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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 108, 10 May 1869, Page 2

The details of the massacres at New Zealand recently brought by the Overland Mail are heartrending in the extreme. The Maoris are now proved, if any doubt previously existed, to be possessed of the most savage instincts and passions, and the barbarous manner in which they have slanghtered the women and children ofthe colonists and committed their dwellings to the flames painfully recall, though in a minor degree, the atrocities perpetrated during the Indian Mutiny. Tlie details of these horrible massacres furnish a powerful condemnation of the parsimony of the Colonial Government, in refusing to maintain a sufficient body of Her .Majesty's troops to provide for the security of the inhabitants, but they have been suddenly awakened from thpir false dream of security, and are making the most vigorous efforts to obtain recruits for the colonial forces. Urgent representations have been made, and many times repeated to the Colouial Government to provide for the mainteuan c of a certain number of British soldiers, but these representations have been wholly disregarded, and the consequence has beei tliat all our troops, with the exception of a single regiment, which was all the colonists were willing to support, have been withdrawn by the Home Government. The folly of this niggardly policy is now apparent, but the colonists have themselves mainly to blame for what has occurred. It must, however, be borne in mind that New Zealand is one of our most valuable colonial possessions, and that the inhabitants are as much the subjects of Queen Victoria as the population of the British Isles. Therefore it is the paramount duty of the Government to take immediate measures in order to punish the Maoris for the cruelties they have perpetrated, and to make provision against a repetition of the barbarities. Reinforcements must be at once sent out to the colony for the protection of the lives and property of our tellow subjects, and the Maoris mustbe taught equally withthe Abbyssinian King, that the authority and power of Grwitßritain must be respected The intelligence which has j ust been received has spread consternation throughout the kingdom, and the people will be unanimous in their demand for vengeance on the Maoris, and for the future protection oi the Colony. —Oxford Herald.