The New Zealand Herald AUCKLAND, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1864.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 308, 7 November 1864, Page 5

The New Zealand Herald

AUCKLAND, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1864.

KPECTEMTTB AGENDO. " Oivo orory man tliiuo Par, but tow thy voico: T»kc each tnnri'a cetumro, but reserve thy judgment. Tliis tibovo all, —To tlitno ownsotf bo true j Anil it must follow, a« tho ntsht tho day. Thou canst not then bo fidao to liny man."

Littlk change of importance has occurred since the despatch of our English siimnuny number. Til the North, however, matters are still lowering in their aspect. Already the settlers ill the j Matakana, Mahurangi, Kaipara, "Pakiri, and | Omaha districts are hunting up and sending in their cattle to market preparatory to the breakout of disturbance, while tluf escaped rebel Natives whose ranks have been swollen to double their original number rove about the country plundering the settlers at will, and, as in a late instance, robbing them- in the open day under the threat of murder if resistance is oflered. As if to render matters worse, the feeling of the hitherto loyal Natives is passing from contempt of Sir George Ore}', and through him of the " I'akeha," to a determination of resistance. Besides the disloyal and disafleeted settled population of the .North, which comprises a large proportion of the young men of every tribe, there are a large number ot alien natives there at present. A party of .Uotorua .Natives, about :Sl)) in number armed to the teeth, are scattered over the AVangarei, AVaipu, and Jlangawai districts— there are the 2(Xj escaped iVlaori prisoners also, who comprise among them a long list of the most, influential rebel chiefs in this island—and besides these there are the emissaries of the rebels now in arms scattered up and down the country in every settlement, preaching sedition, and enlisting sympathy ior the Maori cause. The friendly tribe's know this, and know that they are individually at the mercj' of a war party which may declare itself in the .North, and has so large a bod}' of armed men to form a rallying point for the disloyal, and they naturally say, either we must receive assistance from the Governor to repel the attack which will be made equally on us as on the pakclin, should a rising take place, or we must join our own country - men against the pakeha, and so save ourselves from the certain destruction we should other-

wise meet with from the King party, In alluding to the probable consequences of the escape of the Afaori prisoners from the Kawau. we have declared emphatically that the war in the JN'orth, when it does come, will be purely one of Sir George Grey's own making. 'He might have prevented the possibility ot such an event by leaving the prisoners in the perfectly safe custody of the Colonial Government where they were well cared for, but he would not. 1 1 will soon be plainly shewn, incontrovertibly, in black and white, that so far the blame was with the Governor, and with the Governor only. The escape having been effected, Sir George Grey might yet have saved the Xon 11 from the bloodshed and rapine which now liangs over it like a thunder-cloud ready to burst. He would not do so. For some davs after this escape they might have been retaken, dead or alive, without serious loss .on our part, and without the least fear of alienating the good-will of the iS'orthern natives themselves ; nay, these very natives, who now declare that our inaction is loreing them in their own self-defence into this new rebellion, would gladly have assisted us in. or themselves have undertaken, the capture of the escaped prisoners. Sir George Grey would not employ force, even when lie saw by the reception ot his first embassy, that coaxing ami cajolery would lie to no purpose. liven later still, until within the last three weeks, energy and resolution would have overcome the dilliculty, though with greater sacrifice than it could have previously been overcome, llie natives in the immediate neighbourhood were, generally speaking, as anxious to be rid of these intruders, as were the settlers themselves. Jhe dilliculty to be encountered up to that time ould have simply l>een the resistance of the inmates of the pa. That difliculty has since then daily become more complicated, and the time may now be said to have arrived when we cannot, dislodge the actual rebels without making rebels of the residents about them—when, in fact, the first shot fired on either side will be the signal for the rising of so large a section of the -Northern natives, that the remainder cannot remain long neutral. A few, we believe, will be found fighting on our side, but by far the larger portion will go over to the enemy.

A\ ith the rising ot the .Northern natives wo jiiiiy look l'oi* ;i simultaneous overrunning of the aikato districts, «and of Now Plymouth bein; r placed in a state of siege. The rebellion which inight have been crushed out; in the South by vigorous action, lias boon allowed to gather strength during the last live months, aiid an outbreak in the North will again fan it into 11 allies. All this, when it does happen, will lie at the door of Sir George «rev. He, personally, will be alone to blame for it. Wo cannot blame the Home Government, for Sir George Grey lius acted as much in opposition to their expressed directions as on the other side lie has rU ted against the willoi the Colonial He has simply assumed the dictatorship. Willi the command ol the General and 1(I,()(XI British bayonets weakly placed in his hands b\' the imperial Government, he has virtually declared himself mi litauv ujctatok in jNew"Zealaiul. The dillieulty in the North will wo suppose, be allowed to work itself to a head. k

It will naturally bo asked how Sir George Grey, who should certaiuly have forseen all f'i*- could allow such a state ol' things to eonie about. To those in Auckland we need oiler no reason. Others at a distance we may refer r°- n' ,?P en '3 r expressed opinion of the f 1 icndly-disposed .Natives themselves. *' Sir George Grey, tlie\ r say, " is foiled at every point; he is as a man at his wit's end, turniii" lound and round, and, when he stops, not; knowing whatpoint ot the compass lie is lacing. ILe is, they say, "jiourtnigi." We have just one other solution to the strange course of action pursued by Sir G. Grey in tins IS orthern affair to oil'cr, and it is this : t hat a war in the iN orth, irmh-rrcrlai,,rirrn m ight be made the means ol saving his own character, as a peacemakerfrom utter disgrace among those at home who looked upon his abilities with confidence. it was more than possible, lie perhaps thought, that■ such a state ot' things could exist Jong m the A orth, without sonic sett ler more determined than the rest defending his family Irom insult and Jiis property from plunder. (Jul. ot this, whether the blood lirst shed was that of a Maori or European, it would be just possible to fix the olauie ot all upon the white man, and to brand tlie colonists as the blood-thirsty cause of the war—to cite this instance as a type of the ferocity of the colonists generally, and to declare that but tor their contumelious, oppressive, irritating demeanour towards the natives, peace might long ago have been established. We do not believe that the Uritisli Government and the people of Lngland will allow dust to be thrown in their eyes any longer. They may rely upon this, that the openly expressed opinions ! oj the Press, the continuous exposure of guber- ' natorial mismanagement which is made in all I

the leading journals of IS'en- Zealand, could not be continued if they did not echo the liearl feit feelings of the colonists. The only journal in tins 1 lovince which upholds Sir George Grey in his policy J,„s deservedly repelled from itself the n POl i r , classes of the people—and although , k -Pl up by a party to riflif nf ■? object tlic assertion of the iVowev i,, IV v 0 1'! tO , "I" dominant powei m New Zealand.