THE HOME PRESS ON THE MAORI WAR. (Press and St. James's Chronicle.)

North Otago Times, Volume XI, Issue 372, 15 December 1868, Page 3

THE HOME PRESS ON THE MAORI WAR. (Press and St. James's Chronicle.)

Some time ago wo had to narrate four agrarian murdero at Patea, in New Zealand, and to urge that so alarming a symptom should bo met by prompt preparation for vigorous resistance. It appears now that these anticipations, In which we were by no means singular, were too well founded. Rumors of a general rising began to circulate, and shortly afterwards a police redoubt was surprised on the very place whero the murders before mentioned took place. Tho garrison was overpowered, the commanding officer shot down, and his heart torn out of his body before he had ceased breathing. Some of his men were murdered after a partial victory, but others desperately held 6ome portion of the fortress till relief arrived, and the besiegers retreated. This news was followed by other intelligence still more alarming. A number of rebols captured in previous contests have for some time been imprisoned in the Chatham Islands. With that perverted tenderness which so often feel for criminals, any part of whose motive can bo called political, efforts were made to procure their pardon. It is probable that they would ultimately have been released to live peaceably or a rebel again, according as their sense of gratitude or our weakness may have predominated. But it happens that they have anticipated tho benevolent exertions of their patrons. On tho 3rd of July, the Rifleman, a Government vessel, arriving at Waitangi with stores for the convicts and their warders, tho former to the number of 180 seized the vessel while part of the crew wore on shore, captured her after a short resistance, and compelled such of the sailors as remained on board to navigate her to Poverty Bay, under threats of murder if they resited and promises of safety if they obeyed. The men yielded to force, the rebels were landed in safety, and it ivill be lucky if tho next mail does not announce a rising throughout tho islands. If this should happen — and that some sort of rising should take place seems inevitable — the blame must to a certain extent rest upon the Imperial policy of England. There is no denying that tho colonists have reason to complain of the treatment which they have received. They are matched against perhaps the most formidable savages — not even excepting the Kaffirs — that British settlers have ever encountered. The Maories are numerically weak, and may not number more than fifty thousand. But, from their habit of destroying female children and old men 1 , an unusually large proportion of this force consists of fighting men. They can always outnumber the straggling colonists, though the latter are more numerous in tho aggregate j and when tho rebels do obtain an advantage they use it mercilessly. Conquest with them means murder, and, thanks to their warliko organization, their subtlety, and their command of European weapons, detached victories on their part are unhappily common. Against such e nemies as these we require a few isolated farmers and graziers to observe the same punctilios which England and Franco would expect from each other in the event of hostilities. Many persons will recollect the rebuke bestowed upon a gentleman who had, by his promptitude, baffled an elaborate schemo for tho sack of Napier, and who was informed that his conduct was " a disgrace to civilisation." The fact is that there is just at present in England a tendency to sympathize with all rebels, and especially with a rebellion that is agrarian in its character. The true position of the Maories is that they want the island for themselves, and will thank us for nothing except going about our business. That is the ground upon which, whenever they condescend to argue, they justify the inveterate and utterly faithless nature of their hostility. If they had to settle matterB with then: white neighbors, they would soon be compelled to acknowledge that mere priority of situation does not entitle a retrograde and waning race to monopolize a large and improvable area. But, unfortunately, there is an energetic party in this country on whom the mere mention of the word " land" acts as the sight of scarlet is said to do on the bovino species. The sam3 politicians are, as a rule, on the watch for every slip made by anybody in the position of a Governmemt official, and thoy constitute with their allies, a band of critics whom no politician is anxious to provoke. This spirit, which attained its worst development in the Jamaica Committee, operates with more or less force throughout tho country, and it has had no small share in producing that mixture of supineness and interference from which the colonists have suffered. It has been said by a recent writer on New Zealand that the natives are so shocked at the profligacy of the settlers as to count upon the protection of Heaven in any crusade which they undertake against our countrymen. But whatever sins the colonists may be guilty of, it is probable that their enforced inactivity has had more to do with their present danger than any other influence. That on this occasion the local Government has proved lacking in energy appears probable ; but this cannot be unconnected with the fact that they have hitherto been refused both effective support and the privilege of protecting themselves, If they had tho latter they would soon be out of danger, and might, by convincing the natives that resistance is useless, create some chance of preserving the Maori race from complete extinction. At present, the tribes are dwindling with a rapidity that ought to convince us that our policy of alternate repression and encouragement is no kindness. It is obvious that in their present state of intermittent and wandering hostility to civilisation, all but the very strongest must perish in infancy. The natives themselves anticipate their extinction, and prophesy that, as the clover killep the fern, and the Pakeha rat the Maori rat, so the Maories will disappear before the Europeans. The prediction is not unlikely to be fulfilled in any case, but the aptitude of the race for agriculture affords a possibility of their preservation, if by any means they can be constrained to poacefulness. But, however that may be, justice to tho colonists requires that they should be either protected or unfettered. If they have any right to be in the island at all they are entitled to live there in safety.