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Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 994, 26 June 1879, Page 2

The position of affairs at I'ariliaka testifies to the correctness of our protestations that there will be no war. The natives will not molest Europeans unless they become imbued with an idea, as the result of mistaken kindness, that they can do so with impunity. If a settler happens to be caught napping, or if he will lie down and allow himself to be trampled under foot by the natives, one or two of the more fanatical of these savages will take advantage of him, and immediately beat a hasty retreat into the fastnenesses of Maoridom, where, under the wing of the "King," Maori delinquents have always found a safe "city of refuge." The settlers have acted in a manner that should call forth admiration throughout the Colony, and will, if we are not greatly mistaken in our ideas of the Maori character, exalt Europeans in the estimation of the native ploughmen and their confreres. Te Wliiti is, of course, as mad as ever; but no further annoyance will be experienced if the scales have fallen from the eyes of the uninvited and unwelcome agricultural laborers. Determination will work wonders in the settlement of the trouble. It may not subdue Te liiti—he is not open to reason—but it will strike terror and admiration into the hearts of the more immediate aggressors. There should not have been any shilly-shallying. At the outset the Government should have quietly removed the trespassers from the land, with a promise that their supposed wrongs should be duly investigated. In compelling the settlers to take the law into their own hands, they have shown a timid spirit that is appreciated ucitherby European nor Maori, andistheoffect of political expediency. It is not yet too late to teach the natives a wholesome lesson, which would be all the more forcible because it would emanate from head-quarters, and would be an indisputable indication that no more native nonsense would be tolerated. Let Te Whiti be trcatod either as a firebrand or a lunatic. Tiie salutary effects of such a proceeding would soon be apparent.