THE ARMISTICE WITH THE REBELS. (From the Taranaki Herald, March 16.)

Otago Witness, Issue 489, 13 April 1861, Page 6

THE ARMISTICE WITH THE REBELS. (From the Taranaki Herald, March 16.)

The anxiety which has been felt during the week for the result of the armistice with which the arrival of W. Thompson, Tarapipipi, has been honoured was natural, but needless. The suspension of labour on the " sap " was not in itself to be deplored. It gave the hard-worked men time to breathe, whilst the General mcdi tated the next act of his tragi-comedy. Nor could it be supposed that any offer would come from the insurgent taua likely to tempt General Pratt to a prolonged truce. The temper of the natives is by no meaans subdued. The repeated arrivals of reinforcements and munitions of war from England do more to stimulate the jealousy than to allay the false hopes which the intemperate or the unscrupulous advisers of the Maori have lighted. In particular, the letter of W. Thompson to the Chairman of the Waikato Committee, lately given to the public, shows a spirit of deep and bitter jealousy. It bodes ill for an easy peace that the ablest man and most influential leader of the race enters the contest filled with the ignorant conception that the Government or the Colony desires the extermination of the Maori. 'W. Thompson does not rush in hot haste, but comes in the deliberate belief that the hour for parley is gone by. He is not in the temper to patch up a formal friendship, and the question of peace stands over for a day when the predominance of one of the parties, that of law or that of barbarism, shall give a more secure basis for tranquility. The temper of W. Thompson is not respectable or reasonable ; the most hearty wish to recognise all the good that is in the native character, all the difficulties and clouds that oppress the race, all the signs of promise that they show, must not close our eyes to this fact. So much has been made of the respectability of the leaders of the king movement that we are apt to take for granted that, though mistaken, all their views are honourable. But this letter shows neither wisdom nor good feeling. The enterprise that Thompson is engaging in is one of sheer madness. A tenth jait of the reflective power that is attributed to him would show him this, in spite of the bungling of our warfare. It is an enterprise wholly unprovoked on the part of the Europeans. The handing over of the disputed land to the king party is a colour that could not deceive for a moment any one whose mind was not blinded by passion. The grounds of Maori jealousy are " trifles light as air." The claims we have on the confidence of the natives are twenty years of strictly honest dealing, and honourable forbearance at times when it would have been easy to rid ourselves of the prospective trouble by fanning the mutual antipathies of the different tribes. We have not, indeed, given them " a constitution," we have been a race of striving colonists, seeking to make good our own footing, but no community ever did or gave more, or less grudgingly, than the colonists of New Zealand have done for the Maori. The animating spirit of the leader of young Maoridom is not wisdom, but a mere unjudging passionate instinct And in dealing with such a motive power, con cession is not likely to produce good fruit.

To return fiom this digression, the armistice, as was to be anticipated, has had no result. Propositions that could not be received, and which were made rather as a tribute to the dignity of the new-comer than in the hope of their being accepted, were sent in to the General's camp before Pukerangiora. The Ngatiawa iwen, feeling, no doubt, that the breach with them was one that will not heal by order of either the* Governor or any other potentate, are, it is stated, unwilling to talk of peace at all. In this they show a cleaver insight into the state of aftairs than their allies from the North. A peace on equnl terms would be simply a prolongation of bitterness. Accordingly, while the flag was flying at Pukerangiora, the flames of Brooklands and other houses were rising near town. Thompson, unable to carry bis point with the taua, it is believed will return to Waikato, not to smoke the pipe of peace, but to organise the inland tribes for resistance or aggression elsewhere.

The armistice has been innocent ; it has afforded a respite for our men, and it closes the mouths of cavillers who would have the whole subject of difference kept an open question in the mind of the Government. The question cannot, however, be open in the mind of any one of the least forethought or pretension to historical knowledge. There is but one conclusion possible, and that cannot be reached by any means but the substantial submission, of the Maori race to an authojitj' which has always been mild, and which will be too eager to receiVe and meet any real indications of amity. A frequent recurrence of such truces would be disastrous. The weakness of our quintuple Government, where military, mis sionary, Colonial office, Native office, and popular influences struggle in a sack together, and with very little power of progress, is apparent in the events of the week. It is much to be desired that a political agent of the Governor and Cabinet, possessing the fullest powers possible, should be at hand. Great difficulties, no doudt attend such an offer, and a large amount of forbearance and discretion is needed : but much mischief may one day come of the want of such an officer.