The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1869. THE DUTIES OF BRITISH SOLDIERS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 70, 25 March 1869, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1869. THE DUTIES OF BRITISH SOLDIERS.

Thb following paragraph has lately been going the round of the papers : —

Since the attack on Turoturomokai, we have had killed and wounded on the East and West Coasts, 240 Europeans, including the families massacred in Poverty Bay. About 100 stand of arms, in rifles, revolvers, and swords, have been captured by the Maoris. This calculation has been made by Sergeant Forsythe, of the 18th Royal Irish, who has kept a record of the actions.

There is a grim humour about such a statement as this that would create a smile, were it not of such serious import. A British Colony is in a blaze of rebellion, and fearful atrocities are everywhere being committed ; in that colony is a British regiment, and the only evidence -we have of its interesting itself at all in what is taking place around it, is that one of its officers occasionally takes out his memorandum book and notes down the number of those who have fallen victims to the Queen's enemies* What a noble subject for an historical picture. Would that we had the pencil of an artist to depict it as it appears before our mind's eye. — ln the foreground are blazing homesteads, aod the mangled corpses of men, women, ond children, dancing rouud which, in wild exultation at the ruin and murders they have accomplished, is an infuriated host of naked savages ; in the' distance -— at a safe distance, qnite out of tbe reach of auy stray bullets-— 7OO men wearing tbe uniform of Her Majesty's 28th Royal Irish are quietly looking on at the deadly game -which is being played between ibfc settlers and their savage foe, wliiie one of tbeir auraber is keeping the wore J

In no part of the civilised world, aud at no period of its History, we suppose, was such a sight ever witnessed as that now to be seen iv New Zealand. Settlers and their families are everywhere being cruelly murdered, and their property, representing years aud years of hard labor, utterly destroyed, the law is completely set at defiance by a horde of savages who are fondly supposed to be British subjects, and whilst all these fearful deeds are beinjr perpetrated, some 700 British soldiers are quietly enjoying themselves in the towns, and leaving the defence of the country to a half-trained, ill-disciplined body of colonial troops. Suppose for one iustant that such a state of things had been allowed during the Indian mutiny, that the Cawupore massacre had simply been recoguised by the English Government granting permission to the authorities to retain a certain number of British troops in India, on the express conditiou that they were not to be exposed to any danger — that no steps had beeu taken to crush the mutineers at Delhi — no assistance rendered to the defenders of Lucknow — what would Europe have thought of such a spectacle? How would England's prestige bave beeu affected on the Continent and in America? It remains for New Zealand to prove that it is not the lives and welfare of her subjects for which England cares, but the pounds, shillings, a#d pence that are to be derived from the colonies whicli she takes uuder her wing, and the kudos to be gained by protecting them from their enemies. There is no glory iv fighting the Maoris, and no .-übstantiul reward to be obtained from tbe New Zealand Colonists when their enemies have heen overthrown, and therefore we are left to ourselves, and the only consolation we receive from the Houie Couutry is a telegram to the effect lhat much sympathy lias been expressed iv England on the arrival of the news of the Poverty Bay massacres. If the friends we. have left behind us iv what we would fain still rail " the Mother Country " really sympathise with us in our troubles, let them show it in some more substantial manner than a mere form of words^ aud in some more effective way than ihe bare permission to retain in the colony a regiment, whose principal duties are to consist of keepiug count of the numher of lives they might have saved, had they heen allowed to pursue their legitimate occupation. ■' " — --JE