THE LAND OF MISRULE AND OF BLUNDERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 244, 24 August 1864, Page 6

THE LAND OF MISRULE AND OF BLUNDERS.

(From the Army arid Navy Gazette.) CxETALN-Lt " tho Britain of the South" (as it has been termed) has not hitherto proved a field of honour for the original Briton of the JS'orth. A sufficient amount of " solid pudding-" may there have been acquired by certain of her sons, but truly only ti slender proportion of " empty praise." AVe are not about to dive deeply into the sea of politics, or of questions of morality." The injustice towards the original possessors of New Zealand, perpetrated by or -with the connivance of, successive English Governments, is glaring, palpable, and no less disgiacoiul than palpable and glaring. Its reality stares us in the face, and no gog will suffice to prevent an expression of indignation at its permission rushing occasionally from the mouths of men, who think that wrongs done to savages are not the less wioiigs, and that the strongest obligations rest upon Clirittiauand powerful nations to abstain from such wrongs. In a recent debate upon this subject, Earls (,'laniarty and Grey followed X,oid Lyttelton in an admission that grievous injustice had actually been done to the Maori race. But our present purpose is not to dwell upon this injustice (however inexcusable it may be), but to ofltr Bome observations upon tho want of ability which haw accompanied this evil doing, whether in the counsels of Government at home, the acts of the colonists ol these ill-iatcd islands of which wo speak, or the conduct of the little wars thciein carried on by many of the officers employed there. As regards tho first of these considerations we may mention the undue care taken and deference shown to the colonists for many years past. They have long since multiplied sufficiently by immigration and marriage to be able to maintain their own position without the assistance of the mother country, and it is preposterous that we bhould (most mistakenly, as we have always thought) encourage emigration on a large scale, with a view to national economy home, and contribute largely from our public funds upon which sufficient demands axe made in other quarters for the support of colonists who have left our shores and ceased to become citizens of Britain, with the prospect, at least, of pushing their own interests abroad. But this is not all. These colonists, or at all evento, many of them, in a spirit «f graflpingjavarice and pride of questionable civilization have picked quarrels again and again with the natives and expect Great Britain in every way to bear the burthen of tho consequent warfare. This is not as it should be. If the colonists want tho luxury of war, let the colonists pay for it, Tho.v are or ought to be, well able. ' But we havo more to say of this growing Babyetato If its members will have their rattle thov should not only pay for it, but handle it. In plain words, the New colonists should Jight as well as pav whether for their own protection or in furtherance of Wbwr news of continual territorial acquisition. Old England has sins enough of its own to answer for. TWtiW" m *J eW Zealand aro > in * measure, ( a ? many of them m '6 ht have been expected t? have been amongst thcfnost stalwart specimens of the mother country, but, frey seem to Live r f^ 1 "? them ;tnd to have become relaxed and enervated by the climate they have chosen even beyond what might naturally have been h A neither theft' piofeeny h.i\o often distinguished themselves bv pro wets m the land of their Adoption. bU% es Considering that tho native Maeris have dwindled imcivihzed neighbours are actually in arms we do not think we are saying too much in ,2 that the colonists of jtfew Zealand ought to be able to settle the « dire, debate" no W J-J& bythS But by some of tlicm, it seems, the atrocious crv of cxtcrinwuCon has been raised ; bo true is it thit men always hate most those whom tliey have in jured. a Christian people calls for the exterminT t.on of a savage race whom they have by tm™Z> e d swindled, and tried to bully' Thi/i» ™ * P ' What should we say of a generalri,T Maoris for the exim>m a tfon«f ?h° the WKa£ we say of the massacres in India in 1857 I And how did we requite them ? But if notW less than extermination of the Maoris will satisfy some of their foes, at Jeast let them not attempt to impose the vile and disgusting labour on British soldiers 1 he task is fitting only for those unsexud hags or rather. those incarnate fiends, the drugged and : demoniac Amazons of the lung of Dahomey! i Lastly of the British forces hitherto employed in ; these Islands of the (in their case a misnomer) |

Pacific. e havo ncvrr even deigned to compare British soldiers (or sailors) with any but British ; — with those of past -wars. We run) liiivc thought that the preßont generation do not, in nil respects at. least, pome up to the measuro of their fathers' merit, but tliia is the utmost wo ' lave ever said in their dispraise. We hare, and do still, recommend a caroful attention to training and discipline in all their varieties. Otherwise -we have ever held them matchless, or such as should bo mntch'ess, by mortal men. We have, shown tlmt. they otiyhl to be an overmatch for New Zealand suvagte, not. only in bodies, not only with the rifle, but hand to hand, individually, "ftith dagger or tomahawk. But. hitherto they have Seldom been handled well in New Zealand, rind therefore they have not shown toadvunta-ioin that region. Their success has not been so decisive as it ought to have been. Wo have been told coutinually of this or that officer, ivlioso prcseuco was to set all right, and compel the natives to prompt abandonment of resistance, but somehow or other the " coming man" lias not como, and little more has been ellrcled in tlieso islands by military operations than might have been expected, a priori, from the leading of a Woolwich or Sandhurst. Cadet. Yet wc think We liavo heard of a race of savage marauders, as warlike perhnps as the Maoris, and altogether more favourably circumstanced for resistance, being- fnirly hunted down, and reduced to perfect submission, without much bloodshed, not many years since, in a climate within, or closely bordering on the torrid zone, wlioro no icielo (friendly to the British race) ever hangs! Such an exploit wo think wo remember, yet dare net say by whom we believe it was performed, lest wo should offend some, who may be " tired of healing Aristides called the Just;" for in this let poet, as well as in a constant craving for "some now thing," wo resemble the Athenians of old! As it is, we are not ,:ts yet decidedly triumphant over some tribes of savages, scarce half the iivwlmt of our troops alone, and, comparatively speaking, unarmod Ought this to bo F

THE WAR IN NEW ZEALAND. (From tho "Times," Juno 13.) There aro twenty-nine r< gimontg of Infantry, twenty-two and a half batteries of Koyal Artillery, and eight companies of Jioyal Engineers now doing duty in the Cnnndus, tho Cape, and New Zealand.. This return does not include the men ordered home. "Wc hare not at hand the proportions in -which this force is distributed ; hut, taking it as it stands, wo may guess, with some piobability, that at. least ten thousand of these men are now engaged in the New Zealand war. We cannot calculate, with any approach to accuracy, how much of tho £14,000,000 which our army costs is thus expended in keeping the Cafiies at bay, hatching the Canada frontier, and hunting the red men of New Zealand. ]iu(, whatever may l:o its exact amount, it is ceitainly a very considerable lump of momy. Wo might build National Galleries that would pierce upwards through tho London fogs, and whose pinnacles would dwell in perpetual sunshine, wo might \viden our streets and purify our habitations, \ve might lay out parks for every great city in our islands, we might build and endow schools to tcach every English child to read and writo, we might indulge all our fancies of national magnificence or national utility—for tho sums we ale expending, in watching that iionlicr, repressing tlio.-e Hottentots, and hunting those rid skins. Pay it costs us £3,000,000 a yeai — and after everything is paid, with stoics and tiansports added in, it cannot t.e less —it must bo admitted th.it this is not a conti niptihlc item in (ho national account.-'. It is a threepenny in-come-tax. It conMimrs a host of little taxis, and takes up a large portion of seine great, taxes. It is also a drain upon tho stnngth and manlio< d of the kingdom. 11l these times of prosperity, when labour is well paid and occupation is plmtilul, soldiering is not a timpting trade. Last year the reciuiting parties only succeiiled in inducing 3,7 fiG nun in England to tako the shilling. The new sytfeni of .*hor( enlistments makes the task of keijiing up our small ainiv yearly more difficult. Even it we tan afloid to make a present of our millions to imlc pendent e< mmunitii-s over tho seas —for to all ] radical puiposc tin y ale independent—we cannot afloid lo give Hum bleed and muscle to waste in sanguinary luawls with savages. * ,

Canada is n subject which stands alone, and may be leit tor another opportunity, but we cannot possibly understand what occasion there can lie |i,r a single legiment at Capo Town, or tor anything more than, perhaps, a guaid of honour in Now Zealand. "Will any one tay that a thriving British setthnunt, with a large British population, a well-established Government, a climate in which Englishmtn can work, and a multitude of well-to-do and even woallhv inhabitants, eunnot defend itself against the surrounding savages r Ilces any one sr.] pose that if we were towitluhaw eveiv English soldier licm the Cape within a month, and every rid coat from New Zealand in a year, the C'afii-is would drive the people of Cape Town into tho Oeei.il, or the jMaoris wi uhl blot out all traies of European eiviimition in Niw Zealand ? Of course when we send foitli a colony into a -wilderness, we must for some time defend it and feed the colonists until (hey aie fit to take care of themselves. Hut wlien they have < nee grown lip to the strength of self-defence, vlint duty rchuiins to us of espousing their (piarrels alid fighting their battles with the feeble l.mbarians around tin in r That (lie colonists should «ish (o retain (heir connexiiii with tho mother country is quite n inprebensible, and that wo should he glad to seothem enjoy all the piivih ues ol fellow-subjects is also natural, it would in.l. be to our interest, any mojc than il would be to (heirs, that they should be absorber] by some tirst-class foreign l'ower, who might subject (htm to tliialdoln, and turn against us the force thus obtaim d. Jt must be a great advantage to luiti boin of English paivnfs, in a new eommuhity, (o tan; H II (he po6>ihtlilie.s of the career ofl'eieil by English citizenship open to them. But wo do not tax tlieso colonies ; we do iiot even Govern them; we do not mnlce even commercial regulations for them. For nil fiV.nl puiposes a British subject in New Zealand is as distinct in interest from a British subject in Middlesex as tho latter is from a Frenchman living in Paris. Yet whenever a' set of land-jobbers in New Zealand find it convenient lo appropriate a new tract of land the people of Middle- I sex are told that it is a duty incumbent upon them to send out some thousands of soldiers lb defend tho I land-jobbers against Qio iecalcitiant savages ; aird they are, moieover, called upon to pay lor the- vicarious lustiry the colonists are thus allowing themselves at the antipodes. If we received anything for this very serious and substantial sacrifice, perhaps there might be something to be said for it; but the savages themselves hardly receive worse usago at the hands oi these strong-minded colonists than wc homekeeping English tax-payers do. Wo ho tnor'e dal-e to take any liberty with them for out o\vn advantage than we should datt3 to fake a liberty with the Empire of i.' ranee. The only privilege we are allowed is to nay lor their wars. 1

Nothing can possibly bo more unsatisfactory than the accounts we are constantly receiving of the present JNcw Zealand war. In linelunrl we )iuve velvy Kmvo doubts whether it in defeasible lipbn monit grounds, wo have no otintrbl Whatever over the policy bv which it is dilWted, it Ims all the appearance of 'being very clumsily conducted, and it is costing us immense sums ol money and many valuable lives. The last we heard was that two severe engagements hml been fought, in one of which the natives lind been defeated, while in the second the Jiligish had sntlelcd a revel-so; and then we arc told Ihb imliiea ol' teVenU odicers killed and Wolihded, and of a loss of 80 rank and file. It is also stated that, our critics and taskmasters the land-jobbers and attorneys and other gentlemen of New Zealand, are by no means satisfied wit h the manner in which the work they have set us to do is being performed. It- is even said that they complain of a certain lukewarmness in our soldiers and sailors m storming etitretichlncntu aiid bulking forced marches ill the -wilderness ; and they have 110 patience or toleration for our luck of enthusiasm in clearing a country for the occupation of those civilized individuals who are desirous profitably to possess it. They complain that they are heavy losers y the procrastination which enabled the natives to escape from Merc-Mere, and they are furioua at the milure at Hangariri, because it is so much money or money s worth out of their pockets. We have letters that are eloquent and most energetic on this subject. J.he colonists do not think the soldiers they ;;^ C l uite up to the work they wish to have for them. They say these troops are cooped .if?' 1 that their spirits are damped and ' llufc the greatest discontent, prevails, and \vr thc y , aru »ot the sort of force fov their work. ~r „ e ' "'f Ulte of the opinion of those colonists. These Govern* for tlleir wo <*- We hope the oi ;, at ll "y ratu u »° y° uso ol- Commons, ni-iv ? , e sa mo °P ,UIOU . and that, the time /c.'jjnml ? lslillt when I lie colonists of New tL I'nV T? be luit t0 ,heir ° w » savages, when "nd Un! lf' ( r i 'T !l " IVUI - V ' bo to go seot-froe, employment' 8 " bo set to more honorable