IS THE MAORI WAR AT AN END ?

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 180, 16 August 1845, Page 93

IS THE MAORI WAR AT AN END ?

[From the Auckland Time*, July 26.]

It would be less than generous, it would be only just, if the Government would acquaint the colonists, to save suspense and afford warning, what is to be the future course of proceeding — Is the Maori war at an end ?

The colony, before the Government laid their hands upon it, presented the aspect and prospect of success ; the scene is now, indeed, shifted, and it only displays a tableaux vivant, made up of the following materials : — Hope, prostrate and deferred ; disappointment, universal; industry, paralyzed ; and despair in a threatening attitude. The effects consequent upon Government measures have been war and bloodshed, loss of home, loss of enterprise, loss of hope, and last, though not least, the loss of that union among the colonists themselves which is so essential to the success of their purpose and pursuits.

The union which had been greatly cemented between the colonists and the natives, and laid a foundation upon which a superstructure of happiness and prosperity was rising, is now broken down: it once gave a promise of unusual celerity and success, not to say unparalleled in the history of colonization — and where is it now ? We hear of nothing every day but preparations for departure or actual exodus from this illfated colony.

Fatal, indeed, to all 'our interests was the day when our present Governor (guided by prejudice, too rash for cautious experiment, and too proud for experienced counsel) threw himself with an unlimited confidence into the arms of the party of spurious clergy called Protectors and Missionaries, taking for his Cardinal Wolsey his quintuple Prime Minister — the Principal Protector ; a Wolsey without education, judgment, or attainments of any sort, except, indeed, attainment of that kind which enabled him, before even his own elevation was officially secured, to find means and methods of extending its employments and its emoluments to his infant family. After recent events, this' worthy adviser must have many moments of troubled conscience. It would be an indulgence of some very natural curiosity if one could see him and his patron in secret conclave ; the prime dragoman and fivefold

prime adviser never looks any one in the face ; and we can easily imagine, after the recent calamities, that his optical speculation will be much more upon the 1 texture and colour of the carpet than upon the noble and expansive brow of his master. Lord, have mercy upon us ! it is difficult to anticipate all the 1 dangers and difficulties which surround us while our ruler has this Wolsey for his exclusive counsellor; one, of whose measures it would be difficult to propound whether they be the more ignorant, imbecile, obstinate, mischievous, or mercenary.

But we have done with him. We deiire the Government to have the very necessary kindness to set at rest the public anxiety as to what is next to be done t the recent campaign has been devised upon the faltering, faint-hearted principle which distinguishes the dragoman's policy ; and behold the results! Is the war over? Are Heki and Kawiti to go scot free? Will the poor dear Maories make it up again upon condition of the restoration of their big guns and a supply of rations, of powder, and ball cartridge, in exchange for the capture of potatoes, pigs, and poultry 1 Such is the protectorate method of preventing future mischief! Will the Governor be again cajoled by Mr. Clarke into the belief that the native character and intentions are still peaceable, friendly, and honest ; will he be persuaded that they are perfectly purified of all thoio habits of rapine, of cruelty, and deceit, which past experience should teach us are sure to be resumed whenever they are tempted by favourable opportunity and probable impunity; will he suffer himself to be thus persuaded, or will he acknowledge at last that the latter description of the Maori character is the most true and faithful one t Fettered as he has been by the insane instructions and restrictions from Downing Street, with all their outrageous financial expectations; and clinging with an obstinate tenacity, which he has mistaken for firmness, to the ungenerous prejudices against his own countrymen that he imported, in spite of the numerous opportunities of disabusing his mind which his own experience has afforded him ; bewildered by the interested sanctimonious displays of the protectors ; his Excellency Captain Fitzßoy has brought his " noble to niriepence," and may well now send back his commission to his impetuous and lordly master, demanding the nomination of that successor with whom he has so often threatened his Council. He may well accompany it with a recommendation that New Zealand shall in future be made a British colony — not a maudlin Maori Exeter Hall experiment; he may recommend that his successor aforesaid shall be a man of discernment and energy — a man, who, taking advantage of past experience in the exercise of common sense* will abandon a visionary theory to which, in stupid indulgence, so many valuable lives of our gallant troops have been sacrificed, and by which so many industrious settlers (settlers, not speculators) have been mined. The colony — the territory, rather — must be taken possession of : "to this complexion it must come at last ;" — the interests of all parties require it ; and we may then discover, under the blessing of a peaceful and protecting government, what value may be set dn the Wakefield theory, and what upon t&e scheme of Lord Stanley's arbitrary' actarbitrary, however, as it turns out, only in purpose, for the distant satellite of the fiery Secretary lias already most proudly and contemptuously, most completely and cavalierly, made revolution over: all and sundry its most imperative provisions.. ■

The Opinion' op Our Neighbours. — The Launceston Examiner) in commenting on the wild financial ichemek brought before the Legislative Council by Captain, Fitzßx>y, says — "The New Zealand .Government will be turned into nothing but' a tax gatherer will only be tfeeta and fell in that capacity— and the cottutfdnity at large will be constantly striving at exemption ri& creation. The country will be divided betw^H: jMe collectors and rate payers, between fbom.£ perpetual struggle of hwtfle logenuiar wiH becarridd on." r "' Ty > '- j( i