The New Zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO. AUCKLAND, MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 1865. MORE ATROCIOUS MURDERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume II, Issue 541, 7 August 1865, Page 3

The New Zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO.

AUCKLAND, MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 1865. MORE ATROCIOUS MURDERS.

"Give every mini thine enr, but few thy voice : Trtke ench man's censure, but rwrve thy judgment, litis above .ill,—To thine ownself be true ; And it inu>«t folbw, as tlie niislit the day, Thna canst not then be false to any man."

The neglect of the Government to seek out and punish the perpetrators of the cruel murder of the Rev. Mr. Volkner has borne its fruit. Another, and as brutal a tragedy, has been enacted upen the East Coast, and by the very Maoris Avho professed to feel such pious horror at the thought of the Opotiki butchery of March last. The cutter Kate, putting in to Whakatane, was boarded by a canoe ; the natives were hospitably invited to partake of the meal being then eaten by the Europeans 011 board. They accepted the offer, and, while all were at breakfast together, a signal was given, and the bloodthirsty and treacherous savages turned upon the guests and slew them, Mr. White, the supercargo of the vessel, alone escaping instant death through the dovotedness of his son. He still, however, remains a prisoner in their hands. Mr. Pulloon, of the Native Office, being unwell, was below in his berth, and him thev brutally murdered as ho lay there. 1 hese are the signs of the times which induce a Governor and a Ministry, the leading point of whoso policy is the ruin and prostration of Auckland, to declare that the moment has now arrived when the colony can dispense with the services of one-half the troops with the almost immediate prospect in view of the departure of the remainder. The return of the elated rebels to the Waikato and Tauranga, the destruction of our more immediate country settlements, and a butchering in Queen-street, would indeed render the retention of the troops altogether unnecessary. Is it by rendering the Northern Island no longer habitable to Europeans that the Weld Ministry and their Middle Island supporters intend to overcome the native difficulty? It would seem so, indeed, for in every direction have they laid themselves open to the suspicion. Murder remains unpunished. Our native allies of the East Coast are left to the mercy of an enemy superior in arms and watching for the moment of revenge. Our chief military post on the East Coast —Tauranga itself —is so weakened as to be scarcely in a position to defend itself if attacked by a strong force. The Waikato lies at the mercy of the enemy — its only defence the mask of friendliness, or rather indisposition to fight, which the more prudent of the rebels wear and will continue to wear till the soldiers are gone. Then will come the struggle for the mastery of the two races—the war of extermination into which we are fast driving, and the blame, the disgrace, the guilt of those days of horror will lie at the door of Sir George Grey and of the Weld administration.

l'rom the moment that the Weld Ministry came into power they have recommended

the withdrawal of the troops—the more immediate the day of their removal, the more pleased would the Ministry, it seems, have been. But have t hey provided a substitute for the power which held the enemy in check ? Have any steps been taken except on paper, and those of the most imbecile character and utterly inadequate in extent, to meet the dangers that must be faced by the colony when the Imperial assistance is withdrawn ? None whatever. Even those very inadequate plans for self-defence ministers un willingly admit must now, though practicable some months ago,bemodified,asbeing beyondthe remaining means of the Colony. The.3somen fo" the occupation of Waikato,for instance, must be reduced to a smaller force ! and yet in the face of this confession the Ministry declare that wo do not require and will not accept the services of the troops.

But it the Government has done nothing to raise .a colonial force in the place of that which it is ready to dispense with, it cannot be said that it has not been idle ; n destroying that which it ouce possessed. Under its miserable blight ing influence, its numerous injustices and breaches of faith, the Waikato regiments, nearly four thousand strong when the Weld administration came into ollice, have dwindled to a little more than half fhat number. The citizens of Auckland and Ihe country settlers of this Province have become so juslly disaffected towards the Government of the Colony that one other cause only, than the necessity of protecting tlicir own property from danger of Maori attack, would induce them to take up arms, 'the Ministry talk in their Memorandum No. 1 of a policy of self defence, which from the period of their assuming office they have steadily pursued, and now see no reason for receding from it. Where is their policy? "Where—when—-how has it been applied ? Tho only fruits of any policy that we have seen have been the unchecked spread of a blood-thirsty determination and league to destroy the Europeans, veiled under the disguise of a religious fanaticism—the repetition of murder after murder—the threatened destruction by rebel natives of those of their own race who remain faithful to our cause —the cool, insolent, cautious action taken up by Thompson, Rewi, and other chiefs and their followers, who sit defiantly and securely biding their time till the soldiers are gone. These, then, must be the fruits of that policy to which Ministers allude. This in fact is the state to which they have brought tho Colony.

Has it over been the intention of the Weld Administration to put down rebellion in the North ? Wo think not. The troops, they say, have been useless because the political views of the General commanding them would not allow him to render the assistance required. The General resigns his command, but the Ministry does not ask for another General who will push the war oil vigorously to a final and satisfactory conclusion—but it says, " let the troops go too " This is the conduct of men who have the settlement of the native difficulty at heart, or is it that of men who seek to turn their neighbours' necessity to their own advantage, who influenced only by the meanest and most selfish of aims, seek by the ruin of the Northern Island settlements to advance the South into a position which it could never otherwise have obtained, or could now long continue to hold were this Northern Island permitted the blessings of security and peace?

How long shall this continue ? How long will the people of this Province submit to this state of affairs? How long will their patience endure, that they shall permit the interference of Southern men in the Government of this Northern Island, permit them by their intermeddling in native affairs to bring about rebellion and revolt, and then by intermeddling in our political and financial afi'airs _to bring about a state of political bankruptcy, unsecuritv, and, sooner or later, a bloodthirsty war of extermination. At once, we say, let steps be taken to lay before the Queen in strong but respectful language the determination of the majority of the people of this Northern island to have political separation from the Southern one, and either to place themselves under the direct control of the Imperial Government, or to manage their own internal affairs. In either of these two eases we may look for speedy peace. The Northern island, by an eflort, could suppress the rebellion, and with less bloodshed, and at less cost, than will ensue by the miserable interference of Southern men. Yoked to the South, we have a dark and dismal future before us. Our revenues are squandered without returning to us even protection for life or property. Southern interference and Canterbury treason stir up the bloodthirstiness of the savage, which Wellington supineness allows to glut itself in the blood of our citizens and settlers. With self goverment we shall have self protection, without it, we shall do what the South is anxious that we should do, fall gradually behind it in wealth, commerce, and political importance. The separation of North and South haß become with us a matter of vital necessity, before which all other measures fade into insignificance. We warn the South that they are forcing onastate of matters which can scarcely fail to embroil : the Colony in intern al dissension. Parted I the two islands must and will be sooner or later, and we do not hesitate to tell them that they are ronsing in the minds of Northern men a feeling which, like that of the Northern and Southern States in America, will, if even a generation hence, result in eonsequer ices to be deplored. We are anxious to mar .age our own afi'airs. We want no Southern i interference —no Southern assistance, which means in reality assistance in squandering on r revenue and interference in playing at statesmanship with a dangerous and explosive material in our midst. The failure of Southern theories moans with the men of the Middle Island, who indulge in theiri, merely the demonstration of the inapplici ibility of those theories wita us the loss of 1 ife and property, the butchering of our citi? ;ens, and. the financial ruin of the Province.

Wewjuklr'ivawtheattention of our English readers to 'J .;e present condition ot this unfortunate portion ot' JMevv Zealand, as represented even by the intelligence contained in this s : ugle issue of oar journal. War ana slaughter <jf our troops at Taranaki attacks upon our positions at AVanganui- butchery on the 1 Coast —and all this, while an imbecile do-nothing Ministry, and a G-o----venor, intent only 011 working out his own ambitio us ends, are cryiiDg Peace ! Peace. when t' here is 110 peace. t