THE WAR IN NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 277, 1 October 1864, Page 6

THE WAR IN NEW ZEALAND.

[[From the London Examiner."] We really can't afford it. Rich and strong as wo are, there is a limit to the waste of life and treasure and reputation which we cannot allow our Colonial Government to overpass. We are spending ten thousand pounds a day smart-money for e greedy and insolent bad faith of certain folks in New Zealand, who cajoled Downing-street into a rash promise to hack tlieni up in their attempt to monopolize the soil of that prolific hut unpopulated country. It was bad enough to imbrue our hands in tlie blood of native tribes whom we ought to have been able long since to have taught to trust us, or if not, to fear us sufficiently to keep the peace. Wo hare taught tliom to do neither. The civil relations of certain classes of tiie colonists with the natives have been maintained upor: so ill a footing that the latter have washed.fi to desperate and deadly war, sooner than submj' to what they regard as wanton injustice sanction# Iby British authority ; and the military measures /aken to suppress the revolt have been so blunder-fvy that they are calculated really to inspire the poosjf semibarbarous tribes with hopes of an eventual,4 iivmph beyond their reach. All this is most to our character as a civilized and powerful le. Our neighbours who hear of these thiugs and cannot be expected to be*?cen the culpable c-i r ns of an effete administrative sj,' stem and nets sanctioned by the national will. Considering that we boast of being governed by a;/ree Parliament, and with a free pres:?, it is certainly' not unfair to charge upon the national conscience misdeeds which in a healthier and more ac tive state of political feeling would bo impossible. The truth is, we arc beginning to iind out the price that must bo paid for ihe pleasures of political apathy. The country is Lomnifrcially and financially so prosperous that, we are threatened with a fatty degeneracy of the national heart; and in the region of the head kindred symptoms have for some time beer, observable. Mr. Carclweli wen universal praise by putting a summary end to a preposterous war with the A.-han-tecs. He would have obtained ten times the credit were he to bring the disreputable conflict in New Zealand to a termination. ISolh were begun by his predecessors in cilice ; and while no one else is, under present c"'r-nmstanccs, disposed to disturb the sick chamber by acccnts of reproach, nineteen intelligent persons out of twenty would thank the present Sccretarv ol State for the Colonies were he to suppress, with a high and humane hand, the guerilla practices which threaten to become chronic in Kew Zealand. "Every mail brings us tidings of fresh enccnntcr ending in positive disaster or inglorious success. The outnumbered natives are palpably fighting better than our men. They are better marksmen. Tlicy show more activity and adroitness in moments of exigency: and they are obviously guided by a species of rude but ready generalship that puts our starched strategy to shame. It is certainly rathc-r too bed, considering all we are compelled to pav for ammunition and arms, that we should cut such a pitiful figure in the face of a Maori tribe. The cost of transport i'rom the seat of Government at Auckland to the remote scene of operations is in itself enormous; and looldng at the map of the island, its capabilities and its incapabilities, it does seem incomprehensible why we should have any diilicr.ltV in securing to tho;o who dwell therein tho blessincs of industry and peace. There is room enough and to spare for all purposes of legitimato industry, and even legitimate speculation. "Why s ould wo tolerate a species of domestic filibustering w! i.-h has not even the merit of being able to fight its own rapacious way, but which, whenever it gets into a scrape, insists upon her 'Majesty's troops being called out to save it from the vengeance e>±" tlioso whom it 1 as wronged, and to make examples of those who have had the obstinacy and temerity to hold their nree'it own'- Jt is time the mother country washed her hands of complicity in such transactions. Putting it on the lowest ground, that of expense, we really can't afford it. An expenditure at the rate of £3,£00,000 a-ycar for sake of the ignominy of baffled attempts to storm mud forts and to take stockaded pahs is rather more than tho thing is worth. We . might agree to give the money to escape the disgrace, but it is"rather too bad to have to pay for enduring it.