GENERAL CAMERON AND GOVERNOR GREY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume II, Issue 541, 7 August 1865, Page 5

GENERAL CAMERON AND GOVERNOR GREY.

Lieut.-General iSiit Dux c.v.n* Cameeox — leaving the colony to-day—unable to refute in the place in which it was uttered the untruthful statement made by the Governor, Sir George Grey, in his speech at the opening of the General Assembly, addresses to the public press of Auckland the following letter. The General's denial is clear and concise, that of a soldier and of a gentleman. A long and distinguished career, unsullied by the breath of dishonour, leaves us 110 alternative but to believe implicitly the words which he so unmistakeably utters. Can as much be adduced for the assertion made by the Governor in his speech ? Old colonists have not ii.rgotten the " blood and treasure dispatch '' —the scene of former administration, when a Governor was convictcd ot an untruth on the floor of the Legislative Assembly by Mr. William Brown, a member of that Council, who produced from his pockct the very dispatch that a Governor had deai3d having ever written ! A reference to the published correspondence will show that the military commanders at Wangauui were not precluded by tlieir orders from *' taking any active pai*t in the " operations against the enemy's stronghold." Iu Geueral Waddy's letter of the 19th. July he not only at onco accords the assistance asked * for, but, which shows that it was no mere "moral assistance" tendered, sends the troops asked without delay, and in addition, a detachment of Boyal Artillery and an officer of Royal Engineers to accompany them. Did this look like mere moral support ? Of what use these men of a special corps, but for the very purpose of taking an active part in the operations against the enemy's stronghold. The speech of his Excellency awards unqualified praise to the colonial forces under Major Rookes —it Elurs by the military as outsiders al'ogetlier; but let us turn to the written correspondence again, and we shall find a seeming inconsistency there. Ihe following acknowledgments contained in the letter addressed by Ilia Excellency 0 General Waddy on the 23rd inataiit. shmv that something more than moral assi» was afforded by the British troops : « Lieut.-Colonel Trevor, of he,l4th ic-gi-|«inent, with a , on the ground ' that regiment, 1 • 05th instant. '• t" t rnloHcl Trevor and the officers ami " men of the Wfcli afforded every assistance '■ in their power.

" Lieut.-Colonel Trevor was throughout " in command of the troops ; he acted with " the greatest energy, and afforded on every occasion the most valuable advice and aid. "A little later, Captain Noblett, of the " 18th, with one hundred men of that regiment, very opportunely arrived, having " made a very rapid march, and he, together " with the officers aDd men of the lSt-h, gave " every assistance in their power. "On the evening of the 21st a further " detachment of thirty men of the 1-lt.h, " tinder Captain Furneaux, and a detachment "of fifty men of the ISth, under Major " llocko, arrived on the ground. The officers " and men of which detachments also afforded " every aid in their power. * I have, <ic., " G, G-Ei:r. " Brigadier-General Waddy, C.8., " Commanding Field Force." But whether the AYercroa pa was taken by regular or irregular troops, what is the achievement after all ? Nothing but a repetition of the old story, the capture ot an empty pa, or. as in tho o-iseof the Kuapekapeka pa, in IS 15, of an old woman into the bargain. After all, if anything has boon achieved, it has been done by tho natives themselves, and lias been tiie " accident ot "an accident." The fifty prisoners thus taken will, for a time. 110 doubt enjoy the hospitality of the Government at AY ellington, and like Big Joe of Taranaki, the instigator of the murder ot \ olkner, Topia, be in due course let loose again upon the colonists. "We must indeed congratulate Sir George Grey and his Ministry on having so voluminous and self-congratulatory a despatcn to forward to Downing-sfrect at the same that the General shall arrive there. _ thrusts of the Secretary for the Colonies, il we may judge from those delivered in the last despatch, will however pierce through the public shield whieh they now attempt to interpose. To conclude. '.lie following if the communication forwarded to lis last night for publication by Sir Duncan Cameron, a direct denial of the truth of the statement made in the sixth paragraph of His Excellency's speech. To the Editor of the New Zealand Herald. Sj r ,_l shall fVel oblige! by your publishing in your i-sue of to-morrow morning tho enclosed copy of a letter addressed by me to his Excellency tho Governor. I am, &c, D. A. CAMEBiy, Lieut.-General. Auckland, July 31, ISfii". Auckland. 3i?t July, 1565. Sir, —I have just read the speech "f * our Kx el lenov at the opening of tho General Assembly, and m it I find the following paragraph : — 41 I also recognise the readiness with whieh Briga dier-Ger.eral Waddy, iJ.li , Colonel Ire or, and the officers and men under th-ir comnvuid. .'irT'nled me all tho assistance in their power, th -uiiii preclude.'! by their orders from taking any active P'irt in tiu operations against the enemy's stronghold It is my duty to inform your Excellency that I positively deny having given any oriar-i to Biiga net General VVaddy, Colonel Lrevo-. or any other officer, which precluded them from taking any active part in theoperations against the enemy's stronghold. I have the honor to be, sir, Your mo.it obedient humble servant, (Signed] D. A. Oa.Uiron', Lieut. "General. To his Excellency the Governor. —Heratd, August 1.

It is certainly a painful duty to have to endeavour to sift ovideuce calculated to prove whether a statement deliberately made by the representative of her Majesty Queen Victoria in a speech addressed to the Parliament of the Colony, and reflecting on the Lieutenant-General then commanding her Majesty's forces in the Colon}' is correct, or whether the positive denial of that statement by the General be correct or not. It is quite evident both cannot be right, and it is equally evident that it is of the very utmost importance that the most implicit faith should be placed in every official utterance of a representative of the Queen of England and of a General of her army. Whatever shakes that faith is a grave and serious calamity ; the moral sense and feelings of the community are thereby shocked, while on the other hand there are too nvmy who are always glad to copy the vices of those in power Imagination and fiction should not take the place of sober fact in state speeches and state papers. And as both the Governor and the General are men of mark, men of no alight experience iu different parts of the world, the first impression is that neither of them would be guilty of so great a b'lunder as to state that which was not correct, and which they could not prove to be correct. It is due, therefore, to both to examine the evidence published, so as to obtain collateral or internal proof of the correctness of either the one statement or the other. We now proceed to do so

On the 19th of July, Sir George Grey, in a letter addressed co " Brigadier-General Waddy, C.8.,&c.. &c., &c.," says, " I wish to know whether the instructions under which you are acting from Lieutenant-General "ir D. A. Cameron, K.C.8., will permit of your proceeding to invest that place (the Wereroapa), and to carry out regular operations for its immediate reduction, without the delay of a reference to him at Auckland, or whether such reference must first be made." The reply of Brigadier-General Waddy says " I have to inform your Excellency that I cannot undertake this operation against the pa unless I receive the orders of the Lieut.General commanding the forces to do so ; I will of course forward your Excellency's communication without delay to Sir D. A. Cameron, and I will hold the troops in this district ready to move at the shortest notice, should the Lieutenant-General comma nding the forces direct an immediate attack on the pa." Brigadier Waddy therefore does not answer the Governor's question. He does not say one word as to what his orders and instructions were from the General, yet this was what the Governor pointedly asked him. Instead of telling the Governor what orders General Cameron had given him, Brigadier-General Waddy says he will write to General Cameron for orders. And to show more clearly that Brigadier Waddy had no orders " precluding" him from attacking the pa or assisting in its attack, he.actually does, in reply to a second letter, send 400 men and also a detachment of Eoyal Artillery, and to make the aid thus given more effective, General Waddy also sends an officer of Eoyal Engineers to accompany them. Now Sir Duncan Cameron, not bir George Grey, was the commander of the British forces at "VYanganui as well as elsewhere m

New Zealand. The former therefore was the superior officer whom Brigadier General AVaddy was under strict necessity of obeying. Had General Cameron n-iven such orders as " precluded Brigadier-General AVaddy from attacking that pa, tho latter knows the rules of the service too well to think for a moment of beinc; quilty of so gross a brcach ot diycipline as to obey a third party, and disobey tho positive orders o General. It was not tho existence of orders not to attack the pa, but the absence of orders to attack it, to which General AVaddy refers. His second letter, dated noon, July clearly shows this, as also the last words ot the last sentence of his former letter of same date, where ho says that he will have his troops m readi ness should the Lieutcnaut-General order an IMMEDIATE ATTACK ON THE I'A. Alld in the Governor's letter marked No.-1, Sir George says that he understood that General Cameron had made certain arrangements with the view of taking the pa in question by surprise, if a fitting opportunity offered, and he ventures an opinion that the3e arrangements, so far as tho number of men was concerned, were not on a sufficiently large scale.

So far then as "internal evidence" is concerned, there is no ground ior the statement of Sir George Grey in his speech that the British Forces were "precluded by their orders from taking any active part in theoperations against tho enemy's stronghold.' Brigadier AVaddy made no such statement in his letters. He distinctly and very clearly avoided saying what his orders were, but contented himself in his first letter with saying that he could not attack, the pa without- orders, and in his second he changes his mind, and sends -100 men co assist- in reducing the pa, which if he had had orders not to do, he would never have consented to do, in the broad and iirst principles of his duty, obedience to the orders of the General under whom he was serving.

The next step is to ascertain it' any intimation was given to the Governor by any other oHieer of the British army ot that annv having orders which precluded them from att:it"lviusjj the pa. No ot anything of the kind appears in the correspondence. Consequently we are driven to the necessity o{" believing that no one made the statement to the Governor which lie made to the General Assembly, and the Lieutenant-General pointedly and clearly tells Sir George Grey and the "public that he never gave any orders to Brigadier-General "Waddy or to any one else precluding them from attacking or assisting in attacking the pa. The burden of proof therefore lies upon his "Rxeoileney, and the public of the Colony, and the Right Honorable the Secretary of State for the Colonies wili no doubt be anxious to have the authority on which the Governor made the deliberate statement before the Assembly of the correctness of which there is at present r.o proof, but the reverse, and which is solemnly and distinctly denied by '"an oflicer and a gentleman," a distinguished General in her Majesty's service. There is a mistake somewhere, and the sooner it is rectified tho better. For it becomes not high oll'cers of state to be so careless in the employment of language as to make use of words applied by the Earl ol Derby to a noble lord in the House of Peers, to " state that to be which is not." "What a sad moral does this determined effort to trip up opponents reach. One twelve months was spent, in wrangling with and endeavouring to entangle in a net certain responsible advisers, the country thereby certainly drifting toward ruin, another set of ministers are installed into office, and repudiation of engagements, profligate expenditure, and evil speaking, have been the most characteristic features of the acts of our rulers during tho past six mouths.—August -4.