The New Zealand Herald AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1864.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 303, 1 November 1864, Page 4

The New Zealand Herald

AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1864.

BI'ECTEMUR AGENDO. " Glvo ovory nrm tUioo car, but foiv Uiy toicO: Tnko oacb man's cenanro, hut voserve thy judgment. This above all, —To tlilnc ownsclf ho true; And it must Pillow, lis tho tho day, TViou r[t'.v-1 not thou ho falso to any ratctt."

TjiK iiHciligchV'l' which We liaVc received from a geh'tleinan at Matafcann, coming'as it,do.qs from : one on wlioso. statements we, can plaeo the Utmost reliance,is of a very painful nature. Can nothing we ask be done to prevent murder and bloodshed in the North? Are the escaped rebels preying upon the property of the settlers living around Omnh — insulting the "women when left unprotected in the absence of their husbands 'and fathers —slaying the cattle and otherwise destroying the property which our Northern settlers have gathered about, them with great toil and inahy years of privation,-— are these cse:Vpe'd rebels, we ask, to he allowed to continue this course of action until emboldened by the impunity which is permitted hj' the Governor they procecd to still further enormities. or until the justly exasperated settlers, as our correspondent writes is even now contemplated by them, shoot down the plundering wretches in self-defence. Thoroughly as we should he inclined to exonerate them from blame, if, it) defending their women and families from insult and outrage, they resorted to the use of arms, we most strongly advise the irritated ami scandalously neglected settlers to resort only to such extremity when no other remedy exists. To do so would only be playing the name of Sir George Grey. A war in the North would be a trump card in his hand if that war were brought :ibruit, directly, by the act of the settlers. Jiis mission in New Zealand h;is been an utter failure, and under the cloud of a new war caused, as he would characterise it, by 'colonial bloodthirst iness. he wouM return buck to Europe in triumph. He would talk of all that would have been accomplished hut for this last aggression of the colonists, and would no doubt. t for a time, he believed by the easily gulled 1 credulous people at home. As matters have now arrived at so dangerous r a crisis in these Northern districts, and as the I Governor neglects to take any stops to prevent 1 the spilling of blood, we think the time has fully 1 arrived when the settlers themselves should or- ' ganise some means of protection, so as to assist the law which the Governor with only ten ' thousand troops is to weak to enforce. The tirst ' work of the settlers in each of these threatened ] districts should he to render bullet-proof some I large building to which the women and children p could be at once removed in the event of inmie- . diate danger. Then when any outrage is com- •, mitted by any band of these marauders where i* the offenders are known, and more especially e whore thev can he taken in the commission of r the crime itself, let the proper person to whom the duty belongs proceed at once to their cap- ' turo. and call in the name of the Queen upon as " many of his neighbours as he may deem sutlicient R to assist him in their capture. A constable or r justice of the peace has this power. Let the . offenders be taken whatever their resistance, against * which, of course, suitable precautions must be taken, and however distressing such capture may be to a philo-Maori Governor, let them be ironed and marched down to town and handed over to (he civil authorities to answer for the crime for which they have been apprehended. We do not a bold act of this kind would he attended with disastrous result s : on the eont rarv. we think that when the rebels saw that law could and would be enforced, they would waver and submit just in proportion us we were decided and firm. .Hut. if on the other hand they resisted, then we believe that, no! being taken unawares, the Northern settlers j would lie quite able to hold their own until ! the t roops came in and made short work of it. I which they soon could do in the North, where the country is accessible, and of no great width from sea to sea--nor would General Cameron he long in coming to their assistance, tie at. least is a Christian and a man of feeling, and has some little regard for women, though their skins 1 be white, and for the men and little ones of his ' own race. It is very evident by the lone of our correspondent's letter, and by all that we learn from the disturbed districts in the North that a crisis is impending, flesh and blood cannot sit hv and calmly receive insultand outrage and endure. A long suffering people have been" the settlers of the Northern island in their relations with ' the Maori, hut there is a point beyond which endurance can bo no longer carried. Matters have already reached that- point in the case of the settlers of Pakiri. of Matakana, Omaha, and Maliurangi. If unfortunately some outrage should be inflicted on the wife and family of a sattler by n party of these miscreants, and the settler shoot down his aggressors in t lie act. does Governor Sir George Grey believe that the people of this province and colony will blame such an one ? J Ices lie believe that for long the people "f H'igland will be misled bv his misrepresentations io believe that the colonists are the aggressors Sir George Grey may not understand I he ali'ection of a husband lor his wife, or that of a father towards his child, but he must think our Northern settlers something more or le-s than men to stand tamely by and-see—-as our correspondent says- these ruthless marauders insulting our wives and children ill our absence." Something must be done, and that quickly ; either by the Governor or by the people themselves, to prevent worse from happening. \Ye can sit quietly down on many points to await the meeting of the General Assembly; but the Geii-'ral Assembly cannot deal with the question of the Maori freebooters whom Sir George Grey l.ook from the safe custody of the Colonial Government. and placed upon the Kawau, where every facility existed for their escape. Properly speaking, it is lor Sir George Grey as Governor to uphold law in the country. There seems little probability of interfering to secure or remove these escaped prisoners. At the present moment he is not thinking' of the outraged European settlers, who look to him to save their property from rapine, their wives and little ones from violence and out rage-—but is dallying with the ehiirms of his island's beauties at the Kawau, within sight, of the very homesteads which may at any moment greet iiis eyes wrapt in tlames. Sir George Grey has made his efforts to induce ' hese escaped-rebels to submit. He has tried h ibcry ami cajolery. Both haVc failed. I'romises of liberal supplies of food, and of a resilience at some more pleasant spot on fc'ie main laud were treated with lofty contempt. Equally so were the attempts made to cajole them bv Sit" George Grey's emissaries. Foiled in both these attempts, Sir George Grey resorted to stratagem. The native schooner belonging to Paul, the ' Victoria,' was sent down on a secret cruise, she touched in at Omaha. The friendly natives quietly proposed to the escaped prisoners lo take them on board and laud them up the Thames, where they might rejoin their late comrades in arms, hut the iiangariri prisoners were not to be caught in a trap 1 again. It would be :i very awkward thing for the

litM<i ' Victoria." to.be ovethiiulei tiy a ''man oi 1 a Wftr' between Omaha and the. Thames, and they 1 t declined, the passage . so Mudly offered,.them. 1 W hat is more, the friendly 'natives'confessed the » stratagem'. What- faitlr wi{l any .native place in i Sir George Grey's word, aftc? this-? .Bribery < cajolery, and stratagem, have all then been tried otie after the other, and all have failed. What j then can be expected from a Governor whose natural weapons have been foiled ? It is need- 1 less to say that the settlers must look to themselves for that protection, which, a continued appeal to the Governor throtigli numerous respectful deputations has failed to obtain. Whatever course they pursue, lbfc it, be. done, lis fcetaperately, ami, though.iiriniy, with as. littleirritaj tioh as possible to the resident Maoris in the North. • —. —. —. Long before' surnames were generally adopted as a permanent institution, eases often occurred in which persons with some distinguishing characteristic had the word expressing it added to their first name, and it really served the. P ul '- pose of a surname. Sometimes this was handed down in families and really became the surname. Sheepshanks. Strongitliarm.. iiarefoDt. til'e instances of thin, Tho particular oiie, however; to which Want,to refer, is the case of one oi our Snxoii lv.tags. who. was known as t,lip ','lJnready. The character of JJthelrctfc "was S'tereotypec: and handed .down, to ' 1 v; by that ailix to his name. 11 e lin'l doubtless well earned it, as have very many others since the day when that unready monarch lived. And as was the case with Ethelred. so it is now, and throughout all time will he. These unready people earn anything but the respect, of those who are blessed with more decision of charaete„r. The finger of contempt and pity is pointed at them ; and the evil results of their unreadiness are sometimes very great. Persons in whom this quality predominates cannot be said to have a very high order of intellect. Their perception's are dim and confused. They oscillate, like a pendulum, between two extreme points, and they are kept by the indecision, of their character from over ] moving beyond the limited track to which they i have long been accustomed, except at. extraordinary times, when some considerable force is applied to them and impels them onward. The trait of character which distinguished Ethelred the Unready, seems often to have distinguished the English" of a later date than that at which the Saxon lived. Indeed, it has been s:i"l that this unreadiness, almost always displayed by England- ih tbe matter of war, has slain thousands upon thousands of her most valiant sons. One of the latest and most memorable illustrations of the fact was the Crimean war. \Ye purpose, however, to draw illustrations from ourselves, and by holding the mirror up to nature endeavour to reflect a truthful picture, the contemplation of which may cause us to consider the image presented to our view, aiid if alteration be required in the original, to determine to set about making that alteration as soon as possible; We vehture to assert then, that a great deal of unreadiness, of vaceillation, and indecision marks a considerable number of the actions of 1 our representative men in the Province of Auckland. "We might endeavour to analyse the ' cause of this, and show that in some cases it ' lies in the original formation of character, in 1 others it is the result of a deficiency of know- • ledge on the part of those who are, called upon to assume duties new and strange to them. J3ut " this is no part of our purpose. .We rather would point out the existence of the evil, and f show the very great injury that, results from it. 1 And in order to bring this clearly out. we will first notice the water scheme. What, hut either ; ignorance or carelessness, or a mixture of both. could quietly sit. down with folded hands and a smiling countenance and see a city, year alter ' year, constantly increasing in its population, and • yet take no steps whatever 10 provide a supply • of pure water for domestic purposes. And 1 what but the same cause, could cause us, after the want was acknowledged, to go on getting ' report after report, from some half-dozen differ- " ent engineers and allowing the matter to rest ■ there. This terrible unreadiness and indecision ' of character has cost us many, very many pre--5 eious lives, as did the unreadiness of the autlio--1 rities in the Crimean war. The account of a few • persons killed in hattle sends a thrill of sorrow 1 through the general body of the community. A ' galvanic shock is felt throughout the people • when a ccuple of hundred men are slain in ; hattle or by some sad accident. Hut very little ' pain or sympathy is felt at the loss of those ■ who daily and silently are laid low in death liy 1 our own neglect. Little or no sympathy is 1 shown, and no interest taken, when ' the sacrifice daily offered up on the shrine of our unreadiness and carelessness, consists it may : be of units. These units are not counted, and the total number of persons slain by public carelessness is not given us in one lump sum. and the public conscience is not niucli troubled. Now the constant, procrastination in connection with the water sclume, comes under this category. And like unto it and nearly conected with it. are the city levels and the city sewerage. L'eport after report lias been obtained, and doubtless paid for on these latter subjects. They are vitally important ones. What lamentable display of indecision of character, have these subjects brought, to light? Those who ought to cut the gordinn knot, to act promptly and vigorously, are for ever standing ) shivering on the brink, and suffer more than if they plunged boldly in m'. dins rex at once. Indecision of character, it is said, is worse than wrong judgment. The over cautious and the over timorous are not those who take the events passing around them and mould them to their will. It is of sterner stuff than this of which our Cromwells and Wellingtons, our Stepensons and lJrindlevs are made. Again, take another illusirnlion. The want of a Sunreme Court house has been felt for years. Ihit there has been no real effort made to set about supplying that want. Our governors and legislators have been ever unready to commence and go on with the work. They have been in this matter, the very personification of the fatal and costly principle. Procrastinat'on and indecision have followed their footsteps as closely a.s their own shadow. Their mind could never be made up to act. They only talk and defer. And what is the result of this procrastination. One thousand five hundred pounds-have to be voted to build a temporary courthouse within a few weeks of a premium having been awarded for the designs of a permanent building. The money cost then, of the unreadiness and delay respecting this one worlc alone, is fifteen hundred pounds. The post office, custom house, and market house have been talked of long ago. Plans have been obtained, but we are not, yet ready to go on with the erection of the buildings, indeed, it is now gravely proposed to adopt the usual plan of having another report, anil other designs for this latter, and so going on the usual jog-trot circular system that seems to be quite a recognised law and acknowledged institution among us. The town will have doubled or more than doubled in population, we suppose, in the interim between the proposal to carry on any of these public works and t he actual carrying of them out. And wore it not that we do not want to weary our readers, we might show how the selfsame put-it-off-tiil-a-future-time principle pervades almost every tiiing else among us. But we will only mention one or two other cases of the kind. The v.ant of dock and wharfage accommodation, bv which commerce is crippled, means of labour curtailed, and the community made to suffer in a pecuniary way, is suilieieutiy patent to ail. The goose that would lay us golden eggs is not welcomed with a hearty good will among us. There is no accommodation worthy of the name provided. With respect to roads and bridges in the interior, the same fatal unreadiness broods like an evil spirit, and frightens persons from venturing into this roadlc-ss, bridgelcss •■ waste land." \Te

send fpr.;cpaloiiiiiErs beforp are them, indihey Bare heels; fctrw'een • " loa£pr'.s corner" and : tjj. Superintendent's office, until at last they are, to their utter disgust, sent to break stones on the road. They left pood work and good ■wages, on the representation tliut they -would get twelve-shillings a clay wages as miners, and tliey find neither wages nor coal mines. If there be coul at the Bay of Islands and else* where, surely a. dozen miners broiight tint bf Government flight, have employment gifgw them: It will riot jiecd fi fcoiiplfc df yfeai-s tb tell whether thb so-eiUled ebal is coal piwhetiier .it is suited for general consumption, jf it is so suited, advertise it, at once.to be let, in certain areas, .either at a rental for the entire area* or a'royalty on the coal obtained; and don't consume an infinity ot foolscap, and talk and time upon the subject, with nothing as a result. There are lew things in this colony that will literally push it ahead to such an extent as will an abundant supply of good coal. Look at the enormous power contained in even one ton of coal, and the multiplied and various uses to which that power can he put, aiid the Vast amount c J employment, tliat lialigs around thai otic material. It is .higl).- tim.e that thp age cf lethargy, of childish, wavering, and. weak-minded iSdeeisioh of character be past, and that a period of more manly, vigorous, and profitable action be inaugurated, And those are the best and truest friends of the colony, who point out faithfully and truthfully the hindrances to our progress, and advocate their removal. ~SXe have need of all our wisdom and all our activity in the times in which lot is east, to enable us to grapple with the difficulties which lie in our onward path. A glorious future awaits this colony if only we be fotind sufficiently prudent aiid energetic to seize the chances of fortune and happiness thtlt are within our grasp: