The New-Zealander. DAILY. AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 1865.

New Zealander, Volume XXII, Issue 2431, 17 May 1865, Page 2

The New-Zealander. DAILY.

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 1865.

fp-c- • Be just and fear not; ' Let all the ends thou aim'st at, be thy Country'*, Thy God's, and Truth's.

It is commonly supposed that every question has two sides, and it is perhaps not very extravagant to suppose that this-may be the case even with questions relating to the Weld Ministry. No doubt, this is the creed, both of. the Weld Ministry itself, and of its champions of the Southern Press, who believe that Auckland looks at everything solely from an Auckland point of view, and resolutely excludes-one side of the question from her consideration. This charge we, for our own part, do not feel particularly anxious to rebut. Looking at things from Auckland, we naturally see them from an Auckland pointof view, and the prospect is such as to induce us to hope that there may be* places whence a less ugly view may be obtained. Still it is not our business to state the case for other provinces ; we must judge of all thiugs as they appear to us. All that we have to do is to take care that all our criticisms are based upon obvious . aud patent tacts, and then we must trust our arguments, •be-they good or bad, to take care of themselves. In the case of Mr. Weld's memorandum of April Bth, relating to the Lieutenant-General commanding the forces in New Zealand, it seems clear that the whole case is not yet before us and that the writers who have commented upon the Ministerial memorandum have contrived to produce some little confusion by mixing up the known with the unknown. The condemnation of Mr. Weld's memorandum has been somewhat less forcible, because less discriminating, than it might have been. We thitikthat a dispassionate consideration pf this document will clearly show that, in the present state of our, knowledge of the subject, we can only find one point on which we may unhesitatingly condemn the expressions of Mr. Weld, fit is impossible," says the Premier, ■■" longer'to accept assistance " bo unwillingly rendered." W e do not agree with those who say that aty statement made by Mr. Weld upon this subject is devoid of all force and value. .If we thought so, we should not deem the subject worth discussing. It is because we do attach importance to the official statements of Ministers, that we think the used by Mr. Weld in thiß instance is deserving of the serious attention of the country. Not that we mean to ignore the ludicrous and. ridiculous aspect of this impertinent piece of assumption on the part of the Colonial Secretary ; but when we reflect that the contempt Which must be provoked wherever this Ministerial document is read, will be likely to fall in part upon the Colony which these concoctors of State papers pretend to represent, we cannot but feel that the serious outweighs the ludicrous aspect of the affair. This is not a mere matter of party feeling between North and South —between Auckland and Canterbury ; it concerns the whole Colony. The question is, whether Mr. Weld is to be allowed to make a determined attempt to send away the British troops without the consent of the country. Is a truly Colonial policy- to. be carried out, or only a Canterbury policy ? Every one knows that the General Assembly never sanctioned Mr. WelVs scheme of sending away the troops ; every one knows that Mr. Weld so far degraded his political character, as to swallow his own resolutions upon the subject, rather than risk the loss of office by a manful adhesion to his principles j every one knows that the resolutions which were really passed by the Assembly no more necessarily involved the precious scheme which the Ministry has since concocted, than they involved an expedition for the conquest of Kamschatka. The Assembly allowed the resolutions to pass, because with them seemed to be linked the removal of the seat of Government; but in wliat temper the House will receive Mr. Weld's evident determination to interpret those resolutions in the same sense as the rejected ones, and to bring about his darling project perjasaut nefas, by long dissertations to the Home Government, and by smart attacks on, General Cameron, time will show. But we invite the serious attention of the whole Colony to :the fact that a policy is now being urged- forward which can in no legitimate sense be called the policy of the Colony. We -have said that the expression above referred to is the only positive ground on ■ which we can pronounce Mr. Weld certainly in the -wrong. Of the other parts of this memorandum ; we cannot fairly judge until we know what it is that General Cameron has said. We cannot agree with the opinion that, whatever the General may have said, Ministers should have passed it by in silence ; neither are we prepared to assume that whatever! General Cameron may have uttered in disparagement.of the Wanganui campaign, must necessarily have been right

and wise. We think the Wwg»nui campaign is to be condemned ; but Auckland journals should beware lest they allow it to be condemned upon wrong grounds. We think it must be assumed that General Cameron's remarks were official, or at least so far official as to justify Ministers in taking some notice of them. We regret that we do not know what these remarks were, for on this point depends our formation of an opinion upon Mr. Weld's reply. If Sir Duncan Cameron simply gave a military opinion as to the uselessness of the Wanganui campaign, no doubt all will admit that his opinion is justified by the result. If, however, he went further than this, and gave any official opinion on the political motives of Ministers, or on the political or moral aspects of a campaign in the Wanganui district, we think he stepped out of his sphere. We. have our own opinion upon the political motives which caused the,Wanganui campaign ; but we cannot blame Ministers tor attempting to defend themselves, albeit in a very inflated and boinbastical style. Again, we should like to know whether Sir Duncan Cameron has objected to this campaign as being an unjustifiable aggression on the Natives. We are sorry to see that, even if he had done this, he would probably meet with the support of Auckland journalists. We remember that when Mr. Weld first introduced his road making scheme, our contemporaiy, the Southern Cross, took an aborigines protection fit, and inveighed against the wickedness of cutting roads, and seizing the laud of the Natives who opposed it. Now, we think that this was almost the only good idea that Mr. Weld attained to ; our only objection lo his plan is that it could not succeed. We hold that his Excellency has a right to move the troops, and to cut roads through any part of the country for the public safety; and we join in no condemnation of the Wanganui campaign on any such ground's. We condemn that campaign because it was undertaken at the wrong time, and for the purposes of a political party ; because it involved the withdrawal of the troops from'this Province before its safety was secured ; and, lastly, because it was known that, as a military measure, it had not. the approval of the I .Lieutenant-General commanding.

Again we say.therefore: WhaHs it that Sir Duncan Cameron has said ? For we feel as little' disposed to look leniently on any attempts of military officers to traduce the character of the colonists by official opinions on the moral and political aspects of the war, as upon Mr. Weld's political motives, or his silly braggadocios in declining to accept the further assistance of General Cameron.