ON THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10034, 22 January 1896, Page 3

ON THINGS IN GENERAL.

THE SWORD OP HIS GRANDFATHER. The " talking to" given him by his grandma has bad no lasting effect on .Kaiser Wilhelm, and he seems badly off for a whipping. Ho evidently does nob like to come to close quarters with his grandmother, for he has countermanded tho preparations for his cruise to Cowes, but keeping at a safe distance, somowhero about Berlin, he has been waving a flag and whirling a sabre round his head, and otherwise frantically misbohaving himself as if he meant to play tho devil generally and break things. There must have been "something funny in the appearance of the Kaiser, his "gammy" arm shaking the bid of bunting, and the other one lungeing with the sword of his grandfather, presenting thus at one view an illustration of human frailty and human ambition. Calling on his officers to defend the Empire against all his foes, he is admirably keeping alive that hostility among his neighbours which will some day come clown on him liko an avalanche; and declaring that they inusb bind the Greater Germany to the Fatherland, he came the othor day to tho very verge of danger of provoking to anger the very Power that would have promptly stripped him of the Greater Germany, and shut him up within the boundaries of iatnerland. If ever there was a case of pride going boforo destruction, tnd a haughty answer before a fall, it seems to be the case of this uupty headed young Imperial braggart, whose constant provocv tion of his neighbour; is beginning to make even his friends afraid of him

TENETAHI. The military excursion to the ot the Little Barrier having been crowned with success, and the haughty, dofiant chieftain having been brought in chains to Auckland, the Government, now glutted with victory, might very well pause and give a thought to mercy. After all there is something pathetic in this unfortunate Maori being dragged away from his ancestral rocks by forco and arms. It is needless here to discuss the question of rights An Act of Parliament has disposed of all such, and made Tonetahi but a trespasser on his native soil. But law and order being satisfied, would it not answer all the requirements' if the old man was sont back again as caretaker of the birds and beasts that have been taken under tho tutelage of tho State! tsuch an officer is required, and the duties can hardly be of that complex aud intricate kind which would orortask the capacity of a Maori. On the question of expense, which ought not to be beyond tlui cognizance even of a public department, tho balance of argument is in favour of Tonetahi, and no other could be expected to become better acquainted with the devious paths that wind among the haunts and hiding places of the animals and wildfowl in their rocky sanctuary. Tho law having asserted its authority by eviction would find the old Maori and his family prepared to, cheerfully recognise the new position as stewards of the island ; and while fulfilling the simple trust of guarding the protected inmates from marauder, and recoiving a humble pension for their pains, this little Maori family might, without any injury to anybody, be given the simple privilege of peacefully spending the remainder of their days in their " Home, sweet home,"

THE ARAU'A OFFER. Some amount of ridicule has been cast'on the Arawas who offered to send a contingent to Transvaal. But though not wanted just now in that particular field, is it not a reasonable thing that the undoubted warlike instincts of our aboriginal fellow, countrymen should bo taken in account in view of the sort of times that everybody feels is coming. The manly spirit of selfdefenco which had been almost paralysod by the long continuance of peace and by the teachings of those who would have it to be Christian duty to lie down and be walked over by an invading enemy, has experienced a vigorous revival during the past few weeks from end to end of the empire. As Mr. Chamberlain has said "the national difficulty has shown that the old spirit is still alive," and while in the light of coming things it is our duty to cultivate the feeling that it is an honorable thing to be prepared to die for ono'a country, why should wo not value the same instincts in the Maori ? Nobody can speak sneeringly of the fighting powers ol tho New Zealand aboriginal, and if it i 3 deemed judicious to drill Sikhs and Ghoorkas for the defence of India, why should wo not avail ourselves of the potentialities of a far nobler, and equally warlike race here for the defonca of New Zealand ? It may be said with certainty that a regiment of Maori soldiers properly drilled and well officered would bold their own with any troops in the world against an invading army, and as all d.in of trouble with the Maoris has passed lor ever and they are generally as loyal to their Queen as the most loyal of her European subjects in the colony, it would bo as complimentary to them as it would bo good for the country, to invite them to join with us in preparations for fighting the battles of the Empire.

FOR THEIR OWN SAKE. Indeed ib may be questioned whether the sudden cessation of their militant habits may not bo among tho causes of the decadence af such a raco in the presence of cirilisation. For when we sea the enobling influence which war seems to exercise over the spirit of a nation, and the deterioration that seems to come of a lone period of unbroken peace, it is easy ta understand how the sudden and total reversal of the habits of a people whose traditional pastime and only excitement were war, may lead to a collapse of the race, For the good of the Maoris, as well as for the strength and safety of the country, it would bo expedient to a high degree to place a military career before them; find whether they were sent to Africa or India to really smell powder, or were kept for service in New Zealand, an army corps of' Maori fighting men, would fearlessly face the bravest soldiers in the world.

PRIVILEGE. It ie unfortunate that the spirit of domo. cracy has been perverted by the presence of an inferior race. Had it' not been so, ib would have blazed forth at the punishraeub of the Chinaman that shot the pheasanb, caught stealing in his garden. ' Many a good man was transported to Van Dieraen'a Land for an affair like this; and tho gams laws of England have burned into tho souls of the people, with a sense of injustico that lias made many a worthy man the bitter enemy of law and order. Yeb wo have the game laws of England in all their spirit of injustice in New Zealand, and whilegame is preserved by law for tho pleasure of those who can pay for the enjoyirenb of sport, a gardener or a farmer, European equally with Mongol, that destroys a bird that is actually thieving from his goods is a transgressor against the law. It is all right enough to protect imported gamo while ib is being acclimatised, and to have close seasons to givo the birds a chance of propagating their species. But to protecb game morely for tho enjoyment of the privileged who can pay for shooting them, and to refuse to another man the right to prevent the game from destroying his garden is the transplantation of the odious and tyrannical laws that sent many an honest man to Botany Bay, and as such ib is a disgrace to New Zealand. Tiik General