THE MAORI WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 308, 7 November 1864, Page 8

THE MAORI WAR.

(From the Sydney Morning Herald, Oct. 21.) Ox the whole, the last reports from New Zealand are extremely discouraging, llic enormous expense imposed upon the colony as.wo as upon the Parent State, tl.e large military Ibree employed in the subjugation ot a handful of natives, sind the unsatisfactory relations hetween the Governor and the Ministry, are altogether subjects of very gloomy reflection. YY e, however, jiave lost 110 opportunity to point out the extreme ditliculty of dealing with the natives. and the deplorable results of leaving their conspiracies to assume the torm it attained before there were any activc efforts at repression. If the whole of the Northern Island be not arrayed in hostility to thcßritish authority,it requires only a very slight success 011 the part ot the insurgents to assure this misfortune, liic time for all temporising measures is surely pa>t. It is nccessary that the British Government should look fully at the position and utter 110 doubt ful of uncertain sound. e knou 'ft the abandonment ot the Northern island -would imply —a considerable sacrifice of property, and the desertion of a po£t wherein (lie first general war our enemies would find a fortress. Hut by this step we should save at least the useless expenditure of the public money, the long and disheartening discussion between parties atirreconcilble liosiilitv, and the ridiculous spectacle ot the British Government, in doubt whether the countenance of the Crown was due to those who had obeyed its authority and had never taken a single step but under "its sanction, or to the Maori tribes whose love of war is a passion, and who would fight periodical]}' as a necessary | excii ement —-one without which they would cease

to live. . It is most unfortunate that in thispointofview (lie subject has never taken lull}' hold of the British mind. ft is supposed tliiit the natives are a meek and peaceable raee —that the envy and eovetousness of tlie British are onering Ihem eoniinual ])rovoeations to resistance; that they have suffered from personal violence from unequal imposts, and from forced services ; in short, that thev are treated as .England miry, perhaps, have dealt with subject tribes in former ages, and as other nations deal with them to the present moment. "When first tlie idea of Christian civilization broke in upon them it warped their energies in a peaceful direction. Tli' 1 erect ionof churches.the learning to read and ■write —even the chicancry and profits of trade— seemed for a time to oiler a happy diversion from their natural fierceness and barbarism. But. from whatever cause, this has long ago censed to satisfy their aspirations. If wasknown years ago that the young men were anxious for war j-liid they been enrolled under British authority. and employed in some distant service, if might have satisfied this passion ; hut whether or not. the love of dispute and the love of figlitiiiLC have never ceased to form the chief salient characteristics of this proud, clever, and captious people. It w;is utterly impossible for any Government, whatever might be its character — or any colony, "whatever its prudence and selfcontrol—to prevent a collision ; and when it arrived without provocation, the only safe and sou nil policy was fo strike such a. blow as

should leave no doubt on the native mind that luigland was not only resolute, but powerful. Instead of faking this course, what have we done? In the presence of the natives themselves we have carried 011 a war of recrimination. The philo-Jlaori party, respectable for its ultimate objects ami often for the personal character of its members, lias never ceased to denounce every effort to support the authority or the Crown, or to bring the natives to reason. Their influence at home has been sufficient, to saturate the despatches, if not to settle the policy of the Secretary of Stati-:. Everything, according to our custom has been made known to the world. Everything is known, therefore, to the ?iTuori people. At the very moment when the success of our arms had struck them with terror, they heard loud declamations about the injustice with which they were treated, and protests against the forfeitures the)' had incurred. They read with astonishment an appeal in their behalf from men supposed to be omnipotent in England, despatches from the Secretary of State, in which the strongest suspicion seems to be expressed that the colony is aiming at the destruction off lie race and the unjust seizure of their lands.

~\N lint could have been expected, then, but (hat which has happened ! J jiverything is as remote Irom settlement as heretofore. If we credit the papers. the General and the Governor are in personal opposition, and the Ministry and the Governor are resolved upon an adverse policy. Two hundred valiant and irritated Maories—including some of their great chiefs— have escaped from custody with :i facility which looks like treachery, and have found arms and ammunition at their disposal ; and now when tin* oiliccrs of Government are surveying ecrtain lands ceded by tin- natives themselves as the price of peace, their lives are threatened as liereiolore. Jt. therefore, seems certain that this war will be renewed wherever it is possible for the natives to surprise the settlers, and that a long and sanguinary contest is the legacy which this policy will leave to the colonists when the military are withdrawn.

is it not deplorable that by such confusion of purpose and such a vaciltating policy a line colony should be involved in embarrassment, perhaps in ruin H A loan contracted upon the security ot the Knglisli Government, and halt' absorbed by the payment of those military services, will be laid upon 2s ew Zealand for a war which the colonists never provoked, and which has been mismanaged and useless in the hands of the agents of the Crown. Such, then, is the state of affairs at present. That it does not produce satisfaction may be easily supposed, in J'.ngland we are (old that, the jiuitisli Government is quite prepared to let the jNew Zealand colonists govern themselves; but that they must pay for the military who are quartered among them, and that they must submit to a mismanagement which provokes and aggravates the unfriendly relations with their Jlaori neighbours. "\\'e are told further that if this is not acceptable, tliev may set up au independent Government, divide from * the Jiritish Empire, and stand alone. On the other hand, the people of2\'e\v Zealand—looking not beyond the limits of their shores.—ask "what good is a connection by which their self-pro-tection is constantly embarrassed, and by which their industry is mortgaged ; which refuses to listen to their opinions m the actual measures of government, and holds them responsible, both morally and financially, for administrative and military failure.

An}' man who reflects how the British power has been built up; by what means it lias been preserved in the world; wluit advantages it derives l'rom the existence of strong outposts and commercial allies, and how other nations envy the success of this policy which England is disposed to abandon, will listen to these expressions of mutual distrust, indifl'crence, and contempt, with humiliation and sorrow. It cannot be too sirougly urged or too often repeated that iN'ew Zealand, is one of the gems of the British Crown. It is one ol'tlie finest colonies of the British nation. Its strutegetieal and commercial position gives it the promise of a power and influence secoud to none in the southern hemisphere. And it is such a colony as that is to bo handed over to the experiments of a mistaken philanthropy, or abandoned to the chances of premature independence! It is deplorable, but lamentation is useless. All we need say, how-

ever, is that England must either subdue IJ- 1 = natives by the ordinary means which bring b F " norant or refractory subjects to reason, or as son as possible withdraw her ships and soldier and leave the colonists to retreat or defend them' selves. That they would be capable of accom plishing much when once thrown upon their resources, we have no doubt whatever. Jlanv lives would be lost, but the vigour and resolu tion of a British colony, having no misgivings a j A to its policy or the proper treatment of'its assail. I ants, would soon settle the Maori question for ' ever. j