The New Zealand Herald AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, OCT. 5, 1864.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 280, 5 October 1864, Page 4

The New Zealand Herald

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, OCT. 5, 1864.

fctECTEMUR AGENDO. u Che c7cry man tlilno car, but few thy voice: Take chcli man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. Tliis above all, —To thine ownself bo truo; And it must follow, as the night tliu day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."

"What is tti be done wiili the escaped l?nnjgiriH prisoners, is a question which in continually asked by every one, and by none more anxiously and eagerly than by the settlers in the districts around the Otamahua pali, whore these mini have taken up their position of defiance. Ten days ago aiid thev were only two hundred in nmnber, at the tiinn We how write their number probably reaches, if it does not exceed, four hundred men fully armed, entrenched in a strong position, and provided with large quantities of provisions and ammunition. Captured these inen say they will not be, and yet they arc escaped prisoners of the Crbwii, and Sir Geoi'ge ,(irc-y must cither condone the olfcnce by ull'owingthemto remain at large,or provoke the possibility ol war by attempting their capture. Had the matter been taken vigorously in hand at the very first, the present difficult position would have been avoided. There Avould h;ivc boon no strong fort to have stormed, 110 arms and ammunition to be encountered, no very great sympathy among Northern Natives could have been evoked. Now cach dily that they remain undisturbed in their pah, the garrison within, and their allies without, arc on the increase. The young men of Northern tribes visit thepah, meetings arc held, plans talked over, and it would indeed bo hard to say but that the scheme of a concerted rising in the North is even now being discussed and matured.

T1 leMatakana settlors themselves are most anxious to know what tlie Governor, lor on the Governor rests the sole responsibility of action, intends to do. A Jarge meeting of the European inhabitants ol' that and adjoining districts was held on J;Yiday last, and it would appear that from the tone of the speakers anything but a feeling of confidence exists. They very naturally hesitate to continue tho cropping of their lands, which may become ere long a battlc-lield. *A deputation had been, appointed to wait upon ihe Governor to ascertain his intentions. Meantime something very like Maori terrorism prevails in these districts. One day during the past week some forty unarmed men of the escaped prisoners attended by an escort of from fifteen to twenty men armed with double barrelled guns cm no down to the European mill, on the river, and requested to know if they could have flour. They were told that they could if they had money to pay for it. They bought a ton, the unarmed men carrying it in bacldoads, and the armed party keeping guard round the mill, ami afterwards attending tho foraging party back to their fastness.

Can tins sort of thing he permitted to con- j tiiiuo ? Where will it stop ? Sir Greorge Grey, it is said, has claimed tho whole responsibility of tho management of native mai lers, but if lie shows hilnsc.lt so utterly unable to nopo With it fi'crioiis difficulty such as this—if ire give no sign of interference, but allow Hie eoxmtry to drift on, int'h_ by inch, and day by day, as it is now doing, into another mid a now war, will he retain in his hands the reins of government? T3oos the Constitution Act not provide a remedy for such a state of things, or was it never contemplated by the trainers ot our Constitution that any .Governor would be guilty of St) great a political crime as that of ignoring and deserting his duty, just as the old Eomans placed no punishment on their statute-book for tho crime of parricide, believing that no !Roman would be guilty ot so foul a deed. It is a question widely and temperately discussed by persons of all classes and opinions at the present moment, what is now to be done ?

The people of Matal<ana have held public meetings 011 Hie, to them, all-important inestion (4' tlie escaped prisoners who have led to tlicir district. Important as the piestion is to theln, it can scarcely he sa?d o be less important to each one of ns in this Province, and we believe that the time has low arrived when the citizens oi Auckland should tal<e the mailer in hand, and, with me voice, demand from his Excellency in respectful hut unmistakeably firm language, some explanation of his conduct in the nflair of tin: escape and of his present intentions with respect, to these Raugiriri rebels. The time has fully come -when the people if this city and Province should show unmisLakcably and plainly their feeling on this and other kindred matters. The breaking out of :i war in the North would he a terrible calamity. There may yet be time, by the 3.xercise of firmness and energy, to prevent ao unhappy an occurrence as that Avhicli wo are now sur ely drifting into. Shall the people wait until the mischief is done, until horseman after horseman arrives from the North with tidings of women and children butchered in cold blood—of the lives of settlers sacrificed in the vain attempt to defend their homes —of panic, Votit, and ruthless murder treading on (he heels of iugitive Europeans crowding into the small eralt upon the coast, or throwing themselves upon Ihe doubtful safety of protection from the few loyal among the Natives. This is no imaginative picture. 3t is the stern reality of a state of things into which we are fast drilling because the helm is in too weak hands to be held aright. Js the ship lo be

cast away. are all to fjo headlong to destruction becausc lie who commands talies no steps to avert; the threatened dangers. Does not Ihe Constitution .Act provide a legal remedy ibr this peculiar position of atl'airs?