capture of which, while it showed “the mettle of their pasture,” was at the best but a barren and unprofitable victory. At length’a new prophet arose in Israel who discovered.- or invented a new code of political morals, and let England attempt to save her wounded honor by such exploits as butchering a horde of miserable Abyssinians, or effeminate Hindoos. The fact is palpable that England has struck her flag to the Maoris, her troops, leaving the object of their mission unattained, and the original quarrel much embittered ; and now, or lately, some of the English papers—notably that gobe mouche, the Times —quote the respective numbers of the colonists and the natives, and expect that the former ought to subdue the latter -without external aid if they only address themselves to the task, which they will not do if England interferes on their behalf. Let the wise men of Gotham who write thus read the history of England, and they will find an episode which

relates tliat a mere handful of Highlanders defeated the Royal troojxs, seized Carlisle town and castle, and marched to Derby, creating a great panic in London, and making the Hanoverian dynasty shake in their British shoes. There was no estimating disparity of numbers there, I trow. Again, I ask, what do we owe to England ? Well, if it be not much, let us remember and be grateful that she has sent us lately a real live Prince—one “born in the purple ” —and, though some of us were wont to believe that “ man was born to walk erect and look upon the stars,” in the august presence all our self-respect, like Bob Acres’ courage, oozed away at our linger ends, and we grovelled in the dust and ate dirt before him, and paid him a servile adulation only less degrading than his own infinite meanness. Truly we Avere tvorse than the idolatrous Israelites : if they worshipped a calf, it Avas a beast of gold ; we paid our homage to one of paltry clay. In another respect England is superfluously generous—she bestows on us a Governor, a figure-head for our State ship—that is, she sends us the effigy, but we have to find the gilding, and lay it on pretty thick too. Now, under the old regime, Avhen England recognised her selfimposed duties and incurred expense and responsibility on our account, she had an undoubted right to provide, at our expense, for the proper supervision of Imperial interests. But a new prophet has risen in Israel—all that is changed now, and we are left entirely to our oavu resources. Surely, then, if we want a Governor, and have to pay for the article, whether a King Stork, or a King Log, or a Sancho Panza, we have a clear right to choose for ourselves, and make our oavu bargain ; and I am decidedly of opinion that when our Parliament next meets it should give our present Governor a quarter’s salary in advance and the price of a first-class passage to England, and no more. Let us take our oavu course, Avithout regard to those former mutual obligations which England has so entirely repudiated, and make the best terms we can for ourselves elsewhere, I cannot persuade myself that I overrate the gravity of our position, and that our chief danger may not arise from the fact of our being British subjects. There is, it is true, the possible contingency that, were we under the Union flag, and hostilities Avere to arise between England and America, the former might turn again and rend us ; but I cannot believe that, prone as she is to haAvk at small game, she would enact the part of a modern Medea, and destroy her OAvn children. —I am, &c.,