THE NATIVE DIFFICULTY. (From the Oamaru Times 17th Jan.)

North Otago Times, Volume XV, Issue 595, 31 January 1871, Page 3

THE NATIVE DIFFICULTY. ( From the Oamaru Times 17th Jan. )

The telegrams from the North, although not confirming the reported massacre of sixty settlers, unhappily only too clearly show that the pative race —or a large proportion of the native race —is ia a state of ferment. Again reinforcements have been sent to " the Front," and again we have entered upon a war which, whatever its final result, must add greatly to the burdens —to say truth to the fiua?>cial embarrassment — of the Colony. We are already encumbered with a debt involving a taxation immensely disproportionate to our population and to the amount of our revenue, and yet are we as a Colony year by year exceeding our income, and still piling up that mountain of debt, which all eady crushes out our prosperitv, and intercepts our progress. In this case no blame whatever attaches to the Government for the renewal of hostilities : that is to say no act has been committed which gave the natives the slightest pretext for arraying themselves against the " pakeha." although, no doubt, there is some blame to be justly thrown upon the Ministry for their pampering policy. There has been too much leniency ; the Maories have been made thereby just like spoilt children, and are consequently unruly. But the error has been the result of an over-anxiety to save a perishing race, and the Colony w'll stand acquitted in the eyes of the world, in visiting the outrages of these renegades with a punishment swift and severe; indeed, it is the bounden duty of the Ministry to take the most vigorous measures, and, having found all attempts at conciliation hopeless, to assert its right to maintain the security of life and property thioughout the Colony by the firmest and most decisive measures. War in the North means the despoliation of the South of 1 the revenue it so urgently needs for the constiuction of public works, and the carrying on of the operations of colonisation ; and unless, therefore, the war be at once and for ever made an end of, the whole Colony will be brought to ruin. We may talk of " Separation 11 —financial only, or complete —but even supposing this could be brought about, it could not be obtained- for some time, and during that time an enormous war expenditure will be going on. If the war —if war there be, and there is, or will be, another native war —we say, if the war is prosecuted as it should be, it may be brought to a speedy termination —to a final end —and it reits with the constituencies at the approaching elections to ensure this by returning men pledged to a decided and detei mined policy. The rebel natives, without provocation, committed a dastardly murder (in the assassination of Mr Todd), their offence was looked over, and yet

the tribes are again rising, and trying to roll back the wave of colonisation. They will, we may be assured, pause at nothing, murder and cannibalism being in their eyes praiseworthy and glorious. There is no excuse which can be pleaded for them, and they should not only be punished, but so weakened as to prevent the possibility of any future rising. At once steps should be taken to despatch against them European forces (we don't believe in the employment of so-called friendly natives), and those forces should be furnished with the best breech-loading arms, so as to give them a superiority over an enemy of much greater numerical strength. These forces should be divided into detachments, commanded by energetic men accustomed to bush warfare — and there are plenty such men in the Colony, — and each commander should have the full powers of a commander-in-chief, so that he might have carte blancJie to take such measures as he deemed best. No quarter should be asked or given, and all prisoners taken with arms in their hands should be summarily shot ; and the lands of the rebels confiscated, and sold to pay the expenses of a war which themselves, and themselves only, have precipitated. More than this, certain districts should be proclaimed, in which every male native found after a fixed time should be held outlawed, and in those districts, as in Queensland, every settler should be allowed to protect himself by shooting any native at whom he could get " a sight." Land should be set aside in other districts, not so proclaimed, as native reserves, for the settlement of such as are friendly to the European, and desire to live peacefully; and all such ns did not come in to those settlements by a fixed date should be held outlawed, and fair game wherever seen. Having made this provision for the safety of the loyal natives, the European forces should, on the expiry of the time allowed, be despatched in small detachments to scour the rebel districts, with instructions to clear out the Maories root and branch, women and female children only excepted ; and, great as are the difficulties of New Zealand warfare, we are persuaded — and we are not alone in the opinion — that by this means the war would in twelve months be finally brought to an end. We counsel the electors to insist at the approaching elections upon the carrying out of a vigorous policy, as, failing this, there are but two other alternatives, viz., either the abandonment of a large portion of the North Island, or the entire political and financial separation of the two Islands.